Friday, June 14, Hour 1

This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez. Sound Fox Sports fourteen fifteen powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure Your Most Prized Possessions kat z R TWUSA at iHeartRadio Station. Good afternoon, Welcome guy in the ball. You know, Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm your host, Jay Gonzalez. Steve is going to be out today a little unexpectedly and we'll we'll talk

about that at another time. But I have my friend Juan here today, so one's hanging out with me and we've got a nice Friday, a nice Friday show when we're going to just kind of talk about all the stuff that's going on. So Wan, thanks for being here today, Bud for having me. Appreciate it. So you know, we've got it's just a mash of stuff going on right. The US Open is on. There's a young guy, Ludwig Oberg who's winning, is twenty four years old. He's beaten

an incredible field that you always get for the US Open. Tiger Woods is scrambling to try and make the Scottie Scheffer. Mike missed the cut, so a lot, a lot still left to happen in the US open that's coming to the last few holes. On on NBC, there's some news regarding softball, volleyball. You said softball and volleyball. There's just a whole bunch of stuff. But and then today on the show, we've got Aeron Torres, who's covers a college sports of all types right now, talking a lot of

football. Aaron is a friend of the show. He's got a show on Fox Sports. He's also got his own podcast and does a podcast for Twitter feeds for different areas of the country. He's got one in Arizona. So Aaron, you know, talks a lot about Arizona, loves talking Arizona basketball. So we'll see what's on his mind. A number of things going on. He's tested some stuff about this whole deal with the Big Twelve, maybe selling the naming rights to the conference, maybe trying to get some public equity

investment, just trying to find ways to raise money. We'll get into some of those issues with Aaron because he's stays on top of all that stuff. He's the guy that I mean, we're talking I think it was November maybe December who said I was listening to his podcast and he back then he said that John Calipari would not be the head coach at Kentucky this coming year, And at that time there was no reason to think that other than maybe the

fans were getting sick of him. And then he had another bad NC double eight thing. He's gone, he's at Arkansas. So he correctly predicted that, and that was something that I don't think a lot of people were predicting at that time. So again, Aaron stays on top of those things. So we'll have him on the show at about three twenty and then at four to twenty doctor Porter. We call him Doc Porter. He's doctor Donald Porter. He's the team physician at Arizona for a lot of years, recently retired

and yesterday was named to the Arizona Athletics Hall of Fame. Good friend, he's a spectacular guy. I'm sure he's seen a lot in all that time he was at the u of A. I don't know how much of it he can talk about, right, because he is a doctor and you can't talk about all this stuff. But I'm sure he's had some experiences that are maybe a little um it's things that we don't know right, or things that

we don't know go on and things that they have to deal with. When we're talking talking about all the medical issues that the athletes have, whether it's you know, a football player or a volleyball player or an or gymnast or whatever, a lot of things that go on. So we'll just kind of kick that around and talk about his career at Arizona. So he's again a good friend. I've known him for a long time, really good guy, one of the nicest people ever at McHale, and somebody who they obviously think

a lot of because they put him in the Hall of Fames. We'll we'll have Doc Porter. So anyways, so he'll be on at about four to twenty. What do you think you you asked me if I thought the Celtics would it would finish to sweep tonight. I don't know. What do you think I think they do? You think they do? I think just just from the last game, ye know, Luca felling out with four minus left when it's a three point game, I think that's really demoralizing for a team

to be that close yet you're still down three to zero. And I think the Celtics just have to drive. They have the focus and the composure even just the experience. Well, they certainly have the better team, right showing. Yeah, and it's showing. We talked about that yesterday and you know,

Ryan Ryan our Thursday intern. Ryan is a huge Mavericks fan. I don't know if you and him talk, but you know, he just basically said, you know, he admitted, he said they just got better players across the board, you know, I mean, you know, yeah, Luka, Doncicks a really good player, u n Kyrie Irving's a really good player. But you match them up against the Celtics guys, and Celtics are just a better team. And they got five guys on the court that are

better than the year five guys. So I guess I'm a little surprised though that it is three nothing. I really thought that the Mavericks would win the last game. Yeah, they're really dominant at home, you know. Yeah, just the last couple of years when the Sons have faced on the you don't see him lose at home. So I know, I know they were up for a little bit in that first half, but I thought they were gonna take him three in favorable fashion, right, And I've never thought that

the Mavericks would win the series. I was hoping it would go like six games. I hate I hate sweeps. And you know, we're looking at one in the in the NBA, we're looking at one in the Stanley Cup Final. I mean, you hate for the sports to end early because you know the NBA would gone one another couple of weeks. Yeah, yeah, you know, so that's too bad. But I don't know if I hope for them to win at this point. If it's three nothing, it's like,

we know what's going to happen, just end it. Yeah, that's kind of how I personally want to see Al Horford, a guy that's been there and been around for a while, I want to see him go get one. Okay, so all right, we're doing for one of the bets. Okay, good, good, But but that also means Peyton Pritchard gets

one, right bettersweet moments. You know, that guy was annoying to me and you know, coming here when he played with Oregon, he was that guy that you just he he didn't look like a good player, yet he could shoot the lights out. He always killed. There was one game he just killed Arizona here and I'm like, I don't ever want that guy to win anything. Not that I'm a barter guy and stuff like that, but

I guess I am. But you know, if he's I mean, if if it means something to Al Horr to you for Al Horford to get when Okay, I'm not rooting for Bayton Pritchard. I was rooting. He kind of reminded me of a little bit more skilled TJ. McConnell. He had that guy, if he had that representation for school and he could shoot the damn lights out, and he always did against Arizona. It seemed like him something. I hated that. I hated that. But but he'll get one

too. So but you know, look, the Celtics have been the best team all year long. I mean, and I'm not going to say it's not even close, but hands down right the best team. Then the Mavericks come out of the you know, out of the West as a as a five seed, right, you know, Oklahoma City wasn't any good. The Nuggets turned, you know, they're not not be very good. Uh when when I say not very good compared to what you were expecting to be, right, So anyways, I don't know, I can't decide. I'm I'm

I'm focused on the us. I'm gonna tell you, I'm I'm a golfer, so I love the I love the Majors. I've been watching it all day to day. Scottie Scheffer's in big trouble. Might may not make the cut, which is crazy. He hasn't missed a cut in two years. He's five over. They're projecting the cut at five over, but right now it's at four over. So a couple of guys got to screw up for the cut to move to five and then if so, then he's in.

But he's not in contention. He's he's eleven strokes out with two two uh two rounds left. So I don't know, it's been interesting to watch that golf course is crazy, uh for those golf for those of you who are golfers out there, maybe some of you who aren't are bored by this, but seeing I saw a couple of videos going into the tournament where uh, somebody was standing next to the hole, okay, on a green, standing next to the hole and just drop the ball, just just dropped it on

the you know, on the green. Uh, you just standing dropped and it rolled off the green from right next to the hole. I just saw a shot a few minutes ago. I think it was who was it, I can't remember who it was, but he knocked the ball and it landed, couldn't be a foot and a half from the hole, spun backwards a little bit, rolled twenty yards off the green. That's a tough go, but you know, that's what they do. They try to make it as

hard as possible. We talked to Don Poolly about that earlier in the week. They try to make it as hard as possible. And some of the shots that these guys are I mean, some of the things that you're seeing happen like Scotti schefferd today, he's in a dirt patch off the green. He's chipping just to get on the green, and it took him two shots to get it on the green. The second time he had over the green. Like I can do that. I have that. I can do that

anytime. But these guys are you know, this golf course is making some of these guys look very ordinary, and it's it's tough for someone There's some guys who didn't make the cut. Phil Mickelson's like twelve over right, you know, and I mean he hasn't been good in a long time. But you know, he wanted to major a few years ago. But he's twelve over. I mean, he doesn't didn't even come close. They showed him a couple of times his shoulders were slummed. He looked like, I just

want to go home. It's tough to watch these guys. But anyway, so what else we we had a good conversation. Uh, we had good conversations yesterday with UH with Mark Wicker about UH about the passion of Jerry West. Uh. I take it back, that was day before yesterday. Yesterday we had Wilner talking about the uh all the business side of it. You know, the naming rights. He mentioned he said, you know, our school's going to sell their naming rights and javera morale is when you know he

kind of he tweeted that out that John had said that. I think John was kind of tongue in cheek on that, but said, yeah, you never know, you know, instead of right, instead of being instead of being the ears on the wildcats, they might be the hsl properties wild kids. But you know, these these school's got to raise money. They got to raise a lot of money. Then you're looking at a school like Arizona

Yeah, it's like financial trouble. Right. Where are they going to get the twenty two twenty plus million dollars that they're going to need to pay athletes within a couple of years. Where's that going to come from? You know, you know, you're you're hearing things, and you know there was a I don't know if it's in your breaking news, the transfer kid who's going to Kansas State. Do you hear about this? I heard about it.

I don't remember, like what, I can't remember his name, but they're saying he's getting two million dollars to transfer from from Illinois to Kansas State. And then somebody said, well, he averaged twelve points and six rebounds last year. What are you doing? Are you gonna pay that guy? He? What makes him worth two million bucks to a program? And you know, some people came up and said, I don't believe that, and then a number of others said, no, this one. A lot of other

ones haven't been that. This one's true. And I'm like, wow, must have a lot of faith. I mean, he's highly thought of, right, but what are you getting for the two million bucks? If you're the one putting up two million bucks? Somebody said, maybe sixteen exactly, maybe you're going to the sweet sixteen? What do you you know, what are you doing? You know, is Kansas State going to win a national

championship with this guy? You'd hope. So even if they do, Okay, even if they do and they pay two million dollars for it, you know, how much are they getting for the final four or for a NANCAA championship and two million of it went straight to this kid? And then what if you're the guy who's already playing for Kansas State who was a star last year he decided to come back and you know, kind of finish it out, and all of a sudden, here comes this kid from somewhere else and

somebody's given him two million bucks. Oh man, the world of college years or it's messed up. One, it's messed up. I mean, look, I don't know what tm X getting right, And we know he's getting something because we talked to to Bert Lopez, who has a contract with TAMAC too. You know, whatever he's doing for the amount of money, I don't think it's two million dollars. Yeah, no, I don't think it's two million bucks. You know, maybe it's uh, maybe it's six figures,

maybe it's a couple of hundred thousand whatever. And you know, because Bert Lopez has a affinity for you of a sports. He loves football, he wants it to succeed. You know, he's put up some money for that. But I don't think Bert Lopez is giving anybody two million bucks. And I can't think of any boost at Arizona who would do that for anybody.

No, right, I mean what what I mean, what's what's the top price for you of a athlete, whether it's Caleb love no off a feed, a couple of hundred thousand dollars, Maybe that's probably what you're looking at, right, I mean, it can't be much more than that. But I think that also says something about the culture right of those right, each of those respective sports. Because yeah, sure you can go make two million in Kansas State, but you know, Caleb loves highly thought of around

the college football world, or not college football, college basketball world. But you don't see him making two million. Yeah, he's sticking with Arizona, all right, He's sticking with Arizona. Sure, he's going to be comfortable. He'll you know, he'll get some money, he'll have a nice car. He'll be able to go out, you know and get a pizza or buy some dinner for somebody, or you know, live in a nice place.

Right. But I just I just don't see where the somebody that I was talking to with today said, where's the return on investment on two million dollars going to a kid who averaged twelve and six last year at another school and coming to your school? Exactly what what do you get for that sweet sixteen? There's a lot of hopes and dreams. Well, you know what, and there'll be a lot of a lot of attention paid on this one. People go to say, Okay, here's this kid, and we're everybody's

pretty certain he's getting this amount of money. Let's see what Kansas State does with that? What does it do for Kansas State? And that's going to be crazy, all right, that's okay, We're going to take our break. We're going to have errent Toors coming in. We'll talk a lot about just all these things. Right, Probably that one will be at the at the top of the at the top of the discussion, because I'm sure he's

got some thoughts on that. And then we'll get Doc Porter Doctor don Porter the form Arizona Team physician in the second hour, so stick around for erin toors. The Window Depot has everything you need to create the kitchen or bathroom of your dreams. Frowsy aisles of instock cabinets available in a variety of sizes and configurations, and instantly elevate your space. Today, visit a showroom and let our experts guide you. Whether you're choosing for money to go designs or

creating a custom masterpiece. We can help you select the perfect wood, type, color and style and top it off with unique hardware to complete your look. Find a location near you at the Window Deepot dot com. The Window Depot more than a windows store. Steve Rivera here to talk about Doronto Rocket Materials. I need a lot of gravel for my driveway, so I called Eric at Dorato Rock. He found out the amount and color I needed and boom, it was taken care of and at a great price. How do

I know radio commercials work? I heard one of his on the radio. Dorato Rock and Materials provides a wide range of landscaping materials, including decorative rock, boulders, gravel, soil, and sand for residential and commercial use in the Tucson area. They are locally owned and have been around for more than fifteen years. Give them a call at five two zero four zero zero four two three three. Where do you buy exercise equipment? Arizona Health Arizona Health

Arizona Health. Of course, to feel better and look better, it makes sense to buy your fitness equipment from the people who know it better than anyone else. At Arizona Health, our goal is to help you choose the equipment you need to reach your goals. Your health and fitness deserve the best you deserve. Arizona Health the leading edge and exercise equipment on twenty seconds just west

of Wilmot. It's a warn season for summer sports league and time to look at trophies for baseball, softball, volleyball, and swimming seasons for youth and adult leagues. Summer has arrived and it's time to replenish your promotional products for your companies. Giveaways, keep your employees looking great in fresh new apparel, polos and caps with your sharp looking logo. Creative Awards is here to serve

your professional and promotional products needs. Visit their Creative Awards Idea Center at two twenty eight West Drackman Street or visit them online at Creative Awards az dot com. At Nova home Loans, we believe everyone deserves the opportunity to enjoy the independence that comes with home ownership. Paul Volpi is ready to help you find an option that best fits your needs, whether you're a first time or veteran home buyer or want to get cash out with the refinance. Nova has a

variety of home loan programs to meet your unique situation. Visit voltpeteam dot com, that's Volpe team dot com or call five two oh six one eight five six two six today in MLS three oh eight seven arizon A BKO Ninez two nine four two Equal Housing Opportunity, how to commitment to Lindrixson, credit rates

and available loan programs of subjects. Did you know? Sports cards at Memorabilia are setting record sales last month of nineteen fifty two tops Mickey Mantle So for twelve point six million, Lebron James Rookie SO for five point six Also, collecting cards is a family fun hobby that can be very profitable. If you want to start a collection or expand your collection, check out Showtime Cards. They are one of the leading card shops in the country and have served our

local community for twenty five years. They are located on e Speedway. That's Showtime Cards. Ready to save but not sure where to begin? Take the Pyramid Federal Credit Union ten thousand dollars saving Challenge and we'll guide you along the way. Save five hundred dollars over six months as a member and you could win big whatch your savings grow to help you reach goals like buying a car, owning a home and more. Visit Pyramid FCU dot com Slash ten k

challenge to get started today. That really insured and CUA. It's that time of year, Summer in Tucson. Time to take control with Temperature Control for all your air conditioning needs. We'll keep you cool during all the hot streaks. All you have to do is stay in control with Temperature Control, where we handle everything you need with prompt response, affordable pricing, and sound solutions. We also excel in plumbing and electrical work. We handle everything you need.

Give us a call at five two oh eight one five five six six ' five or visit our website at tempdash con dot com and remember, stay in control. With temperature control. Need concrete, hard Works Concrete has it. We have more than twenty five years of experience with all things concrete. Installing sidewalks and patio floors are our specialty, and handle masonry work and retaining walls. We're locally and family owned. Just let us know what you need,

how you want it, and we'll take care of it. Leave the hard work up to us. We're a hard Works Concrete. Call us at five one two nine six' two five six six zero or visit our website hardworks Concrete dot com. We'll put the work in for you. Got bugs, termites, bees, are rodents, Arizona Pest Control will hunt them down.

Arizona Pest Control is your complete desert pest management specialist. That's can't run or hide from Arizona Pest Control. They use only the latest and most technologically advanced methods of pest elimination available, which minimizes the effects on the environment. Let Arizona Pest Control get rid of your bad bugs, termites, bees, or rodents serving Tucson and Southern Arizona since nineteen forty seven. Go to azypest

dot com to schedule your free evaluation today. Steve Ravia and Jacob Solis. They have their eye on the fall on Tucson's sports station CHET Fox Sports fourteen to fifty. Welcome back time to the ball here of Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Jacin Zalez. My usual co host, Stiververa's out today, but I have my our great Friday intern Juan here, and on the phone, we've got Erin Torris for Fox Sports Fox Sports Radio on the Airport Aerin tors

podcast. You know, i'd call you aaron an expert, and I'll tell you why, you know in college athletics because of a call that you made, I think way back in November December. So welcome to the show. Appreciate you being here. What was the call? I mean, now you got that's that's what we call a teeth in the business. Yeah. Well, I was listening to your podcast and I remember if it was late November or December, and you predicted that John Calipari would not be the coach at

Kentucky after this last season. You know, he hadn't the season hadn't gone far enough for him to be bad, bad enough to say he's going to get fired. But you said you thought he'd be gone after this last season, and in the end he was. I got to give you a lot of credit for that. Oh thank you. Yeah, it's crazy that that was surreal, and I know we got a lot of stuff to hit on outside of that, but yeah, it was just, you know, that situation was so toxic, and listen, I think there's a lot of blame

to go around. It was the fans. I don't think Cal helped his own situation, but it just felt like every time there was a loss, you know, Cal wanted to take zero responsibility. The fans overreacted in a way that I don't know that I've ever seen covering college sports. And I think part of it was the contract. But I'll tell you, Jay, you know, I'd love to take a ton of credit. But I just remember after that NCAA tournament lost to Oakland, I just remember sitting there saying,

this can't go on. But obviously they didn't have the money to fire him, and I didn't think that he would leave on his own accords. So you know, I don't remember what I said in November December. I just know that after that Oakland game, I had the thought of you can't run this back again, but I didn't, but I thought they had no choice but to. So, you know, one of many, many, many crazy stories going on in the world of college sports over the last twelve

months or so. Well, one of the crazier ones to me and Juan and I talked about it last segment was this news that came out today. You know, and again, so many numbers have been thrown around about Caleb Williams at usc how much he was made king and all this stuff, But this report comes out today that Kansas State assigned a kid and he's going to get two million dollars a year. And he's not even like a spectacular you know, can't miss Kinnie. He's a really good player, but two million

dollars to a place like Kansas State. First of all, your thoughts on that? Are you hearing anything about it? Do you do you have any confirmation of it? I guess yeah, you know, I actually do. I can't say one hundred percent confirmation, But you know, he was an interesting one because you know, he was interesting because he was pretty vocal. Is he was a great great is relative. He was very good player at Illinois. The stats are a little bit misleading. He dealt with some injuries.

You know, I would call him one of the top twenty five or so players in college basketball, maybe top thirty, you know whatever, he was very good. And I bring it up because you know, he was very vocal about this time. Last year he entered the NBA Draft, but you know, he went through the process, but when he decided to come

back, he didn't really have any options. And so in this Nio world, I think he said it without saying it that you know, he felt like he was a little bit undervalued at Illinois, so when he entered. So when he entered the draft, he also entered the portal. And I will tell you Jay, when he when he announced that he was even before he announced he was coming back, I knew a staff that had kind of poked around and just just to gauge is he coming back? Is he not?

What's the price tag? And they said that he did come back because he saw you know, Great Osabor was the player at the University of Washington that was at about two million dollars. And long story short, I think Great osa Bor is a fine player, but I don't even think he's like elite by any stretch, especially heading to now the big tenant Washington. So I was actually told before this kid entered the portal, or excuse me, before he removed his name from the draft, that he was quote looking for

great osabor money. Now has anybody worked that in college basketball? Maybe a handful of people, But I was told he was going on the highest bidder. And and the last thing I would say, really quick is I do think there's a little bit of a learning lesson for the future, is you know, I think by waiting until the absolute deadline for the NBA Draft to withdraw, I think he did limit some of his options because you referenced Kansas State, which is a good program, they made the Elite eight two years

ago. Whatever. But I think he, you know, he would have gotten the best of both worlds if he had decided to withdraw, maybe a little bit earlier. Where a little bit of a high profile school, a little bit of a more eye profile school, Uh, you know, good money, all that stuff. But to answer your question directly, I knew something like this was coming, but it is still insane to think about how

quickly the narrative in college sports has changed. And it's crazy. And I guess, you know, if you're saying he should have done this and he should have done that. If he's getting two million dollars, he did okay, right, for sure, for sure. But you know it's like I think, you know, listen, I mean, let's let's call it what it is. I mean, at the end of the day, he's going

to a team that didn't make the NCAA tournament last year. He's coming off in Elite eight appearance, and I think even in a best case scenario, that's probably the fourth, fifth, sixth best team in the now Big twelve, your future Big twelve rivals there in Tucson. But in all seriousness, I mean, you look at the rosters. I mean, Arizona's gonna be awesome, Kansas is gonna be Austin, and Houston's gonna be awesome, Baylor's

gonna be awesome, on and on and so. All I was really trying to say was if he had made that decision a little bit earlier, I don't want to say a more high profile place, but I think he would have had better options than just Kansas State because there wasn't much outside of them

as far as interest relative to how good he is. Well, let me ask you, you know, based on what you know, are schools like Kansas Due, North Carolina, let's say, a god, I don't know, even Arizona are they Are they paying two million dollars for a player? For one player? You know? I don't know because you know, well I can't answer that because ultimately, like what we got to remember is he was essentially a free agent. So like, what was the number for Caleb

Love to come back to Arizona? You know, I don't know. I don't know if that's certainly not something that's public as far as I know, So no, I think these numbers are on the high end, and it's because these are kids with leverage. Now, what I would also say is, you know, I think, let me say this is like when we hear a lot of these coaches, you know, really pushing hey, make sure to donate to the collectiveness. That the other thing. I think a

guy like today Coleman Hawkins, he certainly makes a headline. But I think if a Tommy Lloyd comes out and says, hey, make sure you're donating to our collective, I think it's more to retain a kJ Lewis, Jaden Bradley, a Caleb Love so that they don't feel the need to enter the portal and test their options, so that they don't feel the need or feel as though they're underappreciated. So, you know, I can't sit here and

say who's making what? I just know that, you know, the kids that do enter the portal end up being super high profile because of the fact that they almost become essentially free agents, open to the highest fitter. Right, just the craziness of it is just you know, I'm an old guy, right, it's just too it's a lot for me to handle. Not that you're old when I said when I said, I know I didn't need o guy, just that it's just crazy. You know how much college sports

has changed. I know I'm talking a lot here, but I'll just say it's like even the story yesterday about the Big Twelve, which obviously has big Arizona tizes, but you know, are they going to bring in private equity? Are they going to you know, rebrand the conference with a corporate sponsor.

It's like, you know, two years ago, it was like if a kid couldn't even sell his autograph for fifty bucks, or he was suspended for a game, And now it's like you know, the Big twelve might be you know, the the Big twelve might be the Doctor Pepper twelve before it's all said and done or something like that. You know what I mean.

Well, you know, and my position on that, and to me, that's a whole lot different because if if the schools are going to be forced to pay these athletes, they got to go get some money from somewhere. You know, all right, I joke, sell naming rights to everything, right, Sell naming rights to your palm line, Sell naming rights to your band, sell naming rights to you know, we had John Wilner on he said, sell naming rights to the school. You know that he said

that the in and out Wildcats instead of the air See. That feels like a bridge too far. But then again, you know, there's probably thirty stories that have come out over the last four or five years that feels a bridge too far, you know, exactly exactly. So speaking of you mentioned, you know, retaining players and stuff like that, how about Yukon retaining its coach and all the all the news behind that, Dan Hurley uh deciding

not to go to the Lakers. Uh? You know where you as a fan, okay, as as somebod who covers this and as a fan, are you happy that he stayed or would or does it make it better for you? Or were you okay with him going? And let's see what happens at Yukon. So yeah, I mean, first of all, you know, I am a Yukon of lum I. You know, it's tough for me because I never really thought that it was a real story to begin with.

I thought, and I know he did his media tour yesterday where he said it wasn't a leverage play, and anybody who says that is an idiot, and maybe I'm an idiot, but I still think to a degree it was a leverage play. And oh, by the way, in the same sentence where he said it's not a leverage play, he said, my contract is done, but I'm trying to take care of my assistance, So it is a leverage play to some degree. I'll say this. There's two things

jay On. That is, I don't think it would have landed well for you despite everything he's done for the university. And let's let's just acknowledge that, you know, he's trending to go down as a potentially all time great coach if he stays, and even if he left this year, I think there's there's a large portion of the fan base that would totally get it and whatever. But I do think and this is also part of the reason that I didn't think he was going to go, is just the timing. The

timing of it from the perspective of it's June. You know, you had a kid named Alex Caravan, one of the first players to sign with you at Yukon going into his fourth year. Now, maybe not one of the first, but in early was with you from the beginning. That kid could have stayed in the NBA draft and ultimately been drafted, and he wanted to

come back for another year. Uh, you know, you had a bunch of freshmen that were that didn't play much that you know, he really had to obviously spend a lot of time communicating with saying, Hey, there's a plan for you in place here, let's develop you, let's get you better, let's whatever. And so I think that was part of it from his perspective or and he has acknowledged that in some of the interviews that he did yesterday of you know, there's a time maybe to seriously consider the NBA.

But not only was this not I don't think the one. I'll just be honest, I don't think the Lakers is a good job right now because you have a four year old, you know, aging superstar that wants you to coach his son too. But but besides all that, I think that the

timing of this popping up in early June. I think if the Lake, you know, if the Lakers, if he really was the favorite, and the Lakers had come at him the first week of May when they fired Darvin Ham, I think even that might be a little bit of a different conversation. But you know, I was never that worried. Maybe I should have been, Like I said, he claims that it was a tough decision.

All I'll say is it didn't. He didn't act like a guy this weekend that had a really tough decision between showing between the fact that he was really in La probably less than twenty four hours, the fact that he was at the concert on Saturday night back on the East coast, just nothing to me adds up to a guy that felt like he was ready to make this move. And I say that as a guy that says that, you know what someday in the future there probably will be a job that is of more interest

to him. But this one, I'm not just saying it with hindsight and revisionist history. It really was never a moment. There weren't many moments, I should say where I was really that concerned that he was leaving well.

And you know, and the other thing that came out of that, like you said, was that a lot of people just start saying, you, guys, the Lakers job is not what the Lakers job used to be, Kay, And I apologize for keep cutting you off, but like that was the thing that I and you know, we live on the West Coast,

so maybe it's a little bit different. But I was like stunned by the number of people that are, like, you don't turn down the Lakers when they call, And I'm like, what is this night like nineteen eighty two? Like is Byron Scott and Magic Johnson still on the team? It's like, you know, you besides the fact that I think it's obviously come out that you know, the franchise maybe financially isn't in a place that a lot

of others are. But I mean, you look at the situation with Lebron James, Like people are talking about coaching Lebron James like it's twenty thirteen and having him on your team guarantees you a trip to the finals. And that's just not the case anymore. You know, this is a guy that you know his last two coach listen, a coach that, let remember, it's easy to forget the Lakers made the Western Conference finals last season, and a year later, that coach is fired. And so you can sit here and

call me a Yukon homer. But for Dan Hurley to give up what he's built at Yukon to go to the Lakers and if it doesn't work out, he's immediately on the hot seat, and he's immediately the fall guy. Like I said, I just think there's gonna be an NBA opportunity where you know, it's a little closer to home, a little closer to his family. He's gonna have time to build it the way he wants. The Lakers can say all these great things about we want your developmental and your culture near this,

and you're that. But when push comes to shove and Lebron James is mad, I don't know that I believe that he's going to get the benefit of the doubt. And so I didn't never understand the conversation about, well, you don't turn down the Lakers. It's like, I don't know, a lot of people seem to be turning down the Lakers. So anyway,

I'm going on and on. But no, but I know all that valid stuff because it's it's kind of what we're talking about, right It's like, I mean, I thought the same thing, you know, I thought, like, okay, yeah, the Lakers are it's a you know, it's they're iconic, but they're not very good and it's not a very good franchise.

Right now, one quick thing before before we let you go, okay, we're it's kind of like, all right, all the sports are over with, Well, the College World Series is still going on, but now we're talking about next year and all the changes, all the all the realignments. You know, we're talking Arizona is in the Big twelve. Now we're going to stop talking about the Pac twelve. It's time to start to you know, as they say, turn the page, and we're looking at an

academic here coming up where completely different. We've got the college Football Playoff, We've got a Big Twelve Basketball conference. It's just going to be unbelievable, which to me, you know, if Arizone was going to land in a conference I like the one that they're in largely because of that. Just some of your thoughts on what this all these changes, how they're going to look when when games are starting to get played and now you know, as somebody

said, UCLA is playing Rutgers and it's a conference game. No, there's no doubt that some of the schedule got leaked the other last week. I live in LA I do radio on Saturday nights, but USC plays Rutgers in a Big Ten game on a Friday night, and I said, you know, I've been out in Coliseum in about four or five years. I would love to get down to that game because on a Friday I might be able

to do it, you know, my big thing. And I don't know that it's applicable for some of the Big twelve schools, But first of all, it is going to look so different, and I think from a basketball perspective, it's going to be fascinating. From the Arizona side, like how they end up you know, how just things end up playing out. But

from the football side when I'm fascinated by, Like it's funny. Jeff Levy, who's the new Mississippi State football coach, said something to the effect of, I don't think anybody in this league is going undefeated anymore, and it became like a talking point, and I'm like, yeah, no, nobody is, you know, and I just I think it's going to be interesting. There's a lot of schools that that you know, have historically, whether

it's Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, you know, Oregon. In the PAC twelve, USC has certainly had success through the years, though not as much recently, Alabama, Georgia. There's these schools that just expect to be a ten to eleven twelve win team. But I think there's a lot of there's a lot of teams that are just gonna have to except like nine and three is kind of the new eleven and one, just with the way

the schedules break. So I think that's the interesting thing to me is, like I said, there's a lot of schools that dominated in the Pac twelve. The Big ten is obviously deeper, the SEC is deeper. There's no divisions in those conferences anymore. And I think It's just gonna be fascinating to see how people perceive nine and three used to be, like, Okay, it's good, but it's not great. It might be great for some of these teams with the way some of these schedules break, right. No,

absolutely, absolutely, Well, Aaron marount of time. I do appreciate you joining us on a Friday afternoon, and I'm hoping we'll run into you some And I'm looking forward to this here just to see what it's like. I think the newness of it. As much as I hate what happened to the Pac twelve, the newness of all of it, I'm a little fired up by it. We're gonna see in Kansas City at the Big twelve tournament or what you know, Well, you know, if they invite me, you

know I got you know, my stuff was paid for in Vegas. Yeah, I know. I'm not quite as many hotel rooms in can in the city, I don't think. I mean I've only been once, but I don't think there's quite as many hotel rooms. So we'll see not quite as many hotel rooms are blackjack tables. So there you go, exactly, Eric, Thanks great week. I appreciate you joining us. Thank you, Steve.

Okay, Steve's okay, thank you, thank you all right. The Eron Tours from Fox Sports, Fox Sports Radio and the and the Erin Tors Podcast. Give him a listener's he's got a lot of He got a lot of knowledge, as you could tell, uh follows a lot of stuff. He's a West Coast guy, even though he's a Yukon guy. A lot of interesting stuff coming from Eron toaurs. So thank you Erin for joining us. Let's go and take our break. We went a little over. We're

gonna come back. Would love to take your cost five two zero four, one sixty four forty wight be right back. If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you know it's been successful for nearly forty years. Now take a look back at the Ludolsen era. In my new book, Lessens from Loot.

It was a labor of love through the eyes of twenty five former players, coaches and friends to give insight to the coach and the man who led them, competed against them, and inspired them twenty five chapters for his twenty five years as Arizona's the loved Coach. Lessens From is an insight to how he built the program into a national powerhouse. What one email me at Steve

dot RIVERA ninety five at gmail dot com. Hi, this is formal while get leman huntly with Arizona Health, imagine how home GM can change your health, your comfort, and your time. Arizona Health is everything you need to transform your personal space and your life. We off a complete line of cardio machines, multigms and free rate equipment. I'll certify fitness experts and technicians will set you up with the right equipment and training to get you started to keep

you going. Visit our share room today at twenty second in Wilmot. Arizona Health the lead edge and exercise equipment. What's your goal a new career or career advancement? How about transferring to a four year college. PEMA Community College can help you make some day today and reach your goals affordably on your schedule. With over one hundred programs to choose from in financial lad available, it's time to earn the degree or certificate you need to prepare for the career you

want. PIMA offers free career exploration classes so you can choose the field that's right for you learn how at Pima dot edu slash someday right here working in a state up dispere. Is it hot in here or is it just me? Honey? I always think you're hot. But it's June and we all know it's going to get hot in Tucson. It doesn't have to be hot in our house. Honey. You should call Picture Rocks Cooling, eating them

plumbing. They have the solutions for us for all your air condition needs, all today by few zero four nine two zero seven four eight, or visit us at Picture Rockscooling dot com. Picture Rocks Pulling, Cheating and Plumbing. Steve Rivera and Jake and Salez they have their eye on the ball. On Tucson's sports Stig Jet Fox Sports fourteen fifteen streaming live, I'm the iHeartRadio WAM. Welcome back down on the Bawling on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm your

host Jakin Salas. Steve is out for the day, and but I do have my buddy Jan here, so one and a kicking things around. Interesting conversation with with Aaron. A lot of you know, interesting perspective, you know when you talk about you know, Aaron reports from a national perspective and and just the things going on. We're talking about this kid, Coleman Hawkins is alleged allegedly getting two million dollars to play basketball in college. Right in

college, we may uh. Javea morale Is on Twitter just pointed out, we may see him, Michaeliff. You know, we we haven't seen the basketball schedule yet for Kansas State he's in He's in Arizona's league, so we may see him. I'm like, okay, are you worth two million dollars? And then you know what's that gonna be like for him? Right, He's going to go to an arena, He's going he's going to go to

Kansas or he's gonna wherever. He's going to go. Iowa State, some of those teams that they already have big rivalries with, what are their student sections going to be like when he walks in the door, right exactly? I mean, you know a couple of years ago, we had those owners are going against the one u c l A forward. Now what are they are they going to bring out money signs for? They were they were they were poling Brownie. Yeah, exactly, done anything to them? Yeah,

you just started getting on that starting spot, the injuries. Yeah, and so there was a lot of unknown with him. You know that. You heard the booze, right, and I guess, I guess for two million bucks, you're gonna put it. You'll be happy to put up with stuff. Right, Well, you give me two million dollars, you can call

me all the names you want exactly. But nonetheless, you know, he's what twenty twenty one, twenty two years old, and you know he's still young, and we're going to see you know what some of how some of these things, uh uh, some of these things, you know, play out with these guys. Now, football is different, right, You're on a football field, you're far away from the fans, You're you've got your helmet on people. You know, it's it's you know, you're you're you're

at a distance. But college basketball players, you're right up on top of these guys. And these guys aren't making money. I mean, you know, he made a point. We don't know what Caleb Love got or if you got anything, or how much he got or what he's getting to play another season at Arizona. Same with A. A. J. Lewis, JAYD and Bradley, All three of those guys went into the went into the draft, and all came back. You know, what are they getting?

And I think at some point one of the things that they're pushing for. And when I say they, whoever they are, NC double A said that they want transparency. And in all this, how much of these guys getting right so that there's an understanding? And I don't know what the purpose of that is. If I'm if I'm making a salary, I don't necessarily want everybody to know my salary. I mean, you accept that if you're a government employee or university employee, Yeah, it's public record what you make.

But you know, people don't know what I make. People don't know what my wife makes. She works at a private company. I don't understand how you get that. I know, I know because of anti trust issues and all the things that come with the regulation of the NFL and the NBA, stuff like that. Yes, we get their salary information. Is that going to extend to colleges? I don't know. But you know, I don't know if we're ever going to know what some of these guys are getting.

And I guess I don't even know what the purpose is of knowing. Yeah, I think it's just people's interests. And I think, like we said, when when the Coleman Hawkins comes into Michael Center, you're gonna start comparing the Caleb Love to the Coleman Hawkins. And is it justified that he is ranking two million over a killed Love who makes X amount of dollars? Or or what do you what do your own fans do if you have a bad

game? Exactly right? You you miss a you miss a buzzer beater that would have won a game, and they say, well, what the hell are we paying you two million dollars for if you don't make that shot? Right? Those kinds of things, and those are issues that I think we're gonna uh you know that, I think we're gonna start to see I think more in basketball season than in football season. Right Like, like you know again mentioned mention a tatoo. McMillan, you know he's getting something. Humberto

Lopez came out and show and said, I'm paying him. He's got a contract with him. We don't know what it is. Uh, maybe we find out, maybe we don't, but you know, he's just gonna go play his game. And I don't see, I don't see where he's going to get boot off the field or anything like that. But college basketball, because it's it's sort of a much more personal environment. I could see that becoming an issue for some of these guys who are getting a bunch of money,

and even just the difference in sports. Right, like you said, football, they have the helmets, they have the year basketball. You see their face, you see all their expressions all the time. They got to walk through you to get to their locker room, exactly right. That's going to be a really interesting thing to see what happens there. If you want to give us a call, five two zero four one six seventy four forty would love to hear from you. I said the number wrong. As we're

the break, I've only been doing it for four years. I don't know what to tell you. Five two zero four one six seventy four forty. You know, I got to ask the question, right, would you give that kind of money? Two million bucks? How much money do you have to have to be able to do that? Right? And you know, I mean I I think the implication is that you know, the two million

dollars is probably coming from one source. They didn't go out and gather two million dollars that was going to go to this player and that player in those players, somebody came up and said, Okay, I'll give you the two million bucks if you'll go get him and we'll be better if you're a booster or a fan or an alumnus. How much money do you have to have to say, Okay, I got two million bucks to give to this kid?

Yeah, how much you know? I asked, and I said I it would have to be Bill Gates money for me, And I don't even know if I would do it then, right, I'd much rather put the money toward, you know, athletic scholarships, you know, help them with that. And if you've got if you take my scholar if you take my money and put it towards scholarships, then you move money over to give to him, that's on you. I don't want to be the one giving one

kid two million bucks. I don't know. I feel like that's just too much of a risk, right given I know we're getting real specific with Colemenhawkins, but you see the stats and you see the well he's getting right, something doesn't add up. There must be a little bit of an x factor that might be coming with him. We'll see come and again. You know, Jason Chaer made the point, and as did everybody else. He averaged twelve and six last year. He wasn't a twenty point guy. He wasn't

going twenty and ten. He's a six ten forward kind of average guy. You know. Aaron Torres said he's maybe the top twenty twenty five, top thirty player in the country. How did he get two million bucks, you know, to do this? How many guys play for his owner that are better than him? We don't know. Right, you're not saying none, Right, you're not saying none of them. So what the hell? How

does this guy get that? Look it must be I'm not jealous. Well okay, I'm a little jealous, but maybe wouldn't be more power to the kid to pull that deal off? Right? There was one of the one of the social media posts about it mentioned, you know, he had he had a marketing firm and an agent and all this stuff that went out and got this form. More power to those guys if you can get it,

get it. I just don't understand the people who are giving it. That's the part that I don't that that I can't wrap my brain around, uh, you know, doing that, and it's something we're just gonna have to get used to, you know, perfect, that's a that's exactly exactly it. We do have to get used to that. We you know, and you know what, sometime somewhere along the line, there's gonna be a kid come to Arizona, you know, basketball player, more more more than likely

a basketball player that you're going to find out. Some people in this community put a package together to get him, you know, a million, million and a half two million dollars so he would play at Arizona. I'm like, I don't see how that can happen, but I guess it could. If it can happen again in the States, shoot, it can happen here. I mean I feel like it should. You know, Arizona's been around for a while. They're quote unquote a powerhouse in college the college basketball world,

So why wouldn't we be. But you bring that kid here. He's making more money than anybody on the team except Tommy Lloyd. Yeah, more than all the coaches, you know, more than all the coaches probably combined. You know, I mean, it's a it's a crazy thing, but You're right. It's it's it's the way of the world. We got to get used to it, and it's going to happen. More and more athletes are going to get this kind of money and we're going to you know,

we're just going to deal with it. So I don't know, I'd much rather deal with the naming stuff exactly. I'm I'm you know, I mean, am I somebody who would have been upset five years ago, ten years ago, fifteen years ago if they renamed Michale Center, you know, Bank of America Center, something like go sure, I would have not today because I you know, I understand the money situation. I'd rather Arizona be competitive on the field and have the money to run a program that can be competitive

then than not. Right, if you have to, if you have to change the name of Michale Center, if you have to change the name of Arizona Stadium, even if you have to change the name of High Corbett Field, Hill and Brand Stadium, I don't care if you got to. You know, if you got to name those well, Hill and Brand Stadium is already named. Somebody's paying for that. But you know, if you have to do that in order to have the money and the funding to be competitive,

and it keeps ticket prices from going up. As much as I think they're going to go up because of all this, then I'm okay with it. Fine, we you know, we've already gotten rid of all the tradition and history, you know, but getting rid of the PAC twelve. Yep, let's just let's just do it and be competitive. I mean, as much as we talk about how much we dislike it, there is some good

stuff to it. You know. If I'd love to see those ticket prices go down, you know, there's a lot of well they're not going down, but I think I eventually keep going up the way they're going up. Right, But you hear I've been hearing about some these these long time ticket holders that have had to give it up because they keep going up in it. Yeah, you don't want to hear that. Yeah, yeah, I mean, and and you know we were talking yesterday the day before that college

football fan is different from the NFL fan. NFL fan is going to die for their team if the tickets go up, fifty bucks are going to pay the extra. If they go up, one hundred bucks are gonna pay the extra, And they're still going to go out and buy the jerseys and the cups and the you know, make their man caves and stuff like that. College football fan. There's some college football fans to do that, but the average regular college football fan, they want the ten dollars ticket, the fifteen

dollars ticket. They or they only buy they only go to three games instead of buying season tickets. It's a different fan base. And I think that you know, if again, if you have if you have to go, if you go raise money and it keeps that stuff kind of within, we're close to where we are, then do it. Just do it, you know what I mean? Okay, so it's you know again, it's Bank of America, a center, you know, presented by Pap McHale, you

know, whatever it is. Uh, you know, you know they they're going to need the money, and every program is going to need that, even the big ones, you know, the Texas and Alabama and Ohio State. You know, we like to think they've got oodles and oodles of money, but you know, when you start having to pay out a bunch of that money to athletes and stuff like that, I'm sure those programs don't have an extra twenty million dollars sitting around right now. They just don't all right,

God, my head is spinning. My head is really spinning. All right, but you you are loaded up with breaking news, right, Okay, we're gonna come back. We got breaking news, and then we're gonna have a doctor Don Porter, the former team physician for UH for the U of A Athletic department for a number of years. Great guy, I'm guarantee it's gonna be a fun conversation. He's going to join us at four twenty. But when we get it's going to be a wand coming up with breaking

news, and there's lots of it. I see the US Open is getting close to wrapping up, and my boy ludvig Aberg has the lead. He's the guy that I picked this week. I stug, man, he's killing it. Look twenty four year old dude. Man can't belie. I mean, he's a child. He's a child. All right, we'll be right back with breaking news.