Speaker 1: This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera on
Speaker 1: Fox Sports fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services Insure
Speaker 1: your most prized possessions.
Speaker 2: Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to Iron the Ball here on
Speaker 2: Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2: On Tuesday, got my semi usual guests, Dave Silver, semi
Speaker 2: usual back twice a week, and Kobe survived Cabo. Hello.
Speaker 3: Maybe not.
Speaker 2: Good to see you, Kobe.
Speaker 4: Uh?
Speaker 2: Dave lostuff going on?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 2: Football? Spring football? Yeah, spring football is underway. I guess
Speaker 2: Ua men's basketball.
Speaker 6: Men's basketball has a big week a little bit. There's
Speaker 6: baseball tonight. Oh, they played Kansas games, one of those
Speaker 6: mid whatever midweek games. Are they playing a seriously, they
Speaker 6: must be No, it's one. It's like a one gamer,
Speaker 6: which I'm real. I'm quite sure how that all worked out.
Speaker 6: Kansas coming all the way just just for a game.
Speaker 6: I gotta look at that schedule. They must have something
Speaker 6: else going. Maybe they're going to play Issue or something.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, no, cool, a big game on Friday obviously.
Speaker 2: Women Thursday will get to all that and the football
Speaker 2: thing as well. We had a press commerce with the
Speaker 2: with the Brennan yesterday, insightful for what it was worth.
Speaker 2: I guess, you know, they have a lot to do,
Speaker 2: a lot to work with or a lot to do,
Speaker 2: a lot to recover from. I'm gonna ask a levels
Speaker 2: there and ask a lot of questions.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, what's he thinking with this? I mean
Speaker 6: the roster is pretty much turned over. But yeah, with
Speaker 6: with with Brendan, what is he?
Speaker 7: What does he?
Speaker 2: It was hard, It was hard to gauge. He's an
Speaker 2: engaging guy, but he's not an excitable guy, right, so
Speaker 2: you're not gonna you're gonna get what he gets, which
Speaker 2: which she gives you, Right, I don't know about fifteen
Speaker 2: newcomers gonna be at the roster here at the end
Speaker 2: of the semester. A lot of changes and then don't
Speaker 2: forget the the scholarship numbers have to come down and
Speaker 2: there's a lot to work with some new coaches.
Speaker 6: I mean, did he say kind of how he's going
Speaker 6: to approach this offseason maybe a little bit differently than
Speaker 6: last year where he didn't have a whole lot of time.
Speaker 6: But no, there was some talk. I remember when the
Speaker 6: season began, like, you know, we don't really know this guy,
Speaker 6: and he's not out there in public. You wonder, you know,
Speaker 6: maybe with uh, you know, some of the changes in
Speaker 6: the administration and athletics, if they're going to kind of
Speaker 6: focus on on some of that, Yeah, these next few months.
Speaker 2: That's those are great questions, Dave. Too bad you weren't
Speaker 2: at the front conference. Oh, I don't do that job anymore. No, no, no,
Speaker 2: But but those are questions that I think. I didn't
Speaker 2: ask any questions. I was just there to observe and
Speaker 2: see what he said. But my question and I thought
Speaker 2: of it, and I said, I'm want to wait for
Speaker 2: this for the fall because he's gonna give me a
Speaker 2: standard answer. But how much pressure do you think? How
Speaker 2: much pressure does he think he's under? And he's not
Speaker 2: he's going to say, well, you know, I'm not, man,
Speaker 2: I just got to do my job yet it yet,
Speaker 2: but you know I think he is.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean it's a bit you know, it's a
Speaker 6: big conference. Uh, there's a lot of a lot of
Speaker 6: coaches of it. There's probably a handful of coaches that
Speaker 6: are probably feeling that way where you you know, you
Speaker 6: get there with with all these teams and relatively high expectations,
Speaker 6: you don't you know. They I don't want to say
Speaker 6: they laid an egg their first year, but it wasn't
Speaker 6: what people had hoped.
Speaker 2: It was not a five dollars egg, right, it was
Speaker 2: a bigger one than these.
Speaker 5: It was.
Speaker 2: It was no those price of eggs. Now, well, he
Speaker 2: kind of drove it into the ditch.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean that's that was kind of how he
Speaker 6: saw it play out. And that was disappointing based on
Speaker 6: what we saw the year before and with a different coach.
Speaker 8: So, you know, he has a lot to prove.
Speaker 6: I think, you know, I'm sure he's got some pride
Speaker 6: in him and he's like, you know, wait a second,
Speaker 6: I'm not I'm not that guy, and I want to
Speaker 6: I want to make two soon proud.
Speaker 2: And here's the two soon proud and desiree. Well, because
Speaker 2: that's the one you have to impress with the with
Speaker 2: the wins and the and the culture and all that.
Speaker 2: He mentioned that yesterday. So we'll talk to to Michael
Speaker 2: about all that when he comes on in about ten
Speaker 2: fifteen minutes.
Speaker 8: Yeah, when does basketball take off tomorrow?
Speaker 2: Tomorrow? So you have a press conmerce on Thursday at
Speaker 2: two Seattle time. So I'm sure they got to get
Speaker 2: out of here tomorrow to night, get ready over there
Speaker 2: on Thursday and then the game of four to thirty
Speaker 2: five right on Friday. Did you have you looked at brackets?
Speaker 2: I haven't really looked at mine yet. I mean, you
Speaker 2: know same thing. You know.
Speaker 6: I've looked. I filled them out you already did, of course.
Speaker 6: How many do you do you do? I do two
Speaker 6: a contest? Two contests? Okay, I need to get in
Speaker 6: those three contents. Huh do you have like, oh I
Speaker 6: got friends?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah, like five bucks right, ten bucks whatever,
Speaker 2: twenty yeah, okay, high price friends.
Speaker 6: We do a really good well, I don't know if
Speaker 6: one explain. We do a really cool one with some
Speaker 6: of my buddies too. We use an Excel spreadsheet and
Speaker 6: we have the numbers sixteen to one, and you put
Speaker 6: a team in that in that spot.
Speaker 2: Some part of that one.
Speaker 8: Have you done something like that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, we do that with with of course, my partner here.
Speaker 2: You know, you know that cockroach is going to walk
Speaker 2: up the wall or no, how fast is he going
Speaker 2: to do it? If he does? Yeah? So Jay's Jay
Speaker 2: does one of those.
Speaker 8: Okay, Yeah, it's a lot of fun. So you follow
Speaker 8: along that way.
Speaker 2: Have you really have you found out if there's a
Speaker 2: trick to that. No, there's no trick to that. There's
Speaker 2: a trick to everything, but it's trying to figure out
Speaker 2: what's the smart move and where to put people's teams strategically.
Speaker 6: Well, I mean there's pretty much an obvious top whatever welve.
Speaker 2: Made, but you don't get much points for those ones exactly.
Speaker 6: So you stuck, you know, stick somebody down with the
Speaker 6: three or two and you keep they keep going, yet
Speaker 6: you don't get You get points, but not many.
Speaker 2: Not many, right, Well, that's why you need the tens
Speaker 2: or the twelves right to win some games. It's fun,
Speaker 2: it's a fun pool.
Speaker 6: But yeah, it's interesting too because like you go on
Speaker 6: ESPN's whatever it's called Tournament Challenge, you get all the
Speaker 6: other you know, the guys from ESPN have their pools.
Speaker 6: You can actually literally just click and take their pool. Yeah,
Speaker 6: your own.
Speaker 2: It's funny. As you say that, I've said this last
Speaker 2: couple of days, there are no experts in this. They
Speaker 2: have no idea what's happening.
Speaker 9: Now.
Speaker 2: It's how they play that day, right, But you oh,
Speaker 2: the guy from ESPN says this. I was at USA
Speaker 2: Today in eighty nine and working there, and one of
Speaker 2: the horse racing guys, the horse racing guy who covered
Speaker 2: horse racing, was giving his tips out and this is
Speaker 2: some guy he was, I guess, doing the thing at
Speaker 2: the counter and says, well, if the USA Today, guy,
Speaker 2: I think this is gonna win it. I'm gonna be
Speaker 2: on it too, right course, didn't have a chance.
Speaker 6: I don't know you you're probably there, but I used
Speaker 6: to love the USA Today's Monday after the brackets came out. Yeah, Page,
Speaker 6: I mean we would go to that instant. We're huge
Speaker 6: because it at every game, every matchup.
Speaker 2: We've already got a call day. Oh you're kidding. Yeah, No, No,
Speaker 2: you're on the air and I on the ball.
Speaker 9: Who's yes, Hey guys, this is Doug.
Speaker 2: How you doing, Doug? What's the word?
Speaker 9: Okay?
Speaker 1: Man?
Speaker 9: Hey Steve, Hey, Dave. You know yeah, I'm trying of
Speaker 9: jumping the gun on your show, like right off the
Speaker 9: back because I have an appointment coming up. But I
Speaker 9: thought I would just put in my two cents on
Speaker 9: what you mentioned about football, and it kind of ties
Speaker 9: to basketball too, just the press. You talk about the
Speaker 9: pressure that coach Brennan would be under, And the thing
Speaker 9: that drives me nuts about fan bases, and it's definitely
Speaker 9: not just Arizona, is that fans like, you want team
Speaker 9: to succeed, you want you want your program to succeed,
Speaker 9: but the very things that you do sometimes make it
Speaker 9: not succeed. Like the hate that people put on players,
Speaker 9: on coaches, and the pressure that they put on them.
Speaker 9: That pressure alone makes them joke or or makes recruits
Speaker 9: not want to go there because they see the fan
Speaker 9: base is fickle or you know, whatever it might be,
Speaker 9: or it hurts attendance, and then the attendance leads to
Speaker 9: bad recruiting, and they're bad recruiting leads to a bad team,
Speaker 9: and so I just think like, and I'm not trying
Speaker 9: to tell people, you know that in the sand to
Speaker 9: be a Pollyanna, but it just drives me nuts, like
Speaker 9: with this NCAA tournament and the Final four drought, saying,
Speaker 9: you know, what benefit does the program get out of
Speaker 9: you just hating on your own team, right, or or
Speaker 9: hating on Trey Townsend or hating on Carter Bryant or
Speaker 9: whatever it might be, or on Caleb Love. It's like,
Speaker 9: at some point, you know, as a fan, I just
Speaker 9: feel like, just support them and hope that it works out.
Speaker 9: If it doesn't, then it sucks.
Speaker 2: What are the things I continue to say? I say
Speaker 2: it all the time, at least maybe not on the air.
Speaker 2: But enjoy the moment because they're fleeting And yeah, Doug,
Speaker 2: you've been around a ton. We're friends. I know who
Speaker 2: you are, and you've seen some great moments. You've seen
Speaker 2: some ugly moments, but you've seen a lot of good moments,
Speaker 2: and people just don't enjoy the moment. Well the thing too.
Speaker 6: Yes, as I was working, I had so many people
Speaker 6: jealous of the fact that I was covering the tournament
Speaker 6: every single year. We really are pretty lucky here in
Speaker 6: this town to have had that into the business. It's why,
Speaker 6: it's why you stayed. And you know, there's my appears
Speaker 6: all over the country. How many years you been I
Speaker 6: don't know, maybe twenty in a row, you know, so
Speaker 6: it's pretty amazing it was. You know, I think we
Speaker 6: need to understand how cool that's.
Speaker 2: Been before you go to your appointment.
Speaker 10: Doug.
Speaker 2: I'm a little upset you've been cheating me, cheating on
Speaker 2: me with the other station, But I'll let you go
Speaker 2: for that.
Speaker 9: Yeah, well wait, but how do you know that?
Speaker 2: Because I was like, I'm listening, not calling in I'm
Speaker 2: listening not calling.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I actually I'm not a frequent caller with the
Speaker 9: other station either. I've just kind of backed off a
Speaker 9: little bit. But you know, what I was just gonna
Speaker 9: say is like I don't want to get too heavy,
Speaker 9: but like we've all gone through some really serious things
Speaker 9: in our lives, loved ones and everything else. You know, jobs,
Speaker 9: you lose a job, or you've got some big house repair,
Speaker 9: whatever it is, and it just people need to remember
Speaker 9: that sports is fun, you know. It's that it's the
Speaker 9: rested from all all of that other drama. I almost
Speaker 9: said a bad word, all the other drama in our lives.
Speaker 9: And so yeah, I mean it's not always fun because
Speaker 9: losing really sure, But yeah, like like I'm excited we're
Speaker 9: gonna play Akron on Friday for a chance to advance
Speaker 9: in the tournament. Why why why suffer ahead of time?
Speaker 9: Many time to suffer after you lose, Just enjoy, enjoy
Speaker 9: the anticipation of it.
Speaker 2: Just to just to your point real quick, Uh, you
Speaker 2: know some people I guess read it or some players
Speaker 2: actually read it to your point of the Facebook or Twitter,
Speaker 2: and kJ Lewis has been kind of been not fighting
Speaker 2: but pointing out, you know, the negativity that he's been playing,
Speaker 2: hadn't been playing well. Now he's playing well again. But
Speaker 2: you know, they they pay.
Speaker 9: Attention, right of course if you. I mean, look at
Speaker 9: what happened with Zeke Mayo at Kansas when he was
Speaker 9: getting death threats after they were on a losing street
Speaker 9: and Bill Selth had to kind of get his you know,
Speaker 9: have his back. It's just, you know, and some of
Speaker 9: it's probably sports betters where they don't actually have any
Speaker 9: fan and the fan interest. They're just kicked off because
Speaker 9: they lost their bet. And I'm at sports Better too,
Speaker 9: but and I'll be upset about something but not it's
Speaker 9: not life or death. But yeah, it's just it's gotten
Speaker 9: a little crazy, and I think your point is just
Speaker 9: it's correct. Just enjoy the ride, you know. And for me,
Speaker 9: I I'd block out Thursday through Sunday and I will
Speaker 9: watch some part of every single game, and I'll have
Speaker 9: money on some of them, but mostly it's just fun.
Speaker 9: I mean, it's it's do or die for every one
Speaker 9: of these teams. You've been watching all season, and and
Speaker 9: someone's gonna flame out and hopefully it won't be us. Yeah,
Speaker 9: but I just think it's in terms of football too.
Speaker 9: I just want to remind people that the negativity and
Speaker 9: saying like this coach is terrible or this player should
Speaker 9: transfer it doesn't actually help you get to where you're
Speaker 9: trying to go. That's my point.
Speaker 2: I wanted to get across it, and you have, you know, thanks,
Speaker 2: Doug Cool. Appreciate the call. I appreciate it. Shure, we
Speaker 2: got about two minutes.
Speaker 8: It's good that weird.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 6: We live in a town too where people care. People care,
Speaker 6: I do care about They go to the games and
Speaker 6: they care about it. They call in and they listen
Speaker 6: to the shows like this and read the paper, and
Speaker 6: there's a lot of outlets to uh, you know, check
Speaker 6: out online and stuff.
Speaker 8: So I mean they we're we're lucky I think to
Speaker 8: be here in this situation.
Speaker 2: You know, And to be fair from my end, because
Speaker 2: I do kind of rag a little on the fans. Uh,
Speaker 2: they're pragmatic, A lot of them are. It's the it's
Speaker 2: the one or two that you know that kind of
Speaker 2: pop off right for no really big reason. They just
Speaker 2: do it because they can and things they're funny. I
Speaker 2: mean they think they're funny when they post these things.
Speaker 8: I mean it drives me crazy.
Speaker 6: I know it does to you when you go on
Speaker 6: Facebook during the game and they put stuff up that
Speaker 6: just looks so ridiculous that the game what you get?
Speaker 6: And then they don't take that post down every game's over,
Speaker 6: like what's wrong with these guys? And then they wind
Speaker 6: up winning by right?
Speaker 2: Right though?
Speaker 8: I never understood that approach, right, I.
Speaker 2: Don't get that points and I've posted a couple of
Speaker 2: things on them because it gets me so pressured. Okay, Dave,
Speaker 2: what's your point? What's your point on saying this team,
Speaker 2: this guy played poorly? We all see this, right, Are
Speaker 2: you trying to say that you know basketball chast what's
Speaker 2: your point? Yeah? And it's not just one or two,
Speaker 2: so it's a lot of stuff. They fired up to
Speaker 2: their computer or their phone to write this. Are you
Speaker 2: a better person? Do you feel better after writing this?
Speaker 2: What would be a good story for you to do?
Speaker 2: You should do a story on that. I should really
Speaker 2: should try to find the he's online whatever, you know
Speaker 2: what they would go away, They're in their basements, just
Speaker 2: just firing away their comments. Yeah, because it doesn't really matter.
Speaker 2: You're not coaching. Your yelling. I just go outside, yell
Speaker 2: what you want to type to the world, come back
Speaker 2: in and watch the game.
Speaker 6: I mean, everybody, you know, we're in the world now
Speaker 6: where you can do whatever you want online.
Speaker 2: You can.
Speaker 6: You can have your own you know, sub stacks and
Speaker 6: things like that and just post your opinions.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you don't have to do that. No, No, what's
Speaker 2: the point. I really don't understand. You're not making any
Speaker 2: money from this. Why wash your Timeue? Oh you could
Speaker 2: possibly if you're really good at it. Well, Jim Bob,
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, I'm not reading you. We gotta go. We're
Speaker 2: gonna talk to Michael Levan just I'd love to talk
Speaker 2: to him about about the last couple of days. He's
Speaker 2: been prolific with some of the stuff he's been doing.
Speaker 11: Are you ready ready to discover your soul, your wild side,
Speaker 11: your passion, your joy and excitement. From the latest slots
Speaker 11: and table games to award winning dining, to world class
Speaker 11: entertainment to a luxurious resort. Discover all this and more.
Speaker 11: Discover with Soul Casino Dell Soul, the Soul of Tucson.
Speaker 2: Are you ready enterprise so Fasco Yaki try.
Speaker 12: The Window Depot has everything you need to create the
Speaker 12: kitchen or bathroom of your dreams. Frowsy aisles of in
Speaker 12: stock cabinets available in a variety of sizes and configurations
Speaker 12: and instantly elevate your space. Today, visit a showroom and
Speaker 12: let our experts guide you. Whether you're choosing for money
Speaker 12: to go designs or creating a custom masterpiece. We can
Speaker 12: help you select the perfect wood, type, color and style
Speaker 12: and top it off with unique hardware to complete your look.
Speaker 12: Find a location near you at the Windowdepot dot com.
Speaker 12: The Window Depot more than a windows store.
Speaker 2: Steve Rivera here to talk about Dorato Rock Materials. I
Speaker 2: needed a lot of gravel for my driveway, so I
Speaker 2: called Eric at Dorato Rock. He found out the amount
Speaker 2: and color I needed and boom, it was taken care
Speaker 2: of and at a great price. How do I know
Speaker 2: radio commercials work. I heard one of his on the radio.
Speaker 2: Dorato Rock Materials provides a wide range of landscaping materials,
Speaker 2: including decorative rock, boulders, gravel, soil, and sand, for residential
Speaker 2: and commercial use in the Tucson area. They are locally
Speaker 2: owned and have been around for more than fifteen years. Kip,
Speaker 2: We'll call at five two zero four zero zero four
Speaker 2: two three three. Where do you buy exercise equipments Arizona.
Speaker 5: Health Arizona Health Arizona Health.
Speaker 13: Of course, to feel better and look better, it makes
Speaker 13: sense to buy your fitness equipment from the people who
Speaker 13: know it better than anyone else. At Arizona Health, our
Speaker 13: goal is to help you choose the equipment you need
Speaker 13: to reach your goals, your health and fitness to serve
Speaker 13: the best you deserve. Arizona Health the lead manage and
Speaker 13: exercise equipment on twenty second just west of Wilmot.
Speaker 7: Let's start twenty twenty five off with a bang by
Speaker 7: honoring those who did a bang up job for you
Speaker 7: In twenty twenty four, recognize your employees, salespeople, managers and
Speaker 7: agents with the Creative Award from Creative Awards. It's time
Speaker 7: to restock your promotional products and convention giveaway items, and
Speaker 7: Creative Awards has over five hundred thousand products to choose from.
Speaker 7: Don't forget your corporate apparel for a great sharp look
Speaker 7: in twenty twenty five, visit the Creative Awards Idea Center
Speaker 7: at two twenty eight West Drackman. Visit them online at
Speaker 7: Creative Awards az dot com.
Speaker 14: At Noble Home Loans, we believe everyone deserves the opportunity
Speaker 14: to enjoy the independence that comes with home ownership. Paul
Speaker 14: Volpi is ready to help you find an option that
Speaker 14: best fits your needs. Whether you're a first time or
Speaker 14: veteran home buyer or want to get cash out with
Speaker 14: the refinance. Nova has a variety of home loan programs
Speaker 14: to meet your unique situation. Visit voltepeteam dot com, that's
Speaker 14: volpe team dot com or call five to two oh
Speaker 14: six eight five six two six Today n MLS three
Speaker 14: oh eight seven Arizona b K nine two nine four
Speaker 14: two Equal Housing Opportunity, Got to commitment to lyndrixon credit
Speaker 14: grates and available loan programs or subject to change.
Speaker 2: Don't notice?
Speaker 15: Did you know? Collecting sports cards is one of the
Speaker 15: fastest growing hobbies around.
Speaker 2: Whether you're looking at start or.
Speaker 15: Expand your collection, Showtime Cards is your ultimate destination. As
Speaker 15: one of the leading card shops in the country, we've
Speaker 15: been serving our community for over twenty five years with
Speaker 15: the best in sports cards and trading card games, from
Speaker 15: rare fines to the latest releases. Showtime Cards has it all.
Speaker 15: Check them out at Showtimecards dot com or visit them
Speaker 15: on East Speedway and discover why collectors everywhere truy Showtime
Speaker 15: Cards for their passion.
Speaker 7: Richard Bacall Law Office defending Arizonas for over thirty years
Speaker 7: and a wildcatfan for over sixty. If you need an
Speaker 7: experienced criminal defense attorney, call Richard Bacall five two oh
Speaker 7: seven to four to h twelve thirteen, broad.
Speaker 2: Sponsor of Eye on the Ball.
Speaker 4: Go cats, got bugs, termites, bees, or rodents, Arizona Pest
Speaker 4: Control will hunt them down. Arizona Pest Control is your
Speaker 4: complete desert pest management specialist. Tests can't run or hide
Speaker 4: from Arizona Pest Control. They use only the latest and
Speaker 4: most technologically advanced methods of pest elimination available, which minimizes
Speaker 4: the effects on the environment. Let Arizona Pest Control get
Speaker 4: rid of your bad bugs, termitespees, or rodents. Serving Tucson
Speaker 4: and Southern Arizona since nineteen forty seven. Go to azypest
Speaker 4: dot com to schedule your free evaluation today.
Speaker 2: Why is mining so important?
Speaker 16: It's the foundation of everything that defines a society. Everything
Speaker 16: you see is a product of mine. No matter when,
Speaker 16: no matter how, no matter why. Every society on this
Speaker 16: planet has developed, grown, and modernized based solely on the
Speaker 16: minerals process. That's windlining is soport.
Speaker 2: Gonybybm dot com.
Speaker 12: The Window Depot wants to help bring your dream kitchen
Speaker 12: to life. As a family owned and operated business, we
Speaker 12: pride ourselves on offering the best prices, the biggest inventory,
Speaker 12: and exceptional customer service you won't find at the big
Speaker 12: box stores. From premium cabinets to stunning courts and granite countertops, faucets,
Speaker 12: hardware and sinks, our designers are here to guide homeowners
Speaker 12: every step of the way, all under one roof. Find
Speaker 12: a location near you, or shop online at the Window
Speaker 12: Deepot dot com.
Speaker 2: The Window Depot more than a window store.
Speaker 17: Streaming live on the iHeartRadio app. This is I on
Speaker 17: the Ball with Steve Rivera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty eight.
Speaker 2: Hey, welcome back to win the Ball here on Fox
Speaker 2: Sports fourteen fifty I'm Steve Rivera and with me it
Speaker 2: is Dave Silver. Now on the phone, we have Michael
Speaker 2: Lib from the Arizona Daily Store. Michael, how you doing good?
Speaker 3: How are you guys?
Speaker 2: We're good. You've been busy, You've been busy.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna I'm going to agree with you this time.
Speaker 5: Other times I'd say I haven't been that busy.
Speaker 10: But yeah, between the World Baseball Classic, coll of Guard Classic,
Speaker 10: the end of you know, the regular season in mental
Speaker 10: women's basketball, the start of the baseball season, now spring
Speaker 10: football starting, there's a lot going on, right.
Speaker 2: So I guess today Day pointed out you had a
Speaker 2: story about the uh uh, maybe the possibility or this
Speaker 2: maybe suggestion that the U should hold or host Attorney game.
Speaker 2: This is my idea, this is your idea. You came
Speaker 2: up on your own idea, So so explain it, explain
Speaker 2: it and why?
Speaker 3: Okay, so I can just say for a while. So,
Speaker 3: the basic premise is the NCAA tournament is going to expand, right.
Speaker 3: It seems like that's the way the tide is pushing
Speaker 3: right now, going to.
Speaker 5: Be seventy two. I don't know if it's going to
Speaker 5: be s doesn't really model whatever it is.
Speaker 3: Whatever it is, there's going to be a you know,
Speaker 3: a second first four. Right, you still have the one
Speaker 3: in Dayton, but they'll want to have one on the
Speaker 3: West coast so they can kind of stack the start times,
Speaker 3: you know, and kind of.
Speaker 5: Spread the love a little bit.
Speaker 3: And my idea was, why not Tucson to be this
Speaker 3: home for the.
Speaker 5: West coast first four? This? You know, Tucson is no
Speaker 5: Steve used to host NCAA regional all the time at
Speaker 5: McHale Center. They stopped doing that.
Speaker 3: Basically, Greg Burn Sean Miller decided that it wasn't in
Speaker 3: the UA's best interest to do that because it would
Speaker 3: you reduce the number of possible sites on the West
Speaker 3: Coast where Arizona could go and play this that that
Speaker 3: would not be a problem with the first four, because
Speaker 3: we're talking about the first four.
Speaker 5: I wouldn't have anything to do with the first and
Speaker 5: second round. I think it would.
Speaker 3: It dovetails really nicely with you know a lot of
Speaker 3: the initiatives that have been undertaken recently to bring more,
Speaker 3: you know, big time sporting.
Speaker 5: Events into town.
Speaker 3: The you know, the economics are pretty obvious when you
Speaker 3: have these kind of big events, you know, more people
Speaker 3: in restaurants, more people staying in hotels.
Speaker 5: For Dayton, it's.
Speaker 3: Been upwards of six billion dollars in economic impact each
Speaker 3: of the last.
Speaker 5: Two years, according to media reports and I.
Speaker 3: Also feel like Tucson is you know, it's a bigger
Speaker 3: city than Dayton, but it's sort of a similar vibe.
Speaker 5: You know, it's a college town.
Speaker 3: We don't really have we have pro teams, but we
Speaker 3: don't have the Major League teams here, and.
Speaker 5: People love basketball. They love love basketball in this town.
Speaker 3: I came up with a spreadsheet looking at combined attendance
Speaker 3: between men and women's basketball this season and any among
Speaker 3: schools west of Texas. Arizona was number one on that list.
Speaker 3: So these are all kind of the reasons that I
Speaker 3: think that.
Speaker 6: How do we how do we make this? What's the
Speaker 6: process going to be? You think, I mean, do we
Speaker 6: just well let them know?
Speaker 3: I think, yeah, yeah, I mean if this happens, and
Speaker 3: it could, I mean Brett your Mark suggested there could
Speaker 3: be some meaningful discussion about this and then you know,
Speaker 3: the next two to three months. Then once it becomes
Speaker 3: established and they figure out what the format is, it'll
Speaker 3: be up to schools or cities or arenas or whatever.
Speaker 5: To put in bids. You know, you'll put your bid
Speaker 5: together for however long. You could be like a three
Speaker 5: year contract.
Speaker 3: I think Dayton currently is locked in through twenty twenty eight.
Speaker 2: What's the return? I mean, do they get paid or
Speaker 2: do they have to shell out the money.
Speaker 3: It's like the costs are shared by the institution and
Speaker 3: the NCAA. I mean, I tried to get kind of
Speaker 3: concrete figures on that, and I couldn't do so. But
Speaker 3: it's kind of this idea that you know, if it's
Speaker 3: if it's good for like the city.
Speaker 5: Of Tucson, it's probably also good for the u of A.
Speaker 3: You know, if it's beneficial, it's beneficial for the economy
Speaker 3: of Tucson. Let's say, you know, let's say it helps
Speaker 3: restaurant owners, helps hotel owners. I mean that puts people
Speaker 3: in a more advantageous position financially to buy tickets to
Speaker 3: UA sporting events later on.
Speaker 5: It's also really good brand exposure for.
Speaker 3: Your school, right Like who talks about Dayton three hundred
Speaker 3: and sixty three other days of the year, I mean,
Speaker 3: not very much, because two days a year like that
Speaker 3: is the the focal.
Speaker 5: Point of the entire sporting world, and you have that
Speaker 5: here at the u of A.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it makes sense, it makes sense. We'll see, we'll see. Okay, okay,
Speaker 2: let me move on because we don't have a whole
Speaker 2: heck of a lot of time with you yesterday. I
Speaker 2: hope to talk to about football, men's basketball, women's basketball.
Speaker 2: So yesterday we were all with Brendan. You know, you
Speaker 2: guys asked some great questions. Uh, it's not my lane there.
Speaker 2: I had maybe a question I want to ask. I'll
Speaker 2: save it for the fall. H What did you take
Speaker 2: from yesterday?
Speaker 3: My biggest takeaway from yesterday when he first met with
Speaker 3: us was that he's just more intentional, which is messaging.
Speaker 5: Remember when he first got up there, Steve.
Speaker 2: He was like, I brought notes, yeah, right today, Like.
Speaker 5: I don't think he ever brought notes with him in
Speaker 5: the past. You know, I felt like he was just
Speaker 5: kind of waiting a little bit.
Speaker 3: Yeah, maybe he didn't fully understand like the scope right
Speaker 3: job and never really was in a lot of situations
Speaker 3: like this at San Jose State where it was basically
Speaker 3: zero media coverage.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and not nearly as much fan interest as the
Speaker 5: race here.
Speaker 3: So you know, if they've had the the fit of time, Uh,
Speaker 3: they've been here, you know, his regime has been here
Speaker 3: for a year plus now. I think that's where I
Speaker 3: read France was. I'm sure most assuredly had some conversations
Speaker 3: with him about, you know, just how to organize your
Speaker 3: thoughts a little bit better or present yourself, And he
Speaker 3: came in with talking points, you know, the things that
Speaker 3: he's looking for in players, the things he's looking for
Speaker 3: on the field. So I just feel like there's that
Speaker 3: things are just a little bit better organized and kind
Speaker 3: of flowing in a singular direction this year.
Speaker 5: Whereas last year, I mean, you know, they came in
Speaker 5: and had to.
Speaker 3: Scrambles, yeah, just to keep the roster together, and it
Speaker 3: was kind of like partially the old roster, partially the
Speaker 3: new roster. This feels like it's more Brendan's team and
Speaker 3: Brannan's operation.
Speaker 6: I was gonna say earlier we were talking a little
Speaker 6: bit about off the field things and the program and
Speaker 6: how it presents himself in Tucson.
Speaker 8: Did he go into that at all or maybe you know,
Speaker 8: what are we going.
Speaker 6: To see from you of a football say in July
Speaker 6: or June when there's no games, but people need to
Speaker 6: buy tickets and the program needs to get some attention.
Speaker 2: Did he talk about that at all?
Speaker 3: I mean a little bit, A little bit in the
Speaker 3: sense of the Spring Showcase, which is a different concept
Speaker 3: and reimagining of the spring game. A lot of schools
Speaker 3: are ditching their spring games altogether, in part because of
Speaker 3: injury concerns, in part because they don't want to put
Speaker 3: film out there for the world, in part because you know,
Speaker 3: sometimes guys get seen and they get poached by other schools.
Speaker 3: So you know, Arizona is doing I think a smart
Speaker 3: thing and basically turning it into a fan fest.
Speaker 5: Right. You talked about there.
Speaker 3: Being an easter right hunt, and there's gonna be autographed,
Speaker 3: there's going to be a beer garden, maybe there will
Speaker 3: be a little bit of football sprinkle games.
Speaker 5: This is kind of what it should be probably.
Speaker 3: I mean, they do most of their meaningful work in
Speaker 3: those first fourteen spring practices. It's okay if you utilize
Speaker 3: the fifteenth one to build a bond with the community.
Speaker 3: He didn't talk about this other thing that I'm going
Speaker 3: to mention here specifically, but they did announce the next
Speaker 3: round of the coaches Caravan, and I don't know if
Speaker 3: it goes in the summer or not.
Speaker 5: It maybe starts in May.
Speaker 3: But there's only three stumps, and I think overhelf of
Speaker 3: them are in Tucson, So they're trying to hit other
Speaker 3: parts of the state. But they're also we're really trying
Speaker 3: to kind of double down on the Tucson communities here.
Speaker 3: I mean, the population of the city is I think
Speaker 3: over five hundred thousand in the metro area at post
Speaker 3: to a million.
Speaker 5: You know, if you do it right, you should.
Speaker 3: Be able to fill up with fifty thousand seam football
Speaker 3: stadium six times every fall. Obviously, costs are an issue
Speaker 3: expensive so to these games.
Speaker 5: You have to pay for players.
Speaker 3: These days, so you know, there's a lot of obstacles
Speaker 3: in that regard, but it seems like they are making
Speaker 3: efforts in that in that area, which is super important.
Speaker 3: And Brent Brandon seems to understand how important that is.
Speaker 2: Since you were offering suggestions for the final four, you know,
Speaker 2: for the extra four here. Let me let me ask
Speaker 2: you this. You came from la You covered USC when
Speaker 2: you first got here, and I think you've been here
Speaker 2: six or seven years now, what did you think You're thinking?
Speaker 2: This is college football? And I say that with all
Speaker 2: due respect. You know, we go and I covered football
Speaker 2: before I did laschool a long time ago, many years ago.
Speaker 2: And you go to Oklahoma and you go, you see
Speaker 2: the secs and you say, this is college football. Now,
Speaker 2: if you had a couple of suggestions, what would they be,
Speaker 2: because you know, you you cover the team as a
Speaker 2: columnist now after covering it as a regular beat writer.
Speaker 2: But this is college football here, but this is not
Speaker 2: college football other places.
Speaker 5: Well, first of all, Steve, you can believe it.
Speaker 3: I've been here for nine years going on ten. So yeah,
Speaker 3: I know it's been a minute, but okay, the time
Speaker 3: is fun by time, plass when you're having fun.
Speaker 5: Right. It was definitely a.
Speaker 3: Shock to the system for me coming from covering USC
Speaker 3: to covering Arizona, just in terms of the the quality
Speaker 3: of athletes, the depth side, the speed, you know.
Speaker 5: The number of draft picks each year or lack thereof.
Speaker 3: So to me, like it's if you're not talking about
Speaker 3: the same things necessarily, Like USC and Arizona are just
Speaker 3: not recruiting the same caliber of players. That's probably never
Speaker 3: going to change. So the challenge is, and you know
Speaker 3: my suggestion is and I think they're doing this, is
Speaker 3: you've got to unners, James. You know, you've got to
Speaker 3: find You've got to find the players who aren't board
Speaker 3: and five star but have four and five star potential.
Speaker 3: You know, when you've seen this at places like Viola
Speaker 3: or even like North Dakota State, like they look for
Speaker 3: certain body types and they're able to develop those players,
Speaker 3: and those players exceed whatever their recruiting rankings are. So
Speaker 3: I think they're on the red path. I mean, Brent
Speaker 3: Brandon is used to doing that at San Jose State.
Speaker 3: I think he's got you know a little bit, You've
Speaker 3: got more resources here.
Speaker 5: You're going to get a better caliber players here than
Speaker 5: San Jose.
Speaker 3: State with a Big twelve, you know happening now you
Speaker 3: now have like the Texas market that you can tap into,
Speaker 3: and they're doing good job of that.
Speaker 5: There's tons of good players in Texas.
Speaker 3: So that would be the pass to me to to
Speaker 3: towards some sort of level of sustained success.
Speaker 6: And I would say to the those players the parody
Speaker 6: in the Big twelve, I think is gonna be We're
Speaker 6: gonna see that and saying that it's gonna proably be a
Speaker 6: diff a different champion every year, unlike the the Pac twelve,
Speaker 6: whereas like I kind of knew it was gonna be
Speaker 6: USC or Oregon basically like the last ten years Washington.
Speaker 6: But it seems like, I mean, it's just much more
Speaker 6: wide open, you know, and he's got a little you know,
Speaker 6: he's he could squeeze into the top five, you know,
Speaker 6: every so often in the conference.
Speaker 8: I would think.
Speaker 5: I completely agree.
Speaker 3: I don't know if it's necessarily good for the conference if.
Speaker 5: It plays out that week, because I think I kind of.
Speaker 3: Like to have those kind of couple premier teams that
Speaker 3: get a lot of attention.
Speaker 5: But it certainly makes things more interesting and more foreign.
Speaker 3: I mean, who thought Arizona State was gonna win the
Speaker 3: conference last year? Nobody? I mean, they were picked to
Speaker 3: finish I think last, right, Well, I don't think was.
Speaker 5: I don't think that was very wise.
Speaker 3: I thought going into the teams that Houston was the
Speaker 3: worst team in the league, and I think they ended
Speaker 3: up finishing.
Speaker 5: No, I want to actually Oklahoma State finished last, which
Speaker 5: also no he saw coming.
Speaker 3: By the way, a lot of people picked them to
Speaker 3: win the league, so things were kind of upside down.
Speaker 3: But I agree, like d Yu, it could be really
Speaker 3: good this year. We think, right, you should be good
Speaker 3: again this year. You think someone like Oklahoma State's gonna
Speaker 3: bounce back Houston as a quarterback now, so they could
Speaker 3: rise up.
Speaker 5: I think I always State brings back a lot. It
Speaker 5: is a wide open and fun lead.
Speaker 3: Again, it will be very very interesting to see moving
Speaker 3: forward if they expand that tournament the college football playoffs,
Speaker 3: like whether they're going to do you know, X number
Speaker 3: of a lot of mental qualifiers. And while I don't
Speaker 3: like that idea in general, it probably would be a
Speaker 3: good thing for the Big twelve if they were to
Speaker 3: secure too, because most of the time they're going to
Speaker 3: be a one league.
Speaker 2: We're gonna try to go a little longer if you
Speaker 2: if you can, because I think some of the topics
Speaker 2: we want to talk about it are important. So you
Speaker 2: had some a chance to sit down with Desiree. I'm
Speaker 2: sure you have extended titles department. Do you have more
Speaker 2: than two parts?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 5: True?
Speaker 2: Two?
Speaker 5: Okay, the second part was the second or two?
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, so I haven't read much except I did
Speaker 2: read about your coaching one of the evaluations. I'm sure
Speaker 2: you already kind of expected that answer to come from her.
Speaker 2: What was the most interesting things that you got from her?
Speaker 2: Because it is her year anniversary, there's a lot of
Speaker 2: things going on to you, anything interesting, maybe a tidbit
Speaker 2: or two.
Speaker 3: Well, she said that she's basically been able to wipe
Speaker 3: out that the set that they face, wow, or will
Speaker 3: have wiped it out by the end of fiscal year
Speaker 3: twenty twenty five, which I.
Speaker 5: Guess is next to June. And maybe that's fistically your
Speaker 5: twenty twenty six, that's next June thirty. It's not this one, Okay,
Speaker 5: the next one. And she's done that in a variety
Speaker 5: of ways.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's kind of what she was brought in
Speaker 3: to do, right, Like prime primary objective was to get
Speaker 3: the department out of the red So I mean that's
Speaker 3: been us.
Speaker 2: How did she do that? How did she do that
Speaker 2: so quickly? What did you say?
Speaker 3: It's a gradual process. And some of it has been
Speaker 3: like finding ways to save money here and there. Some
Speaker 3: of it has been, uh, finding ways to generate money.
Speaker 3: The new Nike contract is a big thing because that
Speaker 3: was costing them And this just blew me away when
Speaker 3: I found this out. It was costing them two point
Speaker 3: five million dollars a year basically to get all the
Speaker 3: stuff that they needed because the previous contract was so insufficient.
Speaker 3: So I mean, that's that's a nice chunk of savings
Speaker 3: right there. So that was one thing that stared out
Speaker 3: to me for sure, I would say that a second thing,
Speaker 3: and I'll try to explain this, and I kind of
Speaker 3: hinted at it in the in the second part that
Speaker 3: I wrote, but like she just sort of mentioned in
Speaker 3: casting the possibility of our designed court at mcale Center.
Speaker 3: So obviously my ears perked up when she said that.
Speaker 3: And then I, you know, kind of tried to cancer
Speaker 3: for details and she just went, Mom. She wouldn't say,
Speaker 3: you know, she wouldn't give any anything away. But I
Speaker 3: feel like maybe that's coming, uh next year, And I
Speaker 3: don't have that confirmed, but that was my That was
Speaker 3: That was what I inferred from that conversation, and that
Speaker 3: I think is potentially exciting for people who remember, you know,
Speaker 3: certain imagery being on the court back in the day.
Speaker 5: I don't know what the official name I was. I
Speaker 5: was called the Tech Practice.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so that'd be good. So so another quick thing,
Speaker 2: and I'm gonna have to go back and read it
Speaker 2: because it's to me, it's interesting and maybe we'll have
Speaker 2: you on again down the road. Uh. But in order
Speaker 2: for a new person like like her, you might as
Speaker 2: well have been Dave Silver. When you're you're asked, you're
Speaker 2: asking somebody to come in and be the new person
Speaker 2: and to make changes. Guess what they had to make? Changes? Well,
Speaker 2: she she did some of them probably not popular, did
Speaker 2: you go there? No?
Speaker 3: I mean yeah, I mean the headline of the first
Speaker 3: part was something like the change is not easy.
Speaker 5: You know. That was one of those one of her quotes.
Speaker 5: And there's been a ton of turnovers.
Speaker 3: Yes, and I'm sure like a lot of people that
Speaker 3: left or you know, weren't happy about what was going on.
Speaker 3: And she's brought in people that a lot of people
Speaker 3: that she knows, some people who are you know, she
Speaker 3: didn't work with before. And yeah, it's it's was not
Speaker 3: It's not an easy process. And when you when you
Speaker 3: are in a position where you have to make difficult decisions,
Speaker 3: not everyone is going to agree with those decisions, and
Speaker 3: some people are going to be unhappy.
Speaker 14: Uh.
Speaker 3: And change is really really difficult, and it's especially difficult,
Speaker 3: uh in these times when the entire industry is changing
Speaker 3: and you have to rethink a lot of things, you know,
Speaker 3: like you she talked about it as a one hundred
Speaker 3: and tifty million dollar business that she is in charge of,
Speaker 3: you know, basically like a corporation, and that's just not
Speaker 3: like how we grew up thinking about athletic departments.
Speaker 5: But that's the reality of the situation.
Speaker 6: And she talked about the coaches that I'll have these
Speaker 6: contracts coming up from from Caitlin to Ada, Barns and Chip.
Speaker 8: I mean, it's a lot to do here next year.
Speaker 5: That Yeah, that list is extentive.
Speaker 3: She went over all to list them all, but like
Speaker 3: I think the majority of the quote unquote non revenue
Speaker 3: sports coaches contracts are up in either twenty twenty five
Speaker 3: or twenty twenty six. Wow, So she has a lot
Speaker 3: of work ahead just figure out like who she's going
Speaker 3: to keep and who you know, and what sports maybe
Speaker 3: we'll we'll have a change of some sort.
Speaker 5: She's very methodical about that.
Speaker 3: And the only coach that she's given any sort of
Speaker 3: contract extension to so.
Speaker 2: Far is Tommynis oh Tennis Tommyhip.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but that was that was orchestrated by the previous regime.
Speaker 3: I think it like it might have happened like on
Speaker 3: the day that desire started or a couple of days after,
Speaker 3: but she had nothing to do with it kind of
Speaker 3: already in the works. So yeah, and yeah, obviously did
Speaker 3: Dean Bornes. When I think we've talked about it that
Speaker 3: something's going to come to a head here in the
Speaker 3: next few weeks one way or the other. Could be
Speaker 3: a stalemate situation, but you know, hopefully we'll have some
Speaker 3: clarity on that to make them later.
Speaker 6: Did she talk about the TV deal and how things
Speaker 6: have gone this first year where you know, we hear
Speaker 6: from the fans. No, I can't find the game on
Speaker 6: ESPN Play. I mean, if she talked about how fans
Speaker 6: have adapted to the TV situation.
Speaker 3: No, that that was not No, we did not bring
Speaker 3: up that particular topic.
Speaker 2: What about the Arizona what about the what about the
Speaker 2: radio deal with you know, the Brian Jeffries one of them, Yeah,
Speaker 2: Arizona Sports.
Speaker 8: Oh yeah, that's that's pretty good.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she said that they've done uh he said that
Speaker 3: they've sold ninety eight percent, ninety eight percent of their
Speaker 3: goal in terms of.
Speaker 5: Sales for that So yeah, and I thought that was
Speaker 5: a pretty.
Speaker 2: Bold yes that she made.
Speaker 3: I was recommended to them in that instant young audit
Speaker 3: that they received.
Speaker 5: But you know, sometimes when you're in this position, you've
Speaker 5: got to pick some risks too. And I think you know,
Speaker 5: if you listen to a radio broadcast. The quality is
Speaker 5: the same. Brian Jeffries is still there, which I think
Speaker 5: was a very very big deal for Arizona fans, Like
Speaker 5: when that was happening, like his contract was.
Speaker 3: You know, a little bit up in the air and
Speaker 3: a little uncertainty about how that would go.
Speaker 5: Regarding est and Plus.
Speaker 3: I think that it has been enough positive to have
Speaker 3: the ESPN Plus that's an option. The one thing that's
Speaker 3: kind of weird though, is like during the Big twelve tournament.
Speaker 3: I don't know if you guys noticed this, but like
Speaker 3: the game would end and there'd be no like shoulder
Speaker 3: programming or whatever in between, which was something that you
Speaker 3: got a lot of with the Tack twelve networks, especially
Speaker 3: in those postings and tournaments. You know that that time
Speaker 3: between the games where they'd have a studio desk or whatever.
Speaker 3: So maybe that's something that the Big twelve can work
Speaker 3: on moving forward.
Speaker 6: Okay, the only time they had any kind of shoulder
Speaker 6: was during the last couple of games when they're really
Speaker 6: on the Big ESPN they had some stuff going on.
Speaker 6: But you're right, during the week, correct, Yeah, they did.
Speaker 3: Have an ESPN Plus only like post game championship ceremony
Speaker 3: kind of thing.
Speaker 5: But it was you know, I don't know that was
Speaker 5: that was one difference that.
Speaker 3: I noticed, you know, when it came to those those
Speaker 3: big postings and events that were really a great showcase
Speaker 3: for what TACK twelve Networks was able to do.
Speaker 2: Lastly, we got about to We're way over. But so
Speaker 2: give me a minute, just us in office. On the
Speaker 2: men's basketball situation. Are they going to get to the
Speaker 2: sweet sixteen?
Speaker 3: I think there's a very good chance, I think from
Speaker 3: what I understand and I came to here and Jason
Speaker 3: Akron playing basketball single time this year. But the team
Speaker 3: that plays really fast, yeah, doesn't play a lot of defense,
Speaker 3: doesn't have a lot of side I think, you know,
Speaker 3: that is a team that Arizona I think can handle.
Speaker 3: Hopefully they won't have their full focus and attention on Akron.
Speaker 5: We know what can happen if you don't right then,
Speaker 5: you know.
Speaker 3: I've heard some people say that maybe you know, Oregon
Speaker 3: could be susceptible on the other side, which would be
Speaker 3: interesting to say. At least I personally would love to
Speaker 3: see in Oregon Arizona matchup definitely would sort of be
Speaker 3: nostalgic kind of thing for those of us you know
Speaker 3: who grew up in the Pac twelve or came to
Speaker 3: love the Pac twelve after moving out to the West coast.
Speaker 5: That would be a lot of fun. But I do
Speaker 5: think that they have a.
Speaker 3: Very reasonable talent to the Sweet sixteen and that might
Speaker 3: be where their season ends two because Duke is on
Speaker 3: the other side, and we I've all seen what Duke
Speaker 3: is capable of if they unhealthy.
Speaker 2: Right right, Well, Michael, thanks as always. I we'll talk
Speaker 2: to you soon. Good luck, Thank you. I think Michael
Speaker 2: love from the daily start. We got to go. We're
Speaker 2: way over. We'll come back in about five minutes. If
Speaker 2: you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you know it's been
Speaker 2: successful for nearly forty years. Now take a look back
Speaker 2: at the Ludolsen era in my new book, Lessons from Loot.
Speaker 2: It was a labor of love through the eyes of
Speaker 2: twenty five former players, coaches, and friends to give insight
Speaker 2: to the coach and the man who led them, competed
Speaker 2: against them, and inspired them twenty five chapters for his
Speaker 2: twenty five years as Arizona's beloved coach. Lessons from Lut
Speaker 2: is an insight to how he built the program into
Speaker 2: a National Powerhouse want one, email me at Steve dot
Speaker 2: RIVERA ninety five at gmail dot com.
Speaker 18: Hey, Wildcat Nation, Jake Fisher here, I gotta tell you
Speaker 18: about my winning team over at Arizona Health Insiders. I
Speaker 18: was able to get a custom private health insurance plan
Speaker 18: with no deductibles, no co pays, nationwide coverage, and I
Speaker 18: get to pick my own doctor for less than two
Speaker 18: hundred dollars a month. If you want to avoid getting
Speaker 18: gouged on the Exchange and you want real health insurance
Speaker 18: called Arizona Health Insiders four ah three five five one
Speaker 18: four four four four a H three five five one four.
Speaker 7: Four four what's your goal a new career or career advancement?
Speaker 7: How about transferring to a four year college. PEMA Community
Speaker 7: College can help you make Someday today and reach your
Speaker 7: goals affordably on your schedule. With over one hundred programs
Speaker 7: to choose from and financial aid available, it's time to
Speaker 7: earn the degree or certificate you need to prepare for
Speaker 7: the career you want. PEMA offers free career exploration classes
Speaker 7: so you can choose the field that's right for you.
Speaker 7: Learn how at Pima dot edu. Slash Someday Hey.
Speaker 2: Tucson, Steve Rivera here and I've got a tip for you.
Speaker 2: Want to be in good hands while cruising the desert
Speaker 2: or kicking back at home, then you need to call
Speaker 2: my friends at the Edmond Marcus All State Agency. These
Speaker 2: guys are the MVPs of home and auto coverage. Whether
Speaker 2: it's a fender bender or a leaky roof, They've got
Speaker 2: you covered. Don't fumble your chance to save. Call them
Speaker 2: today and score big on your insurance. With the Edmund
Speaker 2: Marcus All State Agency, You're always in good hands. Visit
Speaker 2: them at twenty seven nineteen North Campbell or call them
Speaker 2: at five two zero three two three nine three three three.
Speaker 2: Where do you buy exercise equipment?
Speaker 15: Arizona Health Arizona Health Arizona Health.
Speaker 13: Of course, to feel better and look better, it makes
Speaker 13: sense to buy your fitness equipment from the people who
Speaker 13: know it better than anyone else. At Arizona Health, our
Speaker 13: goal is to help you choose the equipment you need
Speaker 13: to reach your goals. Your health and fitness deserve the
Speaker 13: best you deserve. Arizona Health the leading edge and exercise
Speaker 13: equipment on twenty second just west of Wilmot.
Speaker 19: Craving Tucson's Best Burger, the Fourth Avenue legend is back.
Speaker 19: Lindy's on Fourth is celebrating twenty years, and Lindy himself
Speaker 19: is back behind the grill. We've got new mouthwatering burgers
Speaker 19: and great daily drink specials. Don't miss our upcoming twentieth anniversary,
Speaker 19: Summer Bash and year end celebration. So come down to
Speaker 19: Lindy's on Fourth or order online at l fourth dot com.
Speaker 19: Lindy and Tucson's Best Burger are waiting.
Speaker 20: At Pyramid Federal Credit Union. We believe less is more.
Speaker 20: Let's pies mean more money in your pocket, less hassle
Speaker 20: means more time for what matters, and less stress means
Speaker 20: more confidence in your financial future. Pyramids Less's More philosophy
Speaker 20: is coming to your neighborhood with a new branch opening
Speaker 20: at the Tucson Spectrum Peyramid Federal Credit Union, where Less
Speaker 20: is More federally insured by NCUA, an equal opportunity lender.
Speaker 17: Steve Rivera He's got his eye on the ball on
Speaker 17: Tucson's sports station, Fox Sports fourteen fifty eight.
Speaker 2: Hey, welcome back to the ball here on Fox Sports
Speaker 2: fourteen fifty I'm Steve you're Dave got Kobe at the
Speaker 2: main gate here. We got about five six minutes. We
Speaker 2: went rather a long, but I wanted to get as
Speaker 2: many questions I could anything strike you.
Speaker 6: No, I think it's I think we're seeing year two
Speaker 6: of the Desiree read Francois Era kind of underway. He's
Speaker 6: talking about this caravan. It's going to mostly be in
Speaker 6: Tucson all over town. She's making appearances. I know she's
Speaker 6: going to be at the Rotary talking later this or
Speaker 6: next month.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 8: So there's and I'm sure Brent will be.
Speaker 2: You know, he's been available too. He's been doing that too.
Speaker 2: It's funny, he hinted to this if directly said that
Speaker 2: he was very He had his notes right right away.
Speaker 2: He said, I brought some notes about Well, I'm sure
Speaker 2: that came from somewhere else. Yeah, you know, you need
Speaker 2: to be more this. Yeah.
Speaker 6: I mean they've got communication people in the in the department,
Speaker 6: and I'm sure either conversations that he's had with the
Speaker 6: with the leadership has probably prompted that.
Speaker 8: I think it's, you know, it's important again.
Speaker 6: I'm looking at it now as a as kind of
Speaker 6: a fan and a spectator and what am I seeing?
Speaker 18: How?
Speaker 1: My?
Speaker 6: How is this the image of the program you know,
Speaker 6: playing out here and what it's going to look like
Speaker 6: in the summer? Like do I want to go to
Speaker 6: that game on you know, early September when it's still
Speaker 6: going to be one hundred degrees?
Speaker 2: Was the team going to be any good? One of
Speaker 2: the things I should text him. But he answered the
Speaker 2: question that the debt could be done by next what
Speaker 2: thirteen fourteen months? Fifteen months here, next year in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty six, that's what he said, right. What was the number?
Speaker 2: What was the overall number? Even if it was forty
Speaker 2: five million, that's pretty impressive. Yeah, even if it was
Speaker 2: twenty and five. You know what I'm saying, Because everybody,
Speaker 2: everybody across the board, most everybody is in debt. I
Speaker 2: know that UNLV is in debt. I know that a
Speaker 2: issues in debt, except that they didn't get the publicity
Speaker 2: that Arizona got right because.
Speaker 6: The whole school when it hit, as opposed to just athletics. Right,
Speaker 6: what about this twenty million dollars it's coming?
Speaker 2: Is another thing?
Speaker 8: Was that helpful in this debt situation?
Speaker 2: I don't I don't think so, I don't know but
Speaker 2: that's another thing coming.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Right, you're gonna have a student athletes making two hundred
Speaker 2: thousand dollars a year, right, if not more because the
Speaker 2: nil on top of that.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and again talking to some people over there too,
Speaker 6: you know, so much that depends on the position that
Speaker 6: they play to, Like the offensive tackles are going to
Speaker 6: make more than the offensive guards because they're protecting the quarterback.
Speaker 6: And it's amazing how that money is broken out.
Speaker 2: Right, and the teams and the team is not a
Speaker 2: title line issue right where the women's teams will not
Speaker 2: get as much as the men's teams.
Speaker 6: Yeah, but a lot of these schools are really making
Speaker 6: sure that the non revenue sports athletes are getting to
Speaker 6: getting something. I know Arizona was early on in that.
Speaker 6: I don't know where it stands now, but you know
Speaker 6: there are people in town who are like responsible for
Speaker 6: trying to get that collective put together.
Speaker 2: Did you when you did your your magic for the fundrating? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Did you? Did you? I'm sure you have a lot
Speaker 2: of people scouring Tucson. You were not one of those, right.
Speaker 6: It depended I mean, yeah, I mean most most of
Speaker 6: the alumni are in Arizona here in Phoenix, Americopa County,
Speaker 6: so they're all over the state. So, yeah, people, there
Speaker 6: was a book I don't remember who wrote it was
Speaker 6: called The Millionaire next Door. You know, sometimes you just
Speaker 6: don't know that that money could just be sitting there,
Speaker 6: you know, close to town, but they're there.
Speaker 2: To my point is, how did you have clients locally? Yeah? Okay,
Speaker 2: was it difficult?
Speaker 8: Not really because you could take them right to campus.
Speaker 10: You know.
Speaker 8: That was that was a key in the world.
Speaker 6: And if you know, if you've ever been on the
Speaker 6: other end and you're getting approached lots of times, you
Speaker 6: want to see, what's my money going towards? And here
Speaker 6: was right here in town, and you could maybe if
Speaker 6: it's going to be something significant, you know, maybe get
Speaker 6: a lunch with Brent Brennan or a lunch with the
Speaker 6: athletic director where they can really lay it out for
Speaker 6: you how important your.
Speaker 8: Gift would be. Yeah, so it was in a way
Speaker 8: it was nice to have them here in town.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, because we all talk about you know, there's
Speaker 2: not a lot of money here, but I guess the
Speaker 2: millionaire next door is the millionaire could be next door,
Speaker 2: you ever know.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I was in Foothills today walking around there, it's
Speaker 6: pretty nice up there. Most of those people, many of
Speaker 6: them are not from U of A or what and
Speaker 6: they just happen to move here or they live here
Speaker 6: part time.
Speaker 2: We're gonna talk a lot, We're not. We don't have
Speaker 2: a guest here at four seventeen unless I get one
Speaker 2: in the next few minutes. But let's a story about
Speaker 2: the possible ability of having the postseason here, you know
Speaker 2: the other four I'm not too sure. And I say
Speaker 2: this because, uh, these teams would not be for any
Speaker 2: who are close to here. And yes it was one
Speaker 2: of two sons of basketball town. Would they go see
Speaker 2: you know, Illinois State or some other school? They have
Speaker 2: no ties there, who knows?
Speaker 6: I mean what tonight we have with San Diego State
Speaker 6: and North Carolina Lane and the other game is the
Speaker 6: sixteens A right, two sixteen So I don't even know
Speaker 6: those two. Yeah, that's gonna be right.
Speaker 2: I think if North Carolina paint center, you State, you'd
Speaker 2: have a pretty good turnout. Yeah. I'm curious just to
Speaker 2: see what's Carolina because they're the they're the car wreck, right,
Speaker 2: they maybe not should have been in they're in. See
Speaker 2: how they react, we'll San Diego State step up.
Speaker 6: You know what I'm saying. There's a lot of intrigue there.
Speaker 6: How did how did Dayton get those games? Do you
Speaker 6: remember how that happened? And all of a sudden it
Speaker 6: was like Dayton and dating, you know, and they I
Speaker 6: mean I can see and sort of understand being in
Speaker 6: the middle of the country, and you know, they win
Speaker 6: and they.
Speaker 8: Get to go easy to get to get to get
Speaker 8: in and out.
Speaker 6: But I remember you and I remember going to Dayton
Speaker 6: in nineteen ninety five.
Speaker 2: Or whatever it was. It was brutal. Yeah, we flewed
Speaker 2: Indie Apple. Yeah, we had to drive. We had to drive.
Speaker 2: Yeah we didn't fly into We flew right by and drove.
Speaker 6: But I wonder how that would work, you know, I
Speaker 6: guess you know, we would have quite a month. We
Speaker 6: be right on the tail end of the book festival
Speaker 6: if they had it. You're right today, Well there's.
Speaker 2: Timing because right book festival break, women's basketball is women's tournament. Uh,
Speaker 2: there's a lot of things around that, around that that
Speaker 2: you have to accommodate.
Speaker 5: Ya.
Speaker 6: I mean, even if whatever this, you know, the tournament
Speaker 6: while the women are playing in but you know, if
Speaker 6: it was an n C double a thing as well.
Speaker 6: It would be this weekend too, so I don't know,
Speaker 6: they'd have to put the put the calendar together.
Speaker 8: Tell us well, the games would be.
Speaker 6: What Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so it would be pretty quick
Speaker 6: and they'd be they'd be gone. But by the time
Speaker 6: the real tournament started.
Speaker 2: A good idea. It depends it's just the teams that
Speaker 2: would come in and how much interest there would be
Speaker 2: from the locals.
Speaker 6: Right, I don't know, make it, make it part of
Speaker 6: the season ticket package.
Speaker 2: Good for Michael f to be to uh to take
Speaker 2: a snap. Yeah, we'll see. Uh we got about well,
Speaker 2: we're ready to go, are we, Kobe? Uh, we'll come
Speaker 2: back and the other side of your breaking news. Okay, cool,