Speaker 1: To determine the marketability of students. And boy, I'll tell
Speaker 1: you what, I wouldn't want to be that person on
Speaker 1: campus that has to determine the marketability of each individual
Speaker 1: student athlete.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no question.
Speaker 3: You You are definitely correct when you say I'm glad
Speaker 3: I'm watching from the sidelines because it is Yeah, you know,
Speaker 3: another thing, obviously, the news go ahead, no, go ahead,
Speaker 3: the the wee can over the news over the weekend.
Speaker 3: The big news ideas leaving after new nine years. Your
Speaker 3: thoughts on her leaving and her legacy here, Well.
Speaker 4: She left a great legacy, didn't she. And you know
Speaker 4: I'm biased. I knew her as a student athlete.
Speaker 1: I consider one of my own, consider one of my girls.
Speaker 1: So uh, you know, I'm grateful, right Idea says I'm
Speaker 1: one of her mentors, and that is one of the
Speaker 1: greatest you know feelings you can have, is to hear that.
Speaker 1: So so she's very special. Her family obviously is She's
Speaker 1: very special to.
Speaker 4: Do you obey, And she put us on the on
Speaker 4: the mark again by taking us to the championship game,
Speaker 4: you know, And.
Speaker 1: So I wish her all the best.
Speaker 4: I also know there's a time and place for everything,
Speaker 4: and you know.
Speaker 5: They are both the university and.
Speaker 4: Do you have to do what's best for them.
Speaker 1: So I'm happy for and I'll be rooting her from Afar,
Speaker 1: and I'll be rooting for the new basketball.
Speaker 4: Coach that comes in. And and you know, it's inevitable.
Speaker 4: Change is inevitable.
Speaker 1: And with this crazy, crazy stuff going on in analytics
Speaker 1: with the ni L and paying athletes and oh my goodness,
Speaker 1: I think we're going to see many changes down the road.
Speaker 6: I don't even know what to say about that too,
Speaker 6: because as far as you know, how do you where
Speaker 6: do you begin? I mean, there's we were joking, we
Speaker 6: were joking, is there anybody even in the office that
Speaker 6: could even get things rolling? There's no I assume the
Speaker 6: coaches are going to go with.
Speaker 7: Her or what?
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, well, how do they even begin this
Speaker 6: process of putting together a roster?
Speaker 1: And you know, well, again, athletic directors have lists, they
Speaker 1: know who they're.
Speaker 4: They're interested in. If not, they're not doing their job right.
Speaker 1: And so I would imagine something's going to happen really
Speaker 1: really quick. You know, I know they're on it already.
Speaker 1: I got to speak with Desiree just a little bit
Speaker 1: a couple of days ago, and I know they're already
Speaker 1: on it, so I wouldn't be.
Speaker 4: Surprised, you know, to hear a quick decision on something.
Speaker 1: You have to do that right, because you're right, kids
Speaker 1: are leaving, they're entering the portal with everybody else is recruiting,
Speaker 1: and yeah, I mean it'll it'll get done.
Speaker 5: It'll get done.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they just the fans just need to know. And
Speaker 3: you know, how does one second later, who's next?
Speaker 2: Let's go.
Speaker 3: We've got to make sure our tickets are sold. You know,
Speaker 3: he's just like, who's next? Blah blah blah. You want
Speaker 3: to keep the momentum going.
Speaker 6: I mean, she's you know, she built, like you said,
Speaker 6: she's still something, putting uve on the map for women's hoops.
Speaker 6: You know, you're averaging what five six thousand fans a game.
Speaker 6: You want to keep that rolling. You maybe find a
Speaker 6: coach who's going to have similar charisma and ability to
Speaker 6: you know, motivate fans to come out and watch, right, And.
Speaker 1: I know it's hard on the fans because they're hearing
Speaker 1: absolutely nothing, so they think nothing's going on, you know,
Speaker 1: and I remember being in that position, as we would
Speaker 1: you know, do coaching searches, and but you just can't
Speaker 1: say anything because you know there's the coach that you
Speaker 1: may want to be bringing in has a life at
Speaker 1: that school too, and that they don't want their their
Speaker 1: athletes and stuff to know all your negotiating stuff. So
Speaker 1: it's just a process and it's unfortunate it has to
Speaker 1: be so secretive, but it's in the best interest that's
Speaker 1: everybody involved.
Speaker 3: So maybe maybe the last question Rocky talking about Cedric.
Speaker 3: So we talked about Lowton that was kind of like
Speaker 3: the lynchpin to start things here, and was there another
Speaker 3: thing or two that you said, how did he pull
Speaker 3: this off?
Speaker 1: Uh? Well, I don't I can't think of anything specifically.
Speaker 1: I just I just loved his philosophy again, and I
Speaker 1: think if I said how did he pull this off?
Speaker 1: It would be the NCAA A job because he wanted it.
Speaker 1: But you know, there was a lot of talk back then,
Speaker 1: you know, already going non traditional, right, and so it
Speaker 1: was such a great relief to everybody that that that
Speaker 1: he was the.
Speaker 4: One that got the job.
Speaker 1: So I think watching him build up to that was
Speaker 1: was something special because he is he was so close
Speaker 1: with the NCAA. Again, like I said, and legislation really
Speaker 1: mattered to him. It used to drive us crazy because
Speaker 1: he would want to know exactly how it was going
Speaker 1: to affect us in the department, how we would it
Speaker 1: would affect the.
Speaker 4: Conference, and how it would affect nationally. And so we were.
Speaker 4: We did a lot of behind the scenes work.
Speaker 1: On that that led to his reputation that ultimately gave
Speaker 1: him the job at the NCAA office.
Speaker 3: So I think so eighty two eighty three, you were
Speaker 3: just out of college, is that right?
Speaker 1: Well? No, I actually started, as you have made, nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy nine as a softball coach. Yeah, and then I
Speaker 1: became Mary Roby's assistant in nineteen eighty so I had
Speaker 1: been there already four years when Cedric came on.
Speaker 3: So that was going to be my question in terms
Speaker 3: of I'm sure Mary was a huge influence on you.
Speaker 2: So and Saidriac number two.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: Both of them, I feel are completely responsible for bringing us.
Speaker 4: You know, we always said back then the.
Speaker 5: Modern era, and now we got a.
Speaker 1: New modern error, right, But there is no doubt that
Speaker 1: Mary Roby.
Speaker 4: And said Dempsey are the two that laid the foundation.
Speaker 1: For the modern era of athletics and got us in
Speaker 1: the position to grow and be as excellent as we
Speaker 1: were throughout the nineties.
Speaker 4: I mean, you know, uh, you know it's.
Speaker 1: A combination effort when you're hiring coaches. But you know,
Speaker 1: Mary Roby found coach Kendrea, you know, and then Cedric
Speaker 1: Dempsey approves it, so you know it's a combined effort.
Speaker 1: But you know, same with Frank Bush.
Speaker 5: You know, same. You know, we're all all in it
Speaker 5: together with the searches.
Speaker 1: So those two, wow, I mean, we are really grateful
Speaker 1: that we had them here at the University bar zone.
Speaker 2: And let me tell a big reason why people know
Speaker 2: that block A.
Speaker 4: That's right, that's right. Yeah, absolutely, thank you, Rocky.
Speaker 2: Thank you Rocky as always, thanks for your patience.
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you, well, thanks, thank you.
Speaker 2: We're not gonna go to a break.
Speaker 3: We're gonna stay on until the next break, and then
Speaker 3: we're gonna listen to Ryan Hansen, who knew Cedric as well.
Speaker 3: But we're going to talk a lot about college basketball itself.
Speaker 3: In my mind, Dave in the in the games that
Speaker 3: I covered, and I covered a few this year and
Speaker 3: know Jwan did too. Houston to me was the best
Speaker 3: team that I saw in person. Uh, And it's just
Speaker 3: because of how they play. You mentioned bullyball. I mentioned
Speaker 3: that over the weekend, and it's a good bullyball, not
Speaker 3: a bad bullyball. It's like, don't be safe. You have
Speaker 3: a TEENPOI leave, don't be safe. And that's just because
Speaker 3: what happened on Saturday. I mean they did it a lot.
Speaker 3: In fact, Jay, because we joked on Friday and Ray
Speaker 3: was with us, right and we made a bet he
Speaker 3: took Duke and I took Florida, whoever wins, And I said,
Speaker 3: I texted him there down by ten or whatever was
Speaker 3: at half, and I said, it's exactly where you that's
Speaker 3: what exactly where they want Duke to be feel a
Speaker 3: little comfortable. And then they just poured on in the
Speaker 3: second half. They're like a racehorse that likes to come
Speaker 3: from behind.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean that's what they did.
Speaker 6: They you know, they basically waited to the last two
Speaker 6: minutes of the game to overtake the leader, to see
Speaker 6: the stretch. Yeah, I mean it was incredible. The defense
Speaker 6: that they play. We've known about that, you know, all season,
Speaker 6: We've watched them do this, and they just did it
Speaker 6: on the highest level.
Speaker 7: Possible. Yeah, the best time.
Speaker 3: I was listening to some other sports talk shows coming
Speaker 3: in and it's like they just realized realized about Houston.
Speaker 2: Like, oh, they're they're good. Yeah, they're good. I said,
Speaker 2: where you been?
Speaker 6: They've been good, especially the last couple of years, you know,
Speaker 6: and as Arizona's jumped into the Big twelve, they got
Speaker 6: a closer look. And you know, that was like the
Speaker 6: game at McHale this year, at least at the league
Speaker 6: game and a Kale that people were worried about and
Speaker 6: excited about.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's funny. Did you hear his post game interview
Speaker 3: with whoever?
Speaker 5: Whoever?
Speaker 2: Did the interview was just on the court.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I'm not sure I did.
Speaker 3: He said, we're seventeen and one, so whatever it was
Speaker 3: in the conference is it's not like we played in
Speaker 3: the toy pool.
Speaker 7: Ooh yes, I did?
Speaker 5: You know?
Speaker 3: And it's right because we talked about Arizona getting confidence
Speaker 3: from the league. Yeah, they owned the league and played
Speaker 3: against all these teams.
Speaker 6: I could tell you a little we have time. Yeah,
Speaker 6: I got a little personal story that I had with
Speaker 6: him one time years ago. I was really good friends
Speaker 6: with this guy named Bud Namik who had been the
Speaker 6: voice of Washington State Radio for years and years, and
Speaker 6: Bud and I went to high school together. So every
Speaker 6: year basically he would come to Tucson and we would
Speaker 6: get together either at the game or after the game.
Speaker 6: So you know, this has got to be again in
Speaker 6: the early nineties, I guess, or somewhere around there, and
Speaker 6: they come down and you know, Kelvin's the coach, and
Speaker 6: Bud and I get together at one of the restaurants
Speaker 6: after the game. And this is like ten thirty eleven
Speaker 6: thirty at night, and he says, oh, Kevin will be
Speaker 6: down in a minute. So Kelvin just came down from
Speaker 6: the hotel and joined us for a couple after game drinks.
Speaker 7: Was really fun.
Speaker 3: Thirty five thirty two years ago, at least thirty years
Speaker 3: or so. He's sixty nine now is thirty seven thirty.
Speaker 7: It was great.
Speaker 6: He was hilarious. I mean, how many coaches would do
Speaker 6: that even now? For sure, maybe back then they did
Speaker 6: a little bit more.
Speaker 2: This is funny because I love the way he walks.
Speaker 3: I don't know if you noticed the way he walks
Speaker 3: kind of like, hey, my stuff, my stuff is good stuff,
Speaker 3: you know, like my I think I've just said about
Speaker 3: this with my interaction with him. So when he was
Speaker 3: at Washington State, and if you remember, the citizen had
Speaker 3: this plus and minus boxes defense offense blah blah, So I,
Speaker 3: you know, check this checked out and in tangibles in
Speaker 3: Washington State was in town and I said, Washington State
Speaker 3: has no intangibles.
Speaker 2: They're going to get beat pretty badly. Blah blah blah.
Speaker 3: And everyone at that time had one of thirty five straight,
Speaker 3: thirty seven straight, whatever it was. So after that, after
Speaker 3: the game, he says, who's ribera, We haven't tangibles. We
Speaker 3: have intangled. We didn't win the game, but we haven't
Speaker 3: tangible sired.
Speaker 2: So you saw my story.
Speaker 3: So this last time when he was here, I hadn't
Speaker 3: seen her talk to him at the final four. We
Speaker 3: would talk to a couple of times. But he came
Speaker 3: in and I waited till the end, and I followed
Speaker 3: him in the hallway after the after the pressure conference,
Speaker 3: Kelvin had if your memory Steve River, oh, yeah, the
Speaker 3: good old days through thirty some years ago. He says, yeah,
Speaker 3: I'm very proud of what you guys have done. I
Speaker 3: thought you would win it last year. And he says, well,
Speaker 3: we'll see, we'll see. But you know, he had his
Speaker 3: grandkids on him, chasing him and whatever.
Speaker 6: Apparently he's got his son lined up to be his successors,
Speaker 6: is what they're saying. And you can tell which he
Speaker 6: was just like him Kelvin like doesn't sit down, but
Speaker 6: then his son is like kneeling down, not in a chair,
Speaker 6: you know, kind of you can tell it's him.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's always wearing the same outfit. Really, I always
Speaker 3: wearing this. He's gonna have his taller shirt with his
Speaker 3: sweats or whatever. Yeah, and that's good, you know.
Speaker 6: Like again, it's it's kind of fun to see him
Speaker 6: get to this point after all these years, and we
Speaker 6: had a chance to watch Arizona beat up on them
Speaker 6: so many years in a row. He couldn't get past him.
Speaker 6: And he goes to where did he go to Oklahoma next?
Speaker 6: And then Indiana or plus the NBA he was he
Speaker 6: was also a mixture with some NBA teams. So's he's
Speaker 6: he's hung on still at the age of sixty nine,
Speaker 6: still coaching right.
Speaker 7: At this level.
Speaker 2: He's kind of here's a question this he wins it.
Speaker 2: Let's say he wins it, do you go.
Speaker 7: Out on right off?
Speaker 3: In the sunset you or do you kind of maybe
Speaker 3: win a second win and go off and I don't know,
Speaker 3: Or when you're seventy three and say, okay, I've happened.
Speaker 3: Arielma's going to go through the same thing. True, he's
Speaker 3: seventy one, I think he is, and he's won twelve. Now,
Speaker 3: at what point do you say, Okay, I've had enough
Speaker 3: and twelve is enough.
Speaker 6: I didn't realize have been so long since Theayed one one?
Speaker 6: Ten years, nine, nine years?
Speaker 7: Okay, but still yeah, how many what more do you
Speaker 7: need to do.
Speaker 2: To prove yourself?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 6: You know, I guess he's you know, he's got that program.
Speaker 6: It's his thing, and he just don't want to give.
Speaker 7: It up just yet.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 3: It's funny because Luke would say, Remember, Luke got criticized
Speaker 3: a lot for the first round losses. He hadn't got
Speaker 3: to the funal four in a while, he hadn't won
Speaker 3: a championship, blah blah blah, says Steve, how many big
Speaker 3: games do you have to win to win the big game?
Speaker 3: But how many times you have to prove yourself that
Speaker 3: you're a good coach before you've actually become a big
Speaker 3: good coach and and then he wons the title and
Speaker 3: all the pressure was off, right because he finally did it.
Speaker 6: Yeah yeah, but these coaches like you know Ariamo, I mean,
Speaker 6: how many you know what twelve titles?
Speaker 2: The rings on his fingers ped the ball? Did he doubled? Yeah?
Speaker 3: So Rocky just texted me, jeez, I forgot and didn't
Speaker 3: say that. Seid promoted me over football and basketball. So
Speaker 3: she was in charge of football and basketball, and she
Speaker 3: he promoted Meg Richie and Sue Hillman, so the women
Speaker 3: were in charge of the weight room in the training
Speaker 3: training room.
Speaker 6: So Sue, they were both there when my brief time
Speaker 6: when we did you if a football game is on
Speaker 6: Channel nine in the mid eighties, she was there and
Speaker 6: Meg were there, So they were they were there, and
Speaker 6: you're right at that time there probably weren't too many
Speaker 6: women in those positions for sure, especially a strength coach.
Speaker 3: You know, Meg was, she was great at that, right,
Speaker 3: and Sue was the trainer, the trainer. Yeah, yeah, no, good, Okay,
Speaker 3: So let's do this. We're going to take a break,
Speaker 3: hope we come back. If we come back, and we're
Speaker 3: going to talk to Rhino about tonight's game, about you
Speaker 3: a basketball, the state's in and more.
Speaker 5: Breaking down all the knows. This is High on the
Speaker 5: Ball with Steve Rivera on Box Sports fourteen fifty eight.
Speaker 3: Hey, welcome back to wy in the Ball Here on
Speaker 3: Fox Sports fourteen fifty I'm Steve Rivera in today, Dave Silver.
Speaker 3: We've got raided control with one. Now we have rhino,
Speaker 3: Ryan Hanson from U of a longtime, You've a rhino.
Speaker 2: How are you.
Speaker 5: Good? How are you guys?
Speaker 2: Fine?
Speaker 3: Thank you? You just went through. We had Jeffreys on
Speaker 3: last weekend. You've been with the team for a long time,
Speaker 3: a little less than Jeffries. But I said it this way.
Speaker 3: They struggle a little early, found their footing midway, and
Speaker 3: then kind of stepped a little. None of it surprising,
Speaker 3: and then they finished strong. I think the people that
Speaker 3: were dissuaded fell in love with this team again.
Speaker 5: Oh no doubt. It was a journey this year, Steve.
Speaker 5: And you've seen these years and they go in different ways.
Speaker 5: And many times Arizona has come out on fire in
Speaker 5: November and December, playing as if they're the best team
Speaker 5: in the country, and then do they really ever get better?
Speaker 5: Over time? They almost fade in some cases if you
Speaker 5: look back at some of the years, this was clearly
Speaker 5: a year that was a journey, and it allowed and
Speaker 5: maybe showcased I think Tommy Lloyd's flexibility of changing the
Speaker 5: roster over to a certain degree in December because he
Speaker 5: had to with Mokrebus's injury. He was faced with some
Speaker 5: changes that he had to make, but he did, and
Speaker 5: he put the team together in such a way that
Speaker 5: they got better under an extremely challenging schedule and were
Speaker 5: truly playing their best basketball at the end of the year.
Speaker 5: Like you said, and I mean, if you would have
Speaker 5: told me after the UCLA loss, I was in the dumps.
Speaker 5: That was a pretty difficult loss back in December. Thirteen
Speaker 5: point lead with ten minutes to go, and you give
Speaker 5: it away. You go four and five at that point.
Speaker 5: And if somebody would have slipped me a piece of
Speaker 5: paper that said Arizona is going to be down five
Speaker 5: with a minute and a half left in the Sweet
Speaker 5: sixteen against Duke, all they need is a stop and
Speaker 5: a score one possession game, we all would have taken
Speaker 5: it in a heartbeat. And they had exactly that. They
Speaker 5: just didn't get it done.
Speaker 6: A lot of good elements too, as you said, a
Speaker 6: lot of changing parts and stuff like that. Do you
Speaker 6: usually don't see that, are you really in college basketball?
Speaker 6: Or players like a like a kJ Lewis or Henry
Speaker 6: you know, all of a sudden they're coming off the bench,
Speaker 6: And I mean things really did kind of get disrupted.
Speaker 7: There around New Year's but it's still managed to work out.
Speaker 5: Yeah, There's been a number of players that we point
Speaker 5: to in regards to they developed or they in their
Speaker 5: senior year they finally had the opportunity, like a Jason
Speaker 5: Terry or even a Channing Fry watching him over four years. Well,
Speaker 5: we don't get to see that in this era of
Speaker 5: college basketball as much anymore. So you look at the
Speaker 5: in season development of players and Henry Vasar, Wow, what
Speaker 5: an incredible growth from his freshman year to this past year.
Speaker 5: What a I got to say, kind of a dis
Speaker 5: appointment that we're not going to see him develop more
Speaker 5: next year. That's the one I don't want to say
Speaker 5: regret of this era of college basketball, because God bless him.
Speaker 5: If he took advantage of a better situation, all within
Speaker 5: the rules and the way college basketball is to better himself,
Speaker 5: good for him. It's just disappointing for us to not
Speaker 5: be able to see him even develop more. But watching
Speaker 5: him this year, what a player he became. He put
Speaker 5: himself in position to become an NBA draft pick before
Speaker 5: his college career is over. And the other player that
Speaker 5: we all had high hopes for that didn't really come
Speaker 5: out of the gates as strong as you would have
Speaker 5: hoped it was Carter Bryant. Everybody put him McDonald's all American.
Speaker 5: He's going to come in, he's going to be a
Speaker 5: lottery pick potentially, and he probably still is on the
Speaker 5: fringe of lottery. But boy, watching his journey from where
Speaker 5: he had to start in the battle for Atlantis, and
Speaker 5: to be frankly honest, didn't belong on the court at points,
Speaker 5: and he turned himself into a viable threat, a guy
Speaker 5: that on opposing teams scouting reports you had to scout
Speaker 5: for Carter Bryant. And that's a guy that we don't
Speaker 5: know what his off season decision is, at least as
Speaker 5: of earlier today when I was on Twitter. A heck,
Speaker 5: he may have made a decision in the last couple
Speaker 5: of hours for all we know, in this ever changing
Speaker 5: landscape of player mobility and moving around. But Carter Bryant.
Speaker 5: What a great evolution in his freshman year. He was
Speaker 5: exceptional to watch as well.
Speaker 7: Dave yep And to.
Speaker 3: Go back to my point of struggling early, finding the
Speaker 3: footing refining his career was mister Love and people falling
Speaker 3: in love with him again in the tournament.
Speaker 5: He definitely left an indelible mark on Arizona basketball. And
Speaker 5: you're right he was polarizing for many fans during his
Speaker 5: two years, but you look at where he came from.
Speaker 5: This year started off, everyone expected first team All American
Speaker 5: type numbers and efficiency and production and wins, and you
Speaker 5: didn't see it. But the journey that he went on
Speaker 5: to be able to put himself in a position to
Speaker 5: be one of the most loved Arizona basketball players of
Speaker 5: this year's team. And Steve, you and I have talked
Speaker 5: about this. He is a very well liked player amongst
Speaker 5: his teammates. He is a players player, and a lot
Speaker 5: of fans didn't get to see that. But I'm so happy.
Speaker 5: If Arizona were to lose in the Sweet sixteen, and
Speaker 5: we knew it was coming, I didn't want it to
Speaker 5: be on the shoulders of Caleb Love. You didn't want
Speaker 5: him to go out in one of those zero for
Speaker 5: eleven three point shooting performances. He did everything humanly possible
Speaker 5: to put Arizona on his back and just about did.
Speaker 5: If Arizona had beaten Duke, that would have been one
Speaker 5: of the greatest individual game performances we would have ever seen.
Speaker 7: Yeah, yep, yeah four. So what's next?
Speaker 6: I mean, this is kind of like we're I guess
Speaker 6: we're all kind of in a way period wondering what's
Speaker 6: going to happen with with Carter and transfers. I mean,
Speaker 6: I guess we have to trust Tommy to go to
Speaker 6: maybe go to Europe again and bring a few more
Speaker 6: players in. It seems like maybe we shouldn't be panicking
Speaker 6: at this point. There's still a lot of time, don't
Speaker 6: you think.
Speaker 5: Well, for guys like us right that are our age,
Speaker 5: Dave and Steve, we're used to having a settled roster
Speaker 5: in the days of yr that April you can point
Speaker 5: to and say, this player, player X is coming back.
Speaker 5: Can you imagine how good he's going to be. The
Speaker 5: class of four freshmen is already done, sign sealed, you
Speaker 5: know who they are, and there might be a JC
Speaker 5: transfer like a Bennet Davison. There might be even a TJ.
Speaker 5: McConnell that's redshirted that you can point to and say, wow,
Speaker 5: look at what he could be in the next year.
Speaker 5: College basketball is just different the off season, a fluidity
Speaker 5: of rosters. Every single school for the most part is
Speaker 5: feeling it. How about Baylor right now, they look to
Speaker 5: be like okay for a while in the portal over
Speaker 5: the last week. They just lost their freshman stud point
Speaker 5: guard Robert Wright potentially to the transfer portal today. And
Speaker 5: so seeing the fluidity and the changes, you just have
Speaker 5: to get used to this way of college basketball changing
Speaker 5: by the minute. And like you said, Dave, I think
Speaker 5: you have to trust the head coach, who, by the way,
Speaker 5: has done a pretty good job in his first four
Speaker 5: years at Arizona.
Speaker 4: Maybe a fan would have expected.
Speaker 5: Or wanted and we all wanted a Final four and
Speaker 5: you miss out on that in his first four years.
Speaker 5: I wouldn't trade Tommy for the world, and you just
Speaker 5: have to trust that he's going to be putting together
Speaker 5: with every possible resource. There is discussion if you follow
Speaker 5: the message boards of a potential high level recruit that
Speaker 5: might be making his college decision coming up in the
Speaker 5: next week or so. That could change Arizona's you know,
Speaker 5: fall expectations. So you got to look at freshman You
Speaker 5: got to look at the transfer portalential international opportunities, and
Speaker 5: there's players that could come back to Arizona that maybe
Speaker 5: have yet to determine what their future. Carter has yet
Speaker 5: to make a decision. If Carter says I'm coming back, wow,
Speaker 5: now we need to have a conversation Steve. In a
Speaker 5: month or so, when the portal closes and NBA Draft
Speaker 5: deadlines hit, that's when you can start to settle in
Speaker 5: and really start making predictions for next year. At this point,
Speaker 5: way too premature, which I hate, but it is what
Speaker 5: it is.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well everybody talks about oh, let's read the tea leaves.
Speaker 3: This guy left, so this guy must be coming. This
Speaker 3: guy left, this guy must be coming or returning. You
Speaker 3: know what I'm saying because I'm playing time, YadA YadA.
Speaker 3: Well no, when we know, I think too many people
Speaker 3: try to figure things out before they actually happen or
Speaker 3: you know, and that rarely ever works out with their predictions,
Speaker 3: then we're going to go free wheeling with just a
Speaker 3: few questions. So you been around since nine the early nineties.
Speaker 3: I think there, mister.
Speaker 4: Rhino YEP ninety three was my first So you.
Speaker 3: And I have experienced a lot of the guys out here.
Speaker 3: How about you getting a head coaching job? And what
Speaker 3: about Josh Passner ending up at UNLB pretty crazy?
Speaker 5: I heard that you had thrown out a Wildcat former
Speaker 5: Wildcat Wildcat Invitational. If you throw in a name in
Speaker 5: stdom Are in Georgia Tech, that'd be a pretty incredible
Speaker 5: four team round robin event UNLV, Sack State, Georgia Tech,
Speaker 5: and Arizona. That'd be pretty fun. I think of Let's
Speaker 5: start with maybe the surprise to a certain degree for
Speaker 5: some and that would be Mike Bibbie landing a head
Speaker 5: coaching job. If you follow his career arc he was
Speaker 5: a coach on the floor. You really think about what
Speaker 5: he did as a player. He orchestrated so much of
Speaker 5: what Arizona did in his two years offensively. He was
Speaker 5: a maestro with the basketball. So if he had any
Speaker 5: potential to transitioning what he knew how to do to
Speaker 5: explaining to other kids and youth to do it on
Speaker 5: the floor, he was He's going to be a great
Speaker 5: head coach. And he demonstrated at the high school level,
Speaker 5: and I think it was just a matter of time
Speaker 5: for him to get an opportunity to showcase his skills.
Speaker 5: And what a great landing spot for him in a
Speaker 5: place that loves Mike Biddy, who gave SAT the city
Speaker 5: of Sacramento a lot of wonderful basketball memories. To have
Speaker 5: the support of the local community there for Mike is
Speaker 5: very exciting and I'm happy for him, and I'm happy
Speaker 5: that Josh Pasner is back on the sideline. He was actually,
Speaker 5: I thought, a very good ESPN broadcaster and a very
Speaker 5: good ESPN table guy as he would be at the
Speaker 5: broadcast center talking about all the games, very articulate, very passionate.
Speaker 5: As you know, no one is going to outwork Josh Passner,
Speaker 5: and he is in a position nothing that you guys
Speaker 5: don't already know, but he's going to be in a
Speaker 5: place where hopefully the resources can be there. Historically the
Speaker 5: resources have been at UNLV. Recently, we've all read of
Speaker 5: the challenges financially that a lot of institutions are having,
Speaker 5: and UNLV is not not one that is flush with cash,
Speaker 5: at least publicly. But there is an opportunity there if
Speaker 5: you have the right coach to kind of rustle the
Speaker 5: bushes and really get the locals supporting the run in revs.
Speaker 5: And I think Josh is going to really get it
Speaker 5: going there. I think he's going to be an exceptional
Speaker 5: coach at un LB. Yeah.
Speaker 7: IM sure he's got to be excited about that.
Speaker 6: I mean just just we all know the history of
Speaker 6: that program, and you know where they've been and what
Speaker 6: they can do and what they used to call it,
Speaker 6: like Gucci Row whatever whatever the row was where all
Speaker 6: the high roller fans were. I mean it was crazy
Speaker 6: back in the around nineteen ninety late eighties and stuff
Speaker 6: like that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, illegal days.
Speaker 6: Well they don't even have to do that kind of
Speaker 6: stuff anymore. But I mean Vegas has become even a
Speaker 6: different sports city. You got Major League Baseball on the way,
Speaker 6: you got the NFL. There's a lot more going on
Speaker 6: now than what's going on in those years too.
Speaker 3: They were pre NIL, before they had their own NIL program.
Speaker 5: Yeah, they I would probably tell you that they were
Speaker 5: the originators of it. And that's where when I say
Speaker 5: there are resources locally that he can tap into, they've
Speaker 5: just been sleeping for the last couple of decades.
Speaker 6: Is there a Tarcanian sighting somebody grandson his son.
Speaker 7: For a while he was a politician.
Speaker 4: True.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So if you were there in ninety three, I
Speaker 3: think you may have cut the end of Cedric, but
Speaker 3: you around all the time, your thoughts on Cedric passing.
Speaker 5: I was there was very very early on. But as Steve,
Speaker 5: that's when I started with the basketball team was ninety three.
Speaker 5: But I've been a season ticket holder for football and
Speaker 5: basketball since nineteen seventy six. I call Tucson my home.
Speaker 5: So I know the history and I definitely know the impact.
Speaker 5: And we've seen it in social media circles the commentary
Speaker 5: about could there possibly be a more impactful person to
Speaker 5: the era the modern era of Arizona Athletics and Cedric
Speaker 5: Dempsey and I just loot, maybe because Luke really put
Speaker 5: us on the national map. But who hired lut Federick Dempsey,
Speaker 5: who hired the greatest softball coach to ever you know,
Speaker 5: step in in the diamond. You know, Mike Candrea, Cedric Dempsey.
Speaker 4: So you look at just.
Speaker 5: Those two alone, and then you start factoring in some
Speaker 5: other hires that were breaking glass ceilings. For Meg Ritchie,
Speaker 5: who hired the first female athletic trainer for a foot
Speaker 5: college football program. Cedric Dempsey was at the heart of that.
Speaker 5: So he did so many things in regards to knowing
Speaker 5: great people putting them in a position to be successful.
Speaker 5: I just to me, he's up there in the pantheon
Speaker 5: of Arizona athletics with a Pop McHale type imprint on
Speaker 5: what he did for Arizona. And he did it in
Speaker 5: such a classy, professional way that, as I'm sure Rocky
Speaker 5: touched on, you know, the NCAA recognized and said, you
Speaker 5: know what, you're doing such a good job with one institution,
Speaker 5: how about you come and run everybody the representative for
Speaker 5: the nca IF he is the executive director of all
Speaker 5: the institutions because of what you did at Arizona. He
Speaker 5: is a man of high integrity and great character. But boy,
Speaker 5: his fingerprint will will be on Arizona athletics forever. To
Speaker 5: be fau not to try to get too lofty, but
Speaker 5: let's be frank said, Dempsey is a classy, incredible person
Speaker 5: who did it wonderful things for the Wildcats.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean he was here at such an important
Speaker 6: time too, in just athletics in general. I mean, like
Speaker 6: you said when he took that NCAA job, he took
Speaker 6: that to a whole different level in terms of TV
Speaker 6: money and exposure and things like that. It's things we
Speaker 6: kind of take for granted now, but he was really
Speaker 6: the instigator of so much that is part of athletics today.
Speaker 5: Yeah, he was at the forefront. He saw, he saw
Speaker 5: things into the future, and that I guess the vision
Speaker 5: of you know, great leaders may be are marked by
Speaker 5: not only how they lead their troops, but recognizing where
Speaker 5: to go and the vision of who to hire, what
Speaker 5: the direction of college athletics was going. And he did
Speaker 5: it at Arizona in such a way, and I think
Speaker 5: it's very relevant guys, to touch on this. He did
Speaker 5: it at Arizona at a time where the Wildcats were
Speaker 5: kind of fresh in the Pac Ten at the time,
Speaker 5: were coming on, there was issues with NCAA, challenges for
Speaker 5: the football program. The financials here on campus were not
Speaker 5: exactly I said this phrase earlier, flush with cash. But
Speaker 5: he was able to raise the bar of excellence at
Speaker 5: Arizona and do it with fiscal responsibility in a time
Speaker 5: where Arizona Athletics right now is trying to get back
Speaker 5: to the fiscal responsibility of the standards that Cedric set
Speaker 5: and those that came before him.
Speaker 3: Maybe lastly, and maybe you want to talk about it,
Speaker 3: maybe don't. Probably a good friend of yours ideas now
Speaker 3: at SMU, she's gone set this program on fire when
Speaker 3: she got here, and it was beyond what I thought
Speaker 3: possible when I was watching a full stadium or arena
Speaker 3: watching the n I Championships. And then she gets them
Speaker 3: a shot away to the title. Just your thoughts on
Speaker 3: her and what she means or meant to hear.
Speaker 5: You bet, I was the director of operations for LOOT
Speaker 5: when she played at Arizona, so when Adella was in
Speaker 5: the building, is an incredible one of the greatest, maybe
Speaker 5: top three players of all time in Arizona women's basketball history.
Speaker 5: And then to be able to return to her alma
Speaker 5: mater and take Arizona to heights that Let's be frank,
Speaker 5: did you really think Arizona women's basketball in such a
Speaker 5: short time frame could be playing for the national title.
Speaker 5: It's not that long ago that she did that and
Speaker 5: putting fans in the seats at a consistent level that
Speaker 5: to rival anybody on the West Coast, and used are
Speaker 5: putting the support level with the greats that are out there,
Speaker 5: the Yukon's, the Tennessee, the South Carolinas. Arizona is not
Speaker 5: that further back on the list from an attendance standpoint.
Speaker 5: So Adea is do all the credit in the world
Speaker 5: for raising Arizona women's basketball to a national level. The challenge,
Speaker 5: as you and I both know, is once you get there,
Speaker 5: sustaining it might be harder than the actual climb. You
Speaker 5: don't want to believe that to be true, but sustaining
Speaker 5: it and what Loot did to be able to sustain
Speaker 5: it and pass it on over time for it to
Speaker 5: stay at that level, that's the tribute to Loot. It
Speaker 5: was just a challenging time for Idea and maybe circumstances
Speaker 5: outside of her control that were swirling and had the
Speaker 5: NIL and the transfer portal and all of those things hitting.
Speaker 5: At the same time, you have to respect the job
Speaker 5: that she did for Arizona, unparalleled success relatively speaking, Probably
Speaker 5: the right time to transition to a new opportunity for
Speaker 5: both her in the department, and that's not a knock
Speaker 5: on her or the program or the new administration for Arizona.
Speaker 5: I think it's in the best interest of both parties
Speaker 5: to move on, as hard as it is, because Adea.
Speaker 4: Is very well loved in the community because.
Speaker 5: Of the job she did and the community outreach that
Speaker 5: she took on as part of her job, and give
Speaker 5: her credit for that. So I would say the new
Speaker 5: coach needs to have that as a part of their DNA.
Speaker 5: This is a community who's thirsty for a connection with
Speaker 5: the basketball coach, be it men's or women's, or the
Speaker 5: football coach. So I hope that the new coach recognizes that,
Speaker 5: whomever they may be, that that's a big part of this.
Speaker 5: The reason that this community can have a successful women's
Speaker 5: basketball program is you have to have somebody who cares
Speaker 5: about the community. That's maybe just as important as winning.
Speaker 5: But we all know, guys, winning it starts really with winning.
Speaker 5: The connection of the community is a byproduct of that.
Speaker 3: So, you know, sometimes marriages need to end, whether they're
Speaker 3: good or bad, it just sometimes they need to end.
Speaker 2: And this one ended.
Speaker 3: Let me throw this down you this last question, and
Speaker 3: this has nothing to do with anything involving the idea,
Speaker 3: but kind of kind of so back maybe fifteen years ago,
Speaker 3: Sean was the maybe you no, actually maybe ten years ago,
Speaker 3: Sean was the head coach. Obviously, Stanley Johnson comes in
Speaker 3: and I think he had been struggling early. He was
Speaker 3: this number one recruit. Blah blah blah. Who's gonna, you know,
Speaker 3: be that guy? I think one of the reporters in
Speaker 3: the in the pressroom headed Sean, So, you know, coach,
Speaker 3: you have a pretty good roster. How are you going
Speaker 3: to keep Stanley happy? If he's not coming, if he's
Speaker 3: not starting, if he's coming off the bench. And Sean,
Speaker 3: in his way that he does things, he looked at
Speaker 3: the guy and says, I.
Speaker 2: Don't need to keep anybody happy. I'm the head coach.
Speaker 3: Do you think do you think times have changed so
Speaker 3: much now that if you're playing X guy whatever you're
Speaker 3: paying eight hundred million five or whatever, that you have
Speaker 3: to keep them happy?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 5: It's a great question, Steve, because the landscape has been
Speaker 5: turned on his head, right, and so keeping guys happy
Speaker 5: now that you're paying them. I mean, I heard Rick
Speaker 5: Barnes make a comment the head coach at the University
Speaker 5: of Tennessee when a reporter asked about keeping a player accountable,
Speaker 5: and he actually uttered the silent words, well, we're paying
Speaker 5: him to do that, and now that it's going to
Speaker 5: be transparent with most likely the judge's decision coming down here.
Speaker 5: So the revenue and how players are paid is going
Speaker 5: to be fair game. People are going to know it.
Speaker 5: The word is out, but people are going to know
Speaker 5: it first and foremost. I think that may actually empower
Speaker 5: some coaches to be able to demand and keep players
Speaker 5: accountable for that one year. The challenge is is as
Speaker 5: long as the transfer portal has what no ramifications for
Speaker 5: the number of restrictions, number of times you can transfer,
Speaker 5: as long as you can pop and come and go,
Speaker 5: it's going to be a roster turnover potential opportunity every year.
Speaker 5: And as a coach, if you're going to hold guys'
Speaker 5: speek to the fire and quote unquote not keep them happy,
Speaker 5: treat them more like an employee that's getting paid to produce,
Speaker 5: and if they don't produce, then both parties may have
Speaker 5: to be happy with parting ways. If that single year
Speaker 5: contract terms were not fulfilled to the goals and the
Speaker 5: metrics that each of them decided to do right, it's
Speaker 5: a really interesting is maybe not even the right word.
Speaker 5: It's an unknown, uncharted territory for an entity that you
Speaker 5: could say all along, Oh, the head coach is the
Speaker 5: head coach. He decides. Well, the power is not necessarily
Speaker 5: in the head coach's a corner as much anymore. But
Speaker 5: maybe it's going back because they will have the power
Speaker 5: of the purse strings to determine who gets paid and
Speaker 5: who doesn't moving forward. So maybe some of that shift
Speaker 5: will go back to the coaches side of things. I
Speaker 5: don't know, that's a great question, Steve.
Speaker 6: Plus a lot of these programs that have like general
Speaker 6: managers now who are handling that part of the job too.
Speaker 6: So maybe the coaches, you know, who knows how they're
Speaker 6: going to be working with their players and treating them
Speaker 6: and keeping them happy. But they got the you know,
Speaker 6: Arizona's got a GM for basketball, right, so they do.
Speaker 5: Yeah, And I think that was an incredible hire, a
Speaker 5: very important hire for Arizona because you think of the
Speaker 5: skill sets that many of the coaches have. You have
Speaker 5: to really be a fundraiser now, you have to be
Speaker 5: a manager of salary cap because there may not be
Speaker 5: one institutionally or so it may not be one at
Speaker 5: the NSA level, but at the institution, you know what
Speaker 5: you have and what you don't have. So you have
Speaker 5: to manage your quote unquote salaries, So you now have
Speaker 5: to be a financial guy. It's not just the old
Speaker 5: ball coach days where if you knew how to draw
Speaker 5: up a great play and you knew how to motivate
Speaker 5: young men, you could be a great coach. There's so
Speaker 5: much more to it. So are you going to hire
Speaker 5: guys to help you with that or are you going
Speaker 5: to take that on? At some level, the head coach
Speaker 5: is still somewhat the CEO of their of their department,
Speaker 5: their division. So even if there's a GM or a
Speaker 5: President of Basketball Operations I think is the exact title
Speaker 5: for for Matt King at Arizona, head coach has still
Speaker 5: got to be heavily involved in that. So the number
Speaker 5: of skills, the skill set of men's basketball women's basketball
Speaker 5: of a head coach at a revenue generating sport is
Speaker 5: now far more diversified than it ever has been.
Speaker 2: Right those always thanks a bunch man, You're the best.
Speaker 5: Love jumping on, Dave, Take care, buddy, Steve. Who you
Speaker 5: got tonight, Steve? Defense or offense?
Speaker 2: Florida, Florida?
Speaker 7: All right, I got Houston, I got Houston.
Speaker 5: I don't know I picked Florida in my bracket. I
Speaker 5: think Houston is a bunch of Junkyard dogs and I
Speaker 5: love it. And I'll be frankly honest, I want I
Speaker 5: want Kelvin Samson to get one. And I'm actually here's
Speaker 5: my line of the of the day, and I'll part
Speaker 5: you with this one. I have yet to develop the
Speaker 5: hatred for the Big twelve teams like I did the
Speaker 5: Pac twelve and Pac ten teams, so I'm actually wanting
Speaker 5: and rooting for the Big twelve to win national title
Speaker 5: tonight with Houston. So that may change in the next
Speaker 5: five years when my hatred level of the rivals gets
Speaker 5: to the level of UCLA and Oregon. But for now,
Speaker 5: I'm rooting for the Cougars.
Speaker 3: Okay, thanks man, It's not a toy poodle lee See,
Speaker 3: thank you man than much.
Speaker 5: That's right. Oh, I love that.
Speaker 2: We've got to take a break. We're way over