This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jagon Zaliz on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen, powered by Nova Insurance Services Ensure your most Prized Possessions Katie z R. Two Son like an iHeart radio station. Hey, good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, he's Jagon's as. We had our guy Jason in as well today. Fifteen minutes of the first segment. Good show. Actually impact
today. We actually had to work today. I'm not too keen on that's on a Friday, Steve, no good, I'd put clothes on. This is not a zoom naked meeting. And then okay, so no, a lot of things today. We had a great Tommy Lloyd thing. He spent
thirty minutes with us today, cracking a little wise on some things. What he was h just talk about some issues and then talk about some individual players and kind of not just status, but how some of these guys ended up here, Caleb Love, Keisha Johnson, um Uh Bradley, the international guys. So we've got a whole bunch of stuff from his press conference. You know, it's one of those things where when you break down a press conference, there's like, you know, maybe you know twenty minutes, but ten
minutes is usable. Yeah, the whole press conner, every answer was something important. In fact, I'm putting my story together for all sports Tucson, and I'm trying to eliminate which is not that big, and they're all kind of big, but I gotta quittle it down. Yeah, that's what you did from that's that's what I did for us. What we're gonna do is here in this first segment, we'll just talk about some of the stuff that he talked about, general issues, transfer portal, uh you know, getting
international players, very stuff like that. And then on the backside, after our first guest and the last segment of the hour, we'll say we'll play some of the stuff that where he talked specifically about some of the guys, and then there's some breaking news with Kurt Kressa, who's thatst Zulast to ballast
will play that stuff during breaking news. But uh, you know, he just uh you know, he opened the press conference and we you know, we asked, we talked to him about about things like um what uh what uh you know, the thing we talked to add Barnes about changing rosters, the way they're turning over. Uh, you know so much in the uh, you know, after a season, and is that the way it's always going to be. And that was kind of the first question that I got
a chance to ask him, that let's go ahead and play numbers. I'm not great at speaking in definitives or superlatives on this stuff, because I mean, obviously there's been a lot of changes and and and changes can be a good thing, and you just have to figure out how to you know, how they're gonna work for you and your program, how they're gonna work for your players, and you know, I mean, but I'm gonna double down
more than ever on you know, recruiting great guys and building great relationships with them and really invested in the players in our program and and and doing the best job we can to build a great culture that's sustainable. I mean, I'm I'm not gonna be Nothing's veer me off that path. Yeah, I I that was early in the press count you asked him that, Uh, to coincide with Adia's press press our question. I agree with him. I agree with him a lot of things today, especially with that, I did
you have my follow up? You're not a follow up follow up, but yeah, do you have it? Yeah? Yes, And Tommy was typically Tommy. Yeah. You know, it's just like I'm going with whatever, with with whatever we're doing, right, but you you uh, there's a one he talked about, um, uh, we're talking about guys transferring, and is that the one or the one to talk about pieces? I know, moral he said he's a pieces guy. Yeah, he's a pieces guy.
No, it was the other one kind of related to you where now I don't even remember my questions, but the piece guy, you have the pieces up there? Uh, okay, if you want to talk about that. Even though we talked about other things. Uh no, no, No, it was more and I have this question here. It was about um players, players, um other transferring for reasons other than and yeah, that's that's what that's you know, what's the reason why are guys leaving? Right?
Is that? Yeah? Unhappy whatever? Right. I think what you're seeing in college basketball right now is just a really interesting window. And and I think everybody's focused on the nil and the transfer portal. But but but I think one of the most interesting aspects is you're in this COVID window still where guys are getting an extra year of eligibility, so you literally are having you know, twenty percent potentially more players in your pool, you know,
And so I think that just creates roster movement. And and I think, you know, some guys are getting you know, longer in the tooth in their careers and getting deeper, so you know, maybe they want to explore other opportunities, you know, and and you know, maybe you know, certain schools, the the ni l's situations not great, and others it's you know, it's it's doing better. So guys want to see kind of where they fall and what advantages they can take, you know, what opportunities they
can take advantage of. I guess you know, to me that would be But but I honestly think that there is going to be uh cooling down and uh and and and then and the waters won't be so choppy here in their new fear chewing college basketball. Well, I agree with them there. I think today's you have kids, I have kids, and and and Jason's a kid. Still, um, everyone's in the in the world of media gratification. I think we are too to a certain degree. You know you can
play roulette. You hope to hit it, you win big um and Jason may want to speak to this, but uh, if you don't get what you get right right right away, you're gonna go. I gotta go see if we're to go, because I know it's over there. Yeah. And if it's not, it's over there, over there, well wait, maybe it's not there. Now that's over there. I mean, Jason, you I mean, you know you've got friends and you know people want Steve said,
I feel like the the generation now we're doing to get off. My long thing is those that is, you know, the stuff that I'm shooting for. I want to get it right away. Yeah, for sure. Like with social media and like the technology we have nowadays, there's just so many, so much access to everything. So if you're not happy with the
current situation, it's not easy to find opportunities. I think two though, that the n I l and we'll talk about this stern break, is that, Okay, I went to school with this dude, dude X, and the dude X is reportedly making two hundred thousand dollars at school. X. I'm better than the dude. How come I'm not getting them. I'm not getting two X. I'm gonna find a place where I can go. I'm gonna go get my bag as you guys call it or whatever. And you
say, oh, what happened to me? And how come I'm not worthy? Isn't that part of it? Yeah? Definitely absolutely. And then obviously then Tommy was asked about fan reaction to all this stuff is a great answer, So it's uh, you know, it's uh. It was a thing where you know, we all talked about how and we talked about it for weeks, right, and we just kept saying, guys, relax, relax. He's gonna get guys relax. And now everybody, Yeah, they're moving
up into the top ten and some preseason rankings. But he was basically asked, did you pay attention to what fans were how fans were losing their minds over the raw to turnover? And here's what he had just happened. I was unaware. I I just had my head down and was working. And you know, I got a trust and myself and in our program and in our staff that things are always going to turn out. And you know, we we just worked day to day and and and kept the faith and and
I think we ended up in a great spot. And and certainly you know you got you just got people. I saw one today that said, you know the Tommy love, you know, with with with Caleb Love, Jaden Bradley, uh Keisha Johnson, then the international guys. Suddenly Arizona is the national championship contender again. When people thought Tommy Tommy couldn't coach anymore? What fool wrote that? I haven't? Okay, that explains it. Come on,
let's champion. He's got it. You know, he moved him away up in his in his preseason rankings, and it's like, guys, we just knew, you know, he's already proven that he can do this. Why are you doubting that he can do this? And Phil On who still yesterday's still not sold on it. Yeah yeah, yeah, well Phil from New Mexico, I give him no credit. I know those beasts. I saw one today and I'll try to find it on Facebook. That just kind
of what made me go, what this? Thank you Zuckerberg for llowing this to happen, because you guys made no sense. And he just people who are just mean to begin with, who just love this because they can be mean. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. You've dated one or two back in the day. Yeah, but I just find it really interesting. And again, as a coach, that's how you've got to handle that.
You've just got to say, I'm gonna keep my head down, I'm gonna do what I what I know I can do, and just keep cranking. That's what he did. And you know that's the best perspective, whether he's truthful or not, because I know that he spoke to the guys in March or April for a basketball, big basketball thing and Bruce got a hold of him and the other guys did too, and he was well aware of what was going on with the crowd. I don't but he said, you know,
let that happen up. I don't really bother with that, right, which, which you know a lot of coaches they lose their minds over that stuff. Yeah, we covered a couple of people, and I'm thinking, you guys make millions, Why the hell care? Why are you worried about it? All? Right? Then, Steve, you got some the great question about you're you're a guy who like likes having the pieces come together. You've got a new roster, a lot of new guys. How is this
all going to come together? This is this seems easier than two years ago. Two years ago, everybody was new, you know, including me, So I'd never worked with any of the guys, so I you know, I mean, like I said, I think you deal with what's in front of you, and you know you and you and you know, there's there's never any reason to panic. We we got great guys. We've got good players, and you know, I think we've had a really good offseason so
far. And you know, we're probably gonna take a break here for a couple of weeks and kind of everybody get away from each other, get a little bit of rest and back and see if we can make a next push, you know, kind of mid July. Well, I mean, I think we got a lot of pieces, and I think they fit well together, you know. I mean, I don't think we got a lot of guys with jaked edges, you know, I mean, so, um, you know, I think we got guys that that you know, compliment each
other. And UM, I think we have a team that's gonna have the ability to play incredibly hard. Um, you know, as always, we're gonna We're gonna strive to play incredibly unselfish and and and very aggressive. So you know, I feel really good when I when I look at our roster and and and how certain individuals compliment each other. And then uh, finally, this will be the last one we'll play before we break for our guests.
By the way, you mentioned where guests are we um, um to our guest, our our soccer guests, Oh uh tell me, uh, Temmy Silva, Tommy Silva, and then Jake Fisher will come on. Hopefully he's listening in hearing some of Tommy's a call. Um, we can't take that right Well, if you're if you're calling, can you call after the
guest and we'll take your call about about all this stuff. We've got a couple more one more clip that we want to play that anything is very important talking about Tommy Lloyd and how much how international players have become such a big piece of what he does, not just in Arizone, he did this at Gonzaga and kind of where these guys when we're talking about pieces, where these guys uh fit in uh, you know, in his overall system. So
go ahead and play that one. There's lots of probably data points you know, you could you could go to, but everyone might be a little different. And you know, you know, I mean I've always tried to give international guys a little bit of grace, a little bit of time to adjust. It might take a year and and and and you know, let's face it, you recruit a kid internationally, you know you're not getting to watch them play as much. You're not getting to you know, probably deep,
deep, deeper into the relationship just because of the proximity. Um so you use, you don't know everything about him when you get them, and you have you have to kind of get him and get him in your program and get your hands on him to figure out exactly where they're at. I mean, I think Henry is a good example of that. I mean, Henry's still incredibly talented, and he had a you know, he had a good offseason, and I think he's primed and ready to be a significant contributor for
our team. It just took him a year to to get there. And you know, I mean, I think I was hoping, and I think Henry was probably hoping too, that it would happen a little faster, but it didn't. But that doesn't knock us off our path. I mean, you stay on your path and you're at where you're at, and so I feel like he's in a good way. You know, we're excited about all those I think all those guys are winners. You know. The two Lithuanian
guys are are really talented and have played at a high level. The Spanish kid Martinez, I mean, I think I think this fan base is gonna love him. He's a he's a winner, he plays with fire, and uh, you know, I'm sure he's gonna have to get over here and figure it out a little bit, but I think it's gonna be really cool. And Tucsa on to have a native speaking Spanish player. I think that's gonna you know, any any plays with some personality and and in some charisma.
So I'm excited to see Conrad's relationship with Tucson. Uh grow you know, I well ahead, No, I'm excited to see some of these guys. I saw Philip and and I think Henry is gonna be fantastic when I first saw him play this this team and maybe maybe your guy is gonna be right and how good this team is gonna be they're gonna be good, without question, but they're gonna be loaded because we have as yet to see some
of the guys that didn't play right. And that's the thing, you know, the thing he said in there about Henry Vassar, Yes, right, everybody was like, you know, he doesn't have enough guys. Henry Vasar is no good guys. You know, he had a freshman he's a freshman who came in from out of the country, has an adjustment period. Okay, he didn't so he didn't light it up as a freshman. That doesn't mean he's not any good, shutter Rooks any good? He was good?
Was he good as a freshman? No, because he didn't play it. I didn't even dress exact. Guy, it wasn't even good enough to dress that exactly, red shirted exactly. That's what gets me about what was going on is that people just and now everything's good. We're all good, ready to go, got a good team, gonna win some games this year. Uh, you know, should be should be fun. So anyways, all right, Uh, Tommy Silva's gonna come on FC two son a player.
We're gonna talk a little bit about some FC two songs. Then we'll come back after the break. We've got some comments from from Tommy Lloyd about specifically some of his players that just he'll give a rundown or just what he thinks of some of these guys and what uh what you kind can kind of expect from him, from Kylin Boswell to Caleb Love you know new guys, So stick around for that, but Tommy Silva coming right up. Stick around.
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This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Subscribe now to the podcast on the iHeartRadio Whip Just Surgeon. I'm the Ball, Hey, welcome back to win in the vaul hear Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve. He's Jagon's Osten. Now on the phone, we have FC two songs. Tommy Silma, how are you Tommy? Hey? Guys, I'm good. How you doing. We're doing well, Thank you very much. You have a big weekend ahead of you with the
guys, an FC two song we do tomorrow night. We play Vinta County, who were the national champions last year, and it's also military and first responder night, so we're excited to celebrate all those and all the fans tomorrow night. Let me ask you real quick, you're on this team. Is this your second year? I think it's your second year, right, So I played with this team back in twenty twenty during COVID when they were a professional team at the time, and then yeah, I'm back with them this
summer. How is it coming back home and playing in front of some fans that you've played in front of high school and beyond and all that. There's probably no pressure, maybe more fun for you. It's definitely fun. So the last time I played with FC two song, like I mentioned, it was during COVID, so there's no fans allowed him to stand, not even my parents. And so now to play in front of coaches, friends, old teammates, us, it's been so much fun. So I'm really grateful
for that and excited for these upcoming games. So Tommy, this is jakins Aus. Hadn't had a chance to meet you, so thanks for being here with us, But just talk us a little bit about it. How things have been going for you guys, or for you personally, you know this this season, what it's been like to be out there, the way the team is doing. You know, just what are you getting out of this for both for yourself and for the team. Definitely, Um, this is
kind of a weird league. It's it's a difficult league because it's really a summer team. Most of the players are guys who are in college who want to stay fit, get games in and prepare for the upcoming season which starts in August. So you know, I only know one other guy on the team who plays with me at UCLA, And the first time I met the guys, I met that on a four PM and we played a game together at seven pm. So it's definitely difficult with a bunch of new players,
new personalities, and new coaches. But it's a great way to to stay fit and to challenge myself against a good level of players and just keep them triguing and keep getting more experience. Yea, no having talked to you off the year just about your background. I know your family, but we'll get to that in a second. You play at UCLA, What how's the level UCLA compared to this, um, I think I think UCLA is a little
bit better, to be honest. But UCLA is one of the top division on programs in men's soccer, so uh yeah, I'd say it's a little bit better. But the FC two song, it's a great experience because you get to play against older players, guys you've never played against a lot of
international players as well, so it's fun. Well, we'll tell us a little bit about that, because we talk about the difference between for instance, you know, the you know, the one and done basketball player who comes out and he's nineteen years old and he's out there playing against you know, Kevin Durant or some of these guys who were in their mid to late thirties, and the physical aspect of that. How does that show up on the
soccer field? Definitely? I think I think college soccer is a great time for players to have a space to compete against guys who are at the same physical level and prepare them to play against professionals. I mean when I was eighteen years old, There's no way I was ready to compete against guys who
are in their thirties. But having had the three four years at UCLA, I've grown a lot and matured a lot, especially physically, and I think that's giving me a great opportunity to be ready to compete with pros and older guys. And you get the same that same with working at FC two Song as well as exactly Yeah, a lot of my teammates on SC two song are twenty five twenty six, so they have a lot of experience and they teach me a lot of things as well. Well. Tell me you're no
slouch given. And I just realized this that you were here for in the high school for a couple of years, decided to go somewhere else, to Utah, And that's not an easy decision either for you and for your family to go play and get prepared at Royal Salt Lake. Tell us about that and your decisions and your maybe your family's decisions, definitely. So my sophomore year, I moved to Utah to play for Raal Salt Lake Academy. So I lived in Dorns there, we went to a high school on campus and
we trained twice a day. It was it was pretty much soccer became my life. And you know, my freshman year I was I was really into track and field and cross country as well, and when the opportunity came up, I just had to choose between the two sports. But the opportunity at
RSL was so good that I couldn't pass it up. And that's what really helped me get great coaching, get so much chaining great experience with older players and professionals and completely changed my career and that's what helped me get to UCLA as well. So, so Jay, let me just to give some perspective. So my son, my oldest son, and his older brother who his older brother was a fantastic runner. He was a world class runner, went
to Stanford and competed there and now he's doing well professionally. They were one of the better young teams and two sons over a long period of time. And there's very few people that get invited to this real cell linking. And I didn't know this was this Thomma's case because a couple of other kids left and they played in cuss of Grant and they did all this stuff and those guys are not are not slouches. Man. They go there for a reason
because they're very good, which is very great opportunity. Your parents wants to gone to visit you a lot because it's it's you're you're a young kid. Yeah, it's funny. At the time when I moved, I was only fifteen, and so my mom my mom didn't want to let her baby go, so she she actually moved out. You taught to be with me and get me a place to go on the weekends and take care of me. So yeah, he is a Hispanic kid. Look at you. Yeah.
Yeah, she make the freeholdays and stuff with you right there. Okay, we're making fun of you, Tommy, don't let us. We would have done the same thing, right A lot of them. My mom would have come, she said, go over there. Yeah man, yeah, man, So Tommy, you know, at some point, um, and we asked this pretty much of everybody who's kind of making a cur At some point, soccer became more than just a game. It became a path for you.
Um, when did you realize that? How young were you when you when you felt like, I mean, was it right when you went to rial Salt Lake. Sometime before that, we thought this is gonna be a path for me. It's gonna a path for me, you know, to go to college and maybe play professionally or something like that. When did that happen for you? I think at the beginning, when I chose to go to RSL, I just did it because I love to play soccer. I
wasn't really thinking of it as a career or anything more. I just love to play and I wanted to play at the highest level. And as I reached my junior and senior year, it just became clear that the next best step was college. And fortunately I got to a great place. And I think, really my my freshman and sophomore year at UCLA, when I'm taking classes trying to choose my major, I realized, like, okay, I have two more year of college and then then what what am I gonna do?
I either have to get a real job or I can keep playing soccer. And that's that's when I became a lot more dedicated and and focused on making this the reality is as playing as a professional. Let me tell you right, Uh, Tommy, I'm sorry, Um, the real world sucks. Play soccers. Love, Yeah, Otherwise you're gonna look like Steve and I you don't. You don't what you're doing. His dad's a running, he'll be running, he'll be running it. So Tommy, you're you're you
just finished your junior year UCLA. Correct, correct? So you're not going to the Big ten, are you? No? Yeah, that's happening in Are you happy you're getting out of there before all that stuff starts or would you have been excited to go go be a part of all that? Honestly, I'm a little happy. I know that the Big Town contract is worth a lot of money, and that's really exciting. But I think what a
lot of people don't think about is the travel. And it's going to be pretty hard on the student athletes trying to manage, you know, performing at their best and doing classes and traveling all the way across the country. It's going to be difficult. I think it's going to take a few years to transition to that. Yeah. Yeah, So you have a teammate here from UCLA. How is that being at least you know, somebody here in Tucson. You're probably at your families now and enjoying, you know, one hundred
and ten degrees. This weekend of just you know, how is it being back just as the regular dude? Yeah, I mean it's funny. My coaches were joking with me today saying that I can't complain about the heat because I'm from tou Soon. But trust me, I can complain about it.
Yeah no, but it's great to be home and with my family. And yeah, like you mentioned, one of my teammates, his name is He's from Valencia, Spain, and he came down here with me, so he's a good friend of mine and that helps a lot having a friend and a training partner for sure. Very cool, a lot of fun. Again, if you want to speak. You have a big match this weekend with the former former champs, right, Yes, it's one night, seven pm at
Kino Stadium. We're playing Winter County, which should be a great game, and we're celebrating military and first responders night. So I appreciate any support from the two Song community. You said Kino, Are you sure or is it at Mica Mountain to night? Is that ko? Okay? Are you playing something at Mica Mountain? Um, there's there's one game in a couple of weeks out at Michael Mountain. Okay, that might be for the fourth of July. Okay, no, great, great, no perfect, everyone knows
where to go to Keino. Should be fun with with you guys. Two sons, a lot of a lot of good soccer. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely no, Tommy, I hope you I hope you guys are having fun because in the end that that you know, that's what this is supposed to be. Right. Absolutely, We'll tell your family hello, uh, say hello to Ryan if you if you do see him or talk to him and appreciate you, maybe we'll get out to see you guys tomorrow. Sounds good. Thanks for having me, guys. All right, Tommy, good luck,
Okay, take care. So Tommy, was this little kid, I didn't really just ten years or about ten seven years younger than this brother. This little kid just running around, you know, running around yea and his son, his brother was older. Brother was a fantastic runner, very good soccer player. Uh. And here we are, I'm getting old. I'm getting old or I'm not. And these little kids, you know, those
kids were running around, you know. Now they're doing these great things, you know, and have a grandkid and then coming down I I can imagine, like you know, you know, I have a grandkid and you know, still have still have your son's mab pictures like in your phone, and all of a sudden, he's got a kid. Okay, you want to talk about something that makes you go, WHOA, what the hell is going on over here? But it's great. You know, I love I love
these local kids. That one I keep calling him a kid. He's you know, he's going to be a senior in college. But um, you know that that uh Carver path like this Steve, you know, I mean we played little league baseball. Yeah, it's true as the time you and I thought we were going to be a professional baseball player dreams. You know, when then when I didn't break ninety pounds when I was going into high school, Okay, I'm not going to be a professional baseball player, but
we all have those dreams. And you know then when you see, you know, a kid out of Tucson who who's kind of living that dream and he's at UCLA, that's that's not a place to be both as a as a as a soccer program and as a school student. Right as a school you go to UCLA, you you know you're you're you're getting pretty well prepared for for everything out there's a good you know, good for Tommy Silva, good for his family. He sounds like a great kid. Yeah, they
are a great family, a great friend. Ryan's now uh a, he's like in the stuff doing he's at uh John Hopkins, where did you go to high schoolhere? You Ringkong University? The Yeah, yeah he was. If you just google Hanson was at the university high school. Yeah, smart Google's name, um um. Hanson did a bunch of stuff on him because he was breaking twelve year old records generally running all over the place. You know, I stuff would take me a week to run. He does it
in twelve minutes. Yeah. Now I'm going I'm looking at his at his UCLA bio, and it doesn't mention his high school. So that's oh yeah, I think yeah he went to Yeah he went to Rincon. Well look at him. Twenty twenty twenty two first Team Academic All American uh twenty twenty one, twenty two UCLA All Academic Games. So director's honor roll. Not only is the good athlete a smart kid, but honor is that H O R and E R. So very cool. All right, let's take our
second break. We got a lot more stuff Tommy, A lot more stuff from Tommy. Lloyd coming up in the next segment, talking about specifically about some of his guys, what we can expect about from some of these players, and a trip. Do you have the trip stuff? I didn't. I didn't. I didn't. But we'll talk about the trip they got tripped to an international trip coming up. So let's take our break. We'll be back more time. Lloyd and whoever was calling in the first Uh, Sammy,
give us another call. We'll take your call. What if you're an Arizona Man'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, Lessons from Loot, It was a labor of love to 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
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in the well here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve rivera fi Ja Gazows Jason at the board. We have some other clips. We still have a lot to talk about with breaking news last night, Draft all that stuff. So we let's continue with Tommy Lloyds. Okay, so to uh as we're going through the press conference, you know Tommy will get asked specific questions about specific guys and you know, just kind of how all this fits.
We played a clip that he just said, look, you know, we we got all the pieces I like how what he said about we don't have any guys with jagget edges. I like that too. It was a really good, really good way to put that. But uh, you know, but there's all these guys, right, and it's kind of like people warning, how how were these guys gonna fit? But you know, Colin Boswell playing in the in this international competition, Um, to me, that's kind
of where it all starts. I don't know what you think, a little ball but him Philippi, Philippi, right. But but Boswell is kind of the guy that I think, you know, coming out of last year, you feel like he's started going to be have to be the stabilizer on all of this. But um, he was just asked about Kylan and how how
this summer competence is going to benefit him, among some other issues. I think it allowed Kyland to go through something that that I think as a coach, you know, I knew it was coming, but maybe he wasn't deciding me a little bit of struggle and and and struggle as part of the development process, and and he went through it early, and he got through it well, you know, and part of his struggle too was recovering from the injury and uh, and you know, but but he really, you know,
obviously took off towards you know, the second half of the season, and and he continued to make that Progres progress in the off season. And I think, you know, even with the US team, he continues to show that. So, you know, I just think having that struggle in your back pocket, you know, it puts him, you know, a step or two ahead, you know, of most other kids his age coming
into college. Yeah, I don't think people realized that this foot injury that he had really did slow him down, right, No, it did. But he also said this um in the Fall. In the Fall about Boswell, he says, it's gonna be until January one when we'll be able to see him play. And exactly that's what happened. And I don't remember, and correct me if I'm wrong, Jay or Callers. I didn't remember him
having a bad game when he said that he struggled. I'm thinking at one point maybe he was before before the struggles that he was talking about was at the very beginning. He's a young kid, he's barely seventeen years been in high school, right, he had that he had the foot injury, said it was going to be a struggle for a while, and then when he came out after the after the first of the year, he was just solid. He was There were times when I thought he needs to be in the
game instead of Kirk cress. Times. You're not alone with that. Yeah, no, and I'm not alone, but people more than others. But there were times that you thought he's he's a really good stabilizer because he didn't You never saw him get too high, too low. He just went out there and played, and I think I think that's gonna make a big difference. He's already being tabbed as as a as A as an NBA draft pick. Sure, I we'll see what happens with that, because he's so so
nondescriptive. He's good, right, Does that make sense? Yeah? And I don't know. I guess. I guess m McConnell was a guy like that who just did his job. He's like one of those guys that at the end of the game you realize what a good game here when you didn't see it as it was happening. No, No, I'll mentioned this right now. He was not that he plays like this guy. But Amari, Amari um from Us Bailey who who was that guy too? He just went
about his business, score points and you're thinking, this dude's good. Yeah, you know, a palm for the review. Yeah right, No. Absolutely. Another key piece, obviously is Pella Larson, who who initially declared for the NBA. Wasn't It didn't seem like it was a real serious thing, more of an information gathering thing. But he had Tommy talked about how important role Peali Larson's gonna play. Pella really didn't, you know, he didn't get too far into the draft process, and uh, you know what
I mean. I you know Pala. You know, we've had a lot of conversations on where he's at as a player, and you know, we really really valued Pali. He's a really good player, and you know, the exciting thing about him is there's there's still steps to be taken and just you know, everyone kind of comes into their own at their own time. And and I think Pela is primed to have an amazing uh you know,
fourth year in college here next year. The other thing is I think sometimes these guys need a trial run at you know, envisioning, envisioning themselves as NBA players and and so you know, you you have to. You know, there's no doubt in my mind that Pella is an NBA level player. And I mean I've always thought that and you know, but but now you know, you know, they gotta believe it. And I think sometimes putting your name in you know less, you know that you're you're you're maybe closer
than you think. You know. For some of these guys and um and maybe other guys, that makes them think that, you know, realize they realize they're not as close as they think. But but for Pela, I think he realizes he's closer than he thinks. And I know he's primed and ready to come back and have a great year. Um that's ah, well, I'm fine. I think he's gonna have a good year. But you watch a little of the draft, some of the draft, none of the
draft, so a little bit okay. So so as I watched all of it, uh uh, and I'm thinking imagine, especially the second round, we saw how good um Zulus was, right and we'll talk about that during breaking news. We saw how good he was and he was the first team all All Packed twelve, an All American, and we saw how good he was right right, I'm thinking he's not getting drafted. How good are these other dudes? Timmy didn't get drafted. Well, we'll talk, we'll talk
about we'll talk all about that. Yeah. Yeah, it's just a it's amazing and we know about projection and stuff, but you're thinking how good you have to be and if you're not good And I'll bring this up because of smiles. Remember we talked, We had this discussion. And I say this all time. In ninety seven he was the MVP, blah blah blah, and everyone said, oh, he should come out. But if you're not
good enough, Jay, you're not good enough. Whether it's ninety eight, ninety nine, thousand, I don't care whether people are talking about you, that's fine. But if you're still not good enough, they're gonna they're gonna go that out exactly exactly. Okay. Well, one of the guys that one of the guys that Arizona got that I think was a head scratch a little bit, was going so hard after Caleb Blove because it's like, doesen' Arizona have a point guard? Klin Boswell, here's what Tommy had to say
about Caleb Blood. I mean obviously Caleb had made a decision to go somewhere else, and we were kind of involved with him early. And um, you know, not nothing wrong happened the first time around. It just you know, I think he had a previous relationship with Michigan and they had recruited him out of high school and and he went there, and you know,
uh, they weren't able to work it out academically for whatever reason. And and you know, and and and we got his stuff, and he's a solid student, and you know, the University of Arizona had no problem putting it together a plan for him. And so you know, we were fortunate. I mean, he Caleb's obviously a proven player and and uh, you know, and and he's been great. I mean he's been a real joy to be around, and and and and and been a great teammate and fun
to work with. And you know, and we're going to operate on that plane. I mean, you haven't seen anything different. Well, he's just a really good player. I mean, I don't know how many guys you could say that have scored you know, thirteen an Elite eight game, and you know, and then in the final four game, twenty eight points I mean, I mean, you know, he's obviously you got to be a
good player to do that. So he's accomplished. You know, he's been there, done that, and you know, but also he's been on the other side of it where things have gotten tough, and you know, and and you know, maybe you know, fairly or unfairly, you know, he's been in the crosshairs of criticism in the media. And you know, we look forward, you know, to integrating him into our program and and and making him a part of our culture and and you know, and helping
him have a great experience. I mean, that's all we're focused on. So, Jake, what was that guy saying about Caleb got a garden there to have a guard? Yeah, well, just you say, you know, I mean, there's just a lot of thought that they've already got a point guard. Why are you Why are you going so hard after Caleb Love? Plus, as he said he was in he seemed to be in the crosshairs of the media, you know, as a as a as a kind of a bad guy. And you know Tommy saying no, he's not.
So So if you get twelve angry jurors in a room and I'm going somewhere with us. How are you gonna make everyone happy? You're not right? So so people will bitch about depth they don't have depth. Well, now they have a few good guards, right, we can't bitch about depth. Now you want some good guys are bad guys? You had a bunch of good guys, right, you can't. We can't bitch about nine you want? You want one good guy and one bad guy so that when the bad
guy has to come in and play, he's bad. Or do you want to have a couple of good guys exactly? So you have a good group of depth, right, good group of of guards. Right, So what do they have to bitch about? I just gonna text from one of our buddies here, who's gonna shoot and make baskets? I think a lot of them are going to score. I think, I think I think a lot of them are going to score. And they've got another one in in uh In Jaden Bradley, the kid from Alabama is here, Um and send here's
what you had to say about Jade Bradley, another guard. Yeah, No, Jade's awesome. I mean Jaden's uh. Jane's a really good player and um, and he and he's a crazy, you know, hard worker. He's a high character person. Um, you know, we we've recruited him the first time around really hard and we're very familiar with them, and you know, we're fortunate it worked out this time around. We're lucky to have
him. And uh, you know, we had a great you know about you know, three three to four weeks with him here recently, and UM, yeah, I'm just I'm just I'm thankful he chose Arizona and hopefully we can you know, help him, you know, get what he wants out of this experience. You know, it's again, I think fans and going back to you know, the way they lost their minds at the beginning of the summer, you think that they've got to at some point just believe that
Tommy Tommy Lloyd knows what he's doing. If he thinks Jayan Bradley is a bad guy, he's not gonna ask Jayan Bradley to be in his program. If it thinks Caleb loves not a really good player, he's not going to go get him either. And I think, you know, I think he's been he's made it pretty clear that you gotta fit into what he's doing. Yeah, that's why I asked him about the pieces. He's got a lot of good players, probably ten or soul that will fit in perfectly because he's
a pieces guy. We saw this, We saw this two three years I mean now two years now, where he's got these guys and he has to kind of formulate, you know, the mad scientists, I think, putting it all together and make sure that they all go together right, right, And now finally the one more piece. And this is not you know, we've already talked a little bit about the international guys who are such a big part of it. But Keisha Johnson, the guy from San Diego State.
Between Caleb Love A Keisha Johnson, he's got two guys who've been in the Final four, right, who've been in not just final four, a national championship game. Um, having that in your locker room, you know, that's hard to get and to have these two guys. But here's what he had to say about Keisha Johnson. He's a he's a great guy. I mean, as of all the all the guys are, but he just has a real, you know, special ability to to make teams better and he's
just an amazing high character person. And uh, you know, we were kind of going back and forth as his recruitment, and you know, he had asked us, you know, hey, if if, if we do this, and you know, would you guys be able to attend my graduation ceremony up in the Bay Area And and you know, he told him the only way we could do it is if he signed, and that's because that's true. And uh and so he signed, and uh so you know,
we we we we headed that way and it was really cool. I mean, he's the first person in his family to graduate from college and it was awesome to meet everybody. And you know, his families, I mean, um, uh you know McHale and and and and Tucson are gonna love him. I mean they're awesome people and they come with great energy and and positive spirit. So um, you know, and then you know, then we were in the neighborhood and you know, Andre, you know, decided to
pop in and I and and I think that it was really cool. Yeah. Yeah, Temmy just seems at peace with what he's got going. Oh yeah, he's just not worried about anybody's saying no, no, And they've stopped except for you know what about this I have, I have this. I hope I saved it on my phone because it was just just kind of annoyed me in a weird way. And you read Twitter, I read Oh no, it was just I lost it. But it was this guy.
It's this guy. I'd never seen him on Facebook before. He had doesn't have a lot of posts because I'd go back and see who they are. He said, you know, he was just another clown, a guy who leaves early and thinks that the world's gonna be great, just kind of clowning a Zulus. I want a clown another evening. We're not gonna win a title. Another clown. I think, who is this dude? Either he's
got he's the CEO of Sears or something, because who's this dude? Well, here's this dude from the Gallus And thought, okay, that's well and fine, but who's this dude? I mean, come on, this dude out in the parking not yelling at you for parking wrong or whatever. Who are you? You know, what are your credentials for being doing this? And I'm thinking this clown and he was ripped. He was ripped Zulus. We live in a time where Jay, I can spend your money probably better
than I can spend money exactly I have. I have better answers for your money than I do for mine. Um, shut up. Zoom made the decision he always knew he was gonna make, and guess what. He turned out okay, and he's got a job turned out okay, and he's done with college and he's got a job. I don't I don't understand this. People just ripping people for no reason. Who is just because well, it's it's allowed now, Steve, Twitter, it's allowed now, Facebook all that,
it's it's just allowed. There's so many, so so many things go into that. Is this is everybody, everybody feels that they've got a platform and you know, look and fans get to do that. I mean that that that's that's the bottom line. But you know, it's like quit telling us that you're smarter than the guy whose job it is to do that, right. That part, that's that's where I kind of draw a line.
Is if you've got an opinion, great, but don't tell me you know more than Tommy Lloyd about what what's good for his team, or that you know better than Zula's travelas what's good for you? Yeah, yeah, right, it's whose decision, is it right, it's his right. It's I mean, have we disagreed in the past with guys who have you know, left school earlier. But it's their decision and they get to do. I know we have no time, but I mentioned this with Michael, right,
it was the same type of deal. He's between her. He was gonna get better maybe, but he've been drafted. Who knows right? Who knows right? He went for the money now and and his lifestyle will change right in a good way, right exactly. It's up to them. It's up to them. So we'll have somebody, we'll talk a little bit about a Zula's coming up. Also Kurt Kreas and the news today and some of the breaking news from Jason. So I'll stick around and we'll be right back