Friday, March 29, Hour 1

This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen to fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure Your Most Prized Possessions KATZ R TWU SA AT iHeartRadio Statia. Good afternoon, or maybe a bad afternoon for a lot of you. Welcome BEH on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. It's the day after and we'll talk a little bit about well,

we'll talk a lot about that. We've got a loaded show. Steve headed back from La covering the Sweet six from where we covered the Sweet sixteen game yesterday. We'll get him on the phone during the show. I've got Greg Hanson here once again to fill in as a more than capable co host to help us break this stuff down. Adam is here running the board, and we've got a load of guests today, a lot of guys who know a thing or two about basketball and a lot more than either Greg or I

do. Starting with Reggie Geary, who's going to join us at three fifteen. We had read Geohn at the after the first round game last week and provide a lot of good insight, so he'll join us in after the first break Steve will come on after the second break at about three p forty to give us his take on what he saw last night. He had to call him out that just basically said, you know, this is what we've been seeing kind of all year long. You can follow him on All Sports Tucson

and read his call umn. We'll do breaking news at the top of the hour with Adham, and then at four fifteen Scott Thompson, who was on Lot's staff, first staff here at Arizona. He came with him from Iowa. Scott still lives in Tucson, and he was a head He was a head basketball college basketball coach for a number of years, and so he'll come in. And then we had just here in the last half hour added Matt Mulebach, who will also come in and give us his insights. So we're

loaded up for bear. If you want to call the show, the only chance you'll the only time you'll be able to call the show, because these guys are gonna be on the phone the whole The whole show is going to be in the first segment of the four o'clock hour when we're doing breaking news. But Greg, thanks for being here. My one feeling from what you just said is if you had had those two guests you just mentioned, Reggie Gary and Matt Melbuck playing for Arizona yesterday, they would still be playing.

Yeah, exactly right. And and well let's you know, let let's go there, because here we are again, you know, talking about another premature loss in the in the in the pack, in the in the NC Double A tournament. I know that there are people out there, and we were just talking about this that think it was Clemson. Arizona should have been able to handle them. But Clemson's good, really good. Otherwise it wouldn't be where they are. And they're playing very well right now. Uh and and

they and they beat Arizona and they they may they may handle Arizona. I thought your first takeaway from aside from you wish they had Melbak and Geary on the team from what you saw last night, you know, when the game ended, I thought, if you had a tryout with the Clemson players in the Arizona players picking them for one team, you'd probably pick maybe three Clemson players as a starter, Yeah, or at least three in the top six.

To me, it was that even and we don't pay attention to clubs and all year at all right, and the game starts and you realize, wow, that guy can play for anybody, and that guy can play for anybody, and it's just like every year. When College of Charleston almost beat Arizona last second possession, two weeks before Arizone became a national champion, the assistant coach Phil Johnson came up and told me their two guards are the best

two guards we've seen all year. And I thought College of Charleston and that I try to remember that all the time. Everybody has good players when you get there exactly. And that's the thing. Everybody has good players when you get even to the even to the second round, you know, first round, yeah, you know, it depends. Second round, everybody's good. You get to the sweet sixteen, everybody can beat you and they don't even

have to play their best to beat you. Uh. And if you don't play well, if you don't play even to what you're capable of, this is what happens. You know, people are breaking down the down for you know a number of things. Well, they didn't do this, and Tommy didn't do that, and it just came down to they didn't make shots. It was. I mean, yes, you know, you know, Adam and I were talking. You know, they had those you know, three

under the basket inbounds plays that they scored baskets on. You know what good teams do that to you. But it's very simple. Arizona makes three four three pointers, they win the game going away. I talked to Jim Rosboro today and he said almost exactly what you just said. And I said, what about when they x and oa like Utah did with the triangle too? And he goes, that didn't matter. He said that the shots we missed shots, open shots. Yeah, and you said, the same thing happened

last night and he's seen it for fifty years. Yeah, and it wasn't you know. Were there a couple of forced three pointers. Yeah, but there's always a couple of forced three pointers, but they had open shots that they just didn't make, you know, And and it was I don't think there's anything other than that, you know, that you need to point to. I mean, you can point to a lot of other things that Arizona could have done better and whatnot, but they won every statistical category except that

one. I mean, when you when your best player goes over nine from threes. You're you're you're not gonna You're not gonna win. You can't. And he had good looks, Yeah, no he did. He had a bunch of good looks. But they weren't even closed. I was, I mean, I was literally gonna say that a bunch of those shots weren't. They clanged off and went out of bounds and stuff. I mean, they were just bad. Colin Boswall threw up how many how many air balls did

he shoot? Did he throw up? Yesterday? You know? I mean, and I guess the one thing that I wonder is at what point? And well, that's Red he's a coach, right, And well that's Scott Thompson, he's a coach. When you're having that bad of a shooting night, when do you go to something else or do you keep going to that because you know or you think at some point it's gonna it's gonna start to

work. Every time loved me. Before the ball got there, I thought, well, this one's going in change, yeah, and then miss worse than the previous one. Right, all right, we've got we've got Tommy Lloyd's postgame press conference cued up. It's about six and a half minutes. We're just gonna play it in its entirety. Get in his comments, Greg and I'll have a couple of minutes to talk about that afterwards. Then I'll probably react to that throughout the show. So let's hear what Tommy Lloyd had

to say last night. Solid Book went from PhD X sports coach, you know, this is the second time we got into the Sweet sixteen. What did you do differently from the first experience, last year's experience to this year, and then what would you have maybe possibly changed moving forward. Well, you know, we'll analyze all that stuff after the season, but I'm proud of these guys. These guys did an amazing job this year. They're a

great team. I mean that they're a team that, you know, we had the ability to get to a final four and we didn't, and that happens, so like it's nothing to look down upon. There there's probably eight or ten teams that could say that this year, and only you know, you know, three or four of them will probably actually get to the Final four, and we were one of them. So I'm proud of these guys.

They dug back, they dug deep. You know, all season we worked really hard on kind of taking the next steps of our culture of Arizona basketball, mean really hard, and we're very intentional with it, and these guys are great participants, and they really allowed me to kind of continue to build on the foundation, you know, of what we started at Arizona and what was there before us. So I'm thankful for that and and that's what

we're gonna do. We're just gonna continue to build on that foundation. We're gonna continue to to get teams that are this competitive and you know what, our day and the sun will come. Jorda Mendoza USA Today sports coach. Wasn't the best night shooting from beyond the arc, but you guys were able to do a lot in the posts where you trying to get your guys to

like drive more in and stop taking so many three point times. Yeah, I mean, I thought Clemson did a good job and you know, kind of got us on our heels offensive offensively early in the game, and and we settled for a lot of tough shots and then that's what kind of allowed them to get out because I think I think our defense was actually okay early and it was kind of low scoring early, and we're right there, and then you know, they got to going offensive a little bit, and we

just never quite did until later in the first half. And yeah, the second half, we made a more concerted efferent. We wanted to attack those guys, move the ball, attack, drive close outs, you know, play with our feet in the ground and the paint, and our guys did a much better job of that in the second half. Brian Peterson, easy desert swarm. When you were able to make the run to start the second half, briefly take the lead and then clems it kind of punches back,

gets up and then you tie it again. Did it just feel like you had enough punches to just keep and maybe push them aside. I mean, I thought we were fine, you know. I mean, you know, we go, we didn't play well to start the game. We're only down eight and a half, you know, as you guys, you know, the fought us closely. We've had a couple other games where we've been down in nineteen or twenty, you know, and being able to come back and

win them. So I thought we were fine. I thought we were well positioned for how we started the game, and we made that first run of the second half, which is great and you know, from there, you know they're gonna probably make a little run, but then you know, hopefully it's a little one, and then we make the next run and we can kind of, you know, eventually build a four, six or eight point lead, and we just were never kind of able to do that. And

and so Clemson gets a ton of credit for that. Coach John W. Davis with a Orange County register here in the Los Angeles area. You out rebounded them, you know, score more points and fast break, second chance points in the paint, like all of these things that you normally see when teams win, other than maybe the shooting percentage. What do you feel like, what's the difference? Well, this is your rights the shooting percentage.

I mean, you know, we were I think our starting guys that shoot threes were two for twenty three, you know, which is you know a lot to overcome, and you know, I feel like, you know, some of them were good looks and shots we've made, you know, all season, and today they just didn't go in. And you know, so

I think our guys deserve a ton of credit. I mean, to have that sort of shooting night and to get yourself in the game where you have a position to win it, I think is incredible and and it just shows the resiliency and the boughness of these guys. And you know, we kind of had to adjust plans and our guys were willing participants in that. So I'm really proud of them forgetting themselves a chance to win because, you know,

especially without JB playing the way he did. I mean maybe maybe we lose by fourteen sixteen points, but JB got in there and you know that that we were down to the last minute and gave ourselves a chance. So on a night where we didn't shoot the ball, well, yeah, Temmy Steven Berrel on sportstoosun dot com. When you have a chance to reflect on this year, what do you think will come to mind for yourself? We just love I mean, I love these guys. I love the culture we're

starting to really build upon, you know, at Arizona. I feel like, you know, I'm real big on you know, eventually getting some compound return on our investment, and I think we're going to get that. I think we're doing all the right things. You know, obviously we're not perfect, and no one is, and we don't ever want to be perfect. We just want to be making progress. So I love where we're at.

You know, I think, you know, I wasn't ready to take a breath, but I'm going to take a breath, and then you know, we'll reevaluate and we're gonna have another really good off season and continue to build. Go ahead. Second row coach in pH and X Sports. You know went Keyshad and Caleb, you know, provide a lot for your team this year. When you take a step back and look at their production and what they contributed to this program, what does get your ultimate takeaway're going to be.

I mean, they're incredible guys, and I'm just so thankful that you know, they took a chance on coming to Arizona and and play for our staff. I mean, you know, it was an incredible experience all all off season and in season long. So I'm just thankful. I mean, it just it reinforces to me that you can do things the right way, run the right culture, and put yourself put your team in position to to

compete at the highest level. So we're just gonna double down on all that, and and those guys reaffirm my belief that we need to continue to do with great high character guys. The last few possessions defensively, I believe the umer was out, was that partly to avoid if they were to foul him? And then did it just lead to like a breakdown? Not necessarily,

you know, we were just trying to give it a different look. You know, we're trying to pick up our pressure up the court a little bit, and you know, you're at that point you're hoping maybe you get opportunistic with a loose pass and you know someone can break on that. You know,

these things of that nature. We're kind of probably going to be in a little bit more of a pressing mode and maybe kind of switch you know, all five positions instead of the you know, four positions, and but hey, you know in New Clemson, you know, kind of they they found an answer down the stretch and they were able to get like I think, you know, maybe three baskets off slips, you know, versus the switches, you know, which you know, we just didn't execute well enough

and they get credit for for executing. All right. So that was Tommy Lloyd at the press conference last night, you know, even keeled as he always is, and you know, to my point that we were talking about you know, off fair. You know of these fans who get on social media and just drive me crazy, and I wish I would not let them. They want accountability and what does that mean? Right? Do you want him yelling at his players in front of everybody? Is that what you want?

Or you get pissed off when other coaches do it to their please you go look at that coach. Our coach doesn't do that? But is that? What is that? What accountability is? Are you upset that he didn't call guys out in the press conference? Yeah, that's that's the question with no good answer, right, And I mean accountability. He's probably got the nation's number one recruiting class coming in next year, So it's not like he's lagging or he's letting off. Right. He's won more games than anyone west

of the Mississippi in the last three years. Where are you going to find someone better than that? Exactly? Exactly? And and and what is it that? What is it that he doesn't have that you want? What's missing? And I'm not sure what that is because let's not forget. While he's been a coach for a really long time, he's been a head coach for three years, three years, find me another coach has done what he's done, and he took over a program really in a mess. It was a

mess. He was inherited three really good players. But he's taking it to the next level from there, and there's a couple more levels to get to, right, and he's really shown that he's going to get there. And it's just like we're talking about before, when you get to this level, it's fifty to fifty even if you're really good. Yeah, who's more unhappy today? Arizona faner a North Carolina fan, right right, Adam, I

mean who is more unhappy? Probably North Carolina fan because their expectations are one notch higher than Arizona, right right, and they finished at the same place, at the same spot. All right, we're going to take our break. We got Reggie Geary coming in into that on the show, so we'll talk to Reggie, get his thoughts. He you know, when I act change text messages, he expressed and he was pretty frustrated as well, but you know, he's a coach a player, So we'll get I think,

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now to the podcast on the iHeartRadio. While welcome back on the Wall here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I think we have Richie sounds like you're just right here. It sounds like you just got rolled or something like that. I'm out here at the track. So yeah, there's a going on all right. Well, we appreciate we appreciate you being here with us. I know that you're a busy guy. And but and we went to the well again because we had John last week after a win. Now we got you

after one of those losses that have become all too familiar for us. I've got Greg Hanson here with us, so you know he's he's on on on with us. But you know, just here, initial initial take, initial thoughts on on where you are right now. Yeah, I think I, like a lot of people, I'm disappointed, grated just because you know, I knew it's I know what kind of team we have this year, we

have how well they've played for majority of the season. And then when you take into combination the fact that we got unbelievable draws, all the stars were fined really for the lead a final four run and come up the way we did short play the way we did, I'm disappointing obviously, was frustrating. So you're getting we're getting a lot of I don't know, if it's windy

out there. We're getting a lot of feedback there. But you know, as you were watching the game, are you watching the game like a coach or like a player? And what do you think in terms of what's going on in the game, particularly in this game last night? Yeah, great

questions. You know, in all honesty, having been a coach for fourteen years, you know, eight of the head as an assistant for coach Olson at s, you know, I pretty much always look at a game from a coaching standpoint, So I'm evaluating strategies and just kind of going by it, you know, as if I was coaching, and so you know, it was just it was a great game in terms of the different styles and matchups and the coaches making maneuvers, and you know, just for whatever reason,

it just didn't It didn't turn over for us, Ritt, Reggie. You've seen superstars like Damon and Khalid have bad shooting nights on an exit game. So is it just something that happens. I mean, you can't really. It's just a happenstance of college basketball, isn't it. Yeah? It is. You know, you're dealing with eighteen, nineteen twenty, you know, twenty two year old, and you know it doesn't always go well. I remember in ninety four at the Final four, you know, Damon and

Kalid, you know, neither one had a good shooting night. It was probably the first time we ever had both guys off. You always uly they had one on, but for whatever reason, that night they were off. You can see last night the entire team gone off to a slow start. You could see every misshot is kind of affecting them defectively and their energy and they just you know, it just took you know, really kay Jake Lewis in the first half to go on a little baby run with a dunk and

a steel to kind of get them going. And then obviously Jason Bradley in the second half. So when when you when you're seeing that as a coach, I mean, you know, middle of the second half, they were you know whatever they were, I mean, they just were not hitting shots. Do you try something else or do you say it's got to turn right. I Mean, there's there's so many people that, you know, the armchair quarterbacks or the Monday morning quarterbacks saying well you should have stopped shooting threes

and done something else. But on the other hand, you think Caleb Love is eventually going to start making that the that the percentag is going to come back to you, and that you guys are going to start hitting shots. What do you do as a coach in a situation like that? How do you decide what to do? Yeah, it's such a fine line. It really a case by case. Like you know the players and team and your assistant playing, and yeah, you want them to stay confident and aggressive.

And if you're staying call Love you if you have room. And your Peter said, you know, shoot the ball. Was confident. But at some point when things aren't going well, they're not going in now you're start maybe changing your conversation and say, hey, let's let's let's see what you do some other things to get us going. Let's let's drive the ball and get to the free throw line defensively, Let's see if we can, you know, show some urgency and get some stops and maybe that'll lead to a fast

break and then maybe that will get you going. And so you want you don't want to ever take away their confidence or say don't shoot off, say people are going well, or you find yourself in a bonus or double bonus. You want to double down at that point and really take advantage to put you on some officials in the opponents by attacking the rip. Do you think that the general you have a fan fails to appreciate how difficult it is to win a game in the tournament? Oh? Well, you know, I

think we were spoiled obviously through the coach Olsen era. You know, getting to a final four every four years. There wasn't a class that didn't play in a final four for the most part, and so that gave the perception that this is something that is supposed to happen, you know, more times than not. And for us not to have got to a final four and twenty plus years and is shocking. But it does also indicate how difficult it is, especially you know today and with the way things have changed, because

you know, and Tommy's done it too. You go out and you get good players from somewhere else and you rebuild your team. You know, Tommy's gonna have to do that coming up. But you know, the more teams are better, it seems to me like, yeah, I mean, that's just the nature of the game. All the coaches are dealing with it. In terms of the roster and transporportal and you know all those things that kind

of come with being a Commis coach nowadays. And Tommy and staff have done a great job and they're going to continue to have to because it really puts the onus on coaches now and their ability to teach and keep the group together that maybe had to be together very long and so it's very challenging. So you've been you've been on both sides of this. You know, you got you got to a final four, had had a couple of first round losses.

How do you gather yourself? How is how would these guys gather themselves? And they're going to do some key guys. But in the end, Tommy's got to pull you know, keep this program, hold it together. He's got a good recruiting class coming in. But you know, what's the next thing? How do you move on from this? And way, yeah, great question. I think you don't move on too quickly. You definitely

want to assess this, figure out what occurred. I'll through alcohol team, whether it's our relationship building with our players, whether it was our system in game adjustments. Everything. You want to look at everything. You don't want to move on too quick. You want to evaluate exactly what transpired. And then once you've done that, yeah, you can focus on incoming. I'll

finding some players in the portal. I'm making sure the guys that are coming back or working on their strength and improving their weaknesses, and so you just start building again. But you don't want to move on too quick. You want to you want to feel this one so it doesn't happen again, hopefully, don't you think one of the pluses here is that even though Arizona loss yesterday, you look at next year and you can see them being back there

again next year. Oh yeah, I mean, and that's what And you definitely can to see, you know, on paper for sure, obviously Jaden Bramley kJ Lewis you know Connor Boswell, those guys coming back and surely showing backward. You know, there's some really good pieces. Obviously the cruity is very very strong. But you know, honestly, that's always going to be airs on the story, you know, A sorry, we always recruit well, we've always done well, so we're always be in the conversation, which

is great. And now you know, like I'm sure everyone else agree that we got to put the show and you've got to get to that next level. Okay, So if you had an opportunity to sit down with Tommy Lloyd, that's somebody who you know, you're not in the locker room every day, although you have a lot of familiarity with the program, who would you talk to him about? What would you say to him today? I wouldn't say just for me Tommy, obviously he's well established. My coach, Trevis

has had a great success. You know. I would obviously say, you know, keep your head up, you know these things happy uh uh? Like as you mentioned, you're building something your foundation. Continue to keep your head down and building and see where you need to get better. But there's nothing I need to tell him, you know. I would just encourage him to continue to be in self and it just continue tightening up your craft, like like we all do. I want to ask you one last question because

this came up. I'm you know, I get I see these games then again on social media, which I just shouldn't do, and I can't help myself. But people keep talking about accountability that they don't feel like Tommy holds players accountable. What the hell does that mean, what would that mean to you when you know people are accountable? Is you know, for me, it is if you do well, I'm gonna I'm gonna encourage you, I'm gonna get behind you. And if you're not doing well, well we're we're

gonna have a conversation and we're gonna try to correct that. And if it gets over the line, then you know, ructually becomes more severe, you know, And so just holding people accountable. If you're doing the right thing, then yeah, we're gonna praise you and you're gonna get get minutes and it's gonna go. Well. If you're not, we're going to try to correct it. And your continues go down the wrong path, well you know, they will take away what you love and that and that is you know,

his game minute. You know, everyone always says the greatest uh, you know, the greatest teaching tool a coach has the bench, right you know, putting him on the bench and sitting him out for a game, saying hey, we'll lose a game potentially because as of your transgression that we cannot allow that to happen. And so those are the kind of things that

you know, you look for to do to get everybody's mind. But there's no way in hell a fan, somebody sitting out here can look at Tommy and look at his team and say he is or isn't holding his players accountable? Is there no way you have to be there date. You know, it's thirty sixty five jobs. You know, they're they're getting touch points with their players every single day, and they know the mood, they know what's going on in their family, with their party. You know, there's just

a lot going on that the normal fan doesn't see. So that's the thing. You can eyeball it from the stands and realize, you know, one way or the other. You know, I think that would be unfair. Okay, that's good. I'm glad. I wanted you to say that, because that's to me, that's what it is. And there's no way any of us can know what the hell is going on in that locker room. There's just no way. A lot of dynamics, a lot of dynamics.

All right, Reggie, appreciate the time. I know you're busy, guys, so I really do appreciate you coming on this week and last week and all you know, all season long, you've been a great guest for us, So thank you so much for giving us your time, rightly appreciate it. Greg, thanks for your having me on. Guys, everybody out there, lockout, you keep your heads up. We're gonna be all right. All right, sounds great. Thanks Reggie. All right, that was Reggie,

Gary, a lot of good stuff. I love you. Know again, unless you're a player and in that locker room and you're win of the coaches, you don't know what the hell's going on, and stop acting like you do and stop telling those guys what to do. Reggie is one of the best guys you could have ever asked about that because he was there after those back to back exits, right, and then it all goes away the next year when you go you go to the final four, right, and

then they did but then they did it again. But still those things you know again we we we talked about it the at the at the you know, before the tournament, you gotta be good and you got to be playing your best, but you also got you know, you match up with somebody that does something that you're you know that that you can't deal with, and you're gonna lose. I mean, did you think of Arkansas was going to be in North Carolina last night, going in Alabama, I mean Alabama,

no way, because my memory of Alabama is the team Arizona beat. Yeah, and I turned it on only in the last four minutes away. How did this happen? Which is probably what Arizona fans were saying, Yeah, exactly why why is Alabama in the lead eight in Arizona is not we beat them? Because that's college basketball. And Alabama's best player was that tall, skinny white hare with He was the best player in the court. Heard of it, exactly, exactly. All Right, We're gonna go take our next

break. We're hoping Steve Rivera is in a cell phone zone. He's kind of in the middle of nowhere. We're gonna try and get him on hope the call holds. But we'll come back and we'll see if we've got Steve on the air, and then we'll get to the top of the hour, we'll do some breaking news and will take your calls. You're only gonna have that one segment for us to take your calls between between four o'clock and four fifteen, So stick around. If your name's on a named 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 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 beloved coach. Lessons from Lut is an insight to how he built

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a teamsecurity dot net. Right Jacon Salles, they have their eye on the ball on Tucson Sports. Stay yet, Fox Sports fourteen fifty. We're talking back the ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm your host, Jagan Zales. My buddy Steve Rivera is on the phone right now. We're gonna talk to you, Amy. I got Greg Hanson here filling in for Steve in studio. So Steve, hopefully this call will hang on for the duration of the segment. All right, man, So what's up? What do

you think in the day after? Wow? Well, I think when we talked last in terms, oh, your buddies right on Wednesday, and they had no issues with tim Son at all. And then I asked you did they ever see him play? And you said no, And I think that's the fish for a lot of people. You didn't know or no one knew how good Thompson pretty was. I think they finished fifth or six in the

league, going for eleven and nine, and they were pretty good. And we and we all all seasons saw a gonna play uh mediocre against good teams and mediocre against bad teams. And they ran up against the pretty good team that had Arizona solved. They yeah, I mean they had Arizona solved. But to me, you know, we can go into all the different things, but to me, it was as simple as not making shots. You know, there is you know, I mean, Clemson did what they were

gonna do defensively, offensively, whatnot. But to me, it just came down to shots. I mean, what you saw it or what did you think? But the other team, the other team created those problems and they scored pretty easily. I mean the final few minutes there was a Clemson had its way with Arizona and then you know, to get those key baskets underneath

the basket. Uh So that was that was an issue. Uh. And and the things that I was gonna talk to you about this on Monday, that I brought to you all year where two things followed, not hitting Pitos and Caleb Love going cold. Yeah, you know, and since January first in Arizona's conference games. In the postseasons game, Boswell was eight for forty

eight on threes. Wow, sixteen, I mean that's your point. Yeah, yeah, I mean Greig and I have been around a long time, and I'll take one of those guys, you know, kerr and eighty eight when he's thirteen, Selene two thirty? Yeah, oh no, yeah, I think it was that experience is from when when did you feel it was a loss? How early or how late did you feel this this game's a loss? Oh? How soon? When did I feel it was gonna happen? In once the game started? When did it feel like lost to you?

Like Arizona's not gonna win this game? Well, I didn't think by thirteen was ready. Well, they have a chance to come back. They've done it all year. When they came back, storm back, and I took the leader, I said, well here they go. You know, you know you're I'm gonna pull it out. So I don't know, I don't know how to ask that question. Okay, I mean I thought early on. It. Let me put it this, it felt like a loss

early on, like five minutes into the game. I thought they could still win, but it felt like one of those games that ends up inevitably being a loss. And it became a loss when they couldn't score. For both of you, guys, Clemson, you had a chance. Yeah, we're we're losing him. Yeah, you're you're kind of coming in and out. You said Clemson had a chance. What Yeah, did you think they had

a chance, because I'm sure you hadn't seen them that often. No, No, but but Steve, you know, I mean, I know enough about this to know that you get to the Sweet sixteen and no matter whether you're playing Saint Peter's or somebody else, you're playing somebody who's good enough to beat you. And if you're not playing well and you don't play you know better than you normally play, there's a good chance you're going to lose. So, I mean, I thought they were going to win, you know.

You know, at the end of the show on Wednesday, you know, Sammy and I were talking. He said, do you think I said, yeah, I think they win. I think he Harzelon handles them because they're playing. You know, they haven't played great, but they're playing better than you know, what we had seen. And I thought they were zeroed

in and and so yeah, I thought they were gonna win. But when they when they didn't hit their first basket until you know, the sixteen minute mark, I thought, that's exactly how games start in the tournament when they lose. Right, I don't know in the hall. I think in nineteen ninety ninety one when Arizona had no chance in Seattle and then Cali right it

on, came up doing really well and well that one traveling. How much do you think this is a product of Arizona playing in a crummy league and Clemson their finished sixth or so in the a CC, so nobody thinks they're very good. And you know, I looked it up today, the last eighty sixth verse in the Elite eight the PAC twelve has had four. No. I mean that could be a factor because it was a crummy league. It wasn't rummy league, so you really don't know how good you are,

right, and Arizona we didn't know. I mean I kind of said earlier they're vulnerable to a good team, and they were vulnerable to a bad team. So how good were they? I think there were There were at least twelve to fifteen U of A teams better than this one, if you go, yeah, when you were on the show last time we talked about that number. I think maybe yeah, a few of US Sean Millers and a lot of loud Olsen's better. Yet they were talented enough. I think they

were talented enough. Weren't they? Or were we mistaken? I thought they were enough, but they just didn't show it all the time they were there. Weren't no reason, right, you think that Timmy would get them off? And and that's on the kids too. It just didn't happen for whatever reason. What about in the coming years in the Big twelve Arizona, my I mean Clemson eleven or nine? Right, what if Arizona goes twelve and eight next year in the Big twelve, it is a better team. It

could be that just very well happened. Arizona is gonna go looney to you used to well they did last night and I jumped in there and I couldn't help myself, Steve, I'm disappointed in myself, had engaging all the all the trolls out there. I did. I did well. Almost immediately there was a hashtag fire Tommy on somebody's tweet, and I called I told that guy he was stupid. And then somebody else who's got one of you know, some u of a labeled uh uh you know twitter feed called him mediocre

that didn't know, said the program is mediocre. And I'm like, go look up mediocre in the dictionary and and you know, learn a thing or two. And then I finally finished it off saying, for all those people who are you know, bashing Tommy, go back here your mom's basement and just open another bag of Cheetos and shut the hell up. And so it wasn't a good food. And then and then I then I wouldn't take my brother's call. So it's a good thing. This wasn't a game that knocked

Arizona of the Rose. Oh god, yeah, beat down. And I'll ask Brian this day later, did you really think this team had it to get to the final four? And I think, in in all honesty, I had him going to the final four. And I don't know why, because maybe I bought into it was the easiest road to get there. And they still kind of messed out. I was thinking they could. I kept thinking they could, and I still think they could have. But I also thought, you know, if you play crappy, which they did, you're

going to lose. And they did, right, And so yeah, I think they had the talent for sure, and they played some game. They played some Final Four quality games during the year, So yes, I thought they could. And the only team that I didn't think they could beat, well, there's two now that I didn't think they could beat, where Yukon and Produce. But I thought they could beat everybody else. But I thought everybody else could beat them. I thought the Duke game. I thought the

Duke game skewed perceptions coming into the year. Once they beat Duke, was like, oh, Arizona's going to do it, and Duke was really good but not elite. That stuck with me for two months that you bet Duke and Duke you're going to go to the Final Four. Yeah. Well, so let me let me ask Greg, where do you think that this rank the postseason clunkers? Not even close to the worst, not even close. I mean East Tennessee State, Santa Clara, Miami, Buffalo, Wichita State,

UTIP yeah, I mean get in line. Yeah, yeah, there's a whole bunch of them. Yeah, yeah, there are a bunch of right, yeah, there are. It's a Sweet sixteen loss. And that's what that's what gets me about this is that there's so many fans out there who feel Arizona should never lose in the Sweet sixteen. I'm like, the Sweet sixteen is damn hard. That's where again, maybe two weeks I think even Gregory asked what would disappoint a fan base if they didn't get to what?

And it was dbed eight? Right, yeah, yeah, because that's become so elusive. Well yeah, and now that's almost the carrot for Arizona after all these years off the final four. Just get to the Elite eight and we'll see what happened, right, and take your shot there the morning after the morning after Arizona lost to Illinois in two thousand and five, if someone told you twenty twenty four, Arizona still won't go to the Final four, you would have left. I would have said, no way, there's

not a way. Yeah yeah, So what now, Steve, what do you think? Uh? You know, they here, you know the where where do they go from? Here? Does Tommy change anything there is. He he is who he is. I mean, what do you what do you think? Because that's the other people. Tommy's got to do something different. I'm like, what different? No, he is who he is. He'll feel continue to do what he does. He feels he's on the verge of breakthrough. In fact, he kind of mentioned it to me a while

back. Uh, they're like Gonzaga had a hard time getting to that. He'll do the same thing here. I think the personnel will change. I think there'll be a couple of people that leave, Like everywhere else, they leave. Yeah, and then we'll see how the nil goes. But who's going to step up now? And who's they need? A shooter? They shoot? They had a shooter and they didn't have one. They thought they had one. Well they did have one. And he I mean, did

you see that? There was a stat by Michael lev said he shot like in the last six games, in his last six game, he shot like twenty eight percent or something like that, right right last Later last year, late in the season, he went all for six from three against Duke and over seven from three against Louisville. Did you just run out of gas? But I was. When I looked that up today, I went, Wow, he did the same thing last year at the end and then elimination.

Didn't you find it ironic that the North Carolina kid went to the same numbers last night? Yeah? I saw that. Yeah. And when North Carolina was eliminated in twenty two by Kansas, he was one for eight. Yeah. I mean he was big, he had he was built for the big moments, and then when it came, it didn't happen. Yeah. Yeah, Uh, well here we are, Steve, you know, doing it again. I wore my Dodger shirt today to kind of to kind of rub everything off. Uh, you know, we'll talk more about it Monday.

Yeah. They should have driven the Dodger stadium and touched Oi's back. It's something like that, Steve. You know I would have I would have chased some jacket. Go go go kiss the Vince Scully statue or something right or Jackie right, anything, you know something. But you made a good point to l A has been tough on Arizona. The LA area has been tough on Arizona. Yeah, he's gonna call it Monday, apologize. Imagine the

crowded Tomorrow's game they're all back. Yeah, yeah, they wudn't have four thousand fans everywhere exactly, exactly, all right, Steve hey Man, thanks a bunch, head back and get back here on Monday. We'll see you, Thanks Steve Rivera. So his travels are over. Well, we're book going. We're book going to go the final four. I'm working. I'm working it. Anything, he's gonna go cover it still, So we'll be

out next week for part of it. But uh, you know, I mean there's not there's not a you know, we're gonna have Matt Muleboch come in. He'll tell us what, you know, what he thinks. Scott Thompson will be joining us here in a little bit. We'll get his thoughts on that. But you know, I kind of want to hear their thoughts because I would rather hear theirs than what what what I'm hearing out there, because it's I was so angry last night and I wasn't I was at it

at the loss. I mean, I was upset at thoughts. I was frustrating for the loss, but then just watching what our fans do and how they just eat each other alive and and eat the program alive. And just they lose their minds. And I get it, it's it's where we are today. But I couldn't help myself last night and I engage these guys and I wish I hadn't, but I did, and I did feel better at the end of the day. I felt like I felt like I had done my piece, for my part, for you know, for for for the

program. So we'll see, all right, you know we you know, well, we'll kick this around some more. But in the end, you know, this was a lot like all the other ones. Don't you think we've seen them all? And we've been to a bunch of them. You've seen as many of them as I have, right, everyone, Yeah, yesterday was the first. Yeah, and uh, and none of them are easier to take than the others, you know. And what we did walking into the locker room after all those losses, Yeah, that was the reason

why we're no longer working in the newspapers exactly. Those things were hard. You mentioned the you know, walking into the locker room after the eighty nine loss to a unld and the players are just in their sobbing and it was like one of the hardest things ever see these guys still in their uniforms and stuff, and they're just you know, I remember twenty fifteen TJ McConnell was

crying, yeah, and he didn't even play. Yeah. So yeah, it's those things are those things are tough, but it's sports man, it's sports, and it's what it's you know. We I mean, we love it for this, but we hated for this, I think is what it is. So all right, we're gonna come back. Adam's got some breaking news for us coming up, and we'll This is gonna be the only segment

we can take your call. So if you want to give us a call, if you want to try in on on on what we saw and what are the cats are, it'll be in this next segment after the breaks. So give us a called. Five two zero, four, one, six, seventy four forty we'll be right back