Speaker 1: This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera on
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Speaker 2: Good after doing everybody. Welcome to Eye on the Ball
Speaker 2: here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. Welcome
Speaker 2: back everybody, and with me today is a newcomer to
Speaker 2: this office and my show, Blake Eager. Tell me what
Speaker 2: your title is exactly, because I'll screw it up.
Speaker 3: Yeah, thanks for having me. It's an executive director for
Speaker 3: Southern Arizona Sports Tourism and Film Authority.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I would have screwed that up. Yeah, most people do.
Speaker 2: I would have lost you. Southern Arizona. What Yeah, No,
Speaker 2: that's cool. You've been there for a while, almost two years.
Speaker 2: Two years. You haven't been in existence for a long time,
Speaker 2: almost two years. That's my point. Yeah. Yeah, so yeah, no,
Speaker 2: I didn't know this until we were talking a lot
Speaker 2: in the summer, you know, communicating at least by the
Speaker 2: way we have our guy Juan here. I wouldn't be
Speaker 2: here without want of course, uh that you know. It
Speaker 2: was like, Blake, how you doing any news for me?
Speaker 2: It's covered any news for me, Blake let's covey. We
Speaker 2: danced around this for a long time.
Speaker 3: We uh, first and foremost, I have to say thank
Speaker 3: you for your patients, because I think.
Speaker 2: About forty yeah, forty text. I said, no, you're gonna
Speaker 2: have to give you a week, give me a week.
Speaker 2: That week turned into about three months. But we finally
Speaker 2: executed that contract and explain what we're talking about, because
Speaker 2: it was at the time and still is at the
Speaker 2: big At the time, it was big news because you
Speaker 2: were kind of it was like a pregnancy, come on,
Speaker 2: cove on.
Speaker 3: So we were really working on three different channels, and
Speaker 3: I think I could say them now. I mean one
Speaker 3: of them was bringing stream spring training back, which hopefully
Speaker 3: we'll still have in twenty twenty six. Another was an
Speaker 3: affiliated team moving to Tucson where and.
Speaker 2: I heard that was kind of like the strong that
Speaker 2: one was. Yeah, we that was really unfortunately you could
Speaker 2: tell those listening, You could tell us as much as.
Speaker 3: You Yeah, it went really really really far down the line.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and we I thought we had it. So yeah,
Speaker 2: and then this and now we're talking about the World
Speaker 2: Baseball Classic, which is a big deal because it was
Speaker 2: going to happen maybe three, four or five years ago.
Speaker 2: It did right before COVID, and so you know, the
Speaker 2: difference now, I think from then is that it's a
Speaker 2: lot bigger from a qualifier standpoint than it has been
Speaker 2: in the past, just because the overall Classic has gotten
Speaker 2: so huge. You know, people ask what it is. It's
Speaker 2: really the World Cup to FIFA. That's what the World
Speaker 2: Baseball Classic is to Major League Baseball. Yeah, it's funny
Speaker 2: because I think I spoke to you at the time.
Speaker 2: Maybe I talked to your guy who we talked to
Speaker 2: in New York. But the last month I'm small a
Speaker 2: very good smart guy obviously with you guys in the WBC.
Speaker 2: I went to a WBC event in Miami two thousand
Speaker 2: and eightish nineish when Arizona's played out there. I didn't
Speaker 2: really know much about it and what a party it was,
Speaker 2: and I couldn't tell you who was playing, but they
Speaker 2: had a great time in the stands, great baseball. It
Speaker 2: was at the Miami where they play you know, Pro
Speaker 2: Bowl Football, for the Marlin Stadium, for the Marlin State
Speaker 2: was it was. It was unbelievably cool to me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, you look at the final in twenty
Speaker 3: three Japan versus United States, of America drew ninety nine
Speaker 3: and a half million people from a viewership standpoint. That's
Speaker 3: that's a substantial growth from where it started.
Speaker 2: Right, yeah, no, no question, and it's going to be
Speaker 2: coming here as a qualifier, correct, correct. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So we'll have Columbia, Germany, China. And why am I
Speaker 3: blanking now? Because yours? Because it's gracious. Like, let me
Speaker 3: tell you. When you get into the studio. Jay and
Speaker 3: I were in the studio, we blanked every time kwan, Yeah,
Speaker 3: can you attest? And we go on staring directly in
Speaker 3: my eyes like it's my soul.
Speaker 2: I'm not forgetting everything. I'm saying that one team, so
Speaker 2: it's called getting old, you know, like blak, you know,
Speaker 2: come on, I can't pay at Miami. That's not right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I'll say it again. Germany, Brazil, Columbia and
Speaker 3: China will be the four teams participating for how many days?
Speaker 3: I will be March second, March third, March fourth, and
Speaker 3: March sixth, so you'll have seven total games.
Speaker 2: Yeah. In fact, you know, you just submitted some some
Speaker 2: advertising with us that will start here in the next
Speaker 2: day or two. So anybody's interested, we'll talk more about
Speaker 2: it now. You can listen to it obviously on the
Speaker 2: show every every two hours or whatever it is. So
Speaker 2: chances to get tickets, Yeah, you want to.
Speaker 3: You want to go to ww dot www dot World
Speaker 3: Baseball Classic dot com, or you can go to our
Speaker 3: website which is SASTFA s A s t f A
Speaker 3: dot com and I'll share the link if needed as well.
Speaker 2: Okay, and we'll talk more about this as we go along.
Speaker 2: You'll be on the show every now and again. I'll
Speaker 2: leading up to it to promote the event. It should
Speaker 2: be fun. I look forward to it. Early March, all
Speaker 2: of a sudden, we gets winter. Right, here's winter. I
Speaker 2: know it's crazy. It's gonna be cold the next few days,
Speaker 2: like fifty eight here in the next couple of days.
Speaker 2: The next couple of days, well we were one hundred
Speaker 2: and two. Yeah, I never welcome to Christmas. Yeah, it's
Speaker 2: a little late, but it's cool. Uh. So we'll talk
Speaker 2: a lot about that today and the rest of the
Speaker 2: way moving on, But let's talk a little about sports.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 2: NFL season's over. Uh finally, your boy, your boy caught me.
Speaker 2: I had a horrible weekend. Really, he's a half a
Speaker 2: game behind me. So we'll see what got interest with
Speaker 2: with one week left? Uh, Jay, we have a competition,
Speaker 2: so uh the NFL is going on. I think no surprises.
Speaker 2: Did you think yesterday was just one of those days
Speaker 2: where they didn't care, teams didn't care. Go ahead.
Speaker 3: No, I was just gonna say, I think the biggest
Speaker 3: overall surprise to me for the season of Cincinnati not
Speaker 3: making the playoffs.
Speaker 2: Yeah, right, and then they fired their defensive court. Ye
Speaker 2: are you a Cincinnati guy? No, I'm from here. I
Speaker 2: went to Flying Wells. Oh really, I've lived all over
Speaker 2: Okay because your name your name is, I didn't recognize
Speaker 2: a name.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've been really quiet about what I've done in
Speaker 3: the past. Let's not bring it up. Should not be here.
Speaker 2: You and Jeff Hill and those guys would come and
Speaker 2: go and and return home right and turned the health
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, anything for you. Yesterday's Minnesota Detroit game, Holy crap.
Speaker 5: Yeah that was that was a interesting game. I thought
Speaker 5: Minnesota was gonna put up a better.
Speaker 2: Fight, but they did. They just couldn't score, which makes
Speaker 2: no sense. They owned that game in the first half
Speaker 2: and then even down. Yeah, I think that's credit to
Speaker 2: the Lions.
Speaker 5: You know, they took advantage of the home field, the
Speaker 5: home crowd, and they wanted that the home field advantage
Speaker 5: for going into the playoffs, and both deserved.
Speaker 2: I think my.
Speaker 5: Biggest surprise from this weekend was the Patriots firing their
Speaker 5: head coach. Yeah when you're in Yeah, the rookie head coat.
Speaker 5: It is not like you brought some went in that
Speaker 5: had experience in the past. This was his first year
Speaker 5: as an NFL head coach and now it's done well.
Speaker 2: The one thing that I'll tell you, I'll tell you
Speaker 2: a lot of things in this business. It's a business, yep.
Speaker 2: And you're as good as your last haircut. That's why
Speaker 2: I don't get haircuts. Right. Do you know how this businesses?
Speaker 3: And you probably I've been through it in professional baseball.
Speaker 3: I understand it completely.
Speaker 2: Yeah, right. Everybody everybody has expiration dated some yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and you have to kind of reinvent yourself a lot
Speaker 2: of different ways. Yeah. Yeah. What about anything else, We'll
Speaker 2: get to the basketball. On the football. We're gonna have
Speaker 2: Bruce Pasco here in the first maybe in the next
Speaker 2: ten twelve minutes. I talked about you a basketball. The
Speaker 2: surprise win in my mind that they won that game,
Speaker 2: and then tomorrow. They played West Virginia, right, and I'm
Speaker 2: sure you follow them. I do.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we go to every game, so I met, but
Speaker 3: we pretty much plan our whole life around you at basketball,
Speaker 3: and so you are too, So I am, and I'm
Speaker 3: a diehard. You've a basketball really since since when I
Speaker 3: think when I was eight. Oh, we started. I started
Speaker 3: going to games with my best friend. He had he
Speaker 3: had season tickets and so we woul get dropped.
Speaker 2: So like nineteen eighty seven ish.
Speaker 3: Yes, eighty eight, eighty nine, the first what was the
Speaker 3: first Fiesta Bowl that we had down here? Oh, it's
Speaker 3: been eyes. I can remember that with going with my
Speaker 3: dad when I was really small. Yeah, he's probably six
Speaker 3: or seven. Okay, so you're yeah, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 2: Okay. So I started covering the team in ninety one.
Speaker 2: I got here in eighty seven. And you have my book.
Speaker 2: I don't, Yeah, shame on you, But do you have
Speaker 2: one that you can sign for me? One go back?
Speaker 2: I'm like mister Haney green Acres, I don't know. I
Speaker 2: have all my stuff and you know, hey, you want
Speaker 2: to watch Yeah, you got it like pizza. I won't
Speaker 2: say Pee Diddy, but I have you know, yea, I
Speaker 2: might try. I don't want to say no. In my truck,
Speaker 2: I have a bunch of stuff.
Speaker 3: I lived out of my truck for about twelve years,
Speaker 3: so I know exactly what you're saying.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, so I do have a book. Yeah, it
Speaker 2: was reserved from somebody else, but I can get them
Speaker 2: one later. I love that. Yeah, so human who any
Speaker 2: favorite player along those lines?
Speaker 3: I mean right now, I mean I don't want but
Speaker 3: Vsar and Brian are really I think for me, the
Speaker 3: flow of the offense has turned completely with them on
Speaker 3: the floor, right you.
Speaker 5: Know, everyone's everyone's saying that, and it's clear, So give
Speaker 5: me the lineup.
Speaker 2: I think you stick with it even though. Who's your
Speaker 2: starting five? Though?
Speaker 5: The ones that we have right now, they have right now,
Speaker 5: the one that Tommy always puts.
Speaker 2: Out there, and then get those guys in. Yes, I
Speaker 2: think it's working.
Speaker 5: And why would you screw something that's working right now?
Speaker 2: So you wouldn't move them to the starting whatnot? Okay,
Speaker 2: I think you would. I don't know.
Speaker 3: That's that's that's a tough question, right because I think
Speaker 3: I think it's depending on what you're doing right now,
Speaker 3: and I think the flow of the game has to
Speaker 3: dictate what's going to happen.
Speaker 2: But I would probably move Visa definitely to the starting.
Speaker 2: So give me a five because I think that people
Speaker 2: who are just assuming, uh, you got Jayden, Yeah, you
Speaker 2: got Caleb, you have kJ, Bryant and Visa, right.
Speaker 3: I think that's probably your your best five to start,
Speaker 3: start and finish.
Speaker 5: I still think you start del Warso Yeah. I think
Speaker 5: kJ off the bench is a perfect spot for him
Speaker 5: right now. I think he's enjoyed it. I think he's
Speaker 5: been playing better in my opinion. He's obviously helping the
Speaker 5: team a lot more. YEA, what does still or so
Speaker 5: give you, hopefully six to nine points a game?
Speaker 2: Hasn't. But he hasn't. That's the thing, and you'd expect that,
Speaker 2: but he hasn't.
Speaker 5: I think a lot of people think he's a threat
Speaker 5: and that kind of draws a little bit of attention
Speaker 5: to him.
Speaker 2: To free up for Caleb love for too, free up
Speaker 2: for Jayden Bradley Man, are you reading a lot into that? Yeah,
Speaker 2: you're hopeful about that, But he just hasn't been the
Speaker 2: guy you'd think that he would have been.
Speaker 5: I mean, it's not thought that he showed at there
Speaker 5: are early stages of the season. You know, he had
Speaker 5: a couple of good showings in the Bahamas, but since then,
Speaker 5: you haven't really seen the sharp shooting that you'd hope for.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, no, no, And that's the lack of this
Speaker 2: talent this team. You have no outside shooting that's consistent.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you need to be able to expand the perimeter,
Speaker 3: and I think that's what you're looking at. The last
Speaker 3: game right in Cincinnati. It's a road test in the
Speaker 3: Big twelve, your first road test against the top twenty
Speaker 3: five team. They go into Cincinnati and realistically without Bryant
Speaker 3: expanding that perimeter, but he had fifteen points. Yeah, and
Speaker 3: it's big threes, right, and then the expansion. If he
Speaker 3: doesn't get into foul trouble, it's a different story. But
Speaker 3: you saw once they come out, they came off the court,
Speaker 3: the flow of the game was stagnant, right, you know,
Speaker 3: So it's you're right that you have to have some
Speaker 3: perimeter link there too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no question. And you're not going to get that
Speaker 2: game from him all the time. But they needed that
Speaker 2: game from him then, right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And you might not get it from him, but
Speaker 3: maybe kJ gets that game the next time. You know,
Speaker 3: we've been reliant on one or two guys for so long.
Speaker 3: It's nice when you have some different options. And it's
Speaker 3: to Tommy's credit, this is the deepest team he's had
Speaker 3: since he's been at the u of A. So finding
Speaker 3: that lineup.
Speaker 2: Sure, sure, that's what do you say that because it
Speaker 2: may be the deepest that I haven't really thought about that. Yes,
Speaker 2: but it's probably not the best one avall of them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean you can go all the way. I mean,
Speaker 3: Conrad could steal five to six minutes a game on
Speaker 3: most teams easily, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, he didn't get anything right because you already
Speaker 2: know who Tommy trusts in situations, and he'll go eight
Speaker 2: if he doesn't trust anybody else. And that's what he did.
Speaker 2: I think tomorrow it'll be another eight.
Speaker 3: I mean, why would you change your game plan after
Speaker 3: West Virginia, I mean, after Cincinnati to go in West Virginia,
Speaker 3: you know, I mean that's you're gonna go back and
Speaker 3: look at film. You're gonna figure out what's worked and
Speaker 3: what hasn't worked. I mean, we question what's happening in
Speaker 3: that game, in game decisions and really set aside. But
Speaker 3: once you have a chance to really digest it and
Speaker 3: go back. I think it's probably going to be that
Speaker 3: eight for a while. Yeah, especially on the road, especially
Speaker 3: on the road, especially on the road, and then this
Speaker 3: in this league is just so brutal. I mean, were
Speaker 3: you surprised that they were.
Speaker 2: A little bit.
Speaker 5: I didn't think Cincinnati had been that good they lost
Speaker 5: to previously. Yeah, and so I thought we had a chance.
Speaker 5: I thought it was going to if we were to
Speaker 5: if they were to win, it was going to be
Speaker 5: something of a they're playing a bad game. We're playing
Speaker 5: the bad game, but we just played a little bit
Speaker 5: better that day. They looks good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's learning not to be a over.
Speaker 3: I was a little surprised just because Cincinnati just lost
Speaker 3: to Kansas State, So you figure at home they were
Speaker 3: going to come out and that's a that's a tough
Speaker 3: house to play in on it, it.
Speaker 2: Wasn't till it wasn't well. I don't know if you
Speaker 2: could detect that from the TV, because they seemed subdued
Speaker 2: until they went mid that rally. I mean we kind
Speaker 2: of gave it to him pretty early too. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: we all know that the league is going to be
Speaker 2: crazy every spot.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you don't get it. I mean, it's not like
Speaker 3: you get a softball.
Speaker 2: In there at all, you know. Uh So, so we'll
Speaker 2: see what happens tomorrow. It'll be different. Well, they played,
Speaker 2: they played well enough to win. They were fantastic in
Speaker 2: the first half. That easy, the first the best half
Speaker 2: of that this year. Absolutely. Yeah. And then and then
Speaker 2: here's the problem. You've seen this collapse before. It cost
Speaker 2: him a loss U c l A. Yeah.
Speaker 3: We were at that game, you know, and that was
Speaker 3: probably one of the most depressed times in my life
Speaker 3: sitting there just because you're lost to UCLA, just because
Speaker 3: you're watching the flow of the game and you're actually
Speaker 3: seeing us change and evolve and getting mature, and you're like,
Speaker 3: we are that team. And then the last part of
Speaker 3: the game, you're like, we didn't score and the last
Speaker 3: we scored two points in the last seven minutes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, you're you use the phrase that I like hearing,
Speaker 2: because it's true. The flow of the game. This team
Speaker 2: is a non flow of the game. For Timmy Lloyd.
Speaker 2: They go in spurts, right, and then they then they stagnant.
Speaker 2: It's stilted and very what the hell's going on? But
Speaker 2: in that stretch of ten minutes of UCLA just oh,
Speaker 2: I know this team. I've seen this team for a
Speaker 2: long time. Yeah, and then they stopped again. Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 2: It's just like somebody puts the brakes on. They say no,
Speaker 2: let's go back to half court and you're like, no,
Speaker 2: that's identity and you haven't been forever.
Speaker 3: No, and you reminded it reminded me of the Remember
Speaker 3: the Xavier game in sweet sixteen when we we had
Speaker 3: a terrible last eight minutes, right, yes, and I don't
Speaker 3: think Marketing got a shot off the whole time, and
Speaker 3: you're going, what it reminded me of that kind of
Speaker 3: flow where it's like that's a good point.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a good point. But you know who the
Speaker 2: best defender of Marketing in that game was, Oh Ture?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, well I think well, I mean that
Speaker 3: goes with you say, didn't give them the ball, didn't
Speaker 3: give him the ball in the final.
Speaker 2: That was a miserable game because they had every chance
Speaker 2: to get to the lead eight. Yeah.
Speaker 3: We've had so many of those opportunities. So it's what
Speaker 3: I like to see. And I'll say this and we
Speaker 3: obviously it's just my two cents but it looks like
Speaker 3: the he just turned a little bit, hitting tough shots
Speaker 3: in tough situations. Like I think early in the season
Speaker 3: we probably would have folded in that situation when they
Speaker 3: come back and tie the game, but it looked like
Speaker 3: we we I mean, Bradley finding a way to just
Speaker 3: drive to the hoop and get a ball, you know,
Speaker 3: get a basket. kJ didn't play exceptionally well, but he
Speaker 3: went for five minutes where he was probably our best
Speaker 3: player in the court and you needed it, and.
Speaker 2: And Caleb was not Caleb great first half? Right, So yeah, No,
Speaker 2: Jayden's so critical just because he gifts down hill very well.
Speaker 2: He's an aggressive guy, and that's how this team needs
Speaker 2: to play very aggressively in order for them to look
Speaker 2: how we've used to see him is very aggressive, going after,
Speaker 2: going after, and Jayden kind of sets that tone.
Speaker 3: Do you guys, I'm gonna ask you both this because
Speaker 3: you're I mean, you're obviously much more involved into it.
Speaker 3: But without Mo on the floor, right, do you think
Speaker 3: that they built an offensive planned around Mo going into
Speaker 3: the season, and with the injury happening, they had to
Speaker 3: redevelop what their thought process was.
Speaker 2: That's a good question. I don't know, and I don't
Speaker 2: think so. That's a good question to Tommy though, now
Speaker 2: that he's out, I think it's not that it's a
Speaker 2: good thing that he's out, but it helps the offensive flow,
Speaker 2: to use your word, and that's what Tommy is about.
Speaker 2: It's that flow to creep us is not is not
Speaker 2: that flow? You know what I'm saying. He's just a slower,
Speaker 2: prodding type of guy. Good question. I don't know to it,
Speaker 2: but I think they look fine without him.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I'm I'm a little surprised of how
Speaker 3: well put together vsar is. I think that last year
Speaker 3: maybe red shirting and actually developing was hugely successful for.
Speaker 2: I asked him that question six weeks ago. I think
Speaker 2: it was Was it a benefit? Was a in hindsight?
Speaker 2: Was it a benefit that you were red shirted? Not
Speaker 2: the circumstances of it, but but that he was red
Speaker 2: Schert started out, got to see you got to get bigger.
Speaker 2: He got bigger, right, uh, and smarter probably, he says.
Speaker 2: At the time, I didn't think that, but but here
Speaker 2: we are, and you know he's playing like you. He's
Speaker 2: going to be a heck of a player. Player. We
Speaker 2: gotta go. We're gonna talk to to Bruce on the
Speaker 2: other side. See how cold it is it was, Virginia.
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Speaker 13: Breaking down all the X is a ohs. This is
Speaker 13: High on the Ball with Steve Rivera on Box Sports
Speaker 13: fourteen fifty.
Speaker 2: Hey, welcome back to Why the Ball Here on Fox
Speaker 2: Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Bavera. In with me today
Speaker 2: is Blake Eager and now on the phone we have
Speaker 2: Bruce Pasco out in the cold country. How you doing, Bruce?
Speaker 14: Pretty good? How's going?
Speaker 2: Did you already hit the slopes? Do they have slopes
Speaker 2: over there?
Speaker 14: The gentle ones? Yeah, you know, it's not like Colorado
Speaker 14: or Utah, but they do. Usually they make a lot
Speaker 14: of snow. But the other nations taking care of there
Speaker 14: right now.
Speaker 2: I guess no. Cool? Cool, So now you gotta work.
Speaker 2: What are you doing? This is when we were on
Speaker 2: the road, it was a rare three day We never
Speaker 2: had like three days. Yeah, you have three days?
Speaker 14: Yeah, I mean the Pac twelve started splitting up some
Speaker 14: of those they do like a Thursday Sunday, and you know,
Speaker 14: depending on where the locations where teams would either stay
Speaker 14: out or come back.
Speaker 9: But obviously this.
Speaker 14: Far away Arizona didn't really have much of a choice.
Speaker 14: So they're they're just here. And they actually the timing
Speaker 14: and worked out well from them because they were able
Speaker 14: to leave Cincinnati literally like an hour before the snowstorm hit,
Speaker 14: and they flew to West Virginia, where a lot of
Speaker 14: flights are still since then cancelled, and got in, got
Speaker 14: to their hotel, and I just started coming down and
Speaker 14: I guess, you know, they've gotten back and forth to
Speaker 14: their you know practices. Okay, they did do a good
Speaker 14: job of plowing the streets and everything around her. So
Speaker 14: so it's good like that. Once you're here, and that's
Speaker 14: the thing, and they're here, so you know, and maybe
Speaker 14: we'll see, maybe it turns out to be a you know,
Speaker 14: one of those those good kind of bonding experiences which
Speaker 14: sometimes can happen on the right.
Speaker 2: You never know right right, no question, So let me
Speaker 2: ask you like I asked Blake here and uh and
Speaker 2: one did you were you surprised or or not surprised
Speaker 2: that they won Saturday?
Speaker 8: No?
Speaker 14: I thought that could go either way.
Speaker 15: I mean, you know, Cincinnati I looked at since time.
Speaker 15: I mean, they're they're really good defensively, but you know,
Speaker 15: not a great shooting team, and they were balanced but
Speaker 15: not super deep, and so I just thought, you know,
Speaker 15: if they you know, it's kind of simplistic to say,
Speaker 15: but I mean if they just came out and played
Speaker 15: hard and.
Speaker 14: Were motivated, I thought they could do it. And that's
Speaker 14: kind of what they did. I mean, you know, I
Speaker 14: think the biggest thing is they just showed that, you know,
Speaker 14: kind of resiliencies and a little bit of toughness, which
Speaker 14: they hadn't had all season. I mean, you know that,
Speaker 14: you know, losing in overtime to West Virginia, you know,
Speaker 14: you know, kind of not even really being all that
Speaker 14: competitive against Wisconsin and then UKLA giving away thirteen point lead.
Speaker 14: It was just they just didn't seem to have that
Speaker 14: you know, inner fortitude, and you know, for a team
Speaker 14: that still has quite a bit of talent, and you
Speaker 14: could say some of its roles coming together. Guys are
Speaker 14: accepting the roles now and all that. But but I
Speaker 14: think as much as anything, that they just seemed to
Speaker 14: find a little bit in them that they you know,
Speaker 14: really really really really really felt like, you know, really
Speaker 14: wanted to go after it. And you know, maybe it's
Speaker 14: also on their minds that if they don't start going
Speaker 14: after it, they're not going to get in the tournament. So,
Speaker 14: you know, together a couple of good, good wins, and
Speaker 14: you know, maybe they can go twelve and eight or
Speaker 14: maybe even thirteen and seven in the big tall who knows.
Speaker 14: It's too early to say, but that's the kind of
Speaker 14: record they probably do need to be safe to get
Speaker 14: in the tournament.
Speaker 3: Ay, Bruce, this is Blake. It's great talking to you man. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's an honor. So so question on my standpoint, like,
Speaker 3: were you surprised how well we played against Cincinnati's bigs?
Speaker 3: I mean the links that they had. I think that's
Speaker 3: where the surprising part for me came, where the links
Speaker 3: that they had compared to us, it didn't didn't seem
Speaker 3: to give us as much trouble as I was expecting.
Speaker 14: Yeah, no, that's a good that's a good point. I think,
Speaker 14: you know, I think Toby Walker had a tough game,
Speaker 14: and you know, Trey Townsend was you know, not really
Speaker 14: he missed you know, a couple of you know, makeable
Speaker 14: shots there inside and so this guy struggled actually a
Speaker 14: little bit. But I think Henry Basar just he was
Speaker 14: you know, arguably the player of the game the way
Speaker 14: he played in there, uh you know, inside and just
Speaker 14: doing a lot of different things and when you have
Speaker 14: you know, for assists and a couple of blocks or something,
Speaker 14: and just they couldn't really deal with him because he
Speaker 14: had that that combination of you know, size and you know,
Speaker 14: some athleticism there, and it's just he's kind of a
Speaker 14: laid back guy when he gets the fire bit in him.
Speaker 14: And I think that happened a little bit on Saturday.
Speaker 14: You can help with something. So, yeah, that's interesting. That's
Speaker 14: gonna be interesting to see how this continues to play out,
Speaker 14: because they're big zar you know, a little compromise, you know,
Speaker 14: without without Creavius in there. So you know, that's the
Speaker 14: kind of ef what they needed.
Speaker 2: Asking the question you asked me about the previous thing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, do you think that, you know, as we start
Speaker 3: to see this team evolve and like you said before,
Speaker 3: that they're buying into their roles and I think you're
Speaker 3: starting to see some some people rise the top that
Speaker 3: you maybe weren't sure of. But with Bryan's you know,
Speaker 3: mature evolved, you know, evolving maturity and Visar stepping up
Speaker 3: the way. Did do you think that this team, the
Speaker 3: offensive flow was kind of based around Mo to start
Speaker 3: the season.
Speaker 14: Well, yeah, I think I think. I mean, I think
Speaker 14: I think kind of basically they wanted that kind of
Speaker 14: inside out thing and kind of have that that two
Speaker 14: way feel like they have with Caleb Glove and Newmar Ballow,
Speaker 14: you know, and then back with you know, and Tabella's
Speaker 14: was there. I think I think kind of that was
Speaker 14: the goal. But you know, then it became this perimeter
Speaker 14: team without him and Love they would go as they
Speaker 14: as Love took him, you know, for the first twelve
Speaker 14: games or whatever. And now, you know, if Saturday was
Speaker 14: any indication they're actually showing like, hey, maybe they can
Speaker 14: win a game at Caleb b Love is just kind
Speaker 14: of average, which he was on Saturday for his standards,
Speaker 14: you know, so that that was really probably you know,
Speaker 14: the biggest takeaway is that they actually showed a little
Speaker 14: more ways to do it. And you're right, Ryan, I
Speaker 14: think Bryant mad sure. That's that's been a big story too,
Speaker 14: and just and also how he's played off the bench
Speaker 14: and sort of accepted that role, not only playing off
Speaker 14: the bench but also playing a lot of power forward.
Speaker 14: You know, if you're kirat Bryant, you're to fixate McDonald's
Speaker 14: all American. You want to come in and start at
Speaker 14: the three or the two, you know, and get your
Speaker 14: NBA stocker up or whatever and impress the people that way.
Speaker 14: And right now he's kind of doing neither, because they
Speaker 14: need him to come off the bench and kind of
Speaker 14: provide a spark, and they need him at the four
Speaker 14: a lot, and he's doing that, and he's doing it.
Speaker 14: You know, he's doing that at a really high level.
Speaker 14: So you know, and I think ultimately maybe he's also
Speaker 14: mature enough to realize that, you know, when you do
Speaker 14: stuff like that, d m bas scouts will take the
Speaker 14: standing by and you're also healthy to tea went, so
Speaker 14: you know, all these good things can happen, you know,
Speaker 14: and it's you know, in these kind of developments.
Speaker 2: So, so about two months ago, I'll give you a date,
Speaker 2: maybe November seventh, November tenth, around there. He made a
Speaker 2: comment to one of the coaches that I really like
Speaker 2: this team the way it was constructed. It looked like
Speaker 2: it had the right pieces and everybody had its situation,
Speaker 2: its roles. This is November, right, And I'm thinking, and
Speaker 2: then then they go up against some pretty good teams
Speaker 2: and then it's it's flawed, and I think it's flawed.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, And I still think it's flawed, but I
Speaker 2: like the pieces. And then you see they start to
Speaker 2: lose a lot more than usual, and then I'm thinking,
Speaker 2: maybe the pieces just aren't good. I'm not sure if
Speaker 2: you feel the same way about the pieces not being good.
Speaker 2: But we already changed the starting lineup. We wanted to
Speaker 2: put Brian in the starting lineup along with Henry. Henry right,
Speaker 2: Henry h And I.
Speaker 3: Think that would be the change, right, that would I mean,
Speaker 3: I think if you're going long term, you're trying to
Speaker 3: get your best five on the court.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what would you what would you do?
Speaker 14: Yeah?
Speaker 2: What would you do with that story line up?
Speaker 8: Yeah?
Speaker 14: No, I agree, it's it's a really kind of a
Speaker 14: weird developing situation where the best players are the best
Speaker 14: combinations probably aren't the starters and so yeah, but they're
Speaker 14: getting good production with the guys coming off the bench
Speaker 14: as they are. Yeah. Yeah, And this is like a
Speaker 14: first for you know, Boyd's first three teams, it was
Speaker 14: clear cut who was who was doing what. I think
Speaker 14: that's what helped those teams. They had guys, you know,
Speaker 14: with a couple of exceptions, the guys you know, had
Speaker 14: their roles cut out from the beginning and they disagrew
Speaker 14: to accept them and and you know, adjusted to them.
Speaker 14: And this is the team that's got a bunch of
Speaker 14: different ways. So it is interesting now here we are,
Speaker 14: you know, second league of league plays. Are they going
Speaker 14: to make another change or is Tommy Lloyd just going
Speaker 14: to ride with the the way it goes. I mean,
Speaker 14: it is true that you know he is you know,
Speaker 14: he's got guys like kJ Lewis and Bass are sometimes
Speaker 14: in there at the end of games. And that's always
Speaker 14: the argument. You make two guys that don't start, like, hey,
Speaker 14: it's going to be about the finishes and you're gonna
Speaker 14: get starved a minutes. But you know, when you don't
Speaker 14: start that it takes and then it's you know, a
Speaker 14: way that you could be playing and still get the
Speaker 14: same amount of rest. So it's you know, obviously that's
Speaker 14: why guys start. You know, you want him on the
Speaker 14: court as much as possible. And I don't know that
Speaker 14: it's reached that point now. I don't anticipate they would
Speaker 14: do something in the middle of a road trip, but
Speaker 14: it is something to keep an eye on. I do
Speaker 14: think if if Woyd's going to make any other changes, though,
Speaker 14: it would come pretty soon, because I know he likes
Speaker 14: to and kind of Sean Miller did too, Like you know,
Speaker 14: they like to get into you know, a league, play
Speaker 14: with a set five and a set eight or nine
Speaker 14: or whatever and deal with it. You know, this is
Speaker 14: just this is a little.
Speaker 3: Different, Chris, you think you know, And I'm trying to
Speaker 3: figure out how to ask this in my head, but
Speaker 3: do you think it's more difficult coming from a men
Speaker 3: major school to a Big twelve school or coming from
Speaker 3: being in a high school McDonald's All American going to
Speaker 3: a Big twelve school.
Speaker 14: Well yeah, well that I mean, adjustment wise, probably easier
Speaker 14: for the mid majors because they usually play a lot
Speaker 14: of high majors like Tray Townsend played really well in
Speaker 14: the tournament. Yeah, y too, you know, yeah, yeah, he
Speaker 14: was really I mean, everybody forget his name, but the
Speaker 14: guy who had the threes or whatever, Zach and they
Speaker 14: it was a lot of buzz about him. But Townsen
Speaker 14: played really well. But he's you know, he's he struggled
Speaker 14: a little bit against some of the high majors this year.
Speaker 14: So I think the difference is Carter Bryant had a
Speaker 14: big jump. But you know it's I guess the thing
Speaker 14: is if you make Mole Donald's all Americans, that means
Speaker 14: you're a pretty darn good player and you're you're, you know,
Speaker 14: probably an NBA prospect and you're going.
Speaker 2: To rise up.
Speaker 14: It's just you know, so you have a steeper learning curve, yes,
Speaker 14: but you're better your your floors, your ceiling, it is high.
Speaker 2: Excuse me.
Speaker 14: And that's what I think we're seeing with Brian is,
Speaker 14: you know, all in a span of thirteen games, I
Speaker 14: mean he's come you know, adjusted to different positions on
Speaker 14: the off the bench starting three four, you know, and boom,
Speaker 14: and now he's really looking, you know, starting to look
Speaker 14: like the guy that I think we all expect him.
Speaker 3: He's got a little swagger out there. And that's why
Speaker 3: I like saying that's what he needed, That's what he needed.
Speaker 3: He's a high character individual young man, and you see
Speaker 3: him on the floor and I was telling I think
Speaker 3: I was telling my wife last week that it's he's
Speaker 3: a little jay now that he's got some confidence, and
Speaker 3: I like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it took him.
Speaker 14: Yeah, yeah, you know, I mean, if anything, I think
Speaker 14: that's true with with a bunch of these guys that
Speaker 14: they almost sometimes are too nice and you know they're
Speaker 14: they're generally I think this team actually is pretty high
Speaker 14: character guys and all the way up and down and
Speaker 14: you know, and you know they're not, but most of
Speaker 14: them are. Most of them get a little tough on
Speaker 14: the court, but you know, sometimes it takes a little
Speaker 14: more getting into him or or you know, I think
Speaker 14: in Bryant's case too, it was, you know, getting the
Speaker 14: confidence to say, I'm a true freshman, I'm still going
Speaker 14: to do that us and you know, and and uh
Speaker 14: and be able to kind of kind of kind of
Speaker 14: act like that a little bit. And you know that
Speaker 14: that maybe just took him a few games to to, uh,
Speaker 14: to really start acting I.
Speaker 2: Think last week or two weeks ago I speak to
Speaker 2: someone about that. I don't remember an all American and
Speaker 2: McDonald's all American for that matter being not was it
Speaker 2: with you one that that they're not cocky or they're
Speaker 2: not have a chip on their shoulders? Yeah, you know
Speaker 2: what I'm saying. And we've we've covered a lot of them, Bruce, right,
Speaker 2: you know they have had thirty Yeah, and I can't
Speaker 2: remember one thinking Oh, he's kind of shy or he's
Speaker 2: kind of reserved. I mean, they don't do that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there, I mean they've got the same personality traits
Speaker 3: similar I mean, that's what gets you there as part
Speaker 3: of the Yeah.
Speaker 14: I mean, I right, I agree with you. I think
Speaker 14: the only guy I could maybe think of like that
Speaker 14: would be Chase Bettinger and kind of good, also a
Speaker 14: southern California maybe a little beach in him, you know
Speaker 14: very much, and come out in his volleyball career. And
Speaker 14: Carter Brian you know he's from Riverside and that you know,
Speaker 14: you know there's some tough guys that come out of
Speaker 14: there and and all that. But you know, you played,
Speaker 14: i'd you played one year at Newport Beach. I mean,
Speaker 14: you know, how do you get testing at Newport Beach.
Speaker 14: It's just like there's no adversity there.
Speaker 2: The mean streets of Newport Beach. Wow, okay, you know,
Speaker 2: just like from your area, Bruce, the mean streets of
Speaker 2: Sam hughes.
Speaker 14: Man.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 14: Yeah, I don't know so that he's getting there. I
Speaker 14: mean maybe in that sense, you know, the big twelve
Speaker 14: plane in this you know, competition and against guys from
Speaker 14: you know, all kinds of all over the country and
Speaker 14: playing all playing games all over the country. You know,
Speaker 14: maybe it's taken him out of that comfort. And in
Speaker 14: fact I heard today I don't know if it's true
Speaker 14: because I couldn't talk to him, but I heard today
Speaker 14: is the first time he's actually seen snow, like snowfall.
Speaker 14: You know, I'm sure so like you know, allcross the board,
Speaker 14: all kinds of things are different.
Speaker 2: Right right. One quick question got about a minute. Uh,
Speaker 2: they win tomorrow, what are you sends tomorrow?
Speaker 14: Wow? You know, you know, the thing I'm getting it
Speaker 14: is that both these teams are americanly different than they
Speaker 14: were just what five six weeks ago when they met
Speaker 14: in the Bahamon. And you know, West Virginia doesn't have
Speaker 14: Tecker de Gradge. He's been at He's the guy who
Speaker 14: hit eight of twelve three who's just insane in that game,
Speaker 14: and they kept breaking him free of these little screens
Speaker 14: at the top of the key, and they, you know,
Speaker 14: Arizona couldn't deal with it. And you know that was
Speaker 14: back when Arizona also I think, you know, they lacked
Speaker 14: a little killer instinct and they they could have, you know,
Speaker 14: they they you know, they kept pulling in and West
Speaker 14: Virginia stayed the top. They didn't really have it in
Speaker 14: that game, and which was odd because West Virginia's playing
Speaker 14: a third straight overtime game and they still you know,
Speaker 14: pulled away in overtime. And then you know, and so
Speaker 14: they've adjusted without the prize. They've got a big guy
Speaker 14: in their two and forty pounds center who's now playing
Speaker 14: that didn't play in that game on the twenty ninth.
Speaker 14: It's a little bit different. They still have two really
Speaker 14: good wing players that can hurt. And and then Arizona
Speaker 14: is a different team too. I mean, they don't have
Speaker 14: previous you know, previous played in the West Virginia game
Speaker 14: wasn't effective. You know, he's out now and they've adjusted
Speaker 14: to him for the most part. You know, they're him
Speaker 14: being out and and I think, you know, we've been
Speaker 14: talking and I think guys are accepting the role. So
Speaker 14: it was on a on a little bit of a role.
Speaker 14: And I think this, you know this, this could come
Speaker 14: down to another close game. But also you know West
Speaker 14: Virginia is kind of on a roll. They just beat Kansas,
Speaker 14: they just got ranked today. You know, those are the
Speaker 14: kind of things that sometimes can be I mean, that
Speaker 14: can work either way. Maybe you have this momentum and
Speaker 14: you just keep going, but I think sometimes you stop
Speaker 14: and take a breath, and you might you might get beat.
Speaker 14: So it'll be interesting. I think it wouldn't surprise me
Speaker 14: either way.
Speaker 2: Really, I know you didn't, you didn't answer my.
Speaker 14: Questionry, but but I definitely think Arizona could win an
Speaker 14: In fact, I'm looking at KEMPOM right here. They KEMPOM
Speaker 14: has West Virginia winning by one, and that's yeah. I mean,
Speaker 14: I think it could be one position game either way.
Speaker 2: No wonder if Timmy only gets frustrated with you, you
Speaker 2: don't answer questions. You didn't answer mine.
Speaker 14: Some sometimes sometimes he doesn't either.
Speaker 2: You're right, we're not supposed to sit next to each
Speaker 2: other next time. So that's okay, Hey, take care.
Speaker 14: Of Oh yeah, I know, well, no, I know, but
Speaker 14: it's all you know, he likes to joke around.
Speaker 2: I know, I know.
Speaker 14: That's kind of universe freshing and sometimes it can actually
Speaker 14: be interesting. You learned something through you know what what
Speaker 14: people are joking about. You learn how they are and
Speaker 14: sometimes but they're sometimes what they're really thinking and what's
Speaker 14: important all that.
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, enjoy West Virginia, stay warm, and we'll see
Speaker 2: you next weekend. For this week, thanks right, Thanks Bruce.
Speaker 2: We'll do as Bruce Pascal from The Daily Star, we
Speaker 2: got to go. We're a little over. We'll talk more
Speaker 2: about the hoops team here on the other side. If
Speaker 2: you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you know it's been
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Speaker 13: Streamy live on the iHeartRadio app. This is I on
Speaker 13: the Ball with Steve Rovera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
Speaker 2: Hey, welcome back to join of the ball here on
Speaker 2: Fox Sports team fifty on Steve Rivera. In with me
Speaker 2: today is Blake Eager from the Southern Arizona Sports Tourism
Speaker 2: and Film Authority SASTFA. SASTFA. You can get tickets there
Speaker 2: to go see the WBC in early March, two months away,
Speaker 2: right already?
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, don't Yeah, We're ready to go. Let's get
Speaker 3: everybody out there.
Speaker 2: Anything anybody want to call, please do five two zero
Speaker 2: four one six seventy four forty talk about the basketball
Speaker 2: team right now. We'll talk more about football here on
Speaker 2: the other side with the Matt Modeno about four to seventeen.
Speaker 2: Just to get an update on who's coming, who's going on,
Speaker 2: all that stuff. You know what's going on right hold
Speaker 2: on so you'll get involved with that. I wanted to
Speaker 2: ask anybody want to talk about basketball? Anything else about basketball?
Speaker 2: You think no.
Speaker 3: I's just gonna tell Bruce. I mean, I've spent a
Speaker 3: little time in West Virginia. Whether that's fortunate or unfortunate,
Speaker 3: depending on how you view you West Virginia, but I
Speaker 3: literally had the best I say this all the time,
Speaker 3: I had the best apple cobbler of my life. Like
Speaker 3: I never thought I was a cobbler guy Charleston. So
Speaker 3: we were playing against West Virginia Power, which I think
Speaker 3: that was a ball team for the Brewers of the time,
Speaker 3: and I think they had Ryan Brown on it. But yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean it blew my mind like I would. I
Speaker 3: would think about going out of my way right now
Speaker 3: to go back to that diner. I don't know if
Speaker 3: it's still open. You don't have to beat some a
Speaker 3: lot of snow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not going now. I'm not crazy. My son
Speaker 2: played soccer out there in West Virginia. It was really cold.
Speaker 2: I'll hill you know.
Speaker 3: It's a different kind of cold too, Like we talked
Speaker 3: about cold that that Midwest you know area.
Speaker 2: Cold goes right through your bath, Yes, it blows. Yeah,
Speaker 2: how very much layer you have? You don't? It doesn't
Speaker 2: matter right right right, So let's talk real quick baseball.
Speaker 3: So you I didn't realize you. You must have been
Speaker 3: a pretty good player. I was decent. Yeah, what position?
Speaker 3: I was a starting pitcher? The old picture Yeah.
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, figured for maybe your build, maybe a short stop,
Speaker 2: third basement.
Speaker 3: It's definitely not a short stop build. It's maybe more
Speaker 3: of like an eighties catcher build now.
Speaker 2: Uh yeah, but you know, twenty five years ago, probably
Speaker 2: a lot thinner, you know, taller. Uh no, Okay. As
Speaker 2: in fact, somebody sent me a note someone you probably know,
Speaker 2: what was your experience coaching, Uh, Robbie Mohen. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So Robbie and I had the you know, we It's
Speaker 3: kind of crazy because Robbie didn't really know of me
Speaker 3: before because he's an older.
Speaker 2: Guy and he and he was he's a Flooring Wells kid,
Speaker 2: like we grew up almost neighborhoods, right. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So he went to Walter Douglass. I went to Homer Davis.
Speaker 3: I'm across the street from Floring Wells. He was down
Speaker 3: the street. So it's like, you know, we're a tight
Speaker 3: knit community. Like I tell people like that Flowing Wells
Speaker 3: group is like we take care of our own. So
Speaker 3: it was crazy. I didn't get to meet him until
Speaker 3: we stepped when we were in Moscow coaching the Russian
Speaker 3: national team. So I was supposed to go over there
Speaker 3: with coach Stit Jerry Stitt, who's my mentor in this legend,
Speaker 3: you know, arguably one of the greatest coaches of all time,
Speaker 3: maybe the best hitting coach of all time, right, especially
Speaker 3: with his legacy with Kay Long and all those guys
Speaker 3: that are in the big leagues now. But he couldn't
Speaker 3: make it, and so Robbie replaced him. So that was
Speaker 3: the first time. It was great Robbie. Robbie and I
Speaker 3: still talk.
Speaker 2: All the time. Yeah, yeah, No, he was a stood duck.
Speaker 2: He met his wife over there too. Oh really Russian? Yeah,
Speaker 2: Russian woman? Oh okay, okay, And you were a coach. Yeah,
Speaker 2: we were coaching the Russian national team. Okay, how did
Speaker 2: that tribe? How did that happen?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I was coaching like I had international experience because I
Speaker 3: coached the Swedish national team and their junior national team,
Speaker 3: and I have to have some No, I might have
Speaker 3: no Russian. I have a zero Russian play. Coach Dick
Speaker 3: called me one day and he's like, hey, do you
Speaker 3: want to coach the Russian national team? And I said,
Speaker 3: let me check with my family and make sure it's okay,
Speaker 3: and they said, yeah, let's let's do it.
Speaker 2: Sold. This is sixteen twenty, sixteen thirties. Yeah, yeah, but
Speaker 2: it was a great experience. Did I bet I didn't
Speaker 2: realize you were like this nationally internationally. Guy, listen, I'm
Speaker 2: just a kid from Flooring Wells. Well yeah, sure, but
Speaker 2: you know cool. Good for you. So so you played
Speaker 2: ballot in Florid Walls, you played balet.
Speaker 3: No, I went to Eastern Arizona. I didn't have any
Speaker 3: scholarships come out of high school. I was fortunate enough
Speaker 3: to have, like I don't know if you spend a
Speaker 3: lot of time in Flord Wells or am file and
Speaker 3: give you a little story since we've got probably some
Speaker 3: time to kill, right, So I I had no scholarships.
Speaker 4: I was.
Speaker 3: I was fortunate enough to or offers at that point.
Speaker 3: I'm six three, Okay, yeah, so I but I mean
Speaker 3: we I'm not going to say what I was going
Speaker 3: to say there, but we'll move on from there. So
Speaker 3: I was fortunate enough to take some pitching lessons at
Speaker 3: that time from Brent Strom, which where we talked now,
Speaker 3: especially at your sold is really close with him, and
Speaker 3: we're very fortunate to have him in two hund right now.
Speaker 2: And he had taught to the juve.
Speaker 3: And then I had a friend of my dad's had
Speaker 3: had played the U but he had reached out to
Speaker 3: coach back now at Eastern. So coach back now, it's
Speaker 3: a summer at that point, still no offers nineteen. This
Speaker 3: is two thousand, two thousand, going in two thousand and
Speaker 3: two thousand and one, I had no offers. So coach
Speaker 3: back Noew comes out to watch us play Amphi. So
Speaker 3: I don't know if you know Amphi and Flowing Wall's
Speaker 3: Amphi High School and Flow Wells High School probably don't
Speaker 3: get along really well. Like we don't like it. We
Speaker 3: would we would fight everybody else, but against each other.
Speaker 3: We always fight, So we play the game. I'm in
Speaker 3: the parking lot having this conversation with coach back now,
Speaker 3: like he said, I'd like you to come out, you'd
Speaker 3: have to walk on. We don't have any collegsh I said,
Speaker 3: I don't really care, Like I just keep a window open.
Speaker 3: That's all I care. Like all sleep on the field,
Speaker 3: I don't. It doesn't matter to me. As I'm having
Speaker 3: this conversation, I look over. Our players get in a
Speaker 3: full out fistfight brawl with their parents. So I'm having
Speaker 3: this conversation with coach Bagno and I turn and our
Speaker 3: players are fighting their parents, and then their players start
Speaker 3: fighting like so there's a full on brawl in the
Speaker 3: parking lot, and I'm trying just to get on to college.
Speaker 3: So so this is a this is a make or
Speaker 3: break moment. This is a make or break moment in
Speaker 3: my life. Like, I'm not here today if I don't
Speaker 3: have that conversation.
Speaker 2: Because let mean, guess you have two options, go help
Speaker 2: your teammates or stay out of it. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so I hope you stayed out of it. I did that. Yeah.
Speaker 2: It was a long let's just say it was a
Speaker 2: long summer. But at that point I stayed out of it.
Speaker 13: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Did you get grief for the teammates that you were No?
Speaker 3: No, no, no, no, no, Yeah, they understood the situation that
Speaker 3: I was in. I think I was only I was
Speaker 3: the only place person to go on to play college.
Speaker 3: Hey that group, Hey one, I have a due here.
Speaker 3: You want to smoke it? Yeah, but there's there's you know,
Speaker 3: acts or tomorrow. You know what I'm saying, Either you
Speaker 3: say yes or you say no.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well one's a smart one though, I mean yeah what
Speaker 3: I'm saying, Yeah, yeah, one could probably do that. You
Speaker 3: could probably, But what's the thirty two on the acts
Speaker 3: with your eyes closed?
Speaker 2: Right now? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Simple this guy goes to one of the best high
Speaker 3: schools in the country, So that's cool.
Speaker 2: So then so then you get that situation or opportunity, right, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I went to Eastern Yeah.
Speaker 3: And then I remember like our winter meetings after the fall,
Speaker 3: which I thought I had a pretty good fall. I
Speaker 3: remember Coach Backnell pulling me in the office and kind
Speaker 3: of saying like, I don't know if you're going to
Speaker 3: make the team. You might be a red shirt. We
Speaker 3: don't really know where it's going to go. And I
Speaker 3: was kind of surprised at that conversation. And then so
Speaker 3: we go into spring and final roster, doing final cuts,
Speaker 3: and I remember we had a left hander that was
Speaker 3: definitely going to make the team over me. He got
Speaker 3: arrested maybe two days before final cuts, and I got
Speaker 3: his roster spot. And I remember remember, listen my dad.
Speaker 3: My dad would go to every single game, and I
Speaker 3: Coach Bagnell had no plan on playing me, like I
Speaker 3: was not going to pitch, and I couldn't Like I was.
Speaker 3: I just couldn't get my head wrapped around. And it
Speaker 3: actually started to get to the point where I was like,
Speaker 3: do I really want to you know, I started questioning
Speaker 3: that was the first time in my life. And I
Speaker 3: think we were playing maybe Central Arizona, and they were
Speaker 3: blown us out. I mean we lost so many games
Speaker 3: that year, I think, really blown us out, like eighteen
Speaker 3: to two. And he's like, here, go eat up some innings.
Speaker 3: And my dad was there, and I went. I threw
Speaker 3: two innings, I struck out all six hitters, and then
Speaker 3: from there on I literally closed every single game.
Speaker 2: Oh wow. And I was in my mind, how do
Speaker 2: you not Honestly, I don't know. I'll call that a
Speaker 2: jetfish moment. Yeah, how did you not see that? You
Speaker 2: don't see what you don't see? Right?
Speaker 3: So, I mean, I don't know, but I was fortunate enough.
Speaker 3: So then I went on. I played summer. I played
Speaker 3: summer ball in the Northwoods League, and the coach from
Speaker 3: Coaches College, Todd Engelhart, was like these coaches around and
Speaker 3: I said, that's why I'm Southern Arizona kid, because all
Speaker 3: these people like help me out got me to in NORTHWOODSLEAG,
Speaker 3: which is the second best college baseball league. Summer league
Speaker 3: had an absolute blast. I was telling you earlier we
Speaker 3: went on one time, we went on like a fourteen
Speaker 3: or fifteen day road trip. You were asking what I packed,
Speaker 3: and I said, the whole suitcase. What you had in
Speaker 3: your yeah, exactly, like just hopefully that you can get
Speaker 3: through that with you know, clean underwear and so. And
Speaker 3: then from there, I you know, I had scholarships. I
Speaker 3: actually had quite a bit of scholarships, so it was
Speaker 3: very fortunate, and I chose to go to Metro State
Speaker 3: and Denver. The visit was unbelievable. Where the location is,
Speaker 3: you know, forty thousand kids on campus downtown Denver.
Speaker 2: It was so great.
Speaker 3: And then I got drafted by the new or comerats,
Speaker 3: you know, and how what happened from that? Then I
Speaker 3: played with them, I got you know, and then I
Speaker 3: ended up having labor and surgery six years in and
Speaker 3: I chose to go.
Speaker 2: Have you talked have you listened to us when we
Speaker 2: had Andy Lopez? Yeah, of course I know Andrew He's yeah,
Speaker 2: I know Andy very Those stories that he tells was fantastic.
Speaker 2: So you he talks about and he talks about the
Speaker 2: people involved. I think he's had some like take a
Speaker 2: fork in the road, right, Yeah, you're thankful, You're you're
Speaker 2: thankful for one dude, two dudes probably, well, one dude
Speaker 2: that I just the stories. The dude who got arrested, Yeah, well.
Speaker 3: Too dudes, right, my Jeff Stanley, my dad's one of
Speaker 3: my dad's close friends, because he got me if it
Speaker 3: wasn't from him. I remember getting inducted to the Hall
Speaker 3: of Fame at Flord Walls and I didn't think my
Speaker 3: high school coach, and I probably should have. That was
Speaker 3: really I do regret that, but I mean, this guy
Speaker 3: is the one that gave me. Who was the dude
Speaker 3: that got arrested? You don't have to biz, I don't, Yeah,
Speaker 3: I don't. He was just a left hander. He was
Speaker 3: from Safford, and I don't. I'm not going to say
Speaker 3: what he got arrested for, but it was he definitely
Speaker 3: should have been arrested.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, okay, serendipity.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, listen, I'm fortunate enough that in the
Speaker 3: right place, right time, I guess.
Speaker 2: Right, right. So how long did you stay in the system?
Speaker 2: Yeah it was six years? Really? So what you you
Speaker 2: kind of you're living? You lived my dream of getting
Speaker 2: to play, you know, and come on, you you're a
Speaker 2: pretty good player. Blah blah blah. You got the circumstances,
Speaker 2: but it doesn't happen by accident either, although maybe he
Speaker 2: kind of did. Six years, there's no accident. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: I I mean, you know, I was fortunate. Let's just say,
Speaker 2: what was your record eventually, like overall pitching record.
Speaker 3: I don't look at stats. I don't want I mean
Speaker 3: you can look that up. Don't look at seven. That
Speaker 3: was my that was my that was my I got
Speaker 3: hurt O seven.
Speaker 2: Eight. I remember what you said about the haircuts. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: we don't want to look at the fast six years
Speaker 2: of either faking it well or they liked they saw
Speaker 2: something in you.
Speaker 3: So how far did you go? I had to double
Speaker 3: a yeah, and then I mean that's when I tore
Speaker 3: my labor. But I got to go to Hawaii and
Speaker 3: play winter ball. And I mean it's funny my winter
Speaker 3: ball team. I think every single guy that played in
Speaker 3: that league went to the big leagues in the next
Speaker 3: two years. So you and you probably know some of them.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I mean the guys I played with Dreubuterra.
Speaker 3: I mean you you know him, dextra Fowler. I mean
Speaker 3: you've got huge names.
Speaker 2: Did you at the time? At the time, you think
Speaker 2: what am I doing here? And how cool is this?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: And we got two days off a week. Oh no,
Speaker 3: I was like lived the lights. It was the greatest
Speaker 3: like that, that was the greatest thing ever.
Speaker 2: Goopy's chasing you. I don't know about that, Drew. I'm
Speaker 2: writing this story. I've seen it. I've covered by the league. Basically,
Speaker 2: you have to refresh my memory. I don't know what
Speaker 2: group you. Sorry, I saw bulld Uh. There's some truth
Speaker 2: to that. I wouldn't know, but I've heard, of course
Speaker 2: there is. Okay, we've got time, We're really go. Yeah,
Speaker 2: let's let's go. We'll get some breaking news from you, right,
Speaker 2: and then we're gonna talk to men with anyone on
Speaker 2: the other side.