Speaker 1: This his Eye on the Ball with Steve Ravera on
Speaker 1: Fox Sports fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services.
Speaker 2: Showing everybody Welcome to Eye on the Ball here on
Speaker 2: Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. Look who's here?
Speaker 2: I had to find him through the streets somewhere, Blake Eager.
Speaker 2: Good to see you. Good singing too.
Speaker 3: It does make me it sounds weird that you had
Speaker 3: to find me in the streets somewhere.
Speaker 2: Well, okay, it sounds weird, but okay, sorry, sorry.
Speaker 3: Can we talk about something really quick though? Well, so,
Speaker 3: driving over here, do you think Tucson has, per capita,
Speaker 3: the most car washes and smoke shows in the country?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, without question, without ques wild to me though,
Speaker 2: I go to one every day. How is it sustainable?
Speaker 2: Who know? It was like the beds the bedplace, didn't
Speaker 2: you used to have? Yeah, where you get mattresses on
Speaker 2: every single corner. But I think that was more of
Speaker 2: a laundering stands situation because they're not as many.
Speaker 3: Right, who's buying who's buying that many beds? I mean,
Speaker 3: let's be odd, when's the last time you bought a
Speaker 3: new bed? Oh god, I'm a dude, I would ask
Speaker 3: the kids in the room, but I'm sure it's probably
Speaker 3: two months ago.
Speaker 2: Really you did, or your mommy and daddy. They don't
Speaker 2: sleep in the same bed, Dave. So sure I was
Speaker 2: just told Tom flip it over right, Like I never
Speaker 2: I don't.
Speaker 3: I think I had a couch my junior at college exactly.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I think we've bought one bed in the
Speaker 3: last Why the observations, I know, I just it struck
Speaker 3: me as like there's a couple of different reasons, right,
Speaker 3: Like I'm going through this point in a career where
Speaker 3: I'm trying to open up doors to new businesses and
Speaker 3: give people the right people at the table so we
Speaker 3: can create jobs and retain talent. Like want here where
Speaker 3: we don't become an export city where we just continually
Speaker 3: allow our talent and companies to leave. We want to
Speaker 3: maintain those to a degree and keep our keep ourselves
Speaker 3: worth as a city, right because we don't want to
Speaker 3: become somebody that we're not. We want to maintain too
Speaker 3: some we want quality jobs for the people here, sure, yeah, keep.
Speaker 2: Them from going astray somewhere else.
Speaker 3: Sorry, I thought it'd be fun talking say. I counted
Speaker 3: fifteen car washes and thirty five on.
Speaker 2: Your way here. I thought you were gonna say that's
Speaker 2: you're gonna say old people driving around older adults. Oh, hell,
Speaker 2: I fit that category. What are you talking about? Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm offending myself. I do that. I do that a lot.
Speaker 3: I'm trying to finish sitting at text, said, I just I.
Speaker 2: Can't, so I put my phone. Okay, hey, and we
Speaker 2: got Ray here working the system here, you know, we're
Speaker 2: at the system. Bray, Yeah, okay, we got Juan here.
Speaker 2: Of course, today's Wednesday, right, Today's Wednesday about for twenty
Speaker 2: seven hours. We'll see duke in Arizona. By the way,
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna have a show tomorrow because well, no
Speaker 2: one wants to come in. They want to watch the
Speaker 2: game and get ready for the game. You probably couldn't
Speaker 2: come in tomorrow anyway, right, No, it's something day for baseball,
Speaker 2: Oh is it?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 3: Yeah, you spend I spend the day with my dad.
Speaker 3: I've been doing that since I was twelve years old.
Speaker 2: Oh oh with opening Day. No, good for you, Good
Speaker 2: for you. That's a good story. That's a good story.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah cool h. So we're no no show tomorrow.
Speaker 2: We're not gonna preview the game. We'll do it today.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna have Matt muileblock here in about ten fifteen minutes.
Speaker 2: I want He was on last week and I wanted
Speaker 2: to talk to him really about the mystique of Duke.
Speaker 2: There's some mistake about Arizona two because and and everyone
Speaker 2: here says there's a rivalry. I'm sure Duke give a crap.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I'll ask, Yeah, I know. I think
Speaker 2: it's a good question. So he and I have talked
Speaker 2: about it before, so I wanted to bring him talk
Speaker 2: about that, and obviously tomorrow's game, and then at the
Speaker 2: four seventeen hour, we're gonna talk to Brian Peabody about
Speaker 2: his great run. Unbelievable and men the men and women's
Speaker 2: team fantastic. Yeah, second and third place. Nothing to sneeze at, right,
Speaker 2: not at all. Nothing to sneeze that. So we'll talk
Speaker 2: to him about hoops and all that. We talked to
Speaker 2: Ben Hallan yesterday. I guess he and Biden are pretty close,
Speaker 2: so he mentioned those guys yesterday. So here we go,
Speaker 2: big game, right, you're watching the game one, We're all
Speaker 2: watching the game. Yeah, the.
Speaker 5: Blue moon type of moment for me, I get to
Speaker 5: watch as a fan. I don't have to cover it.
Speaker 5: I don't have to do anything. Brian's not doing that either,
Speaker 5: is he? Is he covering Bran? I guess I'm sure
Speaker 5: he will over on X and across certain platforms, but
Speaker 5: I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't.
Speaker 5: Are you gonna cheer? Oh yeah, no, no, it's gonna be.
Speaker 5: I've gotten stuck into a superstition. I've won the same outfit,
Speaker 5: I mean, the same food for the first two games,
Speaker 5: for two.
Speaker 2: Games of the tournament.
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, I'm not gonna say what it is like
Speaker 3: as a former former ballplayer, like I ate superstit Like, oh,
Speaker 3: you can't even say what you do.
Speaker 2: I won't tell.
Speaker 3: We were watching the game with a group of people
Speaker 3: on Friday night and Sarah Horvath, the director of PEMA County,
Speaker 3: was like, what are your superstitions? And my wife I
Speaker 3: was like, you don't say those things, like there's superstitions
Speaker 3: for a reason, like I would if I put my
Speaker 3: socks on wrong, I would go back and reshower and start.
Speaker 2: The whole process. And how does that work for you?
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm not playing big league baseball anymore, so
Speaker 3: I mean it worked for a little while.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, But you know there's a point. It's like
Speaker 2: people who do the show do these types of shows,
Speaker 2: and oh, I'm gonna make predictions. They make predictions and
Speaker 2: they hit thirty percent. What's the point of listening to
Speaker 2: people who make predictions? They hit thirty percent? So how
Speaker 2: many times did your little superstition thing work? I did
Speaker 2: pretty well?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, and it was I think it created
Speaker 3: a routine in a sense where I mean it was
Speaker 3: a little just more comfortable, like tomorrow, like want saying
Speaker 3: like I'm gonna be at my parents house. I'm gonna
Speaker 3: be at my parents' house to watch opening the baseball
Speaker 3: Right now, the question is I think we're owing three
Speaker 3: this season. My wife and I watching you ay play
Speaker 3: away games at their house. And so now the question
Speaker 3: is do we stare there ye or do we go
Speaker 3: back home where we're like ninety percent?
Speaker 2: Well, you've already discussed what your superstition is. Now that's
Speaker 2: not a superstition, that's just an honest question. I'm asking
Speaker 2: you guys. Well, you that's a routine you have. It's
Speaker 2: a routine you can So you can talk about routines,
Speaker 2: but not about superstient, not what the superstitions are.
Speaker 3: You can say, you're like he's saying he's wearing the
Speaker 3: same thing and he's eating the same food.
Speaker 2: He can't tell you what the food is. Yeah.
Speaker 5: Oh, there's a limit to where you go with gets.
Speaker 5: You can't say talk about details. Yeah, it's like game planning.
Speaker 5: How do you not know this? You can talk about
Speaker 5: you can talk about the general stuff that goes into
Speaker 5: the game plan, right, but when it comes down to
Speaker 5: that final detail, help.
Speaker 2: Me help me out righty are you one of them?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, oh yeah, every sport, every sport.
Speaker 3: Watch now you're at twenty five percent right now, So
Speaker 3: who's gonna listen to you? Because you by your by
Speaker 3: your logic? Right yeah, but that's not about stupid stuff.
Speaker 3: Well it's not stupid you here. Don't think I'm saying,
Speaker 3: is hey, welcome tell you the ball. I am the host.
Speaker 3: That was essentially you're telling us to stay in our lane,
Speaker 3: wasn't it all I'm going to say all I'm going
Speaker 3: to say the superstition?
Speaker 2: Has it one hundred since the tournament started?
Speaker 4: To it?
Speaker 6: Also?
Speaker 2: I would want to change that? No? Yeah, good no,
Speaker 2: don't tell me. Good luck with you and I thought
Speaker 2: you were wearing the same stuff since you were a
Speaker 2: little kid. Now do you tournament this tournament? Just this tournament?
Speaker 2: You pretty wait, since you were ten a little more.
Speaker 2: But now, okay, so we'll take some calls up here
Speaker 2: today five two, four, one, six, seventy four forty big game.
Speaker 2: We'll see what happens. Nine and a half point, dog,
Speaker 2: I think still yeah, yeah, I believe so. And that's
Speaker 2: the same one, uh again from so the number one
Speaker 2: question that I've been getting last two days, what would
Speaker 2: you do? I would take the points. I'm not gonna
Speaker 2: say they're gonna win, but I take the points.
Speaker 3: I would do the same. Yep, yeah, I mean nine
Speaker 3: and a half. That's a it's a lot of points.
Speaker 3: They got beat here by fourteen. They didn't play very well. No,
Speaker 3: it's definitely not the same team. Yeah, we didn't have
Speaker 3: our identity there. That was I think we're completely different.
Speaker 2: No, No, I know, and and and you know this,
Speaker 2: and one knows this because you guys grew up watching them.
Speaker 2: And I'm gonna write this tonight. Every time you tell
Speaker 2: them you can't, they do or come close to doing.
Speaker 2: And you're you're a ballplayer. I mean you're not good
Speaker 2: enough to beat the Mets, or you know you're not
Speaker 2: good enough to and then some magic happens. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I would try not to beat the Mets because they
Speaker 3: were my there who paid my bills. But other teams
Speaker 3: you're as lawyer. I mean, it was the same mentality
Speaker 3: growing up. It was an a few mentality. I can
Speaker 3: say a few, right, I just can't see I don't
Speaker 3: need just can't say the real can I say the
Speaker 3: real stuff? No, you kind of I want my Steve
Speaker 3: n I am former host. I've taken this thing down.
Speaker 2: There's there's more psychology to these things, right, Yeah, you
Speaker 2: find something to say that you know, Blake, you can't
Speaker 2: do this, and you find a way they can.
Speaker 3: Yeah, listen, I mean if you guys watched Duke play yep,
Speaker 3: I mean yeah, right now, looking at every team in
Speaker 3: the term and they're probably the best term team in
Speaker 3: the do you think so?
Speaker 2: I mean do you think so? I think so? See.
Speaker 2: I I like Florida from the get go, and I
Speaker 2: think that would helped them. Just recently, is they got
Speaker 2: it scare? Yeah, it's always good. Good to get that
Speaker 2: scare out, not that it's going to prevent you from
Speaker 2: getting it again. But at least you know that you
Speaker 2: got to bring it.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I maybe it's just my internal hatred towards Florida that
Speaker 3: doesn't allow me to see that. But you're you're absolate.
Speaker 3: They're a great team and Houston. I really like Houston.
Speaker 3: Houston finds a way to win no matter what.
Speaker 2: Houston is different than any other team out there because
Speaker 2: it could, it could streep all you, it could beat
Speaker 2: you up and make every point count. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: and that's just their way of playing basketball. Absolutely. Yeah,
Speaker 2: So we'll see. I think to Arizona's a bang if
Speaker 2: they have one tomorrow. Is they play a little of
Speaker 2: that now? And Duke isn't used to that.
Speaker 5: Well, you talk about the nephew mentality, You're you're gonna
Speaker 5: tell them that they can't They're going to Yeah, they're
Speaker 5: gonna try their but they're gonna give you the best
Speaker 5: game they can. And I've been talking to this, I've
Speaker 5: been talking about this to a lot of people. When's
Speaker 5: the last time a team beat Arizona twice? Maybe outside
Speaker 5: of Houston. Let me tell you, I take to Houston.
Speaker 5: That's another part of that story. I'd have to go
Speaker 5: back and I had to go get a media guy.
Speaker 5: But it doesn't happen very often because not only in
Speaker 5: a season, but as a program. When's the last time
Speaker 5: he saw Arizona lows, especially in Tommy's time?
Speaker 3: Yeah, what's the why? I was just gonna ask, what's
Speaker 3: Tommy's record on revenge? It's fantastic. I think Houston was
Speaker 3: one of the ones that only got him.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, Uh, they just adjust better. And I don't
Speaker 2: know when I cover the team every day, I don't
Speaker 2: do it every day now. It's like I used to.
Speaker 2: But you tell Richard Jefferson, you tell Gilbertinez, you tell
Speaker 2: these dudes, these dudes are better than you. What, Yeah,
Speaker 2: you're you're if you kidding me? Yeah, you know. And
Speaker 2: that's how they beat Kansas and all that back in
Speaker 2: the day. Uh. And part of my story is Dickerson,
Speaker 2: Michael Dickerson, you know, kind of oblivious to a lot
Speaker 2: of things. You guys are seven point dogs, how do
Speaker 2: you feel? Well, we're underdogs, so you don't know, you
Speaker 2: don't know what, you don't know? Yeah, and you just play. Yeah,
Speaker 2: So I think that's too Arizona's advantage for sure. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I won't see style of play and who's gonna who's
Speaker 2: gonna stop Flag?
Speaker 3: I mean it's not just Flag. I mean they've got
Speaker 3: three They've got they've got three top fifteen picks.
Speaker 5: Have another conversation I was having over the last couple
Speaker 5: of days, just looking back at that twenty eleven matchup.
Speaker 5: They let Kyrie Irving and I think the plumb lead brother.
Speaker 5: They let them do their thing, but shut everyone else down.
Speaker 5: I think that works. Their advantage is that's something similar
Speaker 5: that's gonna happen tomorrow where they let Flag and uh
Speaker 5: maybe one of the shooting guards have a game they
Speaker 5: usually do, but shut everything else down.
Speaker 2: Yeah, easier said than done.
Speaker 3: They trailed for a while in that game to the
Speaker 3: carry Irving game first, yeah yeah, and then they just
Speaker 3: went off. Yeah that second half complete domination.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So so we'll see what happens. It's a great matchup,
Speaker 2: you know, it's the biggest matchup in a long time
Speaker 2: point wise for them being an underdog. We'll see. And
Speaker 2: they were relaxed today, not that you can just look
Speaker 2: at it in the in the zoom call, but.
Speaker 3: You yeah, but you want to see that. Yeah, they're
Speaker 3: playing with house money at this.
Speaker 2: Sure, sure, but you know, you look relaxed today, But
Speaker 2: what makes you look not relaxed when you're talking talking
Speaker 2: to people? Oh? They look good on the court, really,
Speaker 2: who knows? Who knows what's going on inside?
Speaker 3: I tighten my butchets pretty pretty aggressively.
Speaker 2: Is that one of their superstitions? You don't have to
Speaker 2: tell me that. What you asked what would look when
Speaker 2: I'm stressed? That's what that look like when I'm stressed.
Speaker 2: Could you leave the rule? Okay, let's take a break
Speaker 2: and then come back with night me Welcome.
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Speaker 1: Streaming live on the Ihearts radio while this is I
Speaker 1: on the Ball with Steve Ravera.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Vera in
Speaker 2: with me. It is Blake Eager. Now on the phone.
Speaker 2: We have former U of a Wildcat, Matt Mulebach. Matt Howrey.
Speaker 6: Right, Steve, how are you?
Speaker 2: I'm playing? Okay here? We can here, Okay, I'm not
Speaker 2: sure hear me. We can hear you? Okay, you can't
Speaker 2: hear no, go ahead.
Speaker 6: Either, I'm here, ready to go.
Speaker 3: Steve unplugged his headphones. That's why you can't hear anything for.
Speaker 2: You here. I can hear him there, but not here.
Speaker 2: So how you doing that?
Speaker 6: I'm fantastic, I'm I'm excited about tomorrow's game. I can't.
Speaker 6: In fact, I was thinking you couldn't love it was
Speaker 6: already Wednesday, so let's let's go.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so let me we talk about this all the time.
Speaker 2: That about about Duke. Do you think because you played
Speaker 2: them back in the late eighties, right, and you guys
Speaker 2: were to kind of consider yourself the Duke of the West, right,
Speaker 2: do you think that they do you or maybe not
Speaker 2: or maybe not? Do you think that they care as
Speaker 2: much as about Arizona that then you guys care about Duke.
Speaker 6: Well, I'll tell you I think they really respected us.
Speaker 6: You know, we played Duke four years in a row
Speaker 6: and my freshman, sophomore, junior, senior year, and we beat
Speaker 6: him three out of four. So I think when you
Speaker 6: whenever you beat someone, there's a lot of respect that
Speaker 6: goes with that. And it wasn't just a one off,
Speaker 6: you know, lucky win. Like I said, we beat them
Speaker 6: three out of four, fair and square, and the only
Speaker 6: time they beat us was actually a camera and they
Speaker 6: beat us by two, so they had to fight for it.
Speaker 6: And so I think they really respect us. I don't
Speaker 6: think I don't. I think it is you know, they
Speaker 6: understand at least I know, the players did. I don't
Speaker 6: know what the fans think, but the players did in
Speaker 6: their program did And I'll tell you a great story.
Speaker 6: I don't know if I ever told you this, Steve, that
Speaker 6: after the first Olympics that coach K coached and maybe
Speaker 6: even the second one, I sent him an email and
Speaker 6: I just said, hey, you know, when we lost in
Speaker 6: two thousand, whatever it was for or whatever, I got
Speaker 6: this the bronze. You know, like all American basketball fans,
Speaker 6: I was disappointed that we lost. And what coach K
Speaker 6: did to really revive that Olympic team in those two Olympics,
Speaker 6: I think they beat Spain maybe in both of them.
Speaker 6: I just felt like a ton of pride for the
Speaker 6: US I was and I thought what he did was
Speaker 6: really great. And I just decided that email and I said, hey,
Speaker 6: you know, this is Matt Meilbach, and I said, you know,
Speaker 6: we played you in the in the late eighties and
Speaker 6: early nineties, and and you know, just I really respected
Speaker 6: our rivalry. And da da da me back about two
Speaker 6: days later, and he sent me a really nice email
Speaker 6: and said, hey, Matt, you know I loved playing against
Speaker 6: you guys. You know. He gave me a couple of
Speaker 6: really nice compliments about me, and you know, and what
Speaker 6: I did and just said it was a great rivalry.
Speaker 6: I loved your coach. I loved Luke, you know, we
Speaker 6: had just b had so much respect for him, and
Speaker 6: so that to me meant a lot. And I'll tell
Speaker 6: you one more quick story. In fact, just the other day,
Speaker 6: I was listening to the game and I think it
Speaker 6: was Duke's second game and Grant Hill, who was a
Speaker 6: freshman on the team that we beat in ninety one
Speaker 6: and McHale in double overtime, Grant Hill was actually he
Speaker 6: was talking about how how the UNLV team that year
Speaker 6: had not had not lost, so they hadn't played a
Speaker 6: lot of close games. And he made the point to say,
Speaker 6: you know, we played a lot of close games, and
Speaker 6: it kind of got us battle tested for the finals
Speaker 6: and for the final game, and that's why we beat him,
Speaker 6: he thought. And you know, and I guarantee you in
Speaker 6: his mind he remembers losing, you know, on Arizona, and
Speaker 6: I've heard i'd actually heard Bobby Hurley not hurt him
Speaker 6: and he's told me directly to my face like that
Speaker 6: was a big, big thing for them.
Speaker 2: So just real quick before Blake asked the question, are
Speaker 2: you sure the coach Kate didn't confuse you with Steve Kerr?
Speaker 6: He might have, he might That's okay, Hey, well here
Speaker 6: I was gonna say, he only played against Kerr the
Speaker 6: one time, right, and so I was lucky to be
Speaker 6: part of all four of them.
Speaker 2: But you're right, you know you know. I love you, man,
Speaker 2: I love you.
Speaker 6: Go ahead, I thought, Hey, I'll admit, I'll admit I
Speaker 6: wasn't probably at the top of the scouting report, but I.
Speaker 3: Was in the scouting report. Yeah, yeah, you were. I
Speaker 3: know you were. Hey, man, it's Blake. Thanks for thanks
Speaker 3: for coming on first and fore most. But it's an honor, man,
Speaker 3: Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: He never lost him, just dude, never lost him ever. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I don't know how you pulled that up. So how
Speaker 2: would you rate this game on scale of games? Obviously
Speaker 2: the big game now, but you know they've played them
Speaker 2: a number of times two thousand and one in the
Speaker 2: big championship game, they've played them here a few times since.
Speaker 6: Well, I mean, I think the championship game is number
Speaker 6: one by far, the finals of the NCAA, Right, I
Speaker 6: don't think you're gonna have a game bigger than that.
Speaker 6: So I mean, to me, though, this is equal or
Speaker 6: you know, above, or equal to any other game that
Speaker 6: Arizona's played them And partly just because when you get
Speaker 6: to the Sweet sixteen, now you're you're you're within a
Speaker 6: couple a couple of good you know, you're within two
Speaker 6: good forty minutes of being in a final four. And
Speaker 6: that's your legendary status if you do that. And I
Speaker 6: think the other thing that stands out to me right
Speaker 6: now is I've heard a lot of pundits this year
Speaker 6: over the years say, well, I think you know so
Speaker 6: from week to week, you know so and so is
Speaker 6: the best team, or Houston's the best team, or now
Speaker 6: Florida was the best team after that two weeks ago.
Speaker 6: And I've maintained since the day I saw Duke and
Speaker 6: Michale are the best team in the country. And I'm
Speaker 6: sure they've had some weeks where they didn't look like
Speaker 6: the best team, But to me, overall, nobody has had nobody,
Speaker 6: to me, has looked as impressed as duked in. And
Speaker 6: I say that because you know, of course Cooper Flag
Speaker 6: we going and on about him. They have the other freshman,
Speaker 6: Canipple but I think what really sets them apart and
Speaker 6: what's like underrated about them is the rim protection. And
Speaker 6: you know, the freshman, I think it's mulatch. Maybe I'm
Speaker 6: not sure I pronounce that right, but him, the other
Speaker 6: four man their backup. They have, like I'm talking about elite,
Speaker 6: elite rim protection, and I just think that that is
Speaker 6: the piece of the puzzle that's going to be hard
Speaker 6: to solve for Arizona, and not that they can't, because
Speaker 6: they can, you know, and I do think back to
Speaker 6: Grand Hills comments know, they haven't been in a lot
Speaker 6: of close games in the ACC and I'm pretty sure,
Speaker 6: if I'm not mistaken, Arizona is the highest ranked King
Speaker 6: Pomp team they played all year.
Speaker 2: I didn't know that. Yeah, I do like the matchup
Speaker 2: because you know, Duke is good, like you say, probably
Speaker 2: maybe the best team in the country right now. But
Speaker 2: Arizona has this special They're tougher than they used to be.
Speaker 2: You know, they're they're yeah, they're they're athletic and l
Speaker 2: spots you know what I'm saying, or most spots and
Speaker 2: do it doesn't or isn't. I agree?
Speaker 6: I agree. I agree that there's there's a piece of Arizona.
Speaker 6: That's there's pieces that are better than other teams they've had,
Speaker 6: not the most talented, not the most NBA guys. But
Speaker 6: I'll say another piece that I really like. I like
Speaker 6: the fact that dude beat Arizona. And yes, because I
Speaker 6: think there's a there's an instinct not to bring up
Speaker 6: a horrible memory, but I will the nineteen eighty nine
Speaker 6: Vegas team that beat us. You know, we had beaten
Speaker 6: them in McHale, and what people fail to remember is
Speaker 6: that they really beat them by seven or eight. It
Speaker 6: wasn't like we beat them by thirty. And But but
Speaker 6: what happens in a game like that is you go
Speaker 6: into it and I think there's a natural sort of
Speaker 6: positioning of like, okay, what do we change, Like, okay,
Speaker 6: we don't change a ton We beat them, Like we're
Speaker 6: going to similar game plan, similar game. Let's just go
Speaker 6: do the same thing we did. But for the team
Speaker 6: that lost, you can go back and and you know,
Speaker 6: very carefully, surgically look at every play and say, how
Speaker 6: do we fix that? How do we fix this? And
Speaker 6: you kind of come up with almost a new strategy
Speaker 6: for the team for offense, defense, for every player. So
Speaker 6: you can you can change a million little things. And
Speaker 6: I like that, you know, coming into a game like
Speaker 6: this because you know, hey, we're going to they don't
Speaker 6: realize how much better Arizona's gotten. I'm sure they've gotten better,
Speaker 6: but Arizona's gotten a lot better. And and I think
Speaker 6: there's going to be some things they see on film
Speaker 6: that they can fix. That said, you know, there's still
Speaker 6: an incredible team, but we saw in what was eleven
Speaker 6: that you know that's that doesn't carry the day.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean we were talking about it earlier, Steve.
Speaker 3: I think a couple of weeks ago that this team
Speaker 3: finds a way they make in game adjustments I think
Speaker 3: as good as any college basketball team in the last
Speaker 3: you know, fifteen to twenty games. Matt does this, Does
Speaker 3: this U of a team remind you of another U
Speaker 3: of a team we were trying to talk about that.
Speaker 2: I can't.
Speaker 3: There's not another U of a team that comes to
Speaker 3: my mind.
Speaker 2: There's not.
Speaker 6: No. I keep I keep saying, I'm probably being redundant,
Speaker 6: But as I said, I think for thirty five years Arizona,
Speaker 6: and I say this as a compliment, they've been you know,
Speaker 6: trotting out a Ferrari every year, and you know, this
Speaker 6: team's much more of a Ford f one fifty. And
Speaker 6: you know the Ferrari teams that Arizona's put out have
Speaker 6: been you know, multi five six seven pros on teams,
Speaker 6: and you know, they just run like crazy, and I
Speaker 6: think they Arizona's always had good defensive team. Sean Miller
Speaker 6: had great defensive teams. But I think that, of course
Speaker 6: the Big twelve helped. Being battle tested, playing so many
Speaker 6: teams and not playing well. Really like this is Steve.
Speaker 6: We've been all of us been around, and Steve's been around.
Speaker 6: He knows this more than anyone. Lout was the master,
Speaker 6: and for whatever reason, I don't even know how he
Speaker 6: did it, but you know, he had teams in November
Speaker 6: that were ready to win a national title and we're
Speaker 6: the best teams in the country in November fifteenth, and
Speaker 6: this team wasn't very good in November and December, and
Speaker 6: so I think they had to struggle to get better
Speaker 6: and learn who they were and figure out an identity.
Speaker 6: And that's been that's been kind of a really positive
Speaker 6: thing for them that I don't remember teams going through that.
Speaker 3: No, not to this degree. I mean, I think the
Speaker 3: toughness too, is a different characteristic for you. And I
Speaker 3: don't mean this in a bad sense by any means,
Speaker 3: and it has to be you know, they had to
Speaker 3: do it from a Big twelve standpoint, but the toughness
Speaker 3: characteristic of this team because they're not a great three
Speaker 3: point shooting team, but they they don't seem to. You know,
Speaker 3: they have moments, they have moments where they lose it
Speaker 3: a little bit, but it feels like they're able to
Speaker 3: compose themselves throughout the game in different manners and it's
Speaker 3: it's just been ines. It's been impressive watching the evolution
Speaker 3: of the UVA basketball team this year.
Speaker 6: Yeah, totally agree. You know, I finding ways to win
Speaker 6: in different ways and now all of a sudden, they're
Speaker 6: actually offensively at least knock on wood. They've played really
Speaker 6: well the last three weeks four weeks. But they do
Speaker 6: find different ways to win their identity and I say
Speaker 6: this too. Some just look at the personnel, right. I
Speaker 6: think Caleb Love is super tough and he's been through.
Speaker 6: Like Caleb Love at the beginning of this year was
Speaker 6: being destroyed by people, Oh yeah, you know, the social
Speaker 6: media and by even like a lot of you know,
Speaker 6: a lot of announcers were getting on him and you know,
Speaker 6: sort of the sort of experts and stuff, and you know,
Speaker 6: he's weathered that storm. You know. I think I think
Speaker 6: a walk is the most physical player in Arizona history.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean you talk about a big body guy
Speaker 3: that's not afraid to get in there and get deep.
Speaker 3: I think the evolution of his offensive game has been incredible.
Speaker 3: I mean just yeah, he's been a great rebounder, right,
Speaker 3: but I mean finding ways to score and getting punched
Speaker 3: in the faceball doing it as a it's been impressive. So, Matt,
Speaker 3: a couple of what are your what are your two
Speaker 3: let's say, two key teak takeaways for the UFA basketball
Speaker 3: team for tomorrow.
Speaker 6: Well, if you remember in twenty eleven, obviously I was
Speaker 6: there doing the radio.
Speaker 2: With Brian Jefferies.
Speaker 6: You know, Derek Williams won the game in the first half. Now,
Speaker 6: so I think the two keys of that game were
Speaker 6: Derek Williams kept him in the game when things were
Speaker 6: not going well, and when Duke was Duke was clearly
Speaker 6: better than Arizona that year, and and better their talent
Speaker 6: was off the charts. And but Derek Williams, because he
Speaker 6: was the guy he was and just the leader of
Speaker 6: that team, and you know, kept him together most of
Speaker 6: the time. His twenty five or whatever it was in
Speaker 6: the first half was the key to not getting blown out.
Speaker 6: They were on the version of getting blown out five
Speaker 6: different times, and he just kept holding them in. Because
Speaker 6: of that, I think Caleb Love as the guy who's
Speaker 6: there dominant. He's going to shoot the most most likely, right,
Speaker 6: That's what he does most of the time. He's got
Speaker 6: to have a good game. You just it's going to
Speaker 6: be difficult to win without your best player, the guy
Speaker 6: who shoots the most not playing well. But then I
Speaker 6: think what happened in that second half and in eleven
Speaker 6: was it was the team got confidence, and it was
Speaker 6: a collective effort where everybody, you know, I'm trying to
Speaker 6: think of.
Speaker 2: You know, Momo Jones and just all the all.
Speaker 6: The guys, Jamelle and Jamel ja Or had a great
Speaker 6: second half and guys almost kind of played better than
Speaker 6: they were And it was because the belief. All of
Speaker 6: a sudden, they caught fire with their belief and their confidence.
Speaker 6: And I heard the stories of Sean Miller saying that week,
Speaker 6: you know who's going to be the aggressor, you know,
Speaker 6: do they take it to us or do we take
Speaker 6: it to them? And I think the confidence that they
Speaker 6: have to really really believe they could win that game.
Speaker 6: And you guys were around. I mean, you look at
Speaker 6: the ninety seventeen that beat Kansas. I thought, Luke, you know,
Speaker 6: for for all the things he's done good or not
Speaker 6: as good, like him saying all week that who's the underdog?
Speaker 6: I thought it was laughable. Then he kept saying that laughable,
Speaker 6: but he believed it. And I give him credit because
Speaker 6: that was the reason they won that game, because lut
Speaker 6: believed in his heart and he had so much confidence
Speaker 6: that that team could beat them. He was not backing down.
Speaker 6: And I think that's the kind of you got to have.
Speaker 6: That believe It can't be fake. And I've been on
Speaker 6: plenty of teams, you know that, even great teams, where
Speaker 6: sometimes you'll have a game and it's almost like a
Speaker 6: little bit of a fake fake I call it fake juice,
Speaker 6: you know, and they're going to be juiced up, they're
Speaker 6: gonna be ready, But you got to have that underlying belief.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no question. We talked about this before you came on,
Speaker 2: and I've covered this a long time obviously with the games.
Speaker 2: And I've said this because of guys like you, and
Speaker 2: I'm not trying to blow smoke with you because you're
Speaker 2: on the show. Are asked people and they've told me
Speaker 2: who's the who's the most fierce? Uh hate to lose
Speaker 2: dude out there? It was this dude from Kansas who
Speaker 2: went to California and he may look like a little
Speaker 2: paper boy guy, he's a pain in the ass's because
Speaker 2: he hates to lose. And let me tell you something,
Speaker 2: that's what Mays makes Arizona. Steve Kurt looks like a
Speaker 2: little paper boy, but he hates to lose. Sean a
Speaker 2: little paper bowl. Another guy who hates. So you guys
Speaker 2: are comprised of those dudes right who.
Speaker 4: You have.
Speaker 2: You can't beat Duke Steve, You can't beat Duke Sean.
Speaker 2: You can't be Dukee. Guess what happens. He pisses you
Speaker 2: off and you prove.
Speaker 6: That you can't right now. It's it's it is it
Speaker 6: is that that that competitive drive that believe you know,
Speaker 6: not backing down from from a team that maybe you
Speaker 6: know nationally is perceived better and and uh and really
Speaker 6: believe in it, not not the bs, you know, talking
Speaker 6: and it's you know, really not there. But yeah, I
Speaker 6: mean I was. I was. I competed and that was
Speaker 6: one thing I didn't care about was I would compete
Speaker 6: against anybody and I would stand up to him. I
Speaker 6: was always better than them. But I think this team,
Speaker 6: like you said, this team has that. I think they
Speaker 6: have that that drive and that that competitive belief behind them,
Speaker 6: and it's gonna take that for sure, like if they
Speaker 6: if they had any doubts. And I'll tell you this,
Speaker 6: I said this this week to two people what Tommy
Speaker 6: Lloyd did in the under sixteen time out when they
Speaker 6: were down one, nineteen to four, seventeen or nineteen to four.
Speaker 6: He didn't panic. And I've been in huddles in the
Speaker 6: tournament where we panicked a bind and it's easy to do.
Speaker 6: It's really easy to panic. It's it's really hard to
Speaker 6: not panic because the stakes are so high. And I thought,
Speaker 6: credit to Tommy and credit to the team for not
Speaker 6: panicking when they got down. It's a long game, just
Speaker 6: possession by possession get back into it. I was shocked
Speaker 6: that they were actually in the lead at half time.
Speaker 6: I would not even have ever bet that. So the
Speaker 6: fact that they have that kind of interior you know,
Speaker 6: or you know internal you know, sort of belief and
Speaker 6: confidence is pretty key.
Speaker 2: Let me ask you a quick question, Hobby, send me
Speaker 2: a note to ask you talk about Sean Elliott making
Speaker 2: that shot over Danny Fairy in nineteen eighty nine. Was
Speaker 2: that a planned player? Did Sean just take over that
Speaker 2: shot for that shot?
Speaker 6: He just took over? Yeah, he just we were bizarre
Speaker 6: thing for us as we were smacking him in the
Speaker 6: first half. I can't believe they ever even came back
Speaker 6: and took the lead. It was kind of we were
Speaker 6: we felt like we were controlling the game and just
Speaker 6: blowing them out. So they had a good team. Obviously
Speaker 6: we had a Final fourteen that year. But Sean just
Speaker 6: I just remember he just he sometimes we would give
Speaker 6: it to him to bring it up, and he just
Speaker 6: brought it up and decided to shoot it. It was.
Speaker 6: It was that simple. And you know, Fairy guarding him
Speaker 6: was not a good matchup. I think they had most
Speaker 6: of the time Bricky or someone else guarding on and Faery.
Speaker 6: Farry is a great player, but he couldn't guard Sean,
Speaker 6: and so it was the perfect shot because Ferry was
Speaker 6: so worried about him driving on him, and I just
Speaker 6: I think I was in the corner at the time
Speaker 6: thinking probably like with Kerr against the Jazz when when
Speaker 6: Jordan took his last shot, like, I'm not going to
Speaker 6: shoot it. I'm just going to watch this and have
Speaker 6: a good time watching it because I know it's not
Speaker 6: coming to me. He's shooting this one.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Let me ask you. We had Cory on Monday,
Speaker 2: Corey Williams and he's now, you know, obviously with you
Speaker 2: guys ESPN and doing doing all these games. I asked
Speaker 2: him if he ever ran into Jalen Rose and talked
Speaker 2: about that ninety four, ninety three ninety four game with
Speaker 2: Kalid doing what he did. Do you are you still?
Speaker 2: Are you friends with any of the former Duke guys?
Speaker 6: Yeah? Yeah, I became really good friends with Quinn Snyder.
Speaker 6: Quinn's now the head coach of the Atlanta Hawks. And
Speaker 6: it's funny, Steve, I'll tell you a funny a quick
Speaker 6: funny story with Steve Curse sent me some funny text.
Speaker 6: We were kind of like talking about the game and
Speaker 6: he said something in a funny way about Duke and
Speaker 6: he's like, oh wait a second, A lot of those
Speaker 6: guys are my friends, you know, like we and I
Speaker 6: don't know if you know what we're going to this story.
Speaker 6: Steve was we lost, you know, in the eighty eight
Speaker 6: final four, you know, Oklahoma will do lost to Kansas,
Speaker 6: and so we were all out at a bar afterward
Speaker 6: with Ferry and and Quinn Snyder and some of their
Speaker 6: guys like having a couple of drinks and we kind
Speaker 6: of became buddies with those guys for something. It was
Speaker 6: just an odd, odd connection, not odd because we played them,
Speaker 6: but it just became this kind of cool connection where
Speaker 6: Steve was really good buddies and I think he played
Speaker 6: with Ferry for a while at Cleveland and maybe even
Speaker 6: in San Antonio. You know, we had those we had
Speaker 6: four games of great games in a row with them,
Speaker 6: and we all became kind of buddies to my buddy.
Speaker 6: In fact, the other que Bruce Frasier, became really tight
Speaker 6: with with Quinn Snider and we were just all kind
Speaker 6: of buddies for whatever reason. And we know they kind
Speaker 6: of at that in that time period, they had deep
Speaker 6: best program on the East coast and we had the
Speaker 6: best program on the west. So to go full circle
Speaker 6: to your original question. I think they really did respect
Speaker 6: us and knew how good we were, and you know,
Speaker 6: and and Kay knew how good Loot was and vice versa.
Speaker 6: And then of course you know dick by Tal calling
Speaker 6: it the Duchies and Loot made fun of that. That
Speaker 6: just made it even more, uh, you know, than created
Speaker 6: more of.
Speaker 2: A rivalry, right, yeah, no question. And you guys are
Speaker 2: cut from the same mold, you know, the competitive dudes
Speaker 2: who you know, who took pride in the game and
Speaker 2: and and you know they day for Duke and you
Speaker 2: guys pray Arizona back in the day.
Speaker 6: I think so, I think you're right. In fact, well,
Speaker 6: Jay Billison always says, you know, tells the story of
Speaker 6: Loot recruiting him at Iowa and going going into his
Speaker 6: family room and his mom of course loved Lout and
Speaker 6: thought he was handsome and and he said, I can't
Speaker 6: believe Lout actually got me to visit Iowa. And that's
Speaker 6: a that's another great connection. You know, Jay Billis has
Speaker 6: been really close to Steve. Jay Billiss has been great
Speaker 6: to me about about you know, announcing. I talked to
Speaker 6: him a lot about announcing and you know, things about
Speaker 6: I remember When I first did the studio, I talked
Speaker 6: to Billis. He gave me a lot of great tips
Speaker 6: and so we've just had this, Like I said, it's
Speaker 6: almost been this really unique you wouldn't think it would be,
Speaker 6: but this really unique, cool connection between the two programs. Now,
Speaker 6: I will say I love all the Richard Jefferson you
Speaker 6: know Shade dude, like Richard's Richard's differently, I mean that
Speaker 6: was a different period. Of course, you know they lost
Speaker 6: in the finals. So I get it. And only Richard
Speaker 6: can can do what he does because it's it's hilarious
Speaker 6: and I love it. But yes, it's good stuff.
Speaker 2: Well, thanks Matt. Are you guys going to be in
Speaker 2: a thread tomorrow night the text threat?
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, oh yeah, we got well I've got like
Speaker 6: two or three of them, and yeah, we'll have some
Speaker 6: good tech threads going. It'll be fun. I got othic
Speaker 6: on one of them, and you know we had some
Speaker 6: othic was there for three of those matches and Joe
Speaker 6: and Kerr and Elliott and it's good stuff. So we
Speaker 6: will be uh, we'll be enjoying it.
Speaker 2: Well, good luck, man, Thank you, thanks a bunch as always. Yeah, thanks, guys,
Speaker 2: have a doing Matt Melbuck. We went over, but that
Speaker 2: was great stuff, right fun. We'll take the break and
Speaker 2: come back and maybe take a call or too. If
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Speaker 1: This is I on the ball on Fox Sports fourteenth fifty.
Speaker 1: Want to take part in the show Call up Steve
Speaker 1: now went by two oh four one seventy four Ford, Hey.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to about here on Fox Sports fourteen Cookie.
Speaker 2: I'm Steve rivera Blake Eager from Southern Aer's on the sports,
Speaker 2: tourism and film authority. One we got one, We got
Speaker 2: Ray in a full house and he got full houses right.
Speaker 2: Anybody want to call? Please do five two ozero four
Speaker 2: one six seventy four forty. I always love talking to
Speaker 2: that good stories. If you're having Matt on just to
Speaker 2: talk about stories, like just to share stories. He's a
Speaker 2: wealth of stories. No, but because he's told me a
Speaker 2: lot of these stories and in the book, you know,
Speaker 2: we I've done enough books. All these stories are old
Speaker 2: to me, but their funny creeks to how he tells them. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so back in the day, Well, you're gonna give me
Speaker 2: grief because you did pay for a book and I
Speaker 2: haven't got it, but called hard cash. Yeah, I was
Speaker 2: gonna tell the story, and I want him to tell it,
Speaker 2: but I'll tell it back when when you're a player, right,
Speaker 2: and you've had coaches throughout your career, right, So he
Speaker 2: gets on he's a he's a freshman, and he's at
Speaker 2: Michale and and he's with the buddy on the Michael
Speaker 2: floor and Luke walks by and he's with somebody, and
Speaker 2: Matt goes, hey, lude you know, thinking that you know,
Speaker 2: he's my coach, and he's going to respond, and Luke
Speaker 2: looks back, is what the hell you look at? What
Speaker 2: do you ask? I'm your coach. Don't don't talk to
Speaker 2: me at any other time until you know, blah blah blah.
Speaker 2: And because Matt's kind of like a young naive dude,
Speaker 2: thinking my coach, he's gonna say hi. But you don't
Speaker 2: have relationships like that when you're a player coach. After
Speaker 2: you're gone, it's all good funning games. Yeah, but not
Speaker 2: until you not until you leave. Yeah. You set that
Speaker 2: standard there, right, You have to well, and that's what
Speaker 2: makes some of the good coaches. You're not their friend,
Speaker 2: but you're also not to you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: You have to have that line of well, you can't cross.
Speaker 3: It's more of a family bond than it is a
Speaker 3: friend bond, right, Like you would do anything for your player,
Speaker 3: but I don't want to go get drinks with him
Speaker 3: and hang out with him and talk about you know,
Speaker 3: his personal life. I have no interest, right right. I
Speaker 3: want the best for him and I want the best
Speaker 3: for his career. Were some of your better coaches like that?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Absolutely, yeah, because you you It was a strange structure.
Speaker 2: You're you're are.
Speaker 3: My head coaches would always keep that, but your pitching
Speaker 3: coach would be a little bit different.
Speaker 2: Totally get him, but they're because they're not the head.
Speaker 3: Coach exactly, and they've got to build a deeper bond there, no.
Speaker 2: Question, And that's why I've always said, uh, I've always said,
Speaker 2: I firmly believe this. There are some exceptions, exceptions when
Speaker 2: the head coach goes and they in the elevated assistant
Speaker 2: coach into the position. It doesn't work. Yeah, it doesn't work.
Speaker 2: You can't put the substitute teacher in front of the
Speaker 2: class to expect the same result. I'll tell you. I'll
Speaker 2: tell you a quick story.
Speaker 3: My college coach at Metro State and Denver, we did
Speaker 3: not see eye to eye. This is my junior year.
Speaker 3: I went in as a preseason All American and have
Speaker 3: you been there? Here was there? Yeah, he recruited me, right, great,
Speaker 3: and he's phenomenal man like love him to death now, right,
Speaker 3: but he I didn't take my I didn't take that
Speaker 3: year very seriously. Yeah, from my health standpoint, I thought
Speaker 3: I was thought I was hot stuff and the lats
Speaker 3: of days of coal and just not attentive. And he
Speaker 3: called me out on it. And then we were doing
Speaker 3: a bunt drill one time and he was having me
Speaker 3: throw live and I threw out his head and I
Speaker 3: thought I was going to get kicked off the team.
Speaker 3: And we had a strong discussion after that, and he
Speaker 3: pulled me in the office and we set some standards.
Speaker 2: I did throw what is it? I was a hot shot.
Speaker 3: I was just coming off like anyway, it was stupid, right,
Speaker 3: we're young kids, like, and I was nineteen at that point,
Speaker 3: I think. But anyway, we pulled. He pulled me in
Speaker 3: the office. We had a long discussion, an honest, open discussion.
Speaker 3: From there after that it was a it was a
Speaker 3: truly strong bond, right.
Speaker 2: Right, Maybe it takes something like that, but what the
Speaker 2: hell are you think? Yeah, I mean there's another one.
Speaker 3: Gary Carter was my coach in HYA with Port Saint Lucie, right,
Speaker 3: so a Hall of Fame coach. My first half, I
Speaker 3: was pitching through an injury, so I was only thrown
Speaker 3: like eighty six to eighty eight maybe, and then after
Speaker 3: I would be done with my games. I couldn't like
Speaker 3: move my arm for two days, right, So I was
Speaker 3: working through and then finally it was just to the
Speaker 3: point where I was like, I can't do this. So
Speaker 3: I took a six week rehab stant and they came
Speaker 3: back and was completely dominant that second half, And he
Speaker 3: pulled me in the office. He goes, you know, everybody
Speaker 3: was telling me about you and how good you were,
Speaker 3: and he's like, I just thought you sucked. You were
Speaker 3: awful that first half. But he was such a good guy.
Speaker 3: That everybody wanted to be around him, but he made
Speaker 3: sure that he took his moments with his players to
Speaker 3: be specific on what was expectations.
Speaker 2: And then that's what the good coach does. Yeah, good
Speaker 2: coaches do that, so we'll see. I thought the coach
Speaker 2: Kathy was a pretty interesting thing. I had never heard
Speaker 2: that one about the letter. I'm joking about Grigs. People
Speaker 2: think that some people think he's like Steve Kurry, aren't
Speaker 2: you no?
Speaker 3: Or the bond that they built with other Duke players
Speaker 3: and how long it's lasted. But you're right, they're cut
Speaker 3: from the same clot They are the same type of athlete.
Speaker 3: And at that point, it was similar programs, right, I mean,
Speaker 3: Duke's obviously got a little longer history, but similar programs
Speaker 3: and similar, similar expectations.
Speaker 2: And I was talking to you guys about this too.
Speaker 2: They don't do Does do you think Duke thinks about
Speaker 2: Arizona as much as Arizona thinks about Duke? And they
Speaker 2: kind of everyone has kind of an obsession with Duke.
Speaker 2: I don't know what they think. I know that it
Speaker 2: was a big game because I went there last year
Speaker 2: to watch to be part of that Duke experience. I
Speaker 2: was impressed, but not all that impressed because it's a
Speaker 2: small box. I mean, you could feel imagine mckail with
Speaker 2: ten thousand people. Yeah, wouldn't it be crazy? Wouldn't it
Speaker 2: be crazy? It would be They're the craziest place I've been,
Speaker 2: or maybe Oregon, Oregon hold that court or Stanford where
Speaker 2: they be the court bounced, you know, and it was
Speaker 2: just bonkers crazy, and Duke was Okay, it's okay. I
Speaker 2: had to take to it. Yeah, they had to do it. Okay,
Speaker 2: what do you think? What do you guys think? We'll
Speaker 2: talk more about it, but about tomorrow's game. Oh, they're
Speaker 2: gonna win. That's a lead of question right there. Do
Speaker 2: you think? Who do you want to ask? The one
Speaker 2: or the fan? Who give me? Give me your reasons
Speaker 2: for both? Because you're a fan and then you're a
Speaker 2: professional professionally, I think Duke is that good of a team.
Speaker 5: And Arizona has struggled all season and to this point
Speaker 5: they haven't really fixed it. They haven't really shown against
Speaker 5: against against good teams. But it seems like they've found
Speaker 5: their groove. It seems like even though they've made a
Speaker 5: lot of mistakes these first two games, they've overcome it.
Speaker 2: Uh And I don't know, but they haven't pay they
Speaker 2: haven't faced duke exact duke teams exactly. I think where
Speaker 2: the hesitation comes in.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but I think I think the Oregon Oregon game
Speaker 3: prepares him pretty well for this from a lenked standpoint
Speaker 3: and talent standpoint.
Speaker 2: Okay, so hold that up. Yeah, we got a call
Speaker 2: coming in. Hello, you're on the aeronine on the ball?
Speaker 2: Who's this? Hey, Steve? This is done? Done? What do
Speaker 2: you got? What you got the winner? Who's winning it? Well?
Speaker 2: Here here's what I think. I think.
Speaker 17: I'm I'm really I'm really hoping for for it to
Speaker 17: be a good game. Actually I hope, I hope for
Speaker 17: Arizona have a good game. But I think this is
Speaker 17: going to give us, like the answers to the test
Speaker 17: that it was playing in the Big Twelve. Yeah, I
Speaker 17: think that this is going to They're playing against a
Speaker 17: good team, a team that's probably better than them, but
Speaker 17: the wars that they had in the league, which Houston
Speaker 17: and and you know, being close and saying well, if
Speaker 17: this possession, that possession, if we get those possessions tomorrow,
Speaker 17: I think that Arizona can win. But you know, I
Speaker 17: want I want them to I want it to be
Speaker 17: I don't want it to be like like well, certainly
Speaker 17: don't want to blow out. And you know, if it
Speaker 17: was one of those things that could have been, well,
Speaker 17: hopefully they make it happen and it is.
Speaker 2: But like I said.
Speaker 17: Earlier in the week, I think Arizona's playing with house
Speaker 17: money now and what happens happens as long as they
Speaker 17: play well. Yeah, we saw that in the We saw
Speaker 17: that in the league where they played well and lost games,
Speaker 17: which is kind of hard to get used to.
Speaker 2: No, No, you're you're right, because well, there's a point
Speaker 2: where you're as good as you're going to be and
Speaker 2: you just run up against the team that's even better. Yeah.
Speaker 17: Yeah, And I think I think maybe the there is
Speaker 17: a there is going to be some familiarity, but you know,
Speaker 17: the playing in the league games and playing Houston in
Speaker 17: such a close proximity of time between those two games
Speaker 17: that you know that's to play them again would be
Speaker 17: you know, probably be a bad experience. But having all
Speaker 17: this time between the first game with Duke and this game,
Speaker 17: and you know, learning the lessons that they've learned, I
Speaker 17: think that they stand a good chance to win this game.
Speaker 17: It's not insurmountable by any means. I don't think.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's why I would take the points.
Speaker 17: I think that they have a decent shot, you know,
Speaker 17: they just they just they got to play a really
Speaker 17: good game and uh and we'll see how it goes.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Right, we have to take a break here. Done.
Speaker 2: Thanks for the call, all right, take care of thanks,
Speaker 2: don uh go? Can we go?