Speaker 1: This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera on
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Speaker 2: Hey, good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to Eye on the Ball
Speaker 2: here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. In
Speaker 2: with me today is Tim Bentley, my usually Friday Day
Speaker 2: Friday guy. Hello, Hello, welcome back, Jim.
Speaker 3: I'm glad to be back. Happy Yeah, Happy New Year.
Speaker 2: You were like mister Dora the Explorer.
Speaker 3: I was out and about.
Speaker 4: I went to Seattle, was up there when it was
Speaker 4: about twelve degrees so that was prepared for the cold
Speaker 4: weather here.
Speaker 2: You went to find the winter.
Speaker 3: Oh my goodness, it was.
Speaker 2: It was.
Speaker 3: It was. It was so.
Speaker 2: Cold, especially Seattle. That's kind of like fun.
Speaker 4: It's rainy cold, so it wasn't any any fun cold
Speaker 4: like it has been here. And then through New Year's
Speaker 4: I had the crowd that everybody else had. So I
Speaker 4: missed a day with you missed today.
Speaker 2: You know, Okay, No, you're back. That's fine. We've had
Speaker 2: some pretty good show was yesterday. It was a pretty
Speaker 2: good show if you missed it. We're at the Casino
Speaker 2: Dell Soul with the Greg Hanson and my guy Ja Gonzalez. Today.
Speaker 2: Jay will be back at the end of the show
Speaker 2: with his picks. Trying to catch me at the final
Speaker 2: weekend of the season.
Speaker 3: Sounds close to me. This sounds like it's a horse race.
Speaker 2: I choked last week, so now he's caught up one
Speaker 2: of these.
Speaker 3: Remind me, what's the bad again? Are you guys? Million
Speaker 3: dollars next?
Speaker 2: Yeah, next year's entry feeds. He paid for me this
Speaker 2: year because I beat him. Now, I don't want to
Speaker 2: lose my throwing here.
Speaker 3: No good.
Speaker 2: Good to have you back. Cool. You're well known in
Speaker 2: the city. I've brand into some people that knew you
Speaker 2: and you were going to be on the show?
Speaker 3: Did I I do? I owe him money?
Speaker 2: They did not say anything but that, But you know,
Speaker 2: as long as they didn't say it, you're good.
Speaker 1: I know.
Speaker 4: Well, a lot of people know you too, Steve, so
Speaker 4: I run across people, so they did, You're on that show?
Speaker 3: Yeah, Now, Steven Arry is a good guy.
Speaker 5: Two people when that was my mom and she's I
Speaker 5: was gonna that line too for a uh no, okay, cool.
Speaker 2: So today we're gonna talk a lot about the basketball
Speaker 2: game tomorrow with U A and uh, you know UCF
Speaker 2: late night, another late night game they get to stay.
Speaker 2: Of course, I'll ask you a question that we talked
Speaker 2: about yesterday. First of all, we're gonna have mister Torres,
Speaker 2: Aaron Torres from Fox Sports here in about three fifty
Speaker 2: three seventeen calling from Los Angeles, getting his thoughts on
Speaker 2: the team and the college basketball is kind of a
Speaker 2: weird season. Anybody can anybody can win it.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: I mean we're on a five and zero wind streak, right.
Speaker 4: I mean it's like I was watching some games and
Speaker 4: I was like it was on a Tuesday or something,
Speaker 4: and I'm like, oh, this is this is Big twelve basketball.
Speaker 4: So yeah, you know, anybody can win. And I love
Speaker 4: watching it's it's it's a good test. Early on, I'm
Speaker 4: glad we're getting beat up and elbowed and you.
Speaker 2: Mean earlier in the year. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and they
Speaker 2: have been and they have been so And then at
Speaker 2: the four to seventeen hour we're gonna go with Brian
Speaker 2: Peabody from Pima. They're undefeated. I don't know where they're ranked,
Speaker 2: but they're under feeded, like seventeen and OHO doing very
Speaker 2: very well. They have the Marley kid from Phoenix.
Speaker 3: Nice.
Speaker 2: So they're doing really well.
Speaker 3: He's a good coach, Yeah he is. He is a
Speaker 3: great coach.
Speaker 2: Yep. He has a bigger run Tours than Tommy Lloyd.
Speaker 2: I don't give him a grief about that. Uh So,
Speaker 2: no cool. So I asked the guys yesterday with Jay, mister,
Speaker 2: mister happy, mister, you know, I'm a U bag guy
Speaker 2: and Greg. Greg kind of agreed, No, he didn't, kind
Speaker 2: of agree. He agreed with me. So Arizona's a five
Speaker 2: and zero in the last five very the right of
Speaker 2: the ship to a degree. I'm trying to not label
Speaker 2: or to sway you. Uh, they've beaten you know, five straight,
Speaker 2: they've beaten the last two in the Little League. Have
Speaker 2: they gotten better? Have they gotten better?
Speaker 4: I you know, you and I have talked about coaching
Speaker 4: in the past, and so do you want to win
Speaker 4: the early part of the season or do you want
Speaker 4: to win you know, later at middle and then the end.
Speaker 3: Of the season.
Speaker 2: So it's rhetoric. Is that rhetorical?
Speaker 3: Just a little bit?
Speaker 4: But I you know, I was watching him play and
Speaker 4: it's you know, they're getting the ball in the middle,
Speaker 4: you know, down load a little bit more often than
Speaker 4: they did early on. We had those talks in November, like,
Speaker 4: what the what's I even have a tall guy down there?
Speaker 3: You know you're not going to pass to them.
Speaker 4: So I don't know if they've gotten you know, if
Speaker 4: they've turned it around one hundred and eighty degrees.
Speaker 3: But it feels better to me.
Speaker 2: That's a great phrase. It feels better because it does
Speaker 2: feel better and it looks better too.
Speaker 4: Right, and not just because they're winning, but because they're
Speaker 4: playing in a way that's like, okay, this makes sense.
Speaker 3: You know, they're moving the ball, they're they're not just
Speaker 3: running and gunning, and.
Speaker 2: So it feels better. They're not just running gunning, but
Speaker 2: they are, which is good for them. They're not just plotting.
Speaker 2: Because this year they're plotting.
Speaker 4: It look horrible, right the old it felt out of
Speaker 4: sink and you know, at a at a at a
Speaker 4: sink for sure, out of whack, and it just didn't
Speaker 4: feel right.
Speaker 3: So it just feels better.
Speaker 2: Feels better. Yeah, Okay, so so I posed that, well
Speaker 2: they better and okay you kind of said yes, Uh,
Speaker 2: they just didn't play anybody, and people are gonna say, okay,
Speaker 2: the first three before the Big twelve, they didn't. Those
Speaker 2: teams were ayn't good, right, Those aren't the team you're
Speaker 2: going to play the turna right, right, And Cincinnati and
Speaker 2: West Virginia are Okay, I know they were ranked, but
Speaker 2: that was kind of they backed into being ranking. Right.
Speaker 4: Well, you know what, I think, we beat West Virginia
Speaker 4: on the for the second time, so we learned a little.
Speaker 2: Bit, right, you beat him for the first time after
Speaker 2: the second right after, right.
Speaker 4: So I think you know that's that bodes well, you know,
Speaker 4: like people are learning, you know, listening to what coach
Speaker 4: Lloyd's saying.
Speaker 2: Well, let's say this, it beats the alternative, which the
Speaker 2: alternative is losing right right, right, So so yeah, so
Speaker 2: they've gotten better. They're playing better, playing looks better.
Speaker 3: You know, it just feels it feels right to me.
Speaker 3: It hits the right spot in my brain.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so are they better at I said yesterday that
Speaker 2: let's wait until or hold judgment until they played the Houstons,
Speaker 2: the Iowa States, the Texas Techs, the Baylors, because those
Speaker 2: are the teams that you'll be measured against in March.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 4: And you know, my buddy Dave is a big Houston
Speaker 4: fan and he's riding them all.
Speaker 3: The way through Houston, Houston as he should.
Speaker 4: They're very good, they're great, and so I think what's missing,
Speaker 4: you know, like I would say that their medium right now,
Speaker 4: they're not great, they're not bad. Who's the and their
Speaker 4: medium right now? And what hasn't clicked for me is
Speaker 4: you know, you used to kind of you used to
Speaker 4: know that Juve was going to rise to the challenge.
Speaker 4: They were going to play the great teams great and
Speaker 4: I don't feel like they've done that.
Speaker 3: Just quite yet.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, because they haven't, you know, the games
Speaker 2: that they.
Speaker 4: Don't get that sense that they have that that extra gear.
Speaker 2: Right and and you had proof with the first those
Speaker 2: games that they lost with UCLA's and the Oklahoma's and
Speaker 2: all that, even though Oklahoma's kind of middlely now kind of,
Speaker 2: but they're still good. Uh So, But that's I'm not
Speaker 2: poop pooing Arizona because I think eventually they're going to
Speaker 2: get even better moving forward.
Speaker 3: But if they beat the teams that they shouldn't.
Speaker 2: Beat or will have a hard time beating, the Iowa States,
Speaker 2: the Houston's, the Baylors, and the Texas text maybe uh
Speaker 2: then they then they sold me.
Speaker 4: I'm in and if they can win a few of
Speaker 4: those games, you know, make it to the tournament. I
Speaker 4: think that, you know, this rough row through the Big
Speaker 4: twelve Welcome to It boys, is going to help them.
Speaker 2: Well. Just a few days ago, maybe ten seven, no
Speaker 2: one thought that they're well, no one, a few people
Speaker 2: thought they were going to be the tournament at all. Right,
Speaker 2: there were nowhere to be found. Now you can kind
Speaker 2: of probably see that they're capable.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and then worthy, you know that you get on
Speaker 4: a run, you know, they start to feel good, they
Speaker 4: start to listen to their coach. You know, I've I've
Speaker 4: heard some people say, you know, you know, people start
Speaker 4: to think about these kids, start to think about you.
Speaker 3: Know, what is it? What does a run look like?
Speaker 3: How does it help me?
Speaker 4: You know, how does it help me in that sense
Speaker 4: going forward? You know, like if you know, when the
Speaker 4: season gets done, where do I stand?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: And I owe money the next gig.
Speaker 2: Isn't that sad? That that's what we're kind of talking
Speaker 2: about now. It's not about the team, It's not about
Speaker 2: it's like what's in it for me?
Speaker 3: You know? And it's it's every time you're.
Speaker 4: Talking about that, I do because I see it and
Speaker 4: I and I and I think, you know it's you know,
Speaker 4: you're going to be just like the NFL. You you
Speaker 4: root for the colors, the NBA, you root for the colors.
Speaker 4: It's going to become that way, Sorr. It's going to
Speaker 4: be hard to be loyal to a team because you're
Speaker 4: to a college team, to the players.
Speaker 2: But that's always been the case because if you're a
Speaker 2: booster guy or whatever, you've always been a booster to
Speaker 2: the school. Right And Tim Bentley comes through for three
Speaker 2: four years, he's gone, okay, nice knowing you, Tim, Thanks,
Speaker 2: you know, you're always a wildcat. Steve comes in, blah
Speaker 2: blah blah. You always get but you're always they're putting
Speaker 2: money into the school, not the person.
Speaker 4: Right, But now that it can be you don't invest
Speaker 4: in a kid for three or four years, you're you.
Speaker 3: Know, you're renting. You're renting a player a kid for
Speaker 3: a you know, for six or seven months.
Speaker 2: That's the sad part.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I worry about the you know, I worry about
Speaker 4: the kids because they really are kids, eighteen to twenty.
Speaker 3: Two year olds in what sense, well, what kind of
Speaker 3: advice are they getting? You go over here, you go there,
Speaker 3: they don't care.
Speaker 2: You know, what'd you think when you're eighteen nineteen.
Speaker 4: I think they're getting those I think those kids are
Speaker 4: getting bad advice.
Speaker 2: Tim, don't touch the stove. Tim, don't don't put this
Speaker 2: fork in that plug.
Speaker 3: I know foods that are purple are not good for you.
Speaker 3: Can I eat hot tomorrow every day for breakfast?
Speaker 2: Exactly? You think I've got one point five in the bank, Tim,
Speaker 2: or mister Booster, I don't need to hear you.
Speaker 4: All these kids want to play at the next level,
Speaker 4: and you know, statistics show that one percent of them might.
Speaker 3: So I worry that they don't get good advice.
Speaker 4: You know, Hey, you can make it to the NFL
Speaker 4: or to the NBA if you go to the next
Speaker 4: school and then they get hurt and they get they
Speaker 4: get lost in that show.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well that's gonna be the case. I think it's
Speaker 2: going to be the case. We've talked about that where
Speaker 2: where education is lost in this whole mix because they're
Speaker 2: jumping from one school to the other, transfer credits and
Speaker 2: YadA YadA. Five years are done. Well, what degree do
Speaker 2: you have? Well I don't have one.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but you have six years of school. I went
Speaker 4: to school you know, for for eighteen of those months
Speaker 4: out of six.
Speaker 2: Years, right right, And you know, come on, I don't
Speaker 2: think maybe there's a professor out there that's listening. You
Speaker 2: can call me. Do the kids actually care about school?
Speaker 2: Have the ever? I'm sure the serious ones do it.
Speaker 2: I'm not.
Speaker 3: My wife is a professor at the UVEAN, and so
Speaker 3: I have a unique insight.
Speaker 2: Okay to this, So they do, but they does she
Speaker 2: teach student athletes.
Speaker 3: From time to time. She does. Okay, good, so from
Speaker 3: time to time.
Speaker 2: The qualified for this conversation.
Speaker 3: Yes, I doubt if she's going to call in right now.
Speaker 4: But you know, the kids in that eighteen and nineteen range,
Speaker 4: they're going to be knuckleheads.
Speaker 2: Yeah, sure, of course.
Speaker 3: It doesn't matter if you're a high level athlete or
Speaker 3: you're the smartest kid. You're just knuckle ahead, you know.
Speaker 4: But these upper classmen, these kids that decide that school
Speaker 4: is important to them, those kids are good, are good students.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: It just it's like anything else. It just takes a
Speaker 4: couple of years of maturation. Sure, to mature a little bit, sure,
Speaker 4: especially when you get closer to the end of the road.
Speaker 4: Are you're thinking, oh crap, do I know enough, Am
Speaker 4: I ready enough?
Speaker 3: Exactly.
Speaker 2: I have a couple of interns that have come through
Speaker 2: here in the years. In fact, I reached out to
Speaker 2: them today and they had internships when they left. And
Speaker 2: I suggest this all the time, and you know you're
Speaker 2: in the business, start early, meet as many people as
Speaker 2: you can. Get your name out. If you're good, they'll
Speaker 2: find you or keep you. And two of them just
Speaker 2: don't have jobs. I mean they don't have jobs because
Speaker 2: the one was of the dbacks. I didn't know it
Speaker 2: was a seasonal thing with the season. Now he's in
Speaker 2: Phoenix winning, but he's a barteight. And the other one
Speaker 2: was in Los Angeles because she's from there, and now
Speaker 2: her new ventures closed.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: So but you know, hell, my newspaper closed. My whole
Speaker 2: career went the crap. Well, so you pivot. I tell
Speaker 2: kids all the time you have to be essential. I've
Speaker 2: told your your guy here, I said, be essential. Yes,
Speaker 2: I can do that. You want, I got it. I
Speaker 2: can do that.
Speaker 3: Can I help.
Speaker 4: I'm in you know, be essential, be in in somebody's
Speaker 4: space and say I can do that, because eventually something's
Speaker 4: going to happen.
Speaker 2: Whatever you need.
Speaker 4: People aren't just going to hand it to you. And
Speaker 4: so these kids that are in college, you talk about
Speaker 4: getting to the end. You know, at some point, you know,
Speaker 4: when their eligibility is running out, they're going to realize
Speaker 4: are they in for the next level or not? And
Speaker 4: that's that hard wake up call that I worry about
Speaker 4: for some kids that don't have that education or don't
Speaker 4: have some stability experience, you know. And maybe they have
Speaker 4: six hundred grand in the bank, which is a nice chunk,
Speaker 4: but it's you know, for the rest of your life.
Speaker 2: I give you that, give you that.
Speaker 3: Right now, I have a I have a half a
Speaker 3: semester of eligibility left. I'm thinking about going back. They're
Speaker 3: gonna make me gifts them.
Speaker 2: In but it's just tough. And I'm not crying for
Speaker 2: the student athletes. They've never had any better than now, right, Uh,
Speaker 2: you know, the Noah's and the TM Max and all
Speaker 2: those guys. Some guy was gonna pay. I saw somewhere
Speaker 2: at one point five million, uh somewhere, maybe a quarterback
Speaker 2: in Washington State. I'm thinking, really quarterback for washing in
Speaker 2: Washington State. I think that's where it was. How in
Speaker 2: the world, I don't welcome to America, you know.
Speaker 4: I read about it, and I know that you know
Speaker 4: these high level players that you have super duper talent
Speaker 4: or their super high profile. You know, they bring a
Speaker 4: lot of attention to your program. I can see that.
Speaker 4: But there this must be a big pot of money
Speaker 4: that I don't know about, yeah somewhere.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you and I both don't know the right people.
Speaker 2: Nothing they're going to give it to us, although I
Speaker 2: am looking for sponsors. So get a hold of me
Speaker 2: for one of the brothers, very inexpensive. Hey, with that,
Speaker 2: we'll take a break, wait here for mister Taurus to
Speaker 2: get a hold of us, and we'll talk a lot
Speaker 2: about college basketball and the state of college basketool that
Speaker 2: we're in right now.
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Speaker 14: Streamy Live on the iHeartRadio WI. This is High on
Speaker 14: the Ball with Steve Rivera on Fox sportsporteen fifty.
Speaker 2: Hey, welcome back to play on the ball here on
Speaker 2: Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Riverta. Here Tim Bentley.
Speaker 2: Now we're just waiting a call from our guy, Aaron Torres,
Speaker 2: and here At comes. Let's see what he says. Aaron
Speaker 2: is this you?
Speaker 9: Yes, sir?
Speaker 15: What's up?
Speaker 2: How are you doing? Aaron, We're on the air. You
Speaker 2: called just in time. We're just coming back, perfect timing. Yes,
Speaker 2: good to hear from you guy. You must be busy
Speaker 2: tracking everybody around the college basketball scene.
Speaker 15: Yeah, it's a fun time of year. It's it's you know, December.
Speaker 15: I'll say this and you know, Janny, December used to
Speaker 15: be a little bit of a reprieve with everything. Yeah,
Speaker 15: but with the expanded college football playoff and with the
Speaker 15: transfer portal in football, it no longer is. But I'd
Speaker 15: rather be busy than not busy. So it's been a
Speaker 15: busy time, you know. I think college football is a
Speaker 15: really on its lass legs. Two games left in the season.
Speaker 15: I think the portal. It's not only literally closed, but
Speaker 15: most of the priority names are kind of made their decisions.
Speaker 16: So it's time.
Speaker 6: This felt like the real.
Speaker 15: The first week that everybody was locked in on basketball
Speaker 15: and cannot wait to kind of do that with you
Speaker 15: guys over the next few minutes and really over the
Speaker 15: next few months.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know, you keep your eyes on Arizona basketball.
Speaker 2: I had Fran Mischelle on earlier this week. I think
Speaker 2: it was the best, very very good, very insightful, and
Speaker 2: he made a mention that I really didn't know or
Speaker 2: pay attention to, maybe that the Big Twelve was down.
Speaker 2: Do you agree, because it kind of makes sense.
Speaker 15: No, I've heard hear him say that in passing, don't.
Speaker 15: I don't want to be for frand for sure certainly
Speaker 15: the guy who's the face of the league and has
Speaker 15: covered it for fifteen twenty years. Whatever, I don't, I
Speaker 15: don't perceive him meaning it's literally down. I think what
Speaker 15: he means is that for years, the Big Twelve, not
Speaker 15: only with the eye test, but was basically always the
Speaker 15: best conference in college basketball. And I think a lot
Speaker 15: of that part of it too, was it was just smaller. Right.
Speaker 15: Is that there's there's ten teams, and probably most years
Speaker 15: nine of them were in the mix for an NCAA
Speaker 15: tournament bit even into late February early March. And so
Speaker 15: this year, I do think the SEC feels like it
Speaker 15: has become the best conference in college basketball. And I
Speaker 15: think from my perspective, From my perspective, I think it's
Speaker 15: more the SEC elevating than the Big Twelve kind of
Speaker 15: taking any kind of stumbles. Because listen, man, you guys
Speaker 15: watch this league like I do. Arizona's playing better, Houston's
Speaker 15: still really good, even though they took a few months early. Obviously,
Speaker 15: Iowa State, it goes without saying Arizona State's playing pretty well.
Speaker 15: They played Kansas tough at bog Allenfield out, So I
Speaker 15: could go on and on, but I don't think he
Speaker 15: means like, oh, the league is awful. It's just that
Speaker 15: maybe this year specifically, the SEC is better.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Right, you talk about the dilution of the Big Twelve.
Speaker 4: What maybe was talking about was there's just more teams. Yeah,
Speaker 4: there's still that strong nine or ten teams at the
Speaker 4: top that you know, but now that you have eighteen teams,
Speaker 4: that just drags down and where does the fit in there?
Speaker 15: Well, it's a great to both questions. So I think
Speaker 15: it's I think this is the new reality in college sports.
Speaker 15: You know, we go back to the college football playoffs,
Speaker 15: and you know, we would argue over Indiana or SMU
Speaker 15: or whomever, and and part of the they didn't play
Speaker 15: anybody is because there's just so many teams in these
Speaker 15: conferences now. And so to me, I think that, you know,
Speaker 15: I think that that's every conference they're dealing with it
Speaker 15: right now. Is that maybe the SEC is the exception,
Speaker 15: but you know, if you look at the ACC, there
Speaker 15: might be no top outside of Dukes.
Speaker 16: So everybody stands outside of Dukes.
Speaker 15: So it's better to be uh, it's better to be
Speaker 15: uh where the Big twelve is probably than a lot
Speaker 15: of other conferences. So that that to me, I think
Speaker 15: there's no doubt that when you have when you add this,
Speaker 15: you know, they've had it eighteen what is it, eight
Speaker 15: teams over the past two years, and they've obviously lost
Speaker 15: to reasonably good basketball schools as well two great football schools.
Speaker 16: But I think that's gonna happen.
Speaker 15: That's going to be a byproduct of just the world
Speaker 15: that we live in. You know, as far as the
Speaker 15: league itself is concerned, and as far as where Arizona.
Speaker 16: Fits into that picture, I think that.
Speaker 15: To me, I think there's a definitive top two right
Speaker 15: now in Houston and Iowa State. I'm not sold that
Speaker 15: Kansas is there yet.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 15: They might be there by the end of the year,
Speaker 15: but you know, Kansas obviously a few weeks ago lost
Speaker 15: to Missourian and out a conference game. They lost an
Speaker 15: early conference game just a few days ago to West
Speaker 15: Virginia at home, and of course even on the even
Speaker 15: at home this week against Arizona State, struggled against what
Speaker 15: I think is a good Arizona State team, but I
Speaker 15: don't think they're great. So to me, I think Arizona
Speaker 15: has over the last few weeks played their way probably
Speaker 15: into that second tier. You could probably include West Virginia,
Speaker 15: whoew that I know they just beat without some key players.
Speaker 15: I think you could probably include Texas Tech. I'm a
Speaker 15: little lower on Baylor than most, but I think you
Speaker 15: could probably include Tech Baylor in the second tier. So
Speaker 15: I think right now I would have a top two
Speaker 15: that is very defined, and then after that about six
Speaker 15: seven teams beyond them.
Speaker 2: So you said that Arizona's playing better, and I agree
Speaker 2: with you, I think both of us do. I'm skeptical
Speaker 2: in as much as they played three teams early before
Speaker 2: the conference, before the streak, they weren't very good, right,
Speaker 2: they should beat them pretty easily. Then they went to Cincinnati,
Speaker 2: won that one. They went to beat West Virginia, you know,
Speaker 2: water down West Virginia. But so they're playing better, but
Speaker 2: are they better? That's the thing, because they haven't played
Speaker 2: the Houston's, they haven't played the North, the Iowa States,
Speaker 2: those quality teams that they'll eventually have to get through,
Speaker 2: or quality teams like that in the tournament.
Speaker 15: Well, I do think they're playing better, and I think
Speaker 15: individuals are playing better.
Speaker 14: Now.
Speaker 15: I think the question is is it all sustainable?
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 15: Yeah, And you know, I think it just comes you
Speaker 15: know what I would say too, guys, And I know
Speaker 15: you know this. You talk about it every single day.
Speaker 15: Some of the guys that are playing better are kind
Speaker 15: of just playing at the level we thought they could
Speaker 15: play out like a Caleb love is you know, like
Speaker 15: like listen, guys, and I know you talked about it
Speaker 15: all November December, Like maybe you guys have an explanation
Speaker 15: for what was going on with Caleb Glove and kJ
Speaker 15: Lewis to a smaller degree, I don't, but it was
Speaker 15: a little jarring. You know, Caleb Loved At every stop
Speaker 15: that he's had, he's been able to contribute and be
Speaker 15: a factor right away, and he really wasn't for about
Speaker 15: those first ten or twelve games of the season. kJ
Speaker 15: Love obviously moving to a starting role. Listen, I'm one
Speaker 15: of the people that was guilty of assuming that he
Speaker 15: was this good as the sixth man last year, so
Speaker 15: that automatically means he's going to be this good as
Speaker 15: a starter this year. And that hasn't necessarily, you know,
Speaker 15: translated at least early. But I think to me, it's
Speaker 15: more about just some guys playing up to their capabilities.
Speaker 14: Now.
Speaker 15: The one thing I do think with Arizona, I just
Speaker 15: don't think.
Speaker 3: They're as deep.
Speaker 15: And part of it is obviously like they have some injuries,
Speaker 15: but I just don't think they're as deep as they've
Speaker 15: been in previous years. And you know, it's funny, as
Speaker 15: everybody's diagnosing them early in the year, it's like, well,
Speaker 15: it's not only that Caleb Love and these guys aren't
Speaker 15: playing as well as they have. It's also that, oh,
Speaker 15: by the way, I mean last year you had us.
Speaker 15: I've said this consistently. You had a six seven eight
Speaker 15: of Jaden Bradley, kJ Lewis and also Crevis off the
Speaker 15: bench that was probably the best three man bench crew
Speaker 15: in the country.
Speaker 16: And I say that as a Yukon.
Speaker 15: Fan that watched my school win the national championship and
Speaker 15: had the biggest six man of the year in Hassan Dier.
Speaker 15: But nobody had a six seven eight man quite like
Speaker 15: those guys, And so I think that's been the unspoken issue.
Speaker 15: It's not even just that kJ Lewis and Caleb Love
Speaker 15: weren't playing great to start the year, but that you
Speaker 15: just didn't have the guys you know, that could replace them,
Speaker 15: that had any type of juice as well. So it
Speaker 15: feels like Tommy's done some stuff, He's figured some stuff out.
Speaker 15: It sounds like I'm a little bit more optimistic that
Speaker 15: it's sustainable than maybe Steve is.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I think I.
Speaker 15: Still think they're in the upper part of the twelve.
Speaker 15: And I think the important thing to note too is
Speaker 15: one and I mentioned.
Speaker 16: This a few days.
Speaker 15: I forget what I was even saying it, but they
Speaker 15: do have by Big twelve standards A pretty manageable stretch
Speaker 15: here going forward. Now you need it because you get
Speaker 15: to you get to February, you play BYU twice, you
Speaker 15: play what Iowa State twice, and you play at Utah
Speaker 15: and at Kansas. So let me see here you play,
Speaker 15: you play after January twenty seventh, you play Iowa State twice,
Speaker 15: at Kansas, at Kansas State, Houston at home. And I
Speaker 15: don't even like a Kansas State is struggling, but that's
Speaker 15: still a tough place to play. So I guess the
Speaker 15: point that I'm trying to make is you need to
Speaker 15: go out and run these next few weeks because it's
Speaker 15: not going to get any easier when he hit February.
Speaker 2: Right, it is winter. You're gonna save all that all
Speaker 2: that food for the for the deep winter. Let me
Speaker 2: ask you, yes, how far? Here's the question? What will
Speaker 2: have to happen if Arizona gets deep in a tournament?
Speaker 2: Will it be X player? Well? Will have to happen? Well?
Speaker 15: You know one? I think obviously it goes out saying
Speaker 15: the three or four guys that you were expecting to
Speaker 15: play really well this year, most notably Caleb love kJ
Speaker 15: Lewis they have to do it at a consistent level.
Speaker 15: But to me, the X factor, and I've said this
Speaker 15: from the beginning is Carter Bryant. And and you know
Speaker 15: I've said this before. You know, like a guy like
Speaker 15: John cal Perry right now, he's taken a lot of heat,
Speaker 15: but a lot of cal Perry's philosophy through the years
Speaker 15: has been, hey, I'm willing to sacrifice losses in you know,
Speaker 15: not September, but November, December, January to get my guys
Speaker 15: ready for March. And you know, there's been a lot
Speaker 15: of times, and I've covered this for years where fans think, oh,
Speaker 15: you got to bench this guy, You got to get
Speaker 15: to bench that guy, and then cal plays through them,
Speaker 15: and then by the time the season and they're one
Speaker 15: of the best players in the country and they're a
Speaker 15: lot of toy pick whatever. Tommy, you know, kind of
Speaker 15: comes from the Mark Futree of if you're.
Speaker 3: Not good enough, you're not playing.
Speaker 15: And I think that's a luxury you can have when
Speaker 15: you have really good deep teams like Tommy had last
Speaker 15: year and maybe you know, really year one, two out
Speaker 15: of the three years, I don't.
Speaker 3: Think he has that kind of depth.
Speaker 15: And so I get the whole you bring freshman lungs.
Speaker 15: I'm sorry, it's Carter Bryan's an NBA player, and you
Speaker 15: got to get him going, and you got to get
Speaker 15: him confident so that he's a contributor to the back
Speaker 15: cap when the schedule gets comfort. So to me, that's
Speaker 15: the X factor. And you know, part of it's on
Speaker 15: the player, but I think part of it's on the
Speaker 15: coaching staff too, of just and it seems like they've
Speaker 15: been doing this more late, but you just got to
Speaker 15: let him play through some mistakes. He's a freshman. He's
Speaker 15: gonna make some mistakes. But the upside of what he
Speaker 15: could be even by February or March is worked it
Speaker 15: for a mistake in January against Central Florida or whoever.
Speaker 3: You're playing, exactly good point exactly that we talk about
Speaker 3: that a lot. Do you want to win November or
Speaker 3: do you want to win March? You know, so sometimes
Speaker 3: you got to get there.
Speaker 15: And I think, and Tommy, I know I've just said it,
Speaker 15: but you know that's a mark. Mark Few is kind
Speaker 15: of one of the poster children. And I remember having
Speaker 15: this conversation years ago when Jay Wright was at Villanova.
Speaker 15: I said one time that I if my son wasn't
Speaker 15: one and done, I wouldn't send him to Villanova, and
Speaker 15: I had Villanova fans mad at you. Oh so you're
Speaker 15: just saying, just play a player if he's not good enough,
Speaker 15: and it's like, that's not what I said. But like
Speaker 15: the point is is that sometimes you just have to
Speaker 15: let young guys play through mistakes, because you know, a
Speaker 15: car Bryant's the kind of guy where I'm not saying
Speaker 15: he will, but.
Speaker 16: You know, if he gets his confidence and he.
Speaker 15: Gets used to the bumps and bruises of the Big twelve,
Speaker 15: I mean, that's a guy that could, by marsh gets
Speaker 15: you twenty points on any given night, Whereas, like I
Speaker 15: think there are guys on the bench that might be
Speaker 15: a senior that might not kill you right now, that
Speaker 15: aren't going to ever be able to have that upside.
Speaker 15: So it's just a different way of doing things, you know,
Speaker 15: different philosophy. But I think it's one that Tommy Royd
Speaker 15: Tricau I think about implementing.
Speaker 3: Aaron, I'm thinking about this.
Speaker 4: We're looking at this through these lens of the U
Speaker 4: of A and Big twelve, And I'm curious about your
Speaker 4: take on the national the quality of basketball on the
Speaker 4: national level. Are you seeing this across the board? Is
Speaker 4: it diluted? Is the quality down? Kids are moving around
Speaker 4: a lot. So there's a lot of disjoint in this.
Speaker 4: What's your take?
Speaker 1: No, I.
Speaker 15: We're all prisoners at the moment. I thought November and
Speaker 15: December there were as many good, fun, competitive games as
Speaker 15: I think that they're really that I can remember. And
Speaker 15: again maybe I'm being revision's history. I think to me,
Speaker 15: it's a byproduct of you know, simple supply and demand.
Speaker 15: Is not even supply and demand, but basically supply is
Speaker 15: that there's just more players available to all these schools
Speaker 15: than there ever have been. And I think, you know,
Speaker 15: if could be anybody, it could be Arizona, could be Kansas, Iowa,
Speaker 15: Stay whoever. You know, you kind of lost the guide
Speaker 15: to the NBA Draft that you weren't expecting. You had
Speaker 15: no way to replace it. Now you go get a
Speaker 15: fiftiar guy that's been in the Mountain West or something,
Speaker 15: and you know, can contribute right away. And so you also,
Speaker 15: I believe too, I think the impact of the international
Speaker 15: players that even three four years ago wouldn't even be
Speaker 15: coming to college basketball, whereas now you know, you look
Speaker 15: at Illinois, maybe the best team in the Big Ten,
Speaker 15: and their starting point guard is a kid that is
Speaker 15: going to be a lottery pick. He willn't have even been
Speaker 15: in college basketball last year. He's from Lithuania. So I think,
Speaker 15: to me, the quality has been better. I think it's
Speaker 15: more of a byproduct of the best teams are now older.
Speaker 15: The best teams also can afford to.
Speaker 3: Just keep players in college, right.
Speaker 16: I mean, listen, we use a football example.
Speaker 15: We saw it with Carson Beck today. Carson Beck six
Speaker 15: seven years ago. He just goes pro and he's a
Speaker 15: third round pick, and maybe he makes it, maybe he doesn't.
Speaker 15: This year, you know, he's coming back to college for
Speaker 15: a fifth year. He's gonna get paid handsomely to do it.
Speaker 15: He's gonna get paid more to be a college to
Speaker 15: be a college football player next year than he would
Speaker 15: be in the NFL. And so I think there's a
Speaker 15: lot of players across all levels of college basketball that
Speaker 15: are frankly making more money by staying in college than
Speaker 15: they would have. You know, the guys at the high
Speaker 15: major level that would have been second or third round
Speaker 15: picks or undrafted. The guys at the mid major level,
Speaker 15: that maybe he have no pro futures are now staying
Speaker 15: because hey, I can whatever a small number is to
Speaker 15: you guys, I don't you know. I don't want to
Speaker 15: insult anybody, but I can make thirty forty fifty thousand
Speaker 15: dollars to be a college basketball player when I maybe
Speaker 15: wouldn't have ten twelve fifteen years ago. So I actually
Speaker 15: think the quality of play to me is a little
Speaker 15: bit better. And the last thing I'd say, I know
Speaker 15: I'm going a little bit wrong. I think part of
Speaker 15: it too is also were out three four years into
Speaker 15: this nil portal era, and we've obviously seen a lot
Speaker 15: of coaches leave. But I think the coaches that are
Speaker 15: here kind of understanding this is the new world. This
Speaker 15: is Hey, you know, the idea of keeping nine players
Speaker 15: off last year's roster, if none of them are graduating,
Speaker 15: that's just gone. And so I think the guys that
Speaker 15: are in it. You know a lot of guys that left,
Speaker 15: Tony Bett's left, Jay Wright's left, whatever, But the guys
Speaker 15: that are in it are like, this is the new world.
Speaker 15: I have to deal with it, and I can't hold
Speaker 15: on to what it once was. And so I think
Speaker 15: the the way guys, coach is different. I think the
Speaker 15: quality of player is different than like I said, the
Speaker 15: ability to retain players, even good ones, I think is
Speaker 15: a huge.
Speaker 2: Expector to me, what do you think? Just one more
Speaker 2: last question? Aaron Torres with Aaron Sports podcast. How can
Speaker 2: they find you? Real quick? Just real quick? Before my question?
Speaker 15: Yeah, Aaron underscore tours on Twitter to the air Torus
Speaker 15: podcast four times a week, and then of course Steve
Speaker 15: as you know, we have the Tours on Arizona.
Speaker 16: Page which covers all things.
Speaker 15: Arizona and we have a great internal run.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, you do a great job. What's the most
Speaker 2: compelling story so far? Is it the coaches leaving the
Speaker 2: Bennett's and Larnigos and what.
Speaker 3: Is it in college basketball?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 15: I don't know, you know, I think to me, I
Speaker 15: would argue to me, I do think it's probably the SEC.
Speaker 15: I don't know if it will stay that way, And
Speaker 15: I'll tell you why. Like I think, on paper, it
Speaker 15: seems fun of like, oh.
Speaker 16: You know, anybody can beat anybody else on.
Speaker 3: Any given night, and that.
Speaker 15: Might be true, but like if you're a Kentucky fan
Speaker 15: and you're used to going, you know, fourteen and four
Speaker 15: in the league, and now all of a sudden, it's
Speaker 15: mid you know, it's early February, and you're, you know,
Speaker 15: eight and seven with three games to go, and you're
Speaker 15: playing the basketball like I don't know if that's as
Speaker 15: fun for fans as they think it is, but I
Speaker 15: do think it is the SEC because I think listen,
Speaker 15: I you know, the Lonardi projections early in the season
Speaker 15: had like twelve thirteen teams in I think it's probably
Speaker 15: gonna be ten or eleven. But I think there are
Speaker 15: ten or eleven really good teams. And I think if
Speaker 15: you watch those teams, whether it's not only All Burned
Speaker 15: but also Tennessee Tennessee Florida, I think there are three
Speaker 15: or four teams, maybe five even that are good enough
Speaker 15: to get to a Final four. So I think that,
Speaker 15: to me is the most compelling thing because there are
Speaker 15: just so many teams in that league this season.
Speaker 2: Okay, well, we're going to catch up to you. Will
Speaker 2: always continue to bug you. Thanks for coming on.
Speaker 15: No problem, guys, I appreciate you. Have a great afternoon.
Speaker 2: We'll talk. Took eron touris erin touris one of the
Speaker 2: great guys. Let's take a break here and come back
Speaker 2: and talk more about college basketball.
Speaker 3: These threeporting is sponsored by Rapid Radio.
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Speaker 14: This is I on the Ball on Fox Sports fourteen fifding.
Speaker 14: Want to take part in the show. Call up Steve
Speaker 14: now at five to two oh four one seventy four nights.
Speaker 2: Hey, welcome back to Buying the Ball here on Fox
Speaker 2: Sports fortuny. I'm Steve Rivera. You know sim Bedley. Hey,
Speaker 2: we gotta call, we gotta call. You're on the air
Speaker 2: and I on the ball. Who's this?
Speaker 1: Hey?
Speaker 15: And Steve listener guy Gary, I'd like calling you.
Speaker 2: Every now and then.
Speaker 18: I Uh, I forgot. I'd get a little basketball here
Speaker 18: with you. I was watching a special last night on
Speaker 18: Channel nine. You're talking about an African American museum with
Speaker 18: with Bob Elliet.
Speaker 2: That's dark my memory.
Speaker 18: Uh the announcing this one of my favorite announcing teams
Speaker 18: arebably gonna catch some heck for this. Dave sitting Bob Ellie.
Speaker 18: That's when I used to.
Speaker 2: Do the local. Yeah, back in the day was great. Okay, Yeah,
Speaker 2: back in the day, Eli.
Speaker 15: Got a little Ellie got a little crazy. But he
Speaker 15: wasn't afraid to.
Speaker 14: Call him out.
Speaker 15: But he could get a.
Speaker 18: Little you know, he'd get a little fired up for
Speaker 18: him too.
Speaker 2: But yes, yes, in.
Speaker 18: Fact, we're gonna have him on that sad though. Yeah yeah, yeah,
Speaker 18: Now what did sit and pass away? Was it a
Speaker 18: heart attack?
Speaker 2: Ten years ago he died?
Speaker 4: Uh, he was diagnosed with cancer. Oh that's a cancer fighter,
Speaker 4: cancer survivor. Had a radio show, remember that talking about
Speaker 4: cancer fighters and yeah, and.
Speaker 3: Sadly rugby and for office.
Speaker 4: He was into rugby, rugby's coat, rugby men's rugby coach.
Speaker 4: Great guy was an advocate for just you know, young men,
Speaker 4: young people in general, and a real advocate for U
Speaker 4: of a love.
Speaker 2: He was fifty eight years old. I think it was
Speaker 2: ten years ago, fourteen ish. Yeah, yeah, good guy. I
Speaker 2: had just written a story about him. Was passing for
Speaker 2: his Tucson. No, No, that's that brought that brought those
Speaker 2: memories up. Yeah, they were together, they were a tandem.
Speaker 2: I in fact, when I traveled with the team and
Speaker 2: you know, and didn't have want to rent a car.
Speaker 2: I traveled with them in the back seat, and all
Speaker 2: the stories I heard, the stories I heard, are you
Speaker 2: great stories. In fact, in one of my books, Bob
Speaker 2: Elliott talks about his time playing for U of A
Speaker 2: at Utah. It was not a good not a good time.
Speaker 2: Bomb threats, bomb threats, things like that. It was crazy.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna have Bob, but I think doctor j h
Speaker 2: in early next week. Okay, that's what I was. Check
Speaker 2: it out.
Speaker 18: See that's before. So that's before the Pac twelve took over. Right,
Speaker 18: The school kind of had their local announcers that they
Speaker 18: had and yeah, yeah, maybe they kind of started.
Speaker 2: No, that's that's exactly it. They transitioned into what we
Speaker 2: see today.
Speaker 3: And great.
Speaker 4: I love all those uf A guys that come in
Speaker 4: and they know the game. Corey Williams, Corey Williams, they're
Speaker 4: all they're all good, they're insight.
Speaker 2: Don't forget this too. It's a coach. Larson was part
Speaker 2: of that group. Oh man, you talk about old school,
Speaker 2: You're right. They were talking like to the mid eighties.
Speaker 2: Dave Silver would know about that because it was Larston
Speaker 2: sitting and Bob ail you like a three sume every
Speaker 2: now interchangeable kind of good time.
Speaker 18: We've been like PAC twelve guys, I miss I'm gonna
Speaker 18: sound like I said, once again, get off the long guy.
Speaker 18: But now it's ESPN.
Speaker 15: Plus and how I have seen maybe two.
Speaker 18: Seconds of women's basketball backed you know, PAC twelve network,
Speaker 18: nothing on Hey, let's watch if I got to hunt
Speaker 18: this stuff out now on ESPN Plus and I forget
Speaker 18: about it, you know, so you're gonna put you of
Speaker 18: a on a quote regular channel. I've seen maybe three
Speaker 18: games of the men's but I've already seen the women.
Speaker 18: That's what I liked to buy.
Speaker 15: Pack twelve.
Speaker 18: You could throw it on Oregon, State, Washington and nothing else.
Speaker 2: I don't let me check this out a while. You know,
Speaker 2: it's funny because everyone was everyone bitched about, you know,
Speaker 2: the PAC twelve network and yeaha YadA, no oh, go ahead.
Speaker 3: Everybody misses it. What's going on?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I.
Speaker 18: Figure you guys would like to reminisce the old school there,
Speaker 18: man's that's what I give you.
Speaker 2: We're going to have, like I said, we're gonna have
Speaker 2: Bob Elliott and then Doctor Jay. I think at some
Speaker 2: point next week because the show was on Thursday, a
Speaker 2: week from a week from yesterday. Thanks Garry.
Speaker 4: I appreciate it, and ask him some of those stories
Speaker 4: that he was talking about.
Speaker 3: We'll see what.
Speaker 2: Yeah, cool, Thanks Gary, appreciate it. That's that's a good call. Yeah,
Speaker 2: they're gonna be on next week. I'm not sure what
Speaker 2: day it's going to be. The show that they're doing
Speaker 2: is going to be Thursday. Uh, Pealaberni High School. I
Speaker 2: don't want to miss stave us.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you don't have to.
Speaker 4: You have to put it on your web on your
Speaker 4: Facebook pages and remind everybody now that Dave Sitton was
Speaker 4: a great guy. Centurion I him in centurions and just
Speaker 4: just loved you have a loved being.
Speaker 15: Uh.
Speaker 1: He was.
Speaker 2: He was the community, you know. He he cared about the.
Speaker 3: Yeah he was. Those guys come across every once.
Speaker 2: This guy totally.
Speaker 4: He could you ever seen You'd see him seeing brown
Speaker 4: eyed girl at the golf tournament or something his old
Speaker 4: school Tucson back.
Speaker 3: In the day.
Speaker 2: That's a good call. I kind of remember.
Speaker 3: Thanks Gary.
Speaker 2: Way to go, Gary, reminisce about that stuff.
Speaker 4: These old guys here now thinking about it. I've got
Speaker 4: to Steve's got a tear in his eye.
Speaker 2: Mister softy you know, and and Bob when he did
Speaker 2: it for a long time, he'd come up with some praises,
Speaker 2: you know, some praises like what the hell is that?
Speaker 10: That was that?
Speaker 2: And then I'm sure when he did it with Coach
Speaker 2: with Larsen, I think Larson probably said you're not playing
Speaker 2: anymore because he was just very straightforward, right straightforward, and
Speaker 2: he recently passed I think with the last five years.
Speaker 3: You know, I love guys like Gary.
Speaker 4: You know, it's it's old school and that's okay, that's
Speaker 4: that's why, that's why we're fans.
Speaker 2: Right. We were talking about this before the show started,
Speaker 2: because you know, I'm looking for for advertisings and blah
Speaker 2: blah blah. But most of my listeners are are not
Speaker 2: our age. But it's similar, similar over thirty five kind
Speaker 2: of have those stories. Besides, Nico can call in every
Speaker 2: now and give us a grief.
Speaker 3: I know, I like when Nico calls.
Speaker 4: But yeah, you got a loyal audience, and you know,
Speaker 4: so if you're an advertiser out there, Steve's audience is loyal.
Speaker 4: They listen every day, they tune in, and you have
Speaker 4: money and they do.
Speaker 3: You know, It's funny because you know, this better me.
Speaker 2: Because you're in advertising, people are directing their audience to
Speaker 2: the younger crowd. Right, crowd didn't have any money. They're
Speaker 2: trying to make a family and pay the kids, and
Speaker 2: blah blah blah.
Speaker 4: Wanted some discretionary income because you wanted an audience with
Speaker 4: some discretionary income.
Speaker 2: Hey, Mildred, if you want a new four there's one
Speaker 2: on radio show.
Speaker 3: Right now. So that's what you get. I think that
Speaker 3: that's exactly why we're fans.
Speaker 4: You know, we've talked about it through throughout is you know,
Speaker 4: people want to be loyal to the school and and
Speaker 4: they are, and Dave represented that and he and he
Speaker 4: encouraged that, and and there's lifelong fans like us.
Speaker 2: You You're you're paying for the Arizona on the front,
Speaker 2: not that the teams in the back, because come on, Lions, Lions,
Speaker 2: I can throw the names out and they've come and
Speaker 2: gone right with the people that are still buying tickets
Speaker 2: have been there for a long time buying those tickets
Speaker 2: because they want to see the people play for their school.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 4: And I think that the wh when people get they
Speaker 4: get sideways a little bit. That the products changed a
Speaker 4: little bit, the products changed, and maybe that's a better
Speaker 4: way to say that rather than the loyalty to the
Speaker 4: school is the product has changed and people just have
Speaker 4: to figure that out and how they're going to interact
Speaker 4: with that.
Speaker 2: Right, no matter how this team finishes this year in
Speaker 2: the tournament, guess what the school is going to be
Speaker 2: twelve thirteen, fourteen thousand next year, cheering them on again.
Speaker 3: Every year, it's just what did they do? Just what
Speaker 3: they do? No, So yes, those thanks Gary for for
Speaker 3: bringing that up. Let me let me ask you, because
Speaker 3: you're you're a little younger than me.
Speaker 2: Uh, when I say good old days for college basketball,
Speaker 2: what comes to mind?
Speaker 19: First thing for Tuson for for U A basketball, for
Speaker 19: u A basketball is uh, when Ludolston shows up and
Speaker 19: Shawn Elliott, So, Sean Elliott and I are the same age,
Speaker 19: same grade, SOI eighty five, eighty six, when they you know,
Speaker 19: after Ben lindsay, So that's the good old days for me.
Speaker 4: That's the start of the good old days. And it
Speaker 4: probably ends right around with Bobby one and that run
Speaker 4: to the finals, and then that's kind of that. So
Speaker 4: that fifteen sixteen year era is the good old days.
Speaker 4: Not that teams haven't been great since, or they weren't
Speaker 4: great before, right, But that.
Speaker 3: In my mind is in my era.
Speaker 2: Well this maybe have a call or two. We have
Speaker 2: about six minut in this thing. What were the good
Speaker 2: old days for you guys, because we're not going to
Speaker 2: have a breaking news segment in the first hour. We're
Speaker 2: going to go to Peabody at four seventeen, so we'll
Speaker 2: have the next few minutes to talk about that good
Speaker 2: old days of college basketball for U of A. Because
Speaker 2: I'm sure people thought when Bob was playing in the mid.
Speaker 4: Seven Snowden, you know, yeah, they had they had a
Speaker 4: good run there, and you know, and then there's the
Speaker 4: bad old days, the Ben Lindsay days.
Speaker 3: But I mean there's been more good days than bad.
Speaker 2: The good thing is only there weren't many days of that.
Speaker 2: You know, Cedric saw early that, you know, get these.
Speaker 5: Guys out of here, right, So yeah, I think how
Speaker 5: old were you in eighty two eighty three?
Speaker 3: I was born in sixty six, so I was sixteen
Speaker 3: seventeen years old.
Speaker 2: Did you remember much of those miserable days?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 2: I had you pay attention.
Speaker 3: I was more into football then.
Speaker 4: I thought I wanted to be a football player at
Speaker 4: ninety eight pounds and six three.
Speaker 3: You know, I was a cross country kids told me
Speaker 3: the ball.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 4: So I just remember kind of that dismal four and
Speaker 4: twenty four season that that rises to the top for me.
Speaker 2: Have I told you my story about Benci. I've never
Speaker 2: met them man, never met the man. So I was
Speaker 2: writing my third book. It's the box Book, the cool
Speaker 2: box book with the bunch crap in it. So it
Speaker 2: turned out to be fabulous in my mind. It still is.
Speaker 2: I love that book. So when it came out, maybe
Speaker 2: the first two months, I get a call from my publisher.
Speaker 2: You've never heard the story. No, okay, so you never
Speaker 2: had a story, but I've told it a few times.
Speaker 2: So I get a call from my publisher. He's kind
Speaker 2: of upset me, said, Steve, I have an issue. We
Speaker 2: got a caller in our Atlanta office we were publishing,
Speaker 2: saying that you had a big factual error on page
Speaker 2: twelve whatever it was eighteen about the program, and it
Speaker 2: kind of diminishes the value of the book. You know.
Speaker 2: It's kind of like, has this thing. I'm thinking, what
Speaker 2: are you talking about? There's not We look through that
Speaker 2: thing and we find comed it blah blah blah, and
Speaker 2: it says what is it? He says, well, it says
Speaker 2: here that they it was the worst time of Arizona
Speaker 2: basketball in decades. They went four and twenty four. And says, well,
Speaker 2: that's factual. I mean, that's what it was. And who
Speaker 2: could be complaining? He says, well, some guy named Ben Lindsay.
Speaker 2: And I said the sense he was the coach at
Speaker 2: the time. He's trying to defend himself.
Speaker 4: Everything's okay, it's the worst maybe you know, top three
Speaker 4: worst times, not the worst.
Speaker 2: Well, I think it's probably the worst.
Speaker 3: It's probably is for sure.
Speaker 2: Right, So that's it said, Oh, never mind, I'm okay,
Speaker 2: You're okay. The book's gonna do fight.
Speaker 3: He's gonna get sued.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's gonna get sued, right yeah, maikes. Sense, So
Speaker 2: it is what it is.
Speaker 3: So what's coming up next time? You got? You and
Speaker 3: Jay are no?
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, later in the later in the hour, Jay's
Speaker 2: gonna call him with his picks and my picks for
Speaker 2: the final week. Uh. And then that four seventeen, we're
Speaker 2: gonna have Brian Peabody calling his PEMA undefeated team. See
Speaker 2: what what the status is with his team? He he
Speaker 2: had a hard time maybe two three years ago with
Speaker 2: a bunch of knuckleheads that he kind of just you know,
Speaker 2: you know when you have that year. Uh, and now
Speaker 2: it's kind of returned to it.
Speaker 4: He as he has many many uh triumphant returns. And
Speaker 4: you know, and he coached high school here for some time,
Speaker 4: and you know, and and and was he I know
Speaker 4: he coached high school and and South Point and and
Speaker 4: you know, so he.
Speaker 3: Often rises to the top.
Speaker 4: It's not an uncommon story for him to be in
Speaker 4: the fad or have one or two lives.
Speaker 2: I know, he's gonna tell me. I was asking him
Speaker 2: how many wins and losses you most? Do you? I
Speaker 2: don't care he cares about I know it does. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, I don't.
Speaker 3: Yeah, suret. I'm gonna look it up and we'll see yea, yeah,
Speaker 3: google it. Okay.
Speaker 2: So so that said, if you guys want to call
Speaker 2: in the next hour, now that we're ready out of
Speaker 2: time in this hour, what were the good old days
Speaker 2: for you? Uh, that's a good stretch. That's a long
Speaker 2: stretch for you. Sixteen sixteen years maybe they were.
Speaker 3: They were good.
Speaker 4: You know, it seemed like every four years they went
Speaker 4: to the door. We went to the four, and they
Speaker 4: you know, they would, they would, They were going to
Speaker 4: the termin all the time.
Speaker 3: And then every once in a while they make a
Speaker 3: run to the final four.
Speaker 2: And you think, like like Josh Passner in ninety seven, Dad,
Speaker 2: we're headed to the final four. Look how easy it is.
Speaker 2: That's happen all the time.
Speaker 4: You really thought, you know, Khalid Reeves, that we're going
Speaker 4: to go every couple of years. Yeah, it seemed like
Speaker 4: every senior had a run when they got to.
Speaker 2: That, and you haven't been there in almost twenty five.
Speaker 3: It's it can happen fast.
Speaker 2: It does years and half five years, a couple of
Speaker 2: ball bounces, and you go back in twenty fourteen to
Speaker 2: fifteen when they played Wisconsin, but and and Duke in
Speaker 2: twenty eleven.
Speaker 4: Ish, you're just twisting the knifef you ever, you know,
Speaker 4: we're talking about your audience here.
Speaker 5: You're just twisting and I had to get the tea
Speaker 5: out of my you're just twisting the knife.
Speaker 2: Eventually they'll get back. I thought Sean would get him there.
Speaker 2: It didn't happen. But that's for another day. That's that's yeah,
Speaker 2: that's another day. That's for your Saturday, Tommy. We'll see
Speaker 2: if Tommy can do it. I don't know.
Speaker 4: You know, the road got tougher, The road got tougher,
Speaker 4: but it feels better. Aaron was talking about these coaches
Speaker 4: that are I think Tommy's figured it out. He's figured
Speaker 4: out how to talk to his kids, and they're making
Speaker 4: a nice run and he's around. You know, he's a
Speaker 4: good coach. He's going to be around.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I got some play. When you're with a coach
Speaker 2: at this time in your life or this time of era,
Speaker 2: kids want to play and want to play with no restrictions,
Speaker 2: if that makes any sense. Uh the half court? Did
Speaker 2: you see what don don Crony Cronin did at U
Speaker 2: c A. He just rouped into his time. Oh I
Speaker 2: did see that. And how are you gonna play for
Speaker 2: a kid like?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 4: It's you know that that we could do a whole
Speaker 4: show on coaching and respect and you know and and
Speaker 4: you know, but Aaron talked about these kids are you know,
Speaker 4: they're they're they're making some cash. They have a decision,
Speaker 4: they can make it. They can they can leave in
Speaker 4: a heartbeat at the end of the season.
Speaker 2: So with that, we're gonna go and come back,