Speaker 1: Are you a while?
Speaker 2: This is Tucson Sports Stay yet, Fox Sports fourteen fifty eight,
Speaker 2: breaking down all the axes and ohs. This is I
Speaker 2: on the Ball with Steve Rivera on Box Sports fourteen
Speaker 2: fifty eight.
Speaker 3: Welcome back to Alaball Hero Fox Sports fourteen fifty I'm
Speaker 3: Steve Rivera, you're Dave Silver. We have Kobe at the
Speaker 3: controls here, hoping you guys can hear us if you'd
Speaker 3: like to give us a quick call five to two ozero for.
Speaker 1: Of that's really that's okay. I think we're okay.
Speaker 3: You can hear the ads five two zero four one
Speaker 3: six seventy four forty. I'd like to hear from you.
Speaker 3: See what's going on when your thoughts on the transfer portal?
Speaker 3: Uh continue? Are you on Facebook at all? Do you
Speaker 3: follow like the women's The women's situation is worse than
Speaker 3: the men's. Yeah, and just you know, everyone's wondering what
Speaker 3: the heck's going on. I guess we won't know for
Speaker 3: a while, if at all.
Speaker 1: No, I mean we'll players start coming here.
Speaker 4: Women's hoops, I mean they've lost pretty much most of
Speaker 4: the roster, I guess at this point, and there's some
Speaker 4: question about who would be coaching them, I suppose as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, well though sometime soon and now do you
Speaker 3: still trying to get some players to come here?
Speaker 4: So yeah, I mean she's basically lost seven players and
Speaker 4: no no one's been added. So yeah, you know everyone
Speaker 4: from you know, Cunningham, Skyler, Jones, Canavets, I can never
Speaker 4: pronounce her name, Kennazevich, Ross Swan, Jada Williams, and ay
Speaker 4: Yoakum all lost, all left, I should say so, And
Speaker 4: no one has signed, so the roster has not been
Speaker 4: replenished by any means, and who knows what's going to happen.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, I think I think if you can hear us,
Speaker 3: I'm glad you can. I think it's online or in
Speaker 3: the radio. I think you can, but you can hear us. Kobe,
Speaker 3: You're good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're all good.
Speaker 3: Okay, So again, then we want to call please do
Speaker 3: five two zero four, one sixty. We'd like to hear
Speaker 3: from you. See what happens with the men's team. I'm
Speaker 3: sure that Tommy is out there chasing some players or two,
Speaker 3: and there's some pretty good ones out there, and Arizona
Speaker 3: still a quality team to come and play for him.
Speaker 4: I would think so, and you know, we I think
Speaker 4: we have to kind of give him benefit of the doubt,
Speaker 4: knowing how he's gone to Europe and brought back players
Speaker 4: every year. You know, let's assume that's going to happen again.
Speaker 4: And none of us know who those players really are.
Speaker 4: We're not we're not really in the loop on those type.
Speaker 3: Of and they're waiting for the word on Burisa. Oh,
Speaker 3: it's right, the recruit from there. I thought he was
Speaker 3: going to announce something on Tuesday. Tuesday, Nathan McDonald's game.
Speaker 1: Didn't do anything.
Speaker 3: You didn't do anything, because we would have heard by now.
Speaker 3: Of course, I haven't really written anything or I haven't
Speaker 3: posted anything. I don't have He is probably Horse Rivera
Speaker 3: with his stuff. But I've been wanting to write a
Speaker 3: column about all this.
Speaker 1: But what can you say? I mean, what can you.
Speaker 3: Say about this mess? You know that I'm glad I'm
Speaker 3: not Tommy, that you don't have to deal with this,
Speaker 3: because because it's the thing about it, he's not alone,
Speaker 3: He's not alone. No, no, And if you're not a
Speaker 3: final if you're not a Final four team, you have
Speaker 3: to deal with this. If you're a final team, you
Speaker 3: don't have to deal with this yet.
Speaker 4: No, I mean just about every program in the country
Speaker 4: is reshuffled right now. And I mean basketball season not
Speaker 4: even over yet until Monday. Yeah, I mean teams are
Speaker 4: you know, already scrambling and looking to get players and
Speaker 4: people making decisions already.
Speaker 1: Yeah. About what about school? Is that a factor at all?
Speaker 1: We talk about that all the time.
Speaker 3: I think COVID kind of screwed everything up where now
Speaker 3: it's online.
Speaker 1: Rarely do they go to class.
Speaker 3: They can do a lot of the classes online or
Speaker 3: or you know, self pace or whatever. How many classes
Speaker 3: do you have?
Speaker 1: I have two online and three in person in person?
Speaker 1: And how easy know the ones that are online? The
Speaker 1: online ones are easier.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, and that's you welcome those, yeah, because but
Speaker 3: don't you miss the interaction?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I do in person because it feels more like
Speaker 1: a college life. But if you want easier classes online,
Speaker 1: definitely the way to go. Sounds like me, where was
Speaker 1: this forty years ago?
Speaker 4: You got to go to class, had to go to class,
Speaker 4: had to sign up, and they had to take role
Speaker 4: your head?
Speaker 1: Yeah, are you here? Take your name off? What's that
Speaker 1: answer of silver? Yeah? I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I didn't read the chapter. Ya yay, Yeah, college right right, Well,
Speaker 1: it's it's all the experience you put into it, right.
Speaker 4: You know, And and I did. I don't know about you,
Speaker 4: but I once I got into my journalism classes, it
Speaker 4: was it was fun because that's what I wanted to do.
Speaker 1: But yeah, college is it's great for most people, the
Speaker 1: best time of your life. Yep.
Speaker 3: Until well who's uh oh, yesterday Ray was talking about that.
Speaker 3: How you know, he was in the army and he
Speaker 3: was he's a little older, he's twenty three, you know,
Speaker 3: a young kid too. He says, you know what, the
Speaker 3: real world is easier than the college world. And I'm thinking,
Speaker 3: what are you talking about? And he said, because you
Speaker 3: have a lot of things when you're in college. You
Speaker 3: have to worry about classes, and if you don't have
Speaker 3: a lot of money, you have to work. You have
Speaker 3: to do a lot of things, internships, blah blah blah,
Speaker 3: and that's a lot of things on your plate.
Speaker 1: And I said, wait, do you get to the real world.
Speaker 4: That's when the pressure begins. You have to be good
Speaker 4: at what you're doing and have a high quality of work.
Speaker 1: And if you have a family, exactly, there's that to worry.
Speaker 3: Have you seen that that comedian I think it was
Speaker 3: he's a juggler and he's juggling one thing.
Speaker 1: You only have one thing to do.
Speaker 3: Then you got school, and then you got kids, you
Speaker 3: got a house, and you're juggling five try to keep
Speaker 3: them all in the air at the same time.
Speaker 1: It's true. Life sucks. That's the way it is.
Speaker 4: Yeah, enjoy college while you're in it because because reality
Speaker 4: comes and next thing you know, you're you know, like Rebecca,
Speaker 4: she's raising the kids and she's coaching and she knows
Speaker 4: a lot a lot going on there.
Speaker 3: Right. Well, good for that program because it deserves that success.
Speaker 3: It's been fantastic over the years. Hit all lull here
Speaker 3: for a little while, and now they're back.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I mean when I was working, we would we would
Speaker 4: try it out there, especially during playoff time.
Speaker 1: They were always in the playoffs. They were always successful.
Speaker 4: But you got a bunch of a bunch of Tucson
Speaker 4: girls were on the team, you know, so we all
Speaker 4: sort of knew some of them, and you know, we
Speaker 4: all we you know, it was it was a good
Speaker 4: local story.
Speaker 3: Well you pull on a name with Stacey because she
Speaker 3: was fantastic. The right, she was the bank Candrea of Pila.
Speaker 1: She it was interesting how her career worked.
Speaker 4: I know you've probably had her on the show a
Speaker 4: few times, just her talking about you know, she was
Speaker 4: with Mike, she was on her own. She went to
Speaker 4: Yava Pie for a while when I think they won
Speaker 4: national championships at both Pima and Yava Pie with her
Speaker 4: and comes back to the U of A. And I
Speaker 4: think she just wrapped things up a couple of years
Speaker 4: ago too. But yeah, and so many women and girls,
Speaker 4: you know, had a chance to play for her and
Speaker 4: for Rebecca and for her dad. Yeah, so you know,
Speaker 4: there's it's a great little legacy going. And you know,
Speaker 4: Rebecca's kind of you know, the next generation. So here
Speaker 4: looking at her roster, it's like like nineteen players and
Speaker 4: eighteen of were from Tucson High School.
Speaker 3: And she's relatively young to be doing this right and
Speaker 3: find a nice career. She doesn't have to leave anywhere,
Speaker 3: especially when you're successful.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and it was always a good little story with
Speaker 4: the with the you know, the dad and the daughter
Speaker 4: kind of coaching together.
Speaker 1: So yeah, you know, he was he was great. It's
Speaker 1: just you've never met a story. I've never met him
Speaker 1: it must have been a very good coach back in
Speaker 1: the day.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, you know that little flowing Wells period.
Speaker 4: You know, early two thousands, there were a couple of
Speaker 4: state championships that came out of that program.
Speaker 3: So, okay, anybody else again, if you want to call
Speaker 3: five to zero, four one, six, seventy four, forty, I'd
Speaker 3: like to hear from you. In the second hour, we're
Speaker 3: gonna have some breaking news from Kobe, and then we're
Speaker 3: gonna have it Orosburg here at about four seventeen, talking about
Speaker 3: what's going on in the major leagues, and maybe talk
Speaker 3: a little about Arizona because I know he's a big fan.
Speaker 3: He's always sending me questions, what am on ye are
Speaker 3: they gonna win tonight?
Speaker 1: What do you think that is?
Speaker 2: That?
Speaker 3: Is that into it? What do you think about the transfers?
Speaker 3: And he says, I don't know right now, it's too fluid.
Speaker 1: I hate to say it.
Speaker 4: I just haven't had a chance to concentrate on you
Speaker 4: of a baseball yet. I see some of the highlights
Speaker 4: in some of the games. I guess I'm not a good,
Speaker 4: good super FANCI just yet. But you know, we're getting
Speaker 4: into the nitty gritty of their season and their conference
Speaker 4: games are playing teams none of us, none of us
Speaker 4: really new much about it.
Speaker 3: Well, they got beat yesterday, two days yesterday, and two
Speaker 3: days ago by Grand Canyon. They they don't want to
Speaker 3: play Grand Canyon anymore because they's four in a row.
Speaker 3: Really that they've lost to him. Yeah, yeah, they have
Speaker 3: trouble with that school. They're pretty good.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well didn't they knock them out in the playoffs
Speaker 1: last week?
Speaker 4: So yeah, they were. I know they've been here for
Speaker 4: the playoffs at least a couple of times. Yeah, but
Speaker 4: that's a good babe. Cobe can look that up for
Speaker 4: his breaking news. Grand Canyon Baseball baseball. You a baseball
Speaker 4: because they're good. Obviously, there's certain teams that just have
Speaker 4: your number. Yeah, but it's good. The games are you know,
Speaker 4: they're available there. You can find them on if you
Speaker 4: have ESPN. Plus a lot of the games are on TV,
Speaker 4: so you can down and see them.
Speaker 1: I haven't paid attention. I kind of forget.
Speaker 4: I don't know about yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't know
Speaker 4: about other people. But it's like, oh yeah, they are
Speaker 4: on television.
Speaker 3: ESPN plus, I haven't watched any of it. I should
Speaker 3: go out there. I do want to go watch PEMO
Speaker 3: men's baseball because Ken Ken how comey yesterday was talking
Speaker 3: about the roster and a couple of the players on
Speaker 3: his team. He had the Japanese picture that he has.
Speaker 3: He's the closer. I will dare say his name because
Speaker 3: I'll butcher it. But he's on the Japanese World Series,
Speaker 3: Little League World Series champion. He was a pitcher, and
Speaker 3: he's seen he said, he's never seen a picture with
Speaker 3: the spin rate.
Speaker 1: That he's that he has.
Speaker 3: Wow, which is saying a lot, right, especially in today's
Speaker 3: age when people pay attention to stuff like that.
Speaker 1: It's good. I mean uve A, I mean not to
Speaker 1: go back to the u A.
Speaker 4: But twenty and eight so far and they're playing great
Speaker 4: at home, fifteen and two at home, so they're doing
Speaker 4: doing well. But they have lost their last game and
Speaker 4: it was Greg n eleven paying No, they're not playing a
Speaker 4: ISSU issue coming up? Yeah, ASU, right, So the weekend
Speaker 4: series there and then they're back home for New Mexico State.
Speaker 3: You're yeah, I don't claim to be naggy, but hey,
Speaker 3: do you ever go to the issue baseball here and there?
Speaker 4: Gosh, A long time ago, not not since they've been
Speaker 4: in the Phoenix Muni Stadium all of the games at
Speaker 4: old Packard State.
Speaker 3: Well, tell me because back in the day when I
Speaker 3: was in school in first year, they told me that
Speaker 3: it used to be crazy.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 4: I can't say I was there very many times, but
Speaker 4: you know, it's right, very similar to Sanset Field or
Speaker 4: Sansett Stadium was right on campus. So it was right there,
Speaker 4: you know, kind of the same similar complex where you
Speaker 4: had you know, baseball and softball and track everything right
Speaker 4: swimming all together next to next to the arena and
Speaker 4: football stadium. So it was a good little area and
Speaker 4: it's gone. I saw a picture recently. I think it's
Speaker 4: I mean, I don't there's like putting some building. Really,
Speaker 4: you know, there's they're waiting to destroy the whole place
Speaker 4: because they've been over at UNI. Have you been to
Speaker 4: the campus lately issue I was there a couple of
Speaker 4: years ago.
Speaker 1: It's it's it's a city. It's huge. It's huge. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's sprawling, full of scoture.
Speaker 3: I was going to go there as a freshman out
Speaker 3: of high school and I went to register and all that,
Speaker 3: I'm thinking, holy crap, and that's back then now it's like,
Speaker 3: holy crap.
Speaker 1: Yeah huge.
Speaker 4: Now it's a big place, big place, and you know,
Speaker 4: a lot going on around a campus too. That's what
Speaker 4: I liked about Timpe was just there's so much to do,
Speaker 4: restaurants and stuff like that. It's a destination right place
Speaker 4: you can just you don't even have to go to
Speaker 4: the campus. There's places to eat, places to just you know,
Speaker 4: hang out in Tenpedes.
Speaker 1: Fun.
Speaker 3: Right, we went early, Right, we went early, So that's
Speaker 3: our last commercial break before the hour, so we have
Speaker 3: plenty of temper.
Speaker 1: But I just want to reminisce about Yeah, no, god,
Speaker 1: we could. That's and that's what this shows about.
Speaker 3: You were back in the day. There's a great old time.
Speaker 3: And when Luke let me ask you this, when lut
Speaker 3: when Luke first got here and he came here and
Speaker 3: talked about, you know, buy your tickets now, YadA YadA,
Speaker 3: and he had this you know lines, you know, yeah.
Speaker 1: What'd you think? What'd you think? Was he kind of
Speaker 1: you thought it's gonna take him a while? Yeah, you
Speaker 1: know what, It's funny.
Speaker 4: Just today I was talking to somebody about that, about
Speaker 4: that moment. Our good friend, the late great Dave Sitton,
Speaker 4: I'm quite sure where he was working in eighty three,
Speaker 4: but he tipped off one of my friends about Luke
Speaker 4: going to be hired. Was you know, right around the
Speaker 4: final four whenever you remember the time, Oh, all that
Speaker 4: sort of happened.
Speaker 1: I can tell you because.
Speaker 3: Cedric went to Philly, I think it was Philly to
Speaker 3: go talk to him, and they happened to lose that game.
Speaker 3: Hanson missed the free throws and you know he pulled
Speaker 3: them aside, and yeah, all that story.
Speaker 4: But so really so this guy he was telling me
Speaker 4: literally this this that's funny.
Speaker 1: You've been breathing this up because this was earlier.
Speaker 4: Today and he was saying, yeah, Dave sitting you know,
Speaker 4: told me that, you know, this great coach of Maya
Speaker 4: was coming out and he's going to take the job,
Speaker 4: and he's gonna, you know, he's gonna try to get
Speaker 4: everybody to buy season tickets. And this guy went and
Speaker 4: bought season tickets like way before, way before, and he.
Speaker 1: Has them still. Really, he's eight rows behind the ben.
Speaker 4: How old is he he's probably late sixties, maybe a little.
Speaker 3: Secay, so he must have been he was about he
Speaker 3: had to have been, uh, but thirty thirty ish thirty
Speaker 3: is the time.
Speaker 4: So he bought tickets just just like that.
Speaker 1: That's funny.
Speaker 4: I was not here yet for that announcement. I got
Speaker 4: here later that year in October. But you know, it
Speaker 4: was one of those things I was like, oh yeah,
Speaker 4: remember just the seasons about to begin, got to roll out.
Speaker 1: That video of lout you know, warning everybody to bicycles
Speaker 1: is not Favier's. I think he's listening.
Speaker 3: Javier would know this because he was back to the student,
Speaker 3: no a kid, you know, following all this stuff. I
Speaker 3: think it might have been in eighty three, right, So
Speaker 3: that's what forty two years ago, forty two years ago,
Speaker 3: almost to the day, I think April fifthish, April thirdish,
Speaker 3: because the thing that I had written in the books
Speaker 3: a number of times was that they flew him out,
Speaker 3: him and Bobby and he stayed at the Westward back then,
Speaker 3: and he went to go he went downstairs to go
Speaker 3: to the gift shop. And how many islands do you
Speaker 3: know in this town? There's a ton of them, right, Yeah,
Speaker 3: there happened to be a little old lady, lute, what
Speaker 3: are you doing here?
Speaker 4: If I've heard the version I heard was that maybe
Speaker 4: there was a convention of people.
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe she.
Speaker 3: Was part of that, but everybody from Iowa lives here,
Speaker 3: you know, they live here.
Speaker 1: And then she saw him in the gift shop.
Speaker 4: Was it just looting and Bobby on that the kids
Speaker 4: were here and they didn't come to take a look yet? No,
Speaker 4: because yeah, because that had to be a big deal
Speaker 4: to move the whole family out because they were all,
Speaker 4: you know, high school ish age.
Speaker 3: I was, but that was the appeal because they were,
Speaker 3: you know, mostly from the West coast. And he kind
Speaker 3: of not that he wanted out of Iowa, but he
Speaker 3: had already been overwhelmed by the people that he couldn't
Speaker 3: go to dinner, he couldn't do anything because they overwhelmed.
Speaker 1: Him or them.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and luckily it came to and he turned into
Speaker 4: but he was he understood it here because it wasn't
Speaker 4: as bad.
Speaker 3: It wasn't as bad it was. I've never been to
Speaker 3: where Iowa city. I was city, so I don't know
Speaker 3: the culture there. I'm sure it's just really you know,
Speaker 3: they would know Dave Silver if he was out in
Speaker 3: the streets because.
Speaker 1: Small town get an autograph yet.
Speaker 3: Whatever, there's the kicker that he said, I hate to
Speaker 3: bother you.
Speaker 4: But yeah, and then you eventually bother you, right. He
Speaker 4: but he was a good sport. I never saw him.
Speaker 4: I mean he he got to the point obviously late
Speaker 4: in his life and late in his career where the
Speaker 4: U of A used him to go do those things.
Speaker 1: You know, Hey, we're doing an event in you know,
Speaker 1: San Diego. Weren't you was any colleague of yours? Well,
Speaker 1: in a way, I mean we would you.
Speaker 4: When I worked at the Foundation, the Foundation, you know,
Speaker 4: had an office for him, and they would set up
Speaker 4: dates for him to go, Hey, we're gonna go again.
Speaker 4: He would go to San Diego all because he was there.
Speaker 4: He was in Cornado, so they'd just bring him out
Speaker 4: to some party.
Speaker 1: And he was great.
Speaker 4: He loved doing the fans just loved it, even to
Speaker 4: the you know, his final years when he would just
Speaker 4: come to you know, something where he could just sign
Speaker 4: autographs and smile and that was he was an attraction.
Speaker 3: And reminisce about the good old days, just like we're
Speaker 3: doing just.
Speaker 1: Like, yeah, they're gonna be calling us someday. In fact, Steve,
Speaker 1: when did you write that book? Yeah?
Speaker 3: In fact, I got a call today from someone I've
Speaker 3: been trying to get on. I've had him on before,
Speaker 3: one of your buddies. I think Bill rome who I
Speaker 3: wanted to have him on yesterday and I left him
Speaker 3: a message and I can't come on today. He's he's
Speaker 3: too busy and he's gonna come in next week. But
Speaker 3: you know, he was one of your time too. A
Speaker 3: lot of people showed up in the mid eighties. I
Speaker 3: saw Bill Romer not long ago.
Speaker 1: Just golf course. No, no, he just he was just
Speaker 1: at some breakfast. I was okay, he was there.
Speaker 4: So we haven't seen each other in ages, Oh really yet,
Speaker 4: but he you know, he was, he was right there.
Speaker 4: We were colleagues basically the beginning when I forstot he
Speaker 4: was on TV.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he was on Channel thirteen. He's also on Channel eleven.
Speaker 4: I think doing I think he was doing play by
Speaker 4: play for Arizona Baseball. I want to say the nineteen
Speaker 4: eighty championship year was Roamer doing play by play?
Speaker 1: I'm not good. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 4: He'd have to tell that whole story. I thought there
Speaker 4: was some affiliation though.
Speaker 3: So maybe we'll get him on next week when you're back.
Speaker 3: We talk about the good old days, because he's had
Speaker 3: like you and I or me for sure now that
Speaker 3: the paper closed. All these different type of jobs, and
Speaker 3: he had a lot. He was the voice guy at
Speaker 3: the dog track, Hey, it comes.
Speaker 5: The corner.
Speaker 3: He was the.
Speaker 4: Guy in the booth at the spring training for the
Speaker 4: Indians games. I'm not sure if he was still doing
Speaker 4: it with the Rockies came, but in those early years
Speaker 4: that I was here, it was you know, Bill Romer
Speaker 4: at the high covered field, in the High Court.
Speaker 3: Well Toros too, obviously, I think, yeahs yeah, So a
Speaker 3: lot of the people listening, what are they talking about? Yeah,
Speaker 3: the good old days. But that's what listens to us.
Speaker 3: So people, the older people, good old, good old people.
Speaker 3: Thank you very much for being with us. Anybody want
Speaker 3: to call mess with this conversation, we'd appreciate it. Five
Speaker 3: to change the subject for us five two zero four
Speaker 3: one six seventy four forty uh yeah. Any rumors I
Speaker 3: think that kJ might might be looking at Georgetown.
Speaker 1: Why why is that? Is there some relationship he's got
Speaker 1: with I don't know, I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 1: It seems like a weird fit. Yeah, I mean, but but.
Speaker 3: The money, if the money's there, yeah, or I'm sure
Speaker 3: there's money everywhere.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you wonder how these money deals even and are
Speaker 4: rolled out to these guys like you know, heyky, we
Speaker 4: have X amount of dollars, you're gonna get this much.
Speaker 1: I just don't know. You know, we got a call,
Speaker 1: Thank god, Hello, you're on the ear.
Speaker 5: Who's this, hey, Steve? This is done?
Speaker 3: Hi, Dave?
Speaker 5: Who Hey? I wanted to tell a little bit of
Speaker 5: a season ticket story my dad, who got season tickets
Speaker 5: in that eighty five eighty six season when they first
Speaker 5: sold out. We had gone to a few games before.
Speaker 5: We were at the Washington game when dead Less Shramp
Speaker 5: and the other big german were on that team, and
Speaker 5: it was it was packed to the rafters. We were
Speaker 5: in the last row with our head up up against
Speaker 5: the seatings, and my dad was hemming and hauling about
Speaker 5: getting the season tickets. Now, I don't want, he goes,
Speaker 5: I don't want to see Washington State. You know, he
Speaker 5: didn't want He didn't want those games. He wanted the
Speaker 5: u c l A games in Oregon state at the time. There,
Speaker 5: I go, you better get a ticket or else you're going.
Speaker 1: To get locked out, right right, how was the sure
Speaker 1: enough go ahead? Go ahead? Well, have you gone to
Speaker 1: recent games.
Speaker 5: I went, I was at a game or I see,
Speaker 5: was it last year I went last year?
Speaker 1: I didn't know.
Speaker 3: This is the reason I asked, is how do you
Speaker 3: compare the crowds then to now and and and the craziness.
Speaker 3: If there is a craziness, it's a little bit.
Speaker 5: It's not a little bit, it's it's a lot more
Speaker 5: corporate now with you know, with with the activities every
Speaker 5: time out, you know, and then it's so dark in there.
Speaker 5: It reminds me of I went to a game in Orlando,
Speaker 5: a playoff game with the Orlando Magic and UH and
Speaker 5: the seventy six ers one time, and it was it
Speaker 5: was a lot like that. You know, they you know,
Speaker 5: they stopped the clock and they have to do something.
Speaker 5: And back in the old days, when the lights were on,
Speaker 5: you know, the band played, you know, the cheerleaders came
Speaker 5: out on the court. You know, Joel came out. You know,
Speaker 5: our man would come out. Well, in the early days,
Speaker 5: he would come out a lot more.
Speaker 1: And then as as.
Speaker 5: The program grew, he kind of he came out as
Speaker 5: a shot of adrenaline. But I mean, I think to me,
Speaker 5: it seems like it was crazier in the old days
Speaker 5: because it was a lot more.
Speaker 1: Collegiate.
Speaker 5: Yeah, there you go, collegiate. I was going to say
Speaker 5: high schooling, but it was more collegiate. It was more
Speaker 5: college like like football still is. Football is still college
Speaker 5: football compared to when you go to an NFL game, Well, you.
Speaker 1: Know what, what are the criticisms? And then spend this way.
Speaker 3: Since I've been here, Dave and and you and you
Speaker 3: have the blue hairs, everyone talks out how old is
Speaker 3: Well it was the case when I got here in
Speaker 3: eighty seven. They're always talking about nothing, just kind of
Speaker 3: the same people who have the tickets, right, the same
Speaker 3: family members. Do you feel the same thing done where
Speaker 3: back then it was old people.
Speaker 5: Or no, they're the ones that had the money for
Speaker 5: the tickets.
Speaker 3: Exactly, No, exactly. That's kind of my point, and it's never.
Speaker 5: Gonna change it now. And now you know who's the
Speaker 5: ones that have the tickets The children of those same
Speaker 5: blue hairs, But now they're.
Speaker 1: The blue hairs look at us, exactly.
Speaker 5: I mean, I'm I'm sixty now, but my kids were
Speaker 5: too young when when my dad passed away and I
Speaker 5: got I had the tickets for about five years, and
Speaker 5: I you know, it was just too hard because I mean,
Speaker 5: I havn't seen them tickets. It's like being on the team.
Speaker 5: I mean, you got twenty games to go to. You know,
Speaker 5: it's a lot. It's it's it's a it's a big
Speaker 5: it's a big responsibility. That's the way I felt about
Speaker 5: it is It's just it was it was just too much.
Speaker 5: My kids were too little, and you know, and back
Speaker 5: then when games were starting at seven, it was too late.
Speaker 4: What I was gonna say is my memories of those years,
Speaker 4: those early years, was it because it was so new
Speaker 4: and all of a sudden, here we are, you know,
Speaker 4: all of a sudden Arizona's ranked in the top parts
Speaker 4: of the country. It was amazing and no fans just
Speaker 4: didn't know what to do, but they went crazy.
Speaker 1: You're exactly.
Speaker 3: I think that has a factor, a place, a factor,
Speaker 3: because it was so new.
Speaker 4: It was fresh like it. Yeah, it was joyous, you
Speaker 4: know what. I when I went to a women's game,
Speaker 4: I guess maybe not to maybe it's not fair to compare.
Speaker 4: But like a few years back when Aery McDonald was
Speaker 4: playing and started, you go to some of those games,
Speaker 4: it kind of felt the same way. It's like fans
Speaker 4: were just glad to be there. They were cheering everything. Yeah,
Speaker 4: every made basket was like a huge celebration. But that's
Speaker 4: the way it was back in those early years with
Speaker 4: with Well. I liken that to what you guys are saying.
Speaker 4: Do you buy a nice sports car, a nice sports car,
Speaker 4: and you've always loved this sports car, right, but you
Speaker 4: drive it for three, four or five years, and then
Speaker 4: it becomes this old sports card. You want to get
Speaker 4: a new sports car, and that joy of getting that
Speaker 4: team in the mid eighties.
Speaker 3: Is turning to this older sports car that you're kind
Speaker 3: of spoiled by driving an all the time. You want
Speaker 3: a different one, and you kind of try to refine
Speaker 3: that magic and it's sometimes it's not there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean we're not there.
Speaker 5: And then the program has been in such a place,
Speaker 5: you know, it's been visible. I'm not you know, elite ish.
Speaker 5: You know, they've always been up there in the rankings,
Speaker 5: always in the conversation and everything. So therefore I think
Speaker 5: that a lot of people think that anything less than
Speaker 5: a final four is a disappointment. Yes, yes, And then
Speaker 5: like and like what I was, you know, I was
Speaker 5: here through East Tennessee State and Santa Clara and back
Speaker 5: in those days, if that was loot, today they don't
Speaker 5: want it them fired.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, you lose two first round games in
Speaker 5: the beginning, but that was the beginning, that was the
Speaker 5: infancy of the program. So we you know, we suffered
Speaker 5: through it, you know. And then there's so many people
Speaker 5: from somewhere else in Tucson, so you got peace for
Speaker 5: it in your home town. But but now, you know,
Speaker 5: after all this time, Arizona's been so elevated that anything
Speaker 5: less than a final four is a disappointment. And to me,
Speaker 5: they get out of the first round, Okay.
Speaker 1: We're playing with house money.
Speaker 5: That's the way I feel about it. See how far
Speaker 5: this goes.
Speaker 3: Well, you're you're you're kind of a lone ranger in
Speaker 3: that because I think anything less than Sweet sixteen. And
Speaker 3: then you know, the way they played in the Sweet
Speaker 3: sixteen now kind of saved them again. You know what
Speaker 3: I'm saying. They played with heart, they played with energy.
Speaker 3: Had they not, had they been blown, like twenty five
Speaker 3: people here would have been pissed.
Speaker 5: Oh that, yeah, they'd have been upset. And then the
Speaker 5: thing is is they played their butts off to get there. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 5: it was it was an accomplishment to get to the
Speaker 5: sweet sixteen. And I remember when getting to the Sweet
Speaker 5: sixteen was a big deal. And and I think it
Speaker 5: it's it's kind of gotten dulled because of the real
Speaker 5: much success. Yeah, it's it's it's become routine. And it
Speaker 5: would be I think it would be neat if the
Speaker 5: games got more collegiate and it was more joyous. But
Speaker 5: I don't know how you could. You can't go back,
Speaker 5: you can that, you can't.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's too It is what it is now because
Speaker 3: they just got to find a way of being more
Speaker 3: entertaining somehow.
Speaker 5: You would almost need we would almost need like a
Speaker 5: homegrown kid that stayed that you know, that got there,
Speaker 5: led the team, stayed a while, kind of Sean Elliott like,
Speaker 5: you almost need something like that to kind of reinvigorate
Speaker 5: the fan base, social media and everything. There's so much
Speaker 5: negativity even even during the positive stuff that it's bad.
Speaker 4: Yeah, even if you're good, though, are you gonna are
Speaker 4: you gonna stay or are you gonna yeah, transfer or
Speaker 4: that's the problem.
Speaker 3: Yea, Yeah, we gotta go, We gotta go. Thanks down
Speaker 3: for the call. Take care of it, Take care of
Speaker 3: a good weekend, you two. We gotta go, come back
Speaker 3: with some breaking news and then have ed vospergu on
Speaker 3: the other side.