Speaker 1: This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera on
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Speaker 1: your most prized possessions.
Speaker 2: Thank good afternoon, everybody.
Speaker 3: Welcome to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports
Speaker 3: fourteen fifteen. I'm Steve Roberta with me today is.
Speaker 4: My other kind of co hosts like Biager from Southern
Speaker 4: Areason a sports tourism in film authority. I love that
Speaker 4: when you start saying my name, the music just tends
Speaker 4: to get a little louder.
Speaker 2: Well, I just kind of made the mistick.
Speaker 4: I thought we should just let everybody know that you're
Speaker 4: doing two different things. I mean, Steve's in full multitasking
Speaker 4: mode right now. Don't confuse me. I have a D
Speaker 4: d ADHD or whatever these you want. Hey, are you
Speaker 4: over the hangover from WBC? Uh No, but not. I
Speaker 4: mean listen, it was It's great. I'm I'm, I'm I'm.
Speaker 4: I think I'm starting to get like six hours of
Speaker 4: sleep maybe at best, which a lot of people are like,
Speaker 4: are you kidding me? I would kill for that, but
Speaker 4: like working on two to three hours at this point,
Speaker 4: so trying to get there.
Speaker 2: Does your your wife love you?
Speaker 5: Did she? Leave me.
Speaker 2: She didn't leave me. She still loves I was gonna
Speaker 2: go with that. Does she love you?
Speaker 3: She still loves So you see her more than you
Speaker 3: did before when you're working twenty four hours? Oay, well
Speaker 3: did you work that much? Did I mean she saw
Speaker 3: me at the field?
Speaker 5: Yeah? Which I mean?
Speaker 2: I meant you girl, she's yeah, you out hit the coverage? Yeah,
Speaker 2: I hope so.
Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely, if you got to look at this, uh,
Speaker 4: this mug every day? You know, so you're a good dude. No,
Speaker 4: thanks that that that doesn't help that you just called
Speaker 4: me ugly. Essentially, No, I didn't. I didn't disagree with you.
Speaker 4: I just didn't disagree with you. Look at you. I
Speaker 4: watch face for radio. Hey, we're on the radio for
Speaker 4: a reason, right.
Speaker 3: A bit a voice for radio and a face for newspapers.
Speaker 4: I don't have either, so thanks for having me on.
Speaker 4: Well what's the newspaper for the internet?
Speaker 2: Hey?
Speaker 3: You know so, so we'll talk about the WBC at
Speaker 3: some other point or you always here with me, so
Speaker 3: it doesn't really matter. Did you hear any scores today?
Speaker 3: I've been busy with EL tour, press conferences and all
Speaker 3: that good stuff. I saw that I think that i
Speaker 3: Alowa State took care of took care of their opponent,
Speaker 3: and it was Cincinnati, and then this afternoon's game.
Speaker 2: What is this afternoon's game they have?
Speaker 3: And then Arizona's future opponent is playing tonight I think.
Speaker 5: Yeah, which was going to be either ucf ORNs.
Speaker 3: Right, right, So you see Texas is beating Vandy. I'm
Speaker 3: not gonna have any breaking news. Let the kids do that.
Speaker 3: Texas being vandyed as they should. Baylor plays tonight against
Speaker 3: Kansas State or later today, so we'll see. We'll see
Speaker 3: because if the winner of the Kansas game plays Arizona tomorrow.
Speaker 2: At the late game, right, that's correct. You just call
Speaker 2: up scores on ESPN.
Speaker 3: Oh, Iowa State beat Cincinnati by twenty that I was
Speaker 3: just damn good.
Speaker 2: Ilay State's really good.
Speaker 4: But the fall, you know, the cliffs for Cincinnati has
Speaker 4: been dramatic.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, that's why.
Speaker 3: You know what people when there's gonna play them in
Speaker 3: West West Virginia. Remember they were ranked. Yeah, it's almost good.
Speaker 3: They beat rankings. Don't believe the rankings. It's like that,
Speaker 3: it was almost not in the rankings. They're not a
Speaker 3: top twenty five team right now in the rankings, but
Speaker 3: they are in the net pretty good.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So I talk about this on Monday, like you're going
Speaker 4: into the attorney projected to be a four seed. Like,
Speaker 4: to me, that matters more than being a top twenty
Speaker 4: five without question.
Speaker 3: Could you tell it to the crowd here, could you
Speaker 3: speak to people in the back of the room as
Speaker 3: they say, because that's true, you know you could. You're
Speaker 3: one of the top twenty teams in the country. I
Speaker 3: have no doubt about that. I do kind of am
Speaker 3: skeptical bout the team from time to time, but they
Speaker 3: are one of the best twenty teams in the country.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I mean what they did Ken Palm ratings on offense
Speaker 4: and defense and everything, there were one of the like
Speaker 4: nine top top yeah, top nine or something. I don't
Speaker 4: know if the last couple of games, but yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4: And I mean you're seeing Colorado beat West Virginia.
Speaker 2: Oh they did they want two to row now sixty
Speaker 2: seven to sixty. That's wow.
Speaker 3: That's pretty surprising. Wow, that is surprising. They're finding some
Speaker 3: legs here.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So you've got Kansas Day and Baylor, like you said,
Speaker 4: later today, and then you've got u c F in Kansas.
Speaker 4: So I mean most likely, I mean, I don't want
Speaker 4: to project too much, but most likely we're going to
Speaker 4: see Kansas again, right and then we I sorry, Arizona,
Speaker 4: you could be a WEE. I'm a Homer.
Speaker 5: You are we.
Speaker 2: That's fine. We you are WE.
Speaker 3: You by tickets, you chair the team, you're one of
Speaker 3: the guys that I think you know after yesterday's discussion
Speaker 3: of Tommy talking about the crowd and the reason did
Speaker 3: you see that kind of explaining is he's we said
Speaker 3: he was right Monday.
Speaker 2: We talked about Monday.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so he kind of explained it to the press
Speaker 3: converse to the people of the press commence yesterday and
Speaker 3: he says, I want the guys to be better. I
Speaker 3: was impressed with Kansas. Did I want our guys to
Speaker 3: be that way?
Speaker 7: Uh?
Speaker 2: The end? Right that?
Speaker 3: Yeah, they said, what did I say that was wrong?
Speaker 3: Because he didn't say anything that was wrong. It could
Speaker 3: it could be better. Why can't I mean, why can't
Speaker 3: we take constructive criticisms? Well, what did we talk about?
Speaker 2: We are who we are.
Speaker 5: We are just going to know who we are.
Speaker 2: You don't know who you are?
Speaker 4: Yeah, It's it's like if I tell you, Steve, you
Speaker 4: could have done this better. You tell me on your show, like, hey,
Speaker 4: you should have said this. I'll be like, okay, I
Speaker 4: should have said that, Like I'm going to make a
Speaker 4: change if the head coach of the University of Arizona
Speaker 4: men's basketball team says, hey, I need the crowd to
Speaker 4: be better. We need to be better whatever that means
Speaker 4: from an energy standpoint, We need to be better.
Speaker 5: Though.
Speaker 3: That's a great, great way to put it. But you're
Speaker 3: you're exact way. Don't don't be so loud on the radio, sir, Sorry,
Speaker 3: and don't tell jokes. It's only what funny guy in
Speaker 3: the room. Okay, I apologize. I did tell you the haircut.
Speaker 2: Tell ye. So how's that going.
Speaker 3: It's great, No, it's awful. Well, kenn Of, we tell
Speaker 3: people we get a bad haircut over the week.
Speaker 4: Haircut, but you know, Monday got a terrible, like the
Speaker 4: worst haircut I've ever got in my life. I showed
Speaker 4: it on the radio to you and Wan, and you
Speaker 4: guys both laughed phythirically, and I think that's probably needed.
Speaker 4: So I had breakfast this morning with my buddy Dallas Howell,
Speaker 4: who's Jack How's son, and Andy Lopez, his son in law.
Speaker 4: And so I was telling the story and I had
Speaker 4: gone to his barber the last time, right, and as
Speaker 4: Barbara did a great job. You don't have a regular one, okay.
Speaker 4: So I'm getting to that, oh okay. So he's like, hey,
Speaker 4: why didn't you go back to my barber? And I
Speaker 4: said that I just I knew I had like thirty minutes, right,
Speaker 4: So I just took the thirty minutes, got the worst
Speaker 4: haircut I've ever got. And I told you she'd never
Speaker 4: come my hair. No, she'd cut my hair three times.
Speaker 4: I was wrong on that. Yeah. So I was telling
Speaker 4: him about the story where I used to go to
Speaker 4: two Sons, which is a barbershop in town. Great barbershop, yeap.
Speaker 4: So I went to the one on the east side, right,
Speaker 4: And so one time I was wearing a shirt from
Speaker 4: Pop Cycle, which is a store on Fourth Avenue. Great store.
Speaker 4: So I'm getting my haircut, right, and it's not my
Speaker 4: barber for the day, it's another guy that was like, hey,
Speaker 4: I can take you now or you can wait forty
Speaker 4: five minutes. I was like, just take me now. Didn't
Speaker 4: speak like, didn't speak greade English, and that's on me,
Speaker 4: Like I suld we should have gone full Spanish.
Speaker 2: I could have done whatever I could possibly with that.
Speaker 4: But so he's talking to me while he's fading me up,
Speaker 4: and I don't hear what he's saying. I only hear
Speaker 4: something about my shirt and pop Cycle. Well, we had
Speaker 4: been discussing my businesses, so he can he's he thought
Speaker 4: I said I own pop Cycle. So he starts telling
Speaker 4: everybody in the store, at everybody in the barbershop that
Speaker 4: I owned pop Cycle, and I'm I don't correct them, right,
Speaker 4: and I just go at the end of I go,
Speaker 4: never go back there again. So I've never been back
Speaker 4: because I think they they got own pop Cycle. So
Speaker 4: there's another hair story for you. Well you got another
Speaker 4: job assignment.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there you go. That's funny. That's funny. So are
Speaker 2: you not taking off your hat and all this time?
Speaker 4: Oh, for a month. It's this hat staying on. And
Speaker 4: you can't overcorrect on the other side. You know, I
Speaker 4: can't go I can't go the other way with my hair.
Speaker 4: I don't look even worse.
Speaker 2: Yes, forgive me, father, I've sinned. I mean the booth
Speaker 2: with the hat.
Speaker 4: On, Yeah, I mean that's exactly what it is. You
Speaker 4: get word baby everywhere you don't have a wedding to
Speaker 4: go to.
Speaker 5: You don't have it.
Speaker 4: I don't even care at this point if I go
Speaker 4: to like you said, if I go to a funeral,
Speaker 4: there's gonna be a hat on. I'm not taking off
Speaker 4: in respect to the corpse. It's funny.
Speaker 3: I had one of those many years ago, many years ago,
Speaker 3: and it was like, oh god. It was I got
Speaker 3: to go to a game and I kind of wore
Speaker 3: it that way and I said, oh god, and people noticed.
Speaker 3: They didn't say anything, yeah, but they know. It was
Speaker 3: like somebody sneezed, you know, when you and then you
Speaker 3: kind of well, it's gonna be okay, don't worry about it.
Speaker 3: Well it wasn't okay, and I worried about it. I
Speaker 3: two mistakes.
Speaker 4: This is the worst haircut I've ever got, And for
Speaker 4: some reason, when I was in junior college, I thought
Speaker 4: it'd be a great idea to color my hair red.
Speaker 4: I look like just the worst human being alive. I
Speaker 4: look like the scariest clown you can go wrong.
Speaker 5: It's just terrible. That's funny. That's funny.
Speaker 3: Okay, enough about you, Sorry, I put this. Enough about you.
Speaker 3: You sounded like Jay all of a Sudden take it
Speaker 3: over the dam show. Sorry, welcome everybody again. We've got
Speaker 3: to keep you up to date with scores and stuff.
Speaker 3: We'll take your calls as well. We have a pretty
Speaker 3: good lineup today. We have Lindsey Schnell. We were supposed
Speaker 3: to have her on last week or two, it would
Speaker 3: be two weeks ago.
Speaker 2: She was in town.
Speaker 3: She's with the athletic spent some time with Tommy at
Speaker 3: practice and an interview in Tommy for the preview of
Speaker 3: the Big twelve tournament. So she's gonna be on with
Speaker 3: us at four four fifteen, four seventeen, and then we're
Speaker 3: gonna have a friend of mine. He's a former coach
Speaker 3: at New Mexico State.
Speaker 2: He's an author.
Speaker 3: He's written a few books on forty Minutes of Hell
Speaker 3: with Nolan Richardson back in the day.
Speaker 2: He has a new one out here that.
Speaker 3: He's going to be at the book festival here over
Speaker 3: the weekend, and we'll talk about that with him. I
Speaker 3: forget the name of it real quick. Oh, but it's
Speaker 3: an interesting premise. It talks about NIL back in the
Speaker 3: sixties and seventies, you know, and just kind of a
Speaker 3: fictional look at the NIL from back in the day,
Speaker 3: kind of small school.
Speaker 2: How they fixed it. I don't know much about the book.
Speaker 2: I didn't read it.
Speaker 3: I didn't get a copy. But we'll talk about that
Speaker 3: and maybe talk about the state of the world. Because
Speaker 3: he used to be a college college basketball coach. He
Speaker 3: has a great compelling story because he was with or
Speaker 3: very good friends with the former New Mexico State coach.
Speaker 3: Went to Illinois and then came back. And I know
Speaker 3: you don't know that name and I and I should
Speaker 3: know this because I went to New Mexico State. But
Speaker 3: we'll let him fell us in with all the hoopla,
Speaker 3: you know, the friends of lout back in the day.
Speaker 3: He passed away not too long ago as well. So
Speaker 3: it's this is the best? Is this in your world?
Speaker 3: And I know your world is baseball, but I'm sure
Speaker 3: you have more worlds. What's March mean to you? Is
Speaker 3: it a fun time basketball wise? Is it better than
Speaker 3: Super Bowl? Is it better than the World Series? What's
Speaker 3: March madness?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I think it's my second favorite time of year, next
Speaker 4: to October. Yeah, I mean, you're right. I mean I'm
Speaker 4: a baseball guy at heart, but I mean from a
Speaker 4: fandom standpoint, March madness is. I mean, because anything can happen,
Speaker 4: and anything does happen. It's just super exciting to show.
Speaker 3: So a few years ago when Arizona did not make
Speaker 3: the tournament, I think one whatever whatever tournament was, I
Speaker 3: went to Vegas for the first time to watch the
Speaker 3: first round on tournament.
Speaker 2: It was you think, oh, it's gonna be great.
Speaker 3: You just sit there and watch games all over there
Speaker 3: the sportsbook, but it was it was like you had
Speaker 3: ad you have all these screens and all these things.
Speaker 3: You have to keep up with what's going on. I
Speaker 3: don't know if I want to do this. It's just
Speaker 3: so much information. So just you talking about that gives
Speaker 3: me anxiety. It was just crazy, crazy screens and scores
Speaker 3: and ticker and you know I had to kind of
Speaker 3: you know, you have those flashes kind of like holy crap.
Speaker 2: I said, yeah, I'm not sure I'll do do this again.
Speaker 4: But I did it. I mean, what's your what's your takeaway?
Speaker 4: Like you say, you don't think you would ever do
Speaker 4: that again. I did have to be with the guys,
Speaker 4: you know. I went with a couple buddies, but it
Speaker 4: was it was too much. I'd rather be out playing,
Speaker 4: you know, things poker or something. But it was like,
Speaker 4: holy crap, all these games and times and scores and
Speaker 4: things like that. And I didn't even bet it, didn't
Speaker 4: bet them, didn't care too. I just wanted to experience it.
Speaker 4: And it's a lot.
Speaker 3: To experience because you know, if you're in Caesars or
Speaker 3: wherever you're at yet forty big screens and all this information.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's wild. It was fun.
Speaker 2: It was cool. Which sportsbook did you go? Did you
Speaker 2: go to Caesars?
Speaker 3: I went to, Yeah, Caesar's and then uh, there's a
Speaker 3: couple of them MGM. Yeah, but you know, it's it's
Speaker 3: it is what it is, but it's it's everyone's crazy
Speaker 3: over there because it's the best time of the year
Speaker 3: for that first weekend of college basketball.
Speaker 2: So many games.
Speaker 4: You have a favorite going in to the NCAA Tournament,
Speaker 4: I mean, you like somebody someone some team. I like Houston.
Speaker 4: I just think I think where they're at, how gritty
Speaker 4: they are. They find ways to win. I mean that's
Speaker 4: the biggest thing. You look at them and how many
Speaker 4: times have they been behind and they find a way
Speaker 4: to win.
Speaker 2: They clamp down.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it reminds me a lot kind of like the
Speaker 4: Chiefs this year with Kansas City where they didn't blow
Speaker 4: you away from game to game, right, but they found
Speaker 4: a way to win what until until well until the
Speaker 4: Super Bowl.
Speaker 3: Well, if you are you a Chiefs fan, no, no,
Speaker 3: So this was the issue with me and the Chiefs.
Speaker 2: They did exactly what you said they did.
Speaker 3: But at some point you're thinking, at some point they're
Speaker 3: going to catch that team that's going to not allow
Speaker 3: them to stay close. I'm not able to pull it off.
Speaker 4: I just think you you have to give so much
Speaker 4: credit to the Philadelphia the Eagles defense that was that
Speaker 4: was incredible. Now, I you know, I grew up kind
Speaker 4: of a Niners fan and I kind of morphed into
Speaker 4: a Packers fan with my dad. But I play so
Speaker 4: much fantasy football it's ridiculous. So now I'm just like,
Speaker 4: I don't care about the team. Who's on the team.
Speaker 3: Let me ask you, now that I know you're a
Speaker 3: big geek, what prompts you to do that with the
Speaker 3: with the fantasy footbollster?
Speaker 4: I have an excitement from a week to week. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 4: I'm storting. I've I've played in and somebody's being the
Speaker 4: second year I've played in this fantasy baseball league where
Speaker 4: you give I don't know if you ever played in
Speaker 4: the budget leagues where you have two hundred and sixty
Speaker 4: dollars a start and then you pay for players. Oh no,
Speaker 4: I had to worry about that. I think it's exciting.
Speaker 4: You know, you kind of acted in the GM role.
Speaker 4: But again, yeah, it's kind of nerdy. But I don't care.
Speaker 2: No, no, no for me.
Speaker 3: I did it one year baseball wise, Yeah, and uh,
Speaker 3: that's a lot to do. You every day, it was
Speaker 3: every day, it was like the screen. But that wasn't
Speaker 3: my problem. My problem is I draft. I stayed loyal
Speaker 3: to my draft because I'm a I'm a loyalist this.
Speaker 3: There was a reason why I went after you. Now
Speaker 3: you've got to perform. Yeah, and I don't want to
Speaker 3: trade anything because it's too much work. One and then
Speaker 3: two you're supposed to be good. That's why I got you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's never happened. That's why I sucked at it.
Speaker 2: And so you just did it for one year. I
Speaker 2: did it for one year.
Speaker 3: I'm not good at this because I'm too loyal to
Speaker 3: my people that I drafted. Yeah, he'sho, I are What
Speaker 3: the hell you play fantasy football. No, no, yeah, yeah, Okay, Hey,
Speaker 3: let's take a break. We can get ahold of rush
Speaker 3: and talk more about college basketball and the state that
Speaker 3: it's in today.
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Speaker 1: Streaming live on the iHeartRadio app. This is I on
Speaker 1: the Ball with Steve Rivera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty eight.
Speaker 3: Hey, welcome back to I on the Ball here on
Speaker 3: Pot Sports fourteen fifty I'm Steve Rivera. Now I to phone.
Speaker 3: We have author and former college basketball coach Russ Bedford.
Speaker 2: Russ haway. Can you hear me? Can you hear me?
Speaker 1: Russ?
Speaker 5: Yes?
Speaker 3: Okay, great, I can hear you. Good to hear you.
Speaker 3: You'll be in Tucson pretty soon. Give us the title
Speaker 3: of your book real quick.
Speaker 7: Well, it's big Time, big Time, and Big Time is
Speaker 7: a satire about sort of the elevated state of college
Speaker 7: sports on American campuses.
Speaker 3: You started writing this how long ago? Because you're exactly
Speaker 3: right in the middle of it now.
Speaker 7: Well, the funny thing is, Steve, I started writing Big
Speaker 7: Time about ten years ago. On the entire time, I thought,
Speaker 7: I've got to get this thing done before they put
Speaker 7: college sports in perspective and start paying the coaches what
Speaker 7: they pay the professors and not coming. But of course,
Speaker 7: now with nil things are completely out of control and
Speaker 7: we'll never get our universities back so, so.
Speaker 3: What gave you the premise to do this, or not premise,
Speaker 3: but the inspiration to do this.
Speaker 7: Well, just I've worked. You know, I was a college
Speaker 7: basketball coach, as you'll remember I was. I was an assistant.
Speaker 2: Was he's on the road obviously, Yes, I can hear you.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think we're getting a weather. I'm driving through
Speaker 7: West Texas, and I think he was giving us a
Speaker 7: win advisory. H I was on the academic side of first,
Speaker 7: I was on the college basketball assistant for Don Haskins
Speaker 7: at UTAP for eight years and then Lou Henson at
Speaker 7: New Mexico State and for six years and things, and
Speaker 7: when I saw the stark difference between them, you know.
Speaker 7: But the book is sort of poking fun and how
Speaker 7: big college sports have gotten. But it's also poking fun
Speaker 7: at the academics who have been so impotent and and
Speaker 7: and they're sort of cooperation and allowing this to happen.
Speaker 7: And so and I do think I've gotten where.
Speaker 2: I think.
Speaker 7: I don't know what your politics are, Steven, I don't
Speaker 7: want to talk about politics, but I've gotten where. I
Speaker 7: think that that you know that that Stephen Colbert may
Speaker 7: be a better news source than the New York Times,
Speaker 7: and and that John Oliver may be a better news
Speaker 7: source than NPR is there's something poking fun of things
Speaker 7: and making fun of things where you're able to get
Speaker 7: in a truth that serious writing is not able to do.
Speaker 2: Sure, sure, of course.
Speaker 3: So did it take you all ten years or did
Speaker 3: you kind of like because you've had some other books.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I worked on and off for a decade, and
Speaker 7: so I didn't work in the entire ten years on it,
Speaker 7: but but for quite a long while. And fiction is
Speaker 7: a different animals, as you know. I've written books about
Speaker 7: non fiction books. My most recent one before this was
Speaker 7: about gun violence in the world of Chicago basketball. And
Speaker 7: that's why I was at the Tucson Festival Books last time.
Speaker 7: I was interviewed by Jim Rosboro, the long time Ludelsen assistant.
Speaker 7: But yeah, I didn't work on the entire time, but
Speaker 7: I kept sort of mulling it over in my mind
Speaker 7: and sort of the absurdity of what's happened on our campuses,
Speaker 7: you know, in every well, for example, if your kid
Speaker 7: goes to the University of Arizona, that I imagine the coach.
Speaker 7: I don't have the numbers in front of me but
Speaker 7: I imagine the basketball coach is making two million dollars
Speaker 7: a year. You're goes to the University of Arizona or
Speaker 7: your son, you know, they're never going to meet the
Speaker 7: basketball coach a University of Arizona, but they're going to
Speaker 7: get taught by by adjuncts and part time h instructors
Speaker 7: their first few years that are completely underpaid and don't
Speaker 7: have health insurance. And so I do think our universities
Speaker 7: have been lost for a long time.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 7: It's different at the smaller colleges.
Speaker 2: It's not.
Speaker 7: That's not true at you know, it's not true at
Speaker 7: Colorado College. It's not it's not true at at you know,
Speaker 7: Point Loma in California and that kind of thing. But
Speaker 7: it's true at the big schools at Arizona State, Arizona
Speaker 7: what used to be the Pac ten. And we just
Speaker 7: have a situation now that it's completely out of control
Speaker 7: and I've just got where I thought the only thing
Speaker 7: to do anymore was to make fun of it. It's
Speaker 7: never going to go back to what it was before.
Speaker 7: But but certainly, and it's not it's not we're only
Speaker 7: just now that academics have taken a back seat. But
Speaker 7: it's uh, but it's but it's that's what's happened. And
Speaker 7: so what I did was, I imagine the university was
Speaker 7: in trouble and they take a billion dollar buyout from
Speaker 7: Coor's Beer, the brewing company, and Cores wants the school
Speaker 7: renamed as Cores State University. So the entire book takes
Speaker 7: place in Core State. But their stipulation is that we'll
Speaker 7: give you the billion dollars you call it Cors State University.
Speaker 7: But all the money has to go to football in basketball.
Speaker 7: And so the professors that don't quit the university or
Speaker 7: get fired, they wind up working, you know, for Course State,
Speaker 7: they have to work for the football or basketball teams.
Speaker 7: And so engineering is enlarging the stadiums, Women's Studies is
Speaker 7: doing the players laundry. The mass department just statistics. The
Speaker 7: Business department does the investments for the players and the coaches.
Speaker 7: But these two old history professors who love the nineteen sixties,
Speaker 7: they decide we're going to do like the nineteen sixties.
Speaker 7: We're going to do campus protests. And you know, campus
Speaker 7: protests of course are big in the news again for
Speaker 7: a different reason. But they're going to do campus protests
Speaker 7: and take their university back from the Brewing Company. But
Speaker 7: of course everything goes wrong and it's far too late.
Speaker 7: But anyway, I do think that sattire, you're able to
Speaker 7: get a sort of a truth through humor that you're
Speaker 7: not able to get at. You know, I think the
Speaker 7: greatest book ever written about the greatest anti war book
Speaker 7: ever written is Catch twenty two, and it's hilarious. And
Speaker 7: I think no one would ever read Catch twenty two
Speaker 7: and say I think I'll join the army or isn't
Speaker 7: war a great thing? And I think in this case,
Speaker 7: I'm not trying to compare myself to Joe Heller or
Speaker 7: Catch twenty two, but that was one of the models,
Speaker 7: is by making fun of the situation, we could sort
Speaker 7: of get it a larger truth.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Hey, hey Russ, this is Blake. Thanks for being on
Speaker 4: the show. Really appreciate it. You brought up something so
Speaker 4: when we're talking about cors University that I think there
Speaker 4: was a they tried to do that with the Colorado
Speaker 4: School of Minds in Golden Colorado. Something similar in School
Speaker 4: of Minds kind of shut that down. But what do
Speaker 4: you see as in it might not be a solution,
Speaker 4: but what do you see changing in the next five
Speaker 4: to ten years with the current nil and the disparity
Speaker 4: between and players and professors.
Speaker 7: Well, I think I think our universities are lost. I
Speaker 7: don't think you know in bike in nineteen thirty six, uh,
Speaker 7: the University of Chicago was in the Big Ten conference.
Speaker 7: If you can imagine University of Chicago in the Big
Speaker 7: Ten and the Heisman Trophy winner. Uh. And by nineteen
Speaker 7: thirty nine the president had decided and it was corrupting
Speaker 7: the mission of the university. But now it's the boosters
Speaker 7: that are running the universities and that they want they
Speaker 7: want winning teams. I think what's likely to happen is
Speaker 7: that I don't know what sense it makes to pay
Speaker 7: that Tommy Lloyd, the Arizona coach. I don't I don't
Speaker 7: see what sents it makes to pem. Sorry, I hope
Speaker 7: he's not listening. I don't see what Senten makes to
Speaker 7: pay him two or three million dollars. I think you
Speaker 7: pay him two hundred and fifty thousand dollars and then
Speaker 7: give the money to the players. By the way, a
Speaker 7: couple of things I want to point out. I'm in
Speaker 7: favor of playing paying the players. I think, you know,
Speaker 7: especially you know, money is going into poor communities. It
Speaker 7: wasn't before. But I think what will happen is it
Speaker 7: could wind up like the NV where you know in
Speaker 7: the old days and the Lakers Shaq and Kobe and
Speaker 7: you know a few of the players are making way
Speaker 7: more than the coach, and the coach might be making
Speaker 7: more than a couple of guys on the end of
Speaker 7: the bench. Because I don't understand the point of no
Speaker 7: one's coming to watch Tommy Lloyd coach the team. They're
Speaker 7: coming to watch great players. And there's there's very good coaches,
Speaker 7: you know, they're there. You know, there's very good coaches
Speaker 7: all through Arizona that could if you gave them five
Speaker 7: million dollars, that could put together a good team. For example.
Speaker 7: I think there's a lot of excitement about how Rick
Speaker 7: Patino has really got Saint John's going. But the article
Speaker 7: today in the New York Times was he's got five
Speaker 7: million dollars that he's paying those kids, you know, And
Speaker 7: I don't think that's any stroke of genius when you've
Speaker 7: got five million dollars to pay the kids. So I
Speaker 7: think what will happen is that the players will keep
Speaker 7: getting paid, and the coaches will go on a reduced salary.
Speaker 7: And also I think if you look behind most college
Speaker 7: basketball benches, look on the bench at u C l A,
Speaker 7: and they've got ten coaches, ten coaches, And I don't know,
Speaker 7: why why not use that money to pay players? Why
Speaker 7: not have you know, in the early days, when you know,
Speaker 7: when when Loudolfsen first came to Arizona, he probably had
Speaker 7: he probably had three assistant coaches and Josh Passner as
Speaker 7: his as his student manager. And I think having ten
Speaker 7: coaches is completely ridiculous. But by the way, I also
Speaker 7: want to say, Blake, I'm part of the problem. So
Speaker 7: when I'm criticizing this, I'm the color analyst on ESPN
Speaker 7: Plus for New Mexico State home games, and now New
Speaker 7: Mexico States are much more in perspective, I think our
Speaker 7: coach is making three hundred seventy thousand a year. It's
Speaker 7: much more reasonable than than paying him three point seventy
Speaker 7: million like at a lot of schools, like at Arizona
Speaker 7: State football coach.
Speaker 2: And that kind of thing.
Speaker 7: But I'm the television announcers. I'm I still love college basketball,
Speaker 7: and I'm like the alcoholic who's walking by the bar,
Speaker 7: saying said Blake, and Steven said, think I'll just go
Speaker 7: in and have one. I'll just go I'll just go
Speaker 7: and have one. I'm going to have one or two
Speaker 7: with Lake and Sy and so I And I think
Speaker 7: that's part of the the That's why I think it'll
Speaker 7: all continue. Is it at seven o'clock they throw up
Speaker 7: that ball and it's Arizona against you, It's Arizona against
Speaker 7: Arizona State, or Arizona against UCLA or whoever's in their
Speaker 7: league Visa, and it's still a great game. Once once
Speaker 7: he starts, you know, it's like it's like the diamond
Speaker 7: ring on your wife's finger, Blake, is it? You know,
Speaker 7: it's really you know, there's a lot of there's a
Speaker 7: lot of blood and child labor and damaged environment behind
Speaker 7: that diamond ring, but she's still a beautiful diamond ring.
Speaker 7: And if you I think it's the same with college basketballs.
Speaker 7: Once the game starts, starts, I'm as excited as anybody
Speaker 7: for the game, and it's still a great game.
Speaker 3: Ross, brother Ross, So let me tell you you you
Speaker 3: you you gave Tommy Lloyd a three million dollar discount
Speaker 3: because he makes five.
Speaker 2: I didn't know, so that's that.
Speaker 3: But do you are aren't you glad? Or are you
Speaker 3: glad that you no longer coach?
Speaker 7: Well, I mean I never made that kind of money
Speaker 7: I think I made. I was making seventy thousand. I
Speaker 7: think are seventy one thousand when I quit to become
Speaker 7: a writer. And it took twenty years to get my
Speaker 7: salary as a professor up to what I'd made as
Speaker 7: the associate head coach for lou Henson. In some way,
Speaker 7: in many ways, I am. I mean, I think my
Speaker 7: strength as an assistant coach was I was a good
Speaker 7: If I can pat myself on the back of anything,
Speaker 7: I discovered Tim hardaway, and I was a good I
Speaker 7: was a good evaluator of talent. And I think that
Speaker 7: skill of evaluating talent is still going to be important,
Speaker 7: because you know, if if Northern Arizona can get this
Speaker 7: guy for forty thousand dollars and he's good enough to
Speaker 7: play for Arizona and they've done a good job of
Speaker 7: evaluating and then they'll get him. The problem now is
Speaker 7: he'll you know, he'll dump it Northern Arizona as soon
Speaker 7: as he's good enough. And the switching around of teams
Speaker 7: is I think as much as anything as it's discouraging
Speaker 7: to me because I don't think it's one thing to
Speaker 7: pay the kids to have them switch schools every year.
Speaker 7: They're not learning anything at all. And and I think
Speaker 7: what sports is supposed to teach you. First supposed to
Speaker 7: teach you how to fail, what do we do when
Speaker 7: things go wrong? But it's supposed to teach you how
Speaker 7: to sustain effort and sustain attention, and to be loyal
Speaker 7: to your teammates and to develop camaraderie with your teammates.
Speaker 7: There's some great things that sports does, but college basketball
Speaker 7: has ruined it. And I also want to say, Blake,
Speaker 7: it's not the kids that have made the rules. It's
Speaker 7: easy to say, aren't the kids all screwed up today
Speaker 7: and that kind of thing, But it's the grown ups
Speaker 7: that made the rules. We've handed it. It's like putting,
Speaker 7: you know, putting chocolate in front of your seven year
Speaker 7: old daughter and saying, now, don't eat this. And I
Speaker 7: think that's what we've done to the kids, is that, Yeah,
Speaker 7: the kids. I think the kids are sort of messed
Speaker 7: up today because this is the world that we've presented
Speaker 7: them with. It's not it's not that they didn't invent
Speaker 7: this world.
Speaker 6: He's governed his.
Speaker 7: Tommy Lloyd makes five million a years.
Speaker 3: That's what you got out of that. Yeah, right, no question,
Speaker 3: I didn't know. I didn't know, right, right, So give
Speaker 3: us an update real quick. You're coming in now over
Speaker 3: the weekend. Will where will you be Saturday? And will
Speaker 3: you be here Sunday?
Speaker 7: Well, I'm here Saturday and Sunday. I don't have the
Speaker 7: schedule in front of me, but let me I'm still
Speaker 7: I can do it from memory. On Saturday, it's a
Speaker 7: two pm it's at the Integrated Learning Center whatever that means.
Speaker 7: Two pm at the Integrated Learning Center. And I'm with
Speaker 7: a couple other writers Lewis Moore wrote the book about
Speaker 7: Doug Williams and Keith O'Brien. Keith O'Brien who wrote a
Speaker 7: book that I can't remember. So that's Saturday at too,
Speaker 7: And it's a it's a panel like that's what I
Speaker 7: did with Jim Rosborough last time. A different different writers
Speaker 7: were with me. But it's a panel about about the
Speaker 7: place of college sports and out writing about sports. Because
Speaker 7: you know, in my book in Big Time, in this satire,
Speaker 7: there's only there's two pages of actual sports in the book,
Speaker 7: and the rest of it is the wacky craziness of it.
Speaker 7: And for me it was always the stories that are
Speaker 7: more interesting than the actual games themselves. Like I'm not
Speaker 7: that interested in I'm not that interested in I'm not
Speaker 7: that interested in the games, But I'm interested in OG's.
Speaker 7: You know that this guy's mother died of cancer and
Speaker 7: he played that very same even that's much more interesting,
Speaker 7: you know, after working for Lou Henson and Don Haskins
Speaker 7: for all that time, I don't know if I could
Speaker 7: drop a single play of Lou Henson's, but I've got
Speaker 7: some good stories about them anyway. So that's Saturday at too,
Speaker 7: and then Sunday in the same room, it's at ten am.
Speaker 7: And and that's with Jack McCallum, the Great. I mean,
Speaker 7: you know, I hate, I hate. I think the word
Speaker 7: of legendary gets thrown around too much. But he had
Speaker 7: a long time sportsvilly. He's sports illustrated, I think for
Speaker 7: forty years. Jack McCallum and a man named uh.
Speaker 2: Head Doll.
Speaker 7: But I can't think of his first name, be righteous,
Speaker 7: Why I should I'm kicking myself.
Speaker 3: Yes, In fact, we have his brother lives here and
Speaker 3: he's I guess from Jersey and he's coming in. So
Speaker 3: we had a we had an author, Yester, you talk
Speaker 3: about stuff like that. So yeah, that's interesting. So I've
Speaker 3: got to go Sunday Sunday at ten.
Speaker 7: Right, Sunday at ten, you skip church, like or Steve whoever, I.
Speaker 5: Can't tell he's talking about you. You're good. Yeah, but.
Speaker 7: You guys skip church and come and come, come and see. Yes,
Speaker 7: it'll be Jack McCallum, and sure it's your haggall who
Speaker 7: I guess maybe the premier writer of women about women's that,
Speaker 7: one of the premier writers of women's basketball. So I've read.
Speaker 7: I've read one of his books, and i've read you
Speaker 7: actually read. I've finished Jack McCallum's novel called foul Lines,
Speaker 7: which is it's sort of I wish I had read
Speaker 7: it before I wrote Big Time because foul Lines is
Speaker 7: very funny. It's about a pro basketball team and the
Speaker 7: sort of the wacky stuff in pro basketball. Anyway, the
Speaker 7: Tucson Book Festival, if you still believe in books like
Speaker 7: I do, and you're still in prison in stories, the
Speaker 7: Tucson Festival Books is a great one, great great well.
Speaker 2: I haven't seen you since the last time you were here.
Speaker 3: We had you on the show maybe three four years
Speaker 3: ago with roz so Russ.
Speaker 2: We'll see you this weekend. Thanks for being part of.
Speaker 7: Us perfect no Cats, bear down or whatever you guys do.
Speaker 2: You nailed it. You know you got it.
Speaker 7: Thanks, roll right go silver boats of course State thankfully.
Speaker 3: Out there Texas that went out there this seven years crazy. Okay, No,
Speaker 3: thanks for joining us, Yes, thank you. Uh interesting stuff.
Speaker 3: Let me ask you this and just think about this.
Speaker 3: Oh no, oh no, oh college sports. You played college sports.
Speaker 3: What is the reason why you play? I mean you
Speaker 3: want to play, But don't answer this because he talked
Speaker 3: about you learn to lose ya YadA, you know, play teammates. Plus,
Speaker 3: I'll ask you on the other side, if you're an
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Speaker 3: nearly forty years.
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Speaker 3: beloved coach. Lessons from Lut is an insight to how
Speaker 3: he built the program into a national powerhouse. Want one,
Speaker 3: email me at Steve dot RIVERA ninety five at gmail dot.
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Speaker 1: Steve Ravera, he's got his eye on the ball on
Speaker 1: Tucson's sports station yet Fox Sports fourteenth fIF day.
Speaker 3: Hey, welcome back to il the ball here on Fox
Speaker 3: Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera and with me it
Speaker 3: is Blake Eager. And that's a fun quick call.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: He talked really driving through a tornado and West Texans
Speaker 4: trying to get through this conversation as fast as he could.
Speaker 3: Russ Bradberg, Brad Bird, He's going to have a book
Speaker 3: out there, big, big time. Yeah. So if you're interested enough,
Speaker 3: it's an interesting book. It's all fictional, but I'm sure
Speaker 3: there's a lot of truth.
Speaker 4: I mean, that's what he was trying to say, right,
Speaker 4: So there's truth and just yeah.
Speaker 3: Oh so I was talking about teamwork and and and
Speaker 3: learning stuff. So what when you what did what did
Speaker 3: you learn playing college ball?
Speaker 5: Are you talking experience or on the field?
Speaker 8: Uh?
Speaker 5: Both.
Speaker 4: I think it gave you. Like I mean, we had
Speaker 4: to learn how to balance your time, keep a schedule.
Speaker 4: You had to deal with failure. At the same point,
Speaker 4: you had to learn how to deal with different people
Speaker 4: in a working environment.
Speaker 2: Right, A lot like life. It taught you.
Speaker 4: How to deal with life. It prepared you for life
Speaker 4: before you got into life.
Speaker 3: Do you think you learned more that way than you
Speaker 3: did in class, because you don't. You learn what you
Speaker 3: learn in class, right, Yeah, but you get it's like algebra. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I don't know if I've ever used algaebra since I
Speaker 3: used Elaiebroth twenty thousand years ago.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I'm just not that smart, so I probably could have.
Speaker 4: I just don't know how to do it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, denominator, denominator. If you go into frash, I'm lost.
Speaker 2: I'll leave right now. But you know my point.
Speaker 3: He talked about defeat and also I think one of
Speaker 3: the biggest things you learned how to.
Speaker 5: Be a teammate.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we were ha this conversation earlier. I think in
Speaker 4: today's society, and I don't want to be the you know,
Speaker 4: speaking from an older point of view and trying to
Speaker 4: sound wise, I think the coddling aspect of today's youth
Speaker 4: athletes from a parent standpoint, is far greater. We call
Speaker 4: them helicopter I was just going to say, it's far
Speaker 4: greater than we ever knew growing up. Right, it was
Speaker 4: pretty much like, Hey, I'm going to see you later.
Speaker 4: I'll see you tonight at you know, eight pm or
Speaker 4: whenever the lights are go down, right, and we're playing
Speaker 4: tackle football and asphalt. But that's you get into you
Speaker 4: get into collegiate sports, You're you want to fail to
Speaker 4: some degree because you want to learn from it, right,
Speaker 4: So you want to get punched in the face to
Speaker 4: understand the way it motivates you too.
Speaker 2: It motivates you.
Speaker 4: I think in today's society, we're so scared of letting
Speaker 4: our children fail, and there's creating a safety net that
Speaker 4: we just never It's going to be interesting to see
Speaker 4: what the next twenty years looks like.
Speaker 3: Well, you're you're much younger than me, and it's funny
Speaker 3: that you say this because you're part of that coddle generation,
Speaker 3: maybe just not close to that. But you My son
Speaker 3: my oldest than me, thirty, and I know, I know
Speaker 3: I didn't do this with him, uh and my both
Speaker 3: of my sons. But I saw parents that did with
Speaker 3: their kids. And you say you can't be there when
Speaker 3: they fall. You just can't all the time. And in fact,
Speaker 3: they like to fall, they like to get scarred up
Speaker 3: or you know, it's maybe not like but they know
Speaker 3: how to Yeah.
Speaker 4: I know they know how to survive that. Kids are resilient, right,
Speaker 4: They're going to figure it out if you know them,
Speaker 4: especially mom, don't do that. Yeah, get away from especially
Speaker 4: with my friends are around. Yeah, I have, I have,
Speaker 4: I have a boogirl, I don't get don't wipe it, mom,
Speaker 4: don't you know that. Don't don't da let me alone.
Speaker 4: And by the way, I love you, but stay over there.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I just I think you're learning these lessons as we go.
Speaker 4: So you're seeing guys that fail at certain spots, and
Speaker 4: the NIL just emphasize that a little bit more where
Speaker 4: they're not willing to come back and put the time
Speaker 4: into that program. They want to know that they're going
Speaker 4: to have guaranteed playing time.
Speaker 2: So let me ask you something. I've said this in something.
Speaker 3: I used to be a halfway decent athlete, and I've
Speaker 3: said this for a thousand times. The only way I
Speaker 3: got better just get him my ass kicked. Oh yeah,
Speaker 3: because one it motivated me, and it made me want
Speaker 3: to play better. You know, I played you know, whatever sport.
Speaker 3: But you know what I'm saying, If I win every game,
Speaker 3: what the hell fun is that?
Speaker 2: But I'm sure like you, I mean, you lost.
Speaker 3: He said, Okay, you gotta do this differently next time, YadA, YadA,
Speaker 3: and he made you a better ball player.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I you know, I always had an
Speaker 4: few mentality so I wanted you to give me the
Speaker 4: ball and get out of the way and I'll figure
Speaker 4: it out from there. But I mean I went through
Speaker 4: you know, I didn't get recruited out of high school.
Speaker 4: I had to walk on eightiestern Arizona, so we had
Speaker 4: to prove it. I was the last person. I literally
Speaker 4: made the team because somebody got arrested like two days
Speaker 4: before you said this, right, So, so I knew that
Speaker 4: my window I had to do whatever I possibly could
Speaker 4: to keep my window open. So when I got drafted
Speaker 4: a night and I showed up to Port Saint Lucie
Speaker 4: and they were like, we don't even know where you're going.
Speaker 4: I was like, that's fine, I'm here, That's all that matters. Yeah,
Speaker 4: and I'm supposed to be that. I'm supposed to be here, right,
Speaker 4: And that's what you need to do. You need to
Speaker 4: act that part because you had to believe that part right.
Speaker 3: No, no, because if you don't, you dell eat in
Speaker 3: live one and they'll notice that.
Speaker 5: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, there's signs of weakness, there's blood in
Speaker 5: the water. Whatever you want to do.
Speaker 2: Was there a point were you with me? Were you
Speaker 2: the guy know? Uh, somebody else?
Speaker 8: Oh?
Speaker 3: I was with one of my other buddies who's probably
Speaker 3: listening right now. Where you get somewhere and you played
Speaker 3: college ball and you went to another college that you said, Oh,
Speaker 3: these guys are different, these dudes are different.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: When I when I got to double all time, it's
Speaker 2: not coming up. You're on there and the wall.
Speaker 6: How you doing it's Jim, Jim?
Speaker 2: How are you doing pretty good? How are you? We're fine?
Speaker 2: Thank you? Long time, no talk yeah.
Speaker 6: You know, along the lines of what you guys are
Speaker 6: talking about now, it's uh there. It's a process to
Speaker 6: learn how to fail. And even at the little league level,
Speaker 6: where I coached for several years, you know, I would
Speaker 6: end up in a discussion with moms usually, you know,
Speaker 6: they're a little more closely guarded guarding their their kids,
Speaker 6: and I would just tell them, you know, you hate
Speaker 6: to see your kids fall down. You hate to see it,
Speaker 6: but you love to see them get back up. And
Speaker 6: that's what it's about, is teaching them how to fail
Speaker 6: and then come back from that and succeed.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: You remember that time I fell down and it was okay,
Speaker 3: and you say, yeah, yeah, now went champion.
Speaker 5: Absolutely.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Well I'm using that as a metaphor. I mean, you know,
Speaker 6: you get your butt chewed out on the field once
Speaker 6: in a career, maybe for doing something that just totally
Speaker 6: violates everything he learned or been taught, and once in
Speaker 6: a while you have to put up with a little
Speaker 6: heat to get there.
Speaker 3: Right, right, Okay, anything else, Jim.
Speaker 6: No, I don't have much today. Just called because you
Speaker 6: told me.
Speaker 3: To, because you try to you know, you said you
Speaker 3: were trying to get in but you didn't know because
Speaker 3: you wanted to know who the last guy was.
Speaker 2: I wanted to know who the writer was.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, yeah, sorry. I didn't mention his name enough,
Speaker 3: probably when he was talking, because I didn't.
Speaker 2: He talk so much.
Speaker 6: I told Jay that it would be great if you
Speaker 6: guys would mention the whole the guest's name right at
Speaker 6: the end of the interview, because you know a lot
Speaker 6: of people are driving around in cars and you don't
Speaker 6: get to hear all.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm a rookie at testing. I'm a rookie.
Speaker 5: My bad.
Speaker 3: See that's constructive criticism and learned from it. I'll forget
Speaker 3: about it tomorrow. So thanks Jim. Thanks good to hear
Speaker 3: from you.
Speaker 5: Please, thanks, bye bye, Jim.
Speaker 3: Uh So he's accurate, right, Uh, you have a story
Speaker 3: that motivated you, like I'm sure you do, like some
Speaker 3: I remember, like you were asking me, when did I notice, right, like,
Speaker 3: the people I played with were a little bit different.
Speaker 4: So, I mean it was probably when I got to
Speaker 4: double a my first start. The game was so slow
Speaker 4: comparatively what it was because guys were just so much
Speaker 4: more season they knew what they were doing. But are Honestly,
Speaker 4: the first time I saw hunterd Pens take batting practice,
Speaker 4: was like, this is a different role.
Speaker 5: This guy's in a different world.
Speaker 2: Do I belong here? What did you think?
Speaker 4: I was fine with it, Like I remember throwing him
Speaker 4: with curveball at that point, which was unhittable, I thought,
Speaker 4: and he took it to the warning track and I
Speaker 4: was like, Okay, yeah, I'm gonna have to face these
Speaker 4: guys quite a bit, so we'll see what happens. But
Speaker 4: you know, it's it's crazy and to speak to Jim's
Speaker 4: point a little bit and the little league mentality and
Speaker 4: we'll call it little league for you U sports. I
Speaker 4: think parents are finding a way to create a fail
Speaker 4: safe for their kids by blaming either the coach, referees
Speaker 4: or the umpires. And we talked about it. It's hard
Speaker 4: to take critical, you know, criticism, but it's hard to
Speaker 4: look at ourselves and say maybe it was our fault.
Speaker 2: So right that happens to be Blake Eager, my co
Speaker 2: host today.
Speaker 5: That I learned any bad letters you want to write
Speaker 5: make him out to Steve.
Speaker 2: No No, but you're right.
Speaker 3: I mean I've had a number of coaches in here
Speaker 3: and say the same thing, and everyone hasn't answer right,
Speaker 3: But that's let them fail.
Speaker 2: They'll come back. Don't worry. They're there. What'd you say?
Speaker 5: They're brilliant, resilient.
Speaker 2: They are.
Speaker 3: It's like kids when they go through divorce. Kids are
Speaker 3: smarter than you know. We're not going to stay together
Speaker 3: because the kids are saying, mom, dad, just get divorce.
Speaker 2: We alred.
Speaker 4: You know, you can just hit each other. Yeah, and
Speaker 4: it makes for not a great home environment when you
Speaker 4: try to make that.
Speaker 2: When when you fake it, yeah right.
Speaker 4: I mean I grew up with a buddy that his
Speaker 4: parents were essentially roommates for his whole life. While he's
Speaker 4: living there, and he's like, my dad's dating somebody. My
Speaker 4: mom's saying, but they think that.
Speaker 5: We don't know.
Speaker 4: It's like, just get different houses at this point, like
Speaker 4: it's creating a weirder environment by staying together.
Speaker 2: Well, I won't name names on there.
Speaker 5: Yeah, please do it.
Speaker 2: I need my job. Yeah, I know.
Speaker 3: Of course, we have about four or five minutes if
Speaker 3: you want to call five, two zero, four, one, six,
Speaker 3: seventy four or forty. We're kind of waxing poetic on life.
Speaker 3: I'm solving the world's problems.
Speaker 4: I mean, see, let me ask you a question. So
Speaker 4: you've been in this You've been in this position for
Speaker 4: so long. You've seen transitional phases through sports, through parents,
Speaker 4: through life. Like what at the end of the day,
Speaker 4: where we stand right now, how confident do you feel
Speaker 4: in youth sports and creating quality young adults in the
Speaker 4: next twenty years.
Speaker 2: Well, that's a good question.
Speaker 3: I don't follow the youth sports like I used to,
Speaker 3: but let me tell you, I get this question a lot.
Speaker 3: I had the training Fries, the Luke Waltons, There's been
Speaker 3: a number of them, totally totally and they say, Steve,
Speaker 3: what's the difference between the guy that's petulant and the
Speaker 3: pain of the ask when you cover them? You know,
Speaker 3: they know it all blah blah blah. And the good
Speaker 3: dudes who give you time don't speak I little bit, buddy.
Speaker 3: Their parents. Yeah, but they have good parents. They've raised
Speaker 3: them well to be respectful and to you know, talk
Speaker 3: to you like a human being. You're not below them,
Speaker 3: you parents, You're already you right away if you have
Speaker 3: good parents. And that's in life too. Good students, Yeah, I.
Speaker 4: Mean you can also you can also kind of point
Speaker 4: out the Eddie Haskells of the road world too, where
Speaker 4: You're like, this isn't the real view, right right?
Speaker 3: Yeah, but here here's the funny thing. They think that
Speaker 3: that's the real view. Yeah, hey, hey, I bought you
Speaker 3: so I bought you a drink today. You know, I
Speaker 3: hope you do a good job. Just do your job.
Speaker 3: Just do your job, show up, do your job. And
Speaker 3: that's always it's not brain surgery, Belichick. That's why I
Speaker 3: get to do this. It's not brain If it was
Speaker 3: brain surgery, I wouldn't be able to do this. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's pretty simple. You could try.
Speaker 2: Do you want to be the.
Speaker 4: Pat I don't want a love botomy at this point
Speaker 4: in my life. So yeah, I just thought it's it's
Speaker 4: interesting to know and and kind of take a step
Speaker 4: back and look at you know. I always we're scared
Speaker 4: of what's going to happen in the future and how
Speaker 4: things are going. But I think everybody in the last
Speaker 4: you know, one hundred years have probably said that same
Speaker 4: thing about the other generation coming up, and that same
Speaker 4: thing about the other generation coming up. But I do
Speaker 4: think it's going to be a little bit different for
Speaker 4: this when our when our youth care up at this
Speaker 4: point to see how kind of everybody works out.
Speaker 2: We got about a couple of minutes.
Speaker 3: So did you in your in your exploits as an athlete,
Speaker 3: did you see athletes that when they failed, they didn't recover?
Speaker 4: Yeah, at different levels. I mean collegiate athletes who have
Speaker 4: always been told I mean, you know, here's two great
Speaker 4: UH analogies, right, so UH coach Andy Lopez would always
Speaker 4: say this, he wants he wants a couple of ones,
Speaker 4: which are you know? And then all three is no
Speaker 4: number twos. So when you see number twos at the
Speaker 4: collegiate level fail, they don't know how to recover. They're
Speaker 4: done because there I think the truth is coming out, right,
Speaker 4: You're not a number one. You've been found. You've been found,
Speaker 4: and now you're just realizing yourself. So psychologically that's really
Speaker 4: difficult to process. Good enough from the pro level, it
Speaker 4: was more from an injury standpoint, like once you get
Speaker 4: injured multiple times, your your psyche completely changes.
Speaker 6: Right.
Speaker 2: The confidence is what you because.
Speaker 4: You you know you're not going to be healthy, so
Speaker 4: you've got to fight through that, fight through that. That's
Speaker 4: really the like the confidence level. When you fail at
Speaker 4: the pro level, you grow as an adult, you mature,
Speaker 4: you start to understand it, but the failure when it's
Speaker 4: attached to an injury is a lot more difficult.
Speaker 3: Sure, and it's tough to reinvent yourself too. I think
Speaker 3: failure you can kind of find a way to, you know,
Speaker 3: if you're a speedball guy, you can, you know, try
Speaker 3: to find enough speed or a knuckleball, you know, you
Speaker 3: find something else didn't to Who's the one that passed
Speaker 3: away just reaching the knuckleball guy for Boston.
Speaker 5: Tim Whitefield.
Speaker 3: Tim, he was that dude right then he changed he
Speaker 3: hadn't changed his survival survival so he started throwing the knuckleball.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: How sad is that though? And his wife passed away
Speaker 4: just months after. Yeah, sorry to be depressing, but that's.
Speaker 2: A lot of love there, right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, But you know what I'm saying, you have to
Speaker 3: find yourself again because if you're good at that level,
Speaker 3: you're you're you're you have this chip on your shoulder
Speaker 3: and you're your poop doesn't stink, and you can find
Speaker 3: ways to be good.
Speaker 4: When you're at that level. You're meant to be at
Speaker 4: that level. Right, So but you're right, you're if let's
Speaker 4: say you're you know, Vince Carter who still can jump
Speaker 4: out of the roof. Right, But you you've been known
Speaker 4: for or for that, and you get to thirty six
Speaker 4: years old and you can't jump like that anymore, how
Speaker 4: are you going to recreit yourself?
Speaker 5: Sure?
Speaker 4: If Paul Pierce already you know, like Paul Pierce is
Speaker 4: the world, you play like a seventy five year old
Speaker 4: man anyway on the court, so you never have to
Speaker 4: change your game because it's already there.
Speaker 3: It's like it's like Luca, oh, yeah, same thing. We
Speaker 3: got to go okay by