Speaker 1: This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera on
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Speaker 2: But good have to do it.
Speaker 3: Everybody.
Speaker 2: Welcome to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports
Speaker 2: fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Babera. You're blake. You You're from
Speaker 2: to so on Arizona SO then Arizona Sports Tourism and
Speaker 2: Film Authority. Thanks for coming back.
Speaker 4: And we got a guy Juan at the control, so
Speaker 4: we should have no problem today.
Speaker 2: He knows what we're doing or he's doing good.
Speaker 3: Good.
Speaker 2: I tried. I try to know. Did you get from
Speaker 2: sleep last night? One?
Speaker 5: Oh, very little. I had to go on my morning
Speaker 5: run early this morning.
Speaker 2: We had too. You didn't have to do that.
Speaker 5: I had to because school's back in session and I
Speaker 5: need need a break when I can get it.
Speaker 4: So we were solving the world's problems, like at twelve
Speaker 4: walking from the Matchale Center to our car and what
Speaker 4: the hell was going on with this team? And nothing
Speaker 4: bad's happening with this team. It's all good right now,
Speaker 4: right But but I think is one of the things
Speaker 4: that we disc and I was just on the show
Speaker 4: in FEEDIX. They asked me, what's going on, what's the
Speaker 4: difference now, Well, they're playing better, we're also not playing anybody.
Speaker 4: Granted they've and in fact, I didn't even put this
Speaker 4: in my story. This was the third top twenty five
Speaker 4: team they beat. We talked about this, right, we did
Speaker 4: top twenty five team. But it's not like a twenty five,
Speaker 4: top twenty five team, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5: It's not even top fifteen. I think, yeah, so yeah,
Speaker 5: I mean, let me, you ain't talking about Arizona, who's
Speaker 5: not top fifteen. The teams we've been playing, oh yeah, yeah, sixteen, Cincinnati,
Speaker 5: twenty one, West Virginia in twenty five.
Speaker 4: Right right, right, right, So not to be because people
Speaker 4: think I'm like the poo pooor of the world that
Speaker 4: you know, my but realistically, and in fact, your boss
Speaker 4: at the Acy Deserts Form had a pretty good pregame
Speaker 4: thing pregame story saying that Arizona had the weakest conference
Speaker 4: schedule to this point in the season.
Speaker 2: It's the weakest it'll.
Speaker 4: Be twelve CONFU season to this point. I said it
Speaker 4: twice now, because the teams they played haven't are near
Speaker 4: the bottom, right, not at the top. So you're a ballplayer,
Speaker 4: you know, if you're if your cell point, I'm using
Speaker 4: a local analogy, if your sell point and you go
Speaker 4: beat Greenfield twelve times, aren't you supposed to?
Speaker 2: I mean yeah, when you use that kind of analogy,
Speaker 2: I think you're looking at the David and Goliath perspective, right,
Speaker 2: the analogy there that every now and again David will
Speaker 2: be Goliath, but for the most part, Glass should always
Speaker 2: be and if they don't, you wonder what the hell
Speaker 2: just happened?
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, But I mean I take what you're saying in
Speaker 2: stride a little bit, but I think you're looking at
Speaker 2: that big too twelve schedule, especially preseason, going this is
Speaker 2: a monster, sure, and then now you're going into going Okay,
Speaker 2: we had three out of our top four game or
Speaker 2: three out of the first four games against ranked opponents.
Speaker 2: But I do understand where you're where you're getting from realistically.
Speaker 4: I mean, they're ranked, which is great, and they won
Speaker 4: because a beat sal alternative, right, you can lost, but
Speaker 4: but you should beat them. And last night was a
Speaker 4: it was a good show. Regardless of the late game
Speaker 4: fall apart or whatever you want to say. They had
Speaker 4: that game on all the way and they played out
Speaker 4: of their They played out of their mind, which is great.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I thought it was the best team basketball
Speaker 2: we've played so far this year. Unselfish, you know, for
Speaker 2: Love to have the kind of game he did and
Speaker 2: everybody around him to kind of pick up. There wasn't
Speaker 2: a player on the court that didn't make an impact,
Speaker 2: and I think that's what's really impressive.
Speaker 4: Good observation. I totally agree with you, because everybody had
Speaker 4: had a hand in it. Yeah, and I think the
Speaker 4: biggest hand is The guy I really like is Henry
Speaker 4: and I've liked him for a long time, you know,
Speaker 4: because he and I'm trying to think, and you followed
Speaker 4: this one very very closely for the last few years
Speaker 4: big Man, and you both of you gets because you
Speaker 4: following big Man. Everyone hasn't had a big man.
Speaker 2: Like him.
Speaker 4: And I'm going to be totally wrong, I know, because
Speaker 4: I can't remember, but Louren Woods a guy who could
Speaker 4: run and defend the basket and could score. Not a
Speaker 4: great scorer, but a scorer. I was actually thinking about
Speaker 4: this last night during the game. He very much reminds
Speaker 4: me of Christian Coloco.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, he just has a little bit more ranked
Speaker 5: than Coloco did.
Speaker 3: Range.
Speaker 4: Yeah, range, yeah, yeah, no question, And I forget Coloco
Speaker 4: in a sense, same kind. He was a pretty good
Speaker 4: big man. He was a real good defender, especially the perimeter. Yeah,
Speaker 4: and that's what he mostly was a defender, right, Yeah,
Speaker 4: because he wasn't a scorer. Henry has it more than that.
Speaker 4: Doesn't he a little bit more more game to him?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, offensive game. Yeah, and you're talking about perimeter
Speaker 2: offense as well, which you can expand the defense and
Speaker 2: it allows our guards to be the more mobile and
Speaker 2: the FDA kind of play where he wants. It's it's impressive.
Speaker 2: Coloco is kind of the same path, right, It took
Speaker 2: him three years to really develop into the player he was,
Speaker 2: and Vsar is kind of in that same boat. Yeah.
Speaker 4: And he's he's he could run the court. He's got
Speaker 4: great feet. You know, usually when you have like you
Speaker 4: have the you have the creator's feet, you're kind of slow,
Speaker 4: kind of plotting.
Speaker 2: He's not slow or plotting. And he can shoot range.
Speaker 4: Uh, he was the g He's Grant Jerry Better two
Speaker 4: point zero, who can stretch the floor things. Do you
Speaker 4: want him to stretch the floor because Ucla, I mean
Speaker 4: you're thinking what you're doing shooting the three, but he
Speaker 4: can shoot the three. He hits that shot, that game's over.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, I think there was a couple of them.
Speaker 5: He hits one of those, Arizona has it, But the
Speaker 5: fact of the matter is he didn't.
Speaker 3: He didn't.
Speaker 2: But he's hitting them now right. I don't know if
Speaker 2: I want him.
Speaker 5: To shoot that, but if you're, if you're, I'll take
Speaker 5: I'll take one to two shots from.
Speaker 4: Him, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, because it keeps the
Speaker 4: other team honest Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean, I think when you're looking at that overall
Speaker 2: perspective of the game yesterday, he was the most consistent
Speaker 2: piece throughout the game by far, But I thought a
Speaker 2: Waka gave you some quality minutes. I think his evolution,
Speaker 2: not honestly, the last four games is substantial. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: I agree with you. Vis Visa is a different when
Speaker 2: he's on the court, He's a different beast. Yeah.
Speaker 4: No, And well it's twitty because I talked to about
Speaker 4: this on the show previous kJ He's not the non starter,
Speaker 4: he's a starter. The stars a starter, and who is
Speaker 4: the third guy? Uh Bryant Carter Apple's apples. He's probably
Speaker 4: a starter too, right, But Henry, but Tommy's not gonna
Speaker 4: change anything. Why would you? That was another thing we
Speaker 4: talked about, right, I wouldn't change it? Yeah, yeah, why right?
Speaker 4: Why sitting broke? Don't don't fix it?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 2: Yeah, right, exactly. Yeah. I mean I think you're looking
Speaker 2: at you know, it feels like a deeper team than
Speaker 2: eight players, because the lineups are starting to gel and
Speaker 2: I think they're starting. I mean you're looking at Delorso
Speaker 2: in that first half yesterday, their defensive effort in the
Speaker 2: first half yesterday, the energy that they put forth. I mean,
Speaker 2: even if, however you think about Baylor, to keep them
Speaker 2: under twenty points for a whole half is pretty impressive.
Speaker 6: Right.
Speaker 4: It's funny that that There's two things that I wanted
Speaker 4: to and I didn't write about this, but I asked
Speaker 4: the question about Delorso. If you if he gets you
Speaker 4: nine ten points and the way he did it, that's gravy.
Speaker 4: I mean, you're gonna take that all day because that's
Speaker 4: what he's there for. The spot, the shooter, the catch
Speaker 4: and shoot shooter, get him into a rhythm, bloom, And
Speaker 4: if he's doing that, that's like, where did.
Speaker 2: This come from? Because at the beginning of the year,
Speaker 2: you're thinking, what are you here for? Yeah, yeah, you're
Speaker 2: absolute right, And we didn't know what we're getting. We
Speaker 2: talked about the last time it's another mid major transfer
Speaker 2: that it's kind of a flip of coin. Now, like
Speaker 2: you're either going to get one of the best players
Speaker 2: in the conference we've seen in another conference, or you might
Speaker 2: get a guy that was a start and Townshend's kind
Speaker 2: of finding his way a little bit too. I think
Speaker 2: Townsend Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's not he had a
Speaker 2: pretty good game. I thought he had a pretty good
Speaker 2: game the first basket.
Speaker 5: Still can't necessarily take care of the ball sometimes, Yeah,
Speaker 5: but he's he's improving.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, we have two more months left. And that
Speaker 4: was kind of one of the questions I asked. He says,
Speaker 4: I don't prognosticate, or I don't I'll live in the
Speaker 4: world of hypothetical hypotheticals. Yeah, yeah, because you're two months
Speaker 4: in now, you have two months left.
Speaker 2: Where are you going to go with this? So we'll see. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And I think Tommy, not this, not this presser, but
Speaker 2: the presser before. And I know I heard what you
Speaker 2: taught to ask him. Yeah, but he's being honest, right,
Speaker 2: And we talked about a lot of it. From my standpoint,
Speaker 2: from a coaching standpoint, I'm not going to say anything
Speaker 2: to the media that I'm not going to say to
Speaker 2: my players. Yeah, and sometimes that media effect allows a
Speaker 2: little bit more cohesiveness and that in the locker room
Speaker 2: because we know where we're going, we know where we
Speaker 2: want to be.
Speaker 4: It also helps I think the crowd, the fandom be
Speaker 4: realistic about what he has right, kind of sets their
Speaker 4: tone of oh, maybe maybe he understands what they're missing.
Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying, Because everyone thinks that Tommy
Speaker 4: either can or can act coach. He's either got it
Speaker 4: or don't. Next time they lose, guess, guess what's going
Speaker 4: to happen.
Speaker 2: Oh, it's the same thing. I try to stay off
Speaker 2: the message boards as much as I can't because it's like, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's I'm so over it. But I mean to Tommy's
Speaker 2: credit with what And we talked about this last time
Speaker 2: I was on the show, with what he was given
Speaker 2: this year, and we were saying, this is the deepest
Speaker 2: team for him to evolve and pivot the way he
Speaker 2: has to get this team playing the way they are,
Speaker 2: I think is a heck of a job coaching, and
Speaker 2: if you stand back, you cannot argue the fact that
Speaker 2: he's one of the best college coaches in basketball.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, they wouldn't be calling him for the America's
Speaker 4: Team America Team US I stuff like that. They like
Speaker 4: playing the style. I think too that the teams that
Speaker 4: they've played haven't done what other teams have done.
Speaker 2: Try to slow them down. If you're a coach and
Speaker 2: you are you, how would you try to slo How
Speaker 2: would you defend Arizona? I mean, that's a great question,
Speaker 2: because now you have you're almost going outside in, inside out,
Speaker 2: any way you want. We've got four bigs that are
Speaker 2: all finding a way. I mean, you perimeter, but we're
Speaker 2: starting to shoot the three better. I honestly, it's a
Speaker 2: tough Who do you put? Who do you spend your
Speaker 2: time on? You spend your time on Love because Bradley
Speaker 2: can hurt you. Now, yeah, actually I would. I would
Speaker 2: probably let Love screw himself because he hasn't done much right.
Speaker 2: But but you know, you're a pitcher, so a picture
Speaker 2: kind of controls the game, right. Of course, you were
Speaker 2: a crafty pitcher. Were you a dominated picture what kind
Speaker 2: of picture were you? Yeah, I was like eighty eight
Speaker 2: ninety two guy that, but I threw four pitches that
Speaker 2: I can do whatever I.
Speaker 1: Want it with.
Speaker 4: Well, there you go, there you go, perfect example. So
Speaker 4: you have a arsenal if you can go if this
Speaker 4: isn't working, this is working. Yeah, And if if you
Speaker 4: got a guy who can hit fastball, what are you
Speaker 4: gonna throw?
Speaker 2: Not fast balls?
Speaker 4: Yeah, this team loves the run. Let's go in transition?
Speaker 4: What am I going to try to do? Make you
Speaker 4: slow this damn game play in the fifties because you
Speaker 4: can't do it, And that's what teams have done to
Speaker 4: this point.
Speaker 2: And I think we're starting to see that a lot more, obviously,
Speaker 2: but I think our slow offense and our half court
Speaker 2: offense is starting to get better. The back door cuts
Speaker 2: has been working great. That kJ Lewis feed to Bradley
Speaker 2: last night that backdoor cut was perfect. Finding Visa under
Speaker 2: the hoop, the four to the five, the fight of
Speaker 2: the four has been great passing because we haven't had
Speaker 2: that kind of passing since Tubellas. So it is you're right,
Speaker 2: you've got to slow us down. You got if you're
Speaker 2: get to win. And guess what happens in the tournament. Yeah,
Speaker 2: teams slow you down.
Speaker 4: They want to make play in the sixties and they
Speaker 4: want to control the temple and blah blah blah. And
Speaker 4: that's what has been Arizona's demise for years. You know,
Speaker 4: Princeton was that team. So let me ask you.
Speaker 2: Guys both this. So you I mean, obviously we're all
Speaker 2: following these teams for years and years and we understand this.
Speaker 2: There's two questions that I want to ask you. The
Speaker 2: first question is does this team stand a better chance
Speaker 2: in the tournament? Because for me, it's it's a more
Speaker 2: encompassing team than we've had in the past. Question, is
Speaker 2: that go ahead? That's the first question I'll ask you.
Speaker 5: The second one, I think we've been able to see
Speaker 5: that they can keep it close when a team slows
Speaker 5: them down.
Speaker 2: It's a matter of winning those games.
Speaker 5: So I think this is I'm gonna use the word
Speaker 5: complete because they can stick with any game. It's just
Speaker 5: well they pull it out in the end. That's where
Speaker 5: I think this team is at right now. See here's
Speaker 5: here's my dilemma in your question. So let's as super
Speaker 5: second day you are in the fifties or sixties. There's
Speaker 5: only one guy that's really gonna pull him out of
Speaker 5: this game, and his name is Caleb Love. So you're
Speaker 5: gonna be dependent on him because he can score, and
Speaker 5: you're gonna get the good Caleb Love, or you're gonna
Speaker 5: get them.
Speaker 4: That's a good Caleb Love. And that's a hell of
Speaker 4: a way to live. You know what I'm saying. Should
Speaker 4: I go in this neighborhood there's a chance I could
Speaker 4: get beat up? Or do I go around the around
Speaker 4: the long way and take a long time and may
Speaker 4: not make it on time?
Speaker 2: Does that make sense?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: It's say National Lampoons when they go to eas St. Louis.
Speaker 2: It's that that kind of verbage.
Speaker 6: Right.
Speaker 2: You're gonna get off of the wrong stop at some point, right,
Speaker 2: and then how do you survive it? Right? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 2: so so are they what was a question?
Speaker 4: How? I don't know. It depends. It depends on a
Speaker 4: lot of things. And I talked about it a lot
Speaker 4: when Luke was around. You gotta be lucky, you gotta
Speaker 4: be good, you got to be healthy, uh, and things
Speaker 4: just have to fall right, just just the right opponent,
Speaker 4: because if you have a team that's slowing down and
Speaker 4: methodical and has one of those days where you can't
Speaker 4: do anything right. Last night, Florida, who I think is
Speaker 4: a fantastic team, they can't beat at home by Missouri.
Speaker 2: I know what?
Speaker 7: How?
Speaker 3: How?
Speaker 2: What is it?
Speaker 4: How they just packed the crap out of Tennessee in
Speaker 4: an emotional game? You but you know we're okay with them.
Speaker 4: What are the things that I've said a number of times?
Speaker 4: And you witnessed this because you're an athlete and a coach.
Speaker 4: The one thing that I've noticed the most probably is
Speaker 4: the emotions of kids playing the game. Either you think
Speaker 4: your poop doesn't stink and you just show up and play.
Speaker 4: I want to kick the crap out of you, and
Speaker 4: it doesn't work that way because the other team wants
Speaker 4: to beat you too, and you're not emotionally ready to
Speaker 4: play that game, and that's happens. How else would you
Speaker 4: use explain upsets, especially at the big level.
Speaker 2: I'm sure you would agree. Yeah, And they're talking about
Speaker 2: the difference between confidence and continents right.
Speaker 4: Perfect, yes, yes, and that Arizona has lost a lot
Speaker 4: of games because of that. You know people wouldn't believe it. Oh,
Speaker 4: there were much talented. So how did you lose. Why
Speaker 4: did you lose? We didn't show up? Well, the other
Speaker 4: team had something to do with it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, everybody's got the plan too. So when you've got
Speaker 2: more time to plan for a team, it's you don't
Speaker 2: know what you're gonna get all no, no, And you're saying,
Speaker 2: do you have a second question? Yeah, my second question.
Speaker 2: But if we're gonna go to break, I don't want
Speaker 2: we got we got to good? Okay. Second question, So
Speaker 2: this has to do with culture. So you know sports
Speaker 2: is about momentum. Have you seen a difference in the
Speaker 2: culture with this team because you're behind the scenes, you're
Speaker 2: you're getting to see Tommy as you seen. Have you
Speaker 2: seen their their mindset and the way they communicate, the
Speaker 2: way they're around each other. Have you seen it evolve
Speaker 2: and change a little bit over the start of the
Speaker 2: start of the season.
Speaker 4: Good question. You lost me a momentum earlier because I
Speaker 4: don't believe in it. Yeah, but we're not. We're not
Speaker 4: as close as you would think. Okay, we're not. We
Speaker 4: go to games, we see them, we see them.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 2: Okay, to be fair, I don't know.
Speaker 5: For me, it seems like they're in a let's do
Speaker 5: our job type of mindset and a not satisfied mindset.
Speaker 5: They came out of the locker room. You know, they're
Speaker 5: up forty two nineteen right, I guess number twenty five
Speaker 5: national champs but five years ago, and they did not
Speaker 5: look pleased at all with that first half. They came
Speaker 5: out and they looked Pete off you know, and who
Speaker 5: in Arizona? Okay, so it just seems like they have
Speaker 5: a real focus to them right now.
Speaker 2: And then what happened at the next ten minutes?
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly next like that.
Speaker 2: Offense too though the ten minutes Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4: You know, we gotta go because we're gonna have one
Speaker 4: of the guys who knows ask him that question. Brian
Speaker 4: Jeffries will be there because he's around them a lot
Speaker 4: more than all of us, and he knows comedy very
Speaker 4: well because he spends a lot of time with them,
Speaker 4: But that question would be best for him. Okay, we're
Speaker 4: gonna Brian Jeffries on the other side.
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Speaker 8: Breaking down all the xys and os. This is I
Speaker 8: on the Ball with Steve Rivera on Box sportsporteen fifty.
Speaker 2: Hey, welcome back to I on the Ball here on
Speaker 2: Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera.
Speaker 4: In with me today is Blake Eager and now you
Speaker 4: know him and I know him as the voice of
Speaker 4: the Wildcats, Brian Jeffries.
Speaker 2: Brian, how are.
Speaker 3: You, gentlemen?
Speaker 6: Couldn't be better? Got a decent night's sleep last night.
Speaker 6: I'm usually not a late night owl, but that was okay,
Speaker 6: it was worth it.
Speaker 3: And ready for the next one?
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, lately, you're gonna have a few of these.
Speaker 4: There have already been a few, and they're gonna have
Speaker 4: some few more. How do you like this change? Well,
Speaker 4: I mean the change in the Big twelve schedule overall.
Speaker 4: Ask me when the season's over, I think after the
Speaker 4: first road trip, you know, it was long, we were
Speaker 4: gone for a long time. I had to deal with
Speaker 4: weather and the whole thing. But all in all, it
Speaker 4: went very smoothly. And there's another two game road trip
Speaker 4: coming up, and then after that it becomes just these
Speaker 4: in and out one game road trips, which you know,
Speaker 4: to me, I think that is you know, that's a
Speaker 4: good thing. And the other half of it is that,
Speaker 4: except for a couple of occasions here, there are multiple
Speaker 4: days between games, and so that's good for the players
Speaker 4: and the coaches in terms of preparing for the next opponent. Steve,
Speaker 4: you know, the old schedule Thursday Saturday was that way forever.
Speaker 4: And those Friday games when you're on the road was
Speaker 4: I said, the fridays between games when you were on
Speaker 4: the road was you know, tough time to recover and
Speaker 4: get ready for the next opponent. So I like the
Speaker 4: schedule and we'll see how the rest of the travel
Speaker 4: goes and figure it out as we move along. But
Speaker 4: based on the strength of the conference, and I tell
Speaker 4: you what the atmosphere at Cincinnati and West Virginia, if
Speaker 4: it's anything like that, when we get to Lubbock and
Speaker 4: still water this week and that makes it a lot
Speaker 4: of fun for guys like me. Yeah, no question. In fact,
Speaker 4: I just wanted to joke real quick. I know you're
Speaker 4: a Seattle guy. Did you have to buy a jacket
Speaker 4: for this trip even though you go to perm now
Speaker 4: because you know we went to not so cold places
Speaker 4: now you do?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 6: No, Actually I did have one which I would break out, yes,
Speaker 6: for that Northwest trip, and so I took it with
Speaker 6: me to stay warm because it never was above thirty degrees.
Speaker 3: And you know, we.
Speaker 6: Didn't really get out when we were in Morgantown. We
Speaker 6: really didn't leave the hotel anyway. But yeah, it was NTTI.
Speaker 6: You just keep thinking to yourself, we're going home, We're
Speaker 6: going home. So yeah, no, don't don't have to deal
Speaker 6: with the click of the reds slippers or whatever.
Speaker 3: Go ahead.
Speaker 2: Yeah, hey, Brian, this is Blake Eager. It's great to
Speaker 2: talk to you. Thanks. This is I tell Steve this
Speaker 2: all the time. But it's such an honor to be
Speaker 2: on the show and talk to guys like you that
Speaker 2: I've spent my whole life listening to and and just
Speaker 2: kind of looking from afar. So this is an honor
Speaker 2: and I just want to say thanks for having me
Speaker 2: against Steve and Brian. So the question I have, and
Speaker 2: I asked it before the break, was have you seen
Speaker 2: from the start of the season to now a true
Speaker 2: change in the culture of the team inside the locker
Speaker 2: room with which with the coaches? Have you seen the
Speaker 2: growth from a relationship standpoint and start to bond because
Speaker 2: that's such an important part of a team.
Speaker 6: I won't use the word change a word, I'll use
Speaker 6: the word adjustment. I think that when the season started,
Speaker 6: and obviously before that, when practice was underway and you had,
Speaker 6: you know, the transfer portal guys Anthony del Arso and
Speaker 6: Trey Townsend and Tobey Owaka, and then you had a
Speaker 6: freshman and Carter Bryant and Henry Vassar who didn't and
Speaker 6: play last year, and you had these guys that and
Speaker 6: in particular the transfer guys, they played different roles in
Speaker 6: their previous schools and now they're asked to change and
Speaker 6: adjust to Tommy Lloyd's system and that's not an easy
Speaker 6: thing to do.
Speaker 16: And so that's what I've seen since the season.
Speaker 6: Started, is that they have found their spot now and
Speaker 6: it's not perfect. They've got a lot of things they
Speaker 6: can be better at. But all those guys, the newcomers
Speaker 6: in particular, have kind of figured out where they need
Speaker 6: to be on the floor and what their strengths and
Speaker 6: weaknesses are, and they're starting to play to them. And
Speaker 6: I think that's why they're on this seven game winning
Speaker 6: streak right now. I think the culture has always been good.
Speaker 6: That's one thing I always noticed early on is what's
Speaker 6: the chemistry of the team like, and these guys get
Speaker 6: along very well. I see them off the court, I
Speaker 6: see them on road trips. It's a very cohesive group
Speaker 6: and they really enjoy each other's company, and of course
Speaker 6: that's a great part of trying to build a good team.
Speaker 4: And the funny thing about it, you've been with this
Speaker 4: program for probably almost forty years, if not more. Brian,
Speaker 4: hate to date you that way, but I'm sure you're
Speaker 4: having a great time because and Tommy seems like he's
Speaker 4: a fantastic guy to be around. The team itself has
Speaker 4: been over the last few years, very very convenient or
Speaker 4: cordial whatever word is for you, or accommodating.
Speaker 2: So am I accurate?
Speaker 3: Absolutely? Yeah.
Speaker 6: I mean Tommy is tremendous to work with, you know,
Speaker 6: for pregame, post game, you know, around the hotel radio
Speaker 6: show every week. You couldn't ask for anybody better. He
Speaker 6: gets it. He understands it's part of the job, and
Speaker 6: I think a lot of it he really, I mean,
Speaker 6: he enjoys being out in public and meeting the fans,
Speaker 6: and so I think that is huge. The players are
Speaker 6: the same way. They're all very approachable and they're well.
Speaker 6: First of all, they're intelligent young men. They speak very well.
Speaker 6: They look you in the eye and shake your hand,
Speaker 6: and you know, you can just tell by the quality
Speaker 6: of the guys they recruited that, you know, that again,
Speaker 6: is one thing that's made this team I think, much
Speaker 6: better now than it was, you know, a couple of
Speaker 6: months ago when they got this thing started. So yeah,
Speaker 6: you know, I'll give you a good example guys that
Speaker 6: you know, we were in Morgantown and we got there
Speaker 6: on what Sunday, didn't play till Tuesday night. So Monday
Speaker 6: night at the hotel, Tommy got everybody together down in
Speaker 6: the banquet room and had a little.
Speaker 16: You know, social game so to speak, as.
Speaker 6: We went around and kind of learned more about each other,
Speaker 6: and it was kind of neat. There was no talk
Speaker 6: about well, very little talk about basketball. It was just
Speaker 6: talking about each other and you know, just some questions
Speaker 6: about everybody, and it was just kind of fun. You
Speaker 6: got to find out about things about the players and
Speaker 6: the staff members you didn't know, and there were some
Speaker 6: great stories and a lot of laughter. And so you know,
Speaker 6: that's something that Tommy has brought to the program. I
Speaker 6: think that's just another building block.
Speaker 4: Elements of non basketball stuff is always good for team bonding. Yeah,
Speaker 4: and they've been playing very well. What's been the difference
Speaker 4: you think? I was asked this question earlier today by
Speaker 4: somebody on another show, and I said, well, I think
Speaker 4: they're just playing better one and two and realistically, and
Speaker 4: this is no knock on anything. You just haven't played
Speaker 4: the teams that you think you have trouble against, the Houston's,
Speaker 4: the North, the Iowa States and those teams.
Speaker 2: Did that makes any sense?
Speaker 6: Yeah, the Baylor was the best team Arizona scene so
Speaker 6: far in the Big Twelve. And there's some better ones
Speaker 6: coming up. And I think Texas Tech is one of those,
Speaker 6: Iowa State, Houston, Kansas, So there's some really top opponents. Sayhead,
Speaker 6: So you're right, I mean, you can't That's why you
Speaker 6: can't just sit back and say, hey, you know this
Speaker 6: is great. They're won seven in a row, they're on
Speaker 6: their way. You never know so, but I agree with you, Steve,
Speaker 6: And somebody asked me that same question on the radio
Speaker 6: show this morning. He says, well, you know what's different
Speaker 6: about this team or what's better about this team? And
Speaker 6: I had a hard.
Speaker 16: Time because I think it's just a lot of little.
Speaker 6: Things that have come together. I mean, they're playing better defense,
Speaker 6: they're taking better shots. You know, the balt movement is better.
Speaker 6: It's all those things. There's just not one thing that
Speaker 6: you look at and say, Okay, this is why Arizona's
Speaker 6: better now than they were. It's just all that mixed together. Man,
Speaker 6: it's brought out the best of them.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean, I think we were talking about it earlier,
Speaker 2: but you look at that first half defensive effort. We
Speaker 2: haven't seen that from this team all season. And that's
Speaker 2: I don't care who we're playing. I think if you're
Speaker 2: putting that kind of effort on the floor, you've got
Speaker 2: a pretty good chance of keeping a low scoring game.
Speaker 2: And if our offense being the flow that it was
Speaker 2: last night, I feel and maybe I'm naive to say this,
Speaker 2: but I feel like we can go against almost anybody
Speaker 2: in the country.
Speaker 4: You know, I thought the same thing that for at
Speaker 4: least a half, they look like one of the best
Speaker 4: teams in the country.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I don't want to say unbeatable, but they
Speaker 2: look really It was something you hadn't seen yet, Brian,
Speaker 2: would you agree, Well.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I died. It was tremendous. I think they knew
Speaker 6: what was on the line. And let's go back to the.
Speaker 16: Game against UCF and they.
Speaker 6: Did not close that game the way that Tommy wanted.
Speaker 6: He was not too happy with their effort there down
Speaker 6: the stretch, and I think he let him know about that.
Speaker 6: And again, these are smart young men, and they took
Speaker 6: heat of that and came out and played their best basketball.
Speaker 6: The one thing you know that he mentioned after the ballgame,
Speaker 6: and you've seen a crop up here a few times,
Speaker 6: is they get these leads and then they can't hang.
Speaker 3: On to them. They win the games. You know, Cincinnati
Speaker 3: ed up by nineteen.
Speaker 6: And Barrick has come back and tied at Arizona still
Speaker 6: wins it. You know, led UCLA by thirteen in the
Speaker 6: second half, lost that game, and then these last two
Speaker 6: where they had sizeable leads, I mean twenty seven last night,
Speaker 6: and then it gets down to nine, and you know,
Speaker 6: the coach doesn't like those things, and of course, now
Speaker 6: that's a great teaching moment he can go back and
Speaker 6: show those guys. But you know, they've been very good
Speaker 6: at building leads, and I think that's the next step
Speaker 6: now for the this year's team is to make sure
Speaker 6: that you get that double digital lead and you keep
Speaker 6: the hammer down and make sure that you don't let
Speaker 6: the other team back in because, like you said, when
Speaker 6: you're going to face Texas Tech and Baylor on the
Speaker 6: road in Houston and Iowa State and Kansas, I mean,
Speaker 6: those teams, you know they're going to come back, So
Speaker 6: you better have that mentality to be able to hold
Speaker 6: those leads once you build them.
Speaker 2: Brian, with this team and all point to one thing specifically,
Speaker 2: I thought we did a great job of breaking any
Speaker 2: kind of press they threw us throughout the game until
Speaker 2: the last two and a half to three and a
Speaker 2: half minutes. What do you think mentality wise changes with
Speaker 2: the u of a team this year compared to teams
Speaker 2: in the past in that kind of crunch time.
Speaker 6: And the end, Well, I you know, I think that
Speaker 6: they have the guys they can put on the floor,
Speaker 6: all can handle the ball. I think that's one thing
Speaker 6: that has helped them. I last night, for example, I
Speaker 6: thought the thing that probably stood out to me was
Speaker 6: the fact that they hadn't really seen that type of
Speaker 6: pressure until the latter minutes. And it was not that
Speaker 6: they may not have been prepared for it. But when
Speaker 6: you go, you know, I don't know, thirty five minutes
Speaker 6: and you don't see that pressure and then all of
Speaker 6: a sudden it's there, then how do you adjust to that?
Speaker 6: And that's something that you know, you've got to learn
Speaker 6: to do. You got to you've got to be ready,
Speaker 6: and you have to expect it coming. I think that's
Speaker 6: part of it. And you know, anybody that knows Baylor
Speaker 6: basketball and what they've done over the years, then you
Speaker 6: know that they've got that ability. I'm kind of surprised
Speaker 6: that they didn't put that press in earlier, but that's
Speaker 6: a coaching thing, so I'm not going to second guess that.
Speaker 6: But that's that's why they've always been good defensively, and
Speaker 6: so to the Wildcat's credit, yeah, they had that stretch there.
Speaker 6: I think they turned the ball over four times in
Speaker 6: about four minutes. It felt like that. But you know
Speaker 6: they've got you know, between Caleb love and and Jayden
Speaker 6: Bradley and you know kJ Lewis and you know Carter
Speaker 6: Brand these guys that you can handle the ball and have.
Speaker 6: You know, I think very good QUI two. He saw
Speaker 6: a couple instances in last night's game where you know,
Speaker 6: instead of just folding other pressure they were they found
Speaker 6: one of their teammates down court and that was a
Speaker 6: great way to break the press.
Speaker 3: And so they survived it.
Speaker 6: And like I said earlier, it's one of those teaching
Speaker 6: moments and you hope when they see it the next time,
Speaker 6: they're ready for it.
Speaker 4: So we were talking about Vsar earlier. I've always liked him.
Speaker 4: I thought he was going to be very good two
Speaker 4: years ago when he first came on the scene, and
Speaker 4: then he got hurt last year obviously, and we were talking.
Speaker 4: I can't remember a center here at Juve as good
Speaker 4: as him. Maybe Lauren Woods back in the day. But
Speaker 4: he had a group of guys that were pretty pretty good.
Speaker 4: You know, Gilbert and Luke and Richard and know them.
Speaker 4: But he could do a lot of things. He can
Speaker 4: block shots if asked, he can score from the perimeter,
Speaker 4: he can score underneath, He's mobile, he can run the court.
Speaker 4: Maybe Collocal has some of those elements, but not to
Speaker 4: all those elements.
Speaker 2: What do you think about Vsar?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree with you, Steve.
Speaker 6: I think that he's probably the most afflette seven footer
Speaker 6: that maybe Arizona's had. And I'll he told me a
Speaker 6: great story why I think that he's that's contributed to
Speaker 6: that is that he was twelve years old and the
Speaker 6: coach he was six feet tall at twelve years old,
Speaker 6: and the coach made him a point guard. And you say,
Speaker 6: you know why at at twelve years old and you're
Speaker 6: six feet tall, you're the tallest kid on the court
Speaker 6: when the heck you doing well? It taught him those
Speaker 6: skills that a lot of big guys I think don't
Speaker 6: have the advantage of learning. Very smart and now you
Speaker 6: see it coming to fruition, very.
Speaker 2: Smart and of course you teach what you don't know, right,
Speaker 2: and that's perfect.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, And I think that's you know, two years
Speaker 6: ago when he played sparingly, like you said, as a
Speaker 6: true freshman. I'll be honest with you, Steve, I mean,
Speaker 6: you have a better than I, I than I, And
Speaker 6: I thought to myself, well, this guy's probably gonna ride
Speaker 6: the bench for four years and you know, get his
Speaker 6: six points and five rebounds and he'll be a nice
Speaker 6: backup and da da da da. And then last year,
Speaker 6: of course, sitting out, Well, little did we know that
Speaker 6: year off probably was the best thing that could happen
Speaker 6: for him.
Speaker 3: And now you see how he's blossomed.
Speaker 4: I couldn't tell you, but I saw something he was
Speaker 4: because he was so fluid. You don't see some footers
Speaker 4: were fluid. You see him like crebos where they're kind
Speaker 4: of mobile and they're kind of stuttering and kind of
Speaker 4: you know, mechanical or whatever.
Speaker 2: But that's beside the point.
Speaker 4: Let's move to football recount for just maybe a couple
Speaker 4: of minutes. A very tough year for you, of ASA,
Speaker 4: but you're around him. You probably know Brendan better than most.
Speaker 4: I'm sure you're pretty confident that he's already kind of
Speaker 4: starting to write the ship.
Speaker 6: Well, I mean we're going to see, well, we'll see
Speaker 6: in the fall. They knew they had.
Speaker 16: To make changes and massive changes, and.
Speaker 3: They've done that.
Speaker 6: They've gone to the portal and I mean, they have
Speaker 6: totally reloaded in the portal. He's changed some positions on
Speaker 6: the coaching staff, and I like all the changes that
Speaker 6: he made. I mean, getting Joe Salavea back is an
Speaker 6: absolute genius move.
Speaker 3: I think my.
Speaker 6: Understanding is Joe's wanted to come back before and the
Speaker 6: timing just didn't work out out for whatever reason, and
Speaker 6: so getting him back, I mean that is that is huge.
Speaker 6: And so I think, you know, it's just going to
Speaker 6: be a critical year coming up, and not that his
Speaker 6: job's on the line or anything, but I just you know,
Speaker 6: in terms of the fan involvement, you're coming off a
Speaker 6: tough year like this and you look ahead and you're
Speaker 6: your best player, Tedro McMillan is gone, and you know,
Speaker 6: he lost a couple other guys as well, so there's
Speaker 6: going to be a lot of new faces and having
Speaker 6: no Fafeeda back, that's certainly health He'll be the face
Speaker 6: of the program. But I think the question is going
Speaker 6: to be, you know, they got to win more games
Speaker 6: next year. That's the bottom line. They've got to use
Speaker 6: the new talent they have and the adjustments to the
Speaker 6: coaching staff. And I'm not going to sit here and say,
Speaker 6: they have to win X number of games, but they're
Speaker 6: going to have to show something and show something early because.
Speaker 3: They need to. They need fans.
Speaker 6: I mean, football supports programs, and so they're going to
Speaker 6: need to show something early and make sure that the
Speaker 6: fans are engaged. And whatever's done between now in that
Speaker 6: first game is going to be part of it. But
Speaker 6: you know, fans, I mean, they the proofs in the pudding.
Speaker 6: They want to see the product on the field. And
Speaker 6: so I think Rett's a great coach. I think he
Speaker 6: has great relations with his players, you know, because he's
Speaker 6: he's got that Dick Tomy part of him, and there's
Speaker 6: nothing wrong with that. And so if.
Speaker 3: You you know, watch what Tomy did.
Speaker 6: In particularly in his early years at Arizona, it reminds
Speaker 6: me of what Brennan's doing right now. Not the portal
Speaker 6: thing because that didn't exist, but just the way he
Speaker 6: builds culture around the team. And I think Rhett got
Speaker 6: that started last year. And I think everybody he's bringing
Speaker 6: in now and I'm I'm I don't know one of
Speaker 6: these guys, but I'm certain that he's recruiting them for
Speaker 6: their themselves, for the culture of the program, not only
Speaker 6: for their football talent.
Speaker 3: So I'm you know.
Speaker 16: I'm anxious to see spring practice.
Speaker 6: I hope these guys that they brought in and again
Speaker 6: a lot of them have great credentials that they can
Speaker 6: step in. They're going to have to step in and
Speaker 6: play right away, and maybe you know, a little bit
Speaker 6: of a head start now and with some of the
Speaker 6: changes they've made, you know, I'm optimistic that they'll have
Speaker 6: a much better team on the field, and I think
Speaker 6: it's important that they do that.
Speaker 3: Just like I said, to sell tickets, right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, no question. That's the bread life platter of the program.
Speaker 4: Thank you, Brian, as always, thank you very much.
Speaker 3: All right, thanks guys, take care on the road. Yep.
Speaker 4: Brian Jeffries from the u of A, the Voice of
Speaker 4: the Wildcats. Let's take a break, come here and talk
Speaker 4: more about what we're talking about.
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Speaker 4: Basketball fan, you know it's been successful for nearly forty years.
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Speaker 8: This is I on the ball on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
Speaker 8: Want to take part in the show called up? Steve
Speaker 8: now went five to two oh four, one seventy four
Speaker 8: to forty.
Speaker 2: Hey, we'll come back to my the ball here on
Speaker 2: Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve. You're blake, You're one.
Speaker 2: We're here for another hour and a half or whatever
Speaker 2: it is.
Speaker 4: Uh So, let me ask you something U sawlso be
Speaker 4: that I didn't see you a bitch. That's true because
Speaker 4: a lot of people said, you know, damn Love. You know,
Speaker 4: you know, because if he's really hot, everybody loves him.
Speaker 2: If he's not, he's not. But you saw him play defense.
Speaker 2: I thought he I thought he had more energy on
Speaker 2: defense than in the past when you see Love and
Speaker 2: he has those stretches when he goes from an offensive.
Speaker 2: We talked about it right now. When you've got a
Speaker 2: doctor Jackyll and mister Hyde tend a case situation, you've
Speaker 2: seen him kind of shut down on the defensive side.
Speaker 2: I thought he kept his composure a little bit more
Speaker 2: last night, especially in the first half. Yeah, why did
Speaker 2: you see that?
Speaker 5: I saw a little bit more movement than I had
Speaker 5: in the previous games. But I think that's also because
Speaker 5: he was feeding off of the energy of the other
Speaker 5: four guys on the court. You know, you saw o
Speaker 5: Waka and Bassar that they would get a screen and
Speaker 5: go they cut him off, and then Love would just
Speaker 5: come and close that out. I feel like these are
Speaker 5: the previous four games, you wouldn't you wouldn't have seen
Speaker 5: that from Love.
Speaker 4: And I don't you know what, and you probably play
Speaker 4: with athletes like this like where you where there they
Speaker 4: have a gate to them, right, they have a gate
Speaker 4: to them in a confidence, especially in baseball where where
Speaker 4: they did it's motionless. They just kind of go things.
Speaker 4: And you see, how come he doesn't struggle to run?
Speaker 4: How come he doesn't and things just come naturally to him.
Speaker 4: And I'm not going to say that happens with Caleb,
Speaker 4: but he's got a he's got a confidence in a
Speaker 4: gate to him that maybe maybe it's that Collid. You
Speaker 4: remember Kalid, of course, where he was kind of like
Speaker 4: so good. He didn't look like he was trying hard,
Speaker 4: and that was part of his problem. He didn't try hard.
Speaker 4: If he would have been a pro forever. But you know,
Speaker 4: what I'm saying that maybe Caleb has that and he's
Speaker 4: guilty of his own too good.
Speaker 2: Does that make sense? Makes complaye sense? But you're talking
Speaker 2: almost from like the Goldfish method, right where your mindset's
Speaker 2: able to forget those bad moments so quickly that it
Speaker 2: doesn't it doesn't start to pile up. It looks like
Speaker 2: for Caleb, he's got to get going early, right, because
Speaker 2: when we haven't seen him get going early, it takes
Speaker 2: a long time. But even even Ucef he had a
Speaker 2: great first half and that second half he did not
Speaker 2: have great the second half. So I it's just something
Speaker 2: looks off this year compared to what we've seen in
Speaker 2: the past. And Tommy said it perpletly. He wants him
Speaker 2: to play like an All American because he's an all
Speaker 2: Man and that's what you expect at this level.
Speaker 4: I think I was gonna say, well, we were talking
Speaker 4: about this kind of on the break. Maybe, Uh, he's
Speaker 4: a shooter, he's a maker. He's a shooter. He's more
Speaker 4: of a shooter than a maker, but he's good at it.
Speaker 4: You think that if you're a if you throw strikes
Speaker 4: for seventy five eighty percent of the time, guess what
Speaker 4: you'd expect to throw strikes.
Speaker 2: He's not that. He's not that striker or thrower of
Speaker 2: strikes or thrower of makes.
Speaker 4: He's a forty sometimes maybe shooter, but he's a good shooter.
Speaker 2: So do you expect more? Yeah, you're absolutely right. And
Speaker 2: I think mom, when we talk about we talk about
Speaker 2: two components, right, you talk about mental and you talk
Speaker 2: about mechanical, right, right, And maybe it's maybe it's a
Speaker 2: mechanical thing with love right now, Maybe something's just a
Speaker 2: hair off that's through his flow of his shot, whatever
Speaker 2: it might be. And people don't want to hear that
Speaker 2: because it's boring, But there might be something there where
Speaker 2: he's working through something. But the difference between love last
Speaker 2: night and in the past is that he usually can
Speaker 2: find his buckets around the rim. He didn't even to me,
Speaker 2: he didn't look like he was even able to do
Speaker 2: that last Yeah, he had one of those floaters that
Speaker 2: fell short. Kind of the thing is you're gonna need him,
Speaker 2: and I think you're gonna not. You don't need him now,
Speaker 2: You're gonna need him in March because that's when I'm
Speaker 2: gonna buy a hat and I already have it.
Speaker 4: It only matters in March. All this is fun and games.
Speaker 4: Then you tell me you're gonna be measured in March.
Speaker 4: Tommy's gonna be measured in March. This team's gonna be
Speaker 4: measured in March. Every team that I've covered since ninety
Speaker 4: one is measured in March.
Speaker 2: So let me ask this question. Because we talked about
Speaker 2: last time, we talked about expectations as a UVA football fan,
Speaker 2: what are your expectations on an annual basis as a
Speaker 2: UFA basketball fan? What should they be? Is it elit
Speaker 2: eight or bust? Every single year? I'm realistic.
Speaker 4: So no, I'm realistic because I've covered the team and
Speaker 4: i know what it takes to get there, because I've
Speaker 4: seen it and I've written about it. No, if they
Speaker 4: get to the sweet sixteen with a chance, that's probably it.
Speaker 4: I know everyone wants another time. You've lived how long,
Speaker 4: oh I forty two? Yeah, forty two? How many championships?
Speaker 2: How they won?
Speaker 4: They've won one, So in the next forty two if
Speaker 4: they won another one, you're okay. I mean the chances
Speaker 4: of winning are not very big, not very high. I
Speaker 4: mean not very really, they're not. But if they sneak
Speaker 4: went in you'd be the happiest man around. But likely
Speaker 4: of that happening not very good.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's one of those things that I can
Speaker 2: remember exactly where I was when it happened, and there's
Speaker 2: only a few moments. You we were fifteen, you were fourteen.
Speaker 2: I think I was twelve. Was ninety seven, thirty seven? Yeah,
Speaker 2: so I was fifteen. I was maybe fourteen at that point. Okay, okay,
Speaker 2: and where were you the Houtneys, what the hell? Yeah?
Speaker 2: It was crazy when people were going Yeah, people were
Speaker 2: going crazy and throwing ketchup and mustard. I don't think
Speaker 2: we knew how to react. It was like, as a
Speaker 2: fourteen year old, you're going, what am I getting myself?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 4: You were with your family obviously, of course, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: hey give me a beer.
Speaker 2: There, Yeah, yeah, yeah, No, I wasn't at that point. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that was a couple of years. Yeah, you were not born.
Speaker 2: I was not born that way. We don't need to
Speaker 2: bring that up. We don't need to point that out.
Speaker 2: I was six years remove. But you've heard stories.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, I watched a video at least once a
Speaker 5: year of them. It says riot in the video. That's
Speaker 5: what it is described as but it's just a celebration. Yeah,
Speaker 5: you know, it's it was to this point. It's quite
Speaker 5: literally a once in a lifetime thing that's happening in
Speaker 5: twos on Arizona.
Speaker 2: So you're expect to his question.
Speaker 5: I think Arizona should be a tournament team every year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's minimum, that's yeah. But I still think that's
Speaker 2: a little lax for the program. If we're going to
Speaker 2: consider ourselves as blue bloods, which I think a lot
Speaker 2: of Arizona fans do, but which okay, which realistically, I
Speaker 2: this is very hard for me to say, very hard
Speaker 2: for me to say publicly. I don't I don't want
Speaker 2: to put us in that cap room. Yeah, but yeah,
Speaker 2: at a very minimal level, a tournament team, right, I
Speaker 2: think Sweet sixteen is really where you're going for and
Speaker 2: if you run into a bad matchup, you run into
Speaker 2: a bad match I'm a little bit more bought into
Speaker 2: the season. I like the development of the team. I
Speaker 2: like to see the team come together. I buy into
Speaker 2: every single game. But you've got to compete in March.
Speaker 2: So let me ask you, let me ask you this.
Speaker 2: Let's go back, let's go back and do some review.
Speaker 2: Then uh so, Princeton lost horrible. Right scale of one
Speaker 2: to ten, Maybe it was a one two because in
Speaker 2: terms of disappointments, I'm nine or ten? Right, Houston? What
Speaker 2: about Houston? Knowing what you know? Now, that's a bad
Speaker 2: matchup for us. Okay, that was a bad matchup. I
Speaker 2: think you look back at that team, and I was
Speaker 2: having this conversation with myself the other day, which I
Speaker 2: do a lot obviously because people don't want to listen
Speaker 2: to me, so I appreciate it again on your show. Yeah,
Speaker 2: they're like, wait, he's back on. Yeah, I was having
Speaker 2: this conversation. If you look at that team, we have
Speaker 2: four NBA guys off that team, right, so correct if
Speaker 2: I yeah, I mean in Larson, Bellis matherin Coloco, Terry Mathern. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so you get five NBA guys on that team, and
Speaker 2: I think it's that first transitional year. If Tommy could
Speaker 2: have had that nucleus his second year, maybe a different circumstance.
Speaker 2: But Houston never should have been They should have been
Speaker 2: a one or two seed like they were a monster.
Speaker 2: But you're still.
Speaker 4: Gonna have to beat a Houston type team to win
Speaker 4: the title. I mean you have to if you're gonna
Speaker 4: be the best team. You better be the best team. Okay,
Speaker 4: now you're going through the PAC twelve. How many teams
Speaker 4: you see that on an annual basis?
Speaker 2: And don't you don't?
Speaker 4: You don't, you don't, And then that's that's why they're
Speaker 4: gonna be welcome to this new, new new league. Okay,
Speaker 4: but I'm gonna go back to some of the history
Speaker 4: of the program. So Shawn's teams, the only ones you
Speaker 4: really have to compare them were the Wisconsin teams. Guess what,
Speaker 4: Arizona was not good though, even as good as the
Speaker 4: first one in twenty fourteen, I think it was they
Speaker 4: didn't beat them. And now in retrospect you're thinking, Okay,
Speaker 4: maybe they should they could have, they should have. They
Speaker 4: might have, but they didn't. They later Wisconsin was better,
Speaker 4: beat them by eight.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that second year when you had Johnson compared to Gordon,
Speaker 2: that Gordon team is on the mount rushmore for me
Speaker 2: of you of a basketball teams. I mean, you had
Speaker 2: so many pieces on that team that it's a which
Speaker 2: two I mean you, yeah, you had Aaron Gordon, You
Speaker 2: and McConnell, Nick Johnson. Yeah, I mean really, that's one
Speaker 2: of your top four I think from athletics standpoint, you're starting.
Speaker 2: You had Zeus who is a four, Brandon Ashley. I
Speaker 2: mean you're talking about maybe arguably the most athletic team
Speaker 2: in the country, and that's a team that didn't have
Speaker 2: Ashley in March. Yeah, you've lost Ashley and that was
Speaker 2: a key piece that they lost. I mean my Miller,
Speaker 2: my Millier years a little bit different. I think you
Speaker 2: like he was a defensive genius. I think if you
Speaker 2: allowed that team to run and gun a little bit
Speaker 2: on offense, I think they're a national competing for a
Speaker 2: national championship.
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, so those two teams disappointments. If you lose
Speaker 4: at that point lead eight, is that a disappointment the.
Speaker 2: Team that you're talking about personally, yes, I think is
Speaker 2: a fan No. I mean getting to the lead eight
Speaker 2: is a substantial thing. But what about the year before
Speaker 2: the Gordon is a disappointment that the Gordon year is
Speaker 2: a disappointment? Johnson year Wisconsin was better than we were, Okay,
Speaker 2: the Gordon that's the four team. Well that's when actually
Speaker 2: got hurt. Yeah, okay, so that's a just a that's
Speaker 2: a that's a disappointment. Yeah. And in the us the injury.
Speaker 2: Everyone says, if had he not gotten hurt, they would
Speaker 2: have been Yeah, but you have to deal with this.
Speaker 2: Injury has happened in sports, so people always say, this
Speaker 2: is happening, this is I said, listen, you're gonna be
Speaker 2: able to find other teams find a way.
Speaker 4: Okay, we okay with that twoutes, Yeah three minutes, Okay,
Speaker 4: what about what about Duke Duke?
Speaker 2: They lose to be Duke and they lose to Yukon.
Speaker 2: Now that team overperformed. Oh yeah, I mean, so that's
Speaker 2: very that's a very good year. That's yeah, that's the
Speaker 2: best coaching performance by Miller and Mike in my opinion,
Speaker 2: that's a great year for them. They over they outperformed.
Speaker 2: I mean, Williams goes second in the draft, like you
Speaker 2: never saw that coming. Yeah, Okay. They lose to Ohio
Speaker 2: State I think sweet sixteen. Yeah, completely disappointment. I mean
Speaker 2: you're talking about a meltdown. Think about that. Were we
Speaker 2: up thirteen points with three and a half minutes left
Speaker 2: to play that in Ohio State? Yeah, I can't remember. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I think I thought they were well State, it's pretty
Speaker 2: good then, yeah, but we were up big with a
Speaker 2: little bit on the clock that was better than mine. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: which state?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: They losing in the first round. Yeah, okay. So so
Speaker 4: how would you describe Chun's time here?
Speaker 2: Oh man? I wrote this solum when.
Speaker 4: He was eventually fired to go, I said, I really
Speaker 4: don't know how to to to describe his legacy.
Speaker 2: It's it's a really difficult one, right, because he outperformed coaches.
Speaker 2: He was one of the I mean, arguably a top
Speaker 2: three recruiter in the country. I just thought his game
Speaker 2: he was his thin plant was not his game plan divert.
Speaker 2: How many times did you this maybe I'm speaking here
Speaker 2: this radio. Yeah, so how many times do you see
Speaker 2: a player developed throughout the season? How much he didn't
Speaker 2: because you were played it. You get the best athletes
Speaker 2: in the world and you try to force him into
Speaker 2: this block. Well, what do you think?
Speaker 4: Why do you think that eighton uh Trier and Alkins
Speaker 4: and Ristick whatever, that group, they were already NBA players
Speaker 4: before they got here him. He didn't make him that.
Speaker 4: It's like KLA party kind of parties an NBA gight, No,
Speaker 4: he's not there. NBA guys think you have to go
Speaker 4: somewhere for nine months or six months to go get
Speaker 4: ready for the NBA. He doesn't develop him into NBA players.
Speaker 4: He's a stop gap. He's a he's the bus stop.
Speaker 4: And kind of she was shown with that group they
Speaker 4: didn't want to be They were here because they had
Speaker 4: to be here.
Speaker 2: They wanted to be here. Yeah, and then those groups
Speaker 2: never looked like they were having no fun together the Bahamas. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think that's a huge difference you're seeing with Lloyd, right.
Speaker 2: Miller was a fine wine guy. Tommy Lloyd's a PBR
Speaker 2: guy where he's just like, let's just hang out. I
Speaker 2: can't understand that PBR stuff with he does. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: don't want to talk about yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but but to your point, no, exactly, And Henry's
Speaker 4: your your prime example.
Speaker 2: Yeah, here's this dude that you didn't think. Maybe Brian Jefferson,
Speaker 2: I agree with Brian. Freshman year, Yeah, and I saw something.
Speaker 2: I couldn't tell you what I saw, But he has
Speaker 2: this thing and now look at him and then if
Speaker 2: he stays another year, which I think he will and should. Wow,
Speaker 2: I mean, listen, we don't know if he's going to
Speaker 2: be able to stay that it comes to March. Let's
Speaker 2: say he gets hot in March. I mean, he's a
Speaker 2: prototypical NBA guy right where he can play a four
Speaker 2: and five, even maybe a three, which is maybe a
Speaker 2: stretch at the NBA level. I hope he stays another year.
Speaker 2: Selfish yeah, yeah, don't yeah, don't, don't jinx him and
Speaker 2: jink you.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Are we good with that? We gotta go, we gotta go.
Speaker 4: Okay, cool, we're gonna go come back, get some breaking news,
Speaker 4: fill that up, and then we're gonna talk to Michael
Speaker 4: leb on the other side.