This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen powered by Nova Insurance Services, Ensure Your most Prized Possessions, kat z R two, SAG and iHeart Radio Station. Hey, good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to II on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. He's Jaken zoas h. Did you want to just think today? Off to No, man, I want to work on this Friday because because you're you're Yeah, I'm here. You work on a Friday.
You walk out the door and the skies open up, and you're you feel good. You put in a good week of work. We've had a nice week this week. We've had some fun guests. We had the big game boomeron hold on up of softball coaches? Is it nine one one? Someone? Someone stold Jay, it's been it's been a fun. Spatic guy. I'm five nine, Well okay, technically I'm just a little on your fine. I have a big head. Yeah you'll find it. If who's wearing
Dodger krap, Yeah you'll have no problem. Well no, actually, in two sons, there's you know what, there's a lot of guys look like me running around a lot of Mexicans with Dodgers shirt. Stubby Mexicans with big heads and dodge it's too fast, that's not Hey, welcome everybody. Last day for a while. We hope to have some fun. Let's talk about a guest real quick, so we will forget about that, all right. So you know, Arizona, you know, moved into the semi finals of
the Pac twelve baseball tournament. They're trying they're still trying to get into the NC Double A tournament. There's some thought that if they win tonight against Stanford, that could be enough. There's some thought that maybe they got to actually win the tournament and get the automatic bid. But they're playing to night at seven. Michael lev from the airs of The Daily Star, who's been covering
the team all year long and is up in Scottsdale with the team. Um, he's gonna be on the show to preview the game a little bit. Did you see the game last night with Stanford and Oregon? No, because I'm following on Twitter and left said, it looks like Arizona is gonna play. It looks like Oregon's gonna lose to Stanford, and then I see that it was a fantastic Oregon came back and win the game, and I stumbled
on it. I stumbled on the last night. I was just combing through some you know, numbers in and I saw a well I better stay it's eating close game and then Oregon came back. It was fantastic game. I'll tell something very sad. I was in bed by thirty least were you? That's always I mean, the lights weren't out, but I was. I was in the sack and old, are you? That's about right? You get up at six? I know I don't. I don't have the tappy yolka, I don't neat dinner at three thirty any of that. Uh but
uh so I kind of shut down around eight thirty or so. And but I was found on Twitter and I saw that Mike Left said that it looks like Stanford's gonna beat beat Oregon, and that meant Arizona was gonna play Washington. I stopped pat It was until this morning that I saw that Arizona was
gonna play Stanford. Yeah, so that should be interesting game because they would have been able to play Washington. I don't know it didn't Stoppen forgot to beat who you gotta being exactly what I first thought was, you know, you probably gotta beat Stanford, right. So we'll get to that point later with Michael Evan a few other things in his role as the sports editor at the Daily Start. And then in the second hour, we're gonna have Jake, our guy, Jake. I'm gonna get on him for cheating on us
a little bit this week. Yeah, you know, what the hell, But let's not say where he was say that. He he'll he'll joke about that, Okay, Cool? Cool. You know I was thinking, I'm sure you let's talk about the basketball game later. I was thinking, for the first time in about a week, Uh, and I can't. I wanted to ask you this, and maybe we'll go back and forth with this.
Uh, you've been here a long time, and I'm just gonna go from the times I showed up here and you were a prominent sportswriter back back. Uh. I wanted to ask you individually, and I'll say the same thing. For the coaches. There's been one, two, but five, but nine coaches men's basketball and football, men's basketball, football, Uh, their legacies, what did they leave when I say, Dick told me,
what do you think his legacy was? And we can get some calls on the super So we're gonna go down the list of the coaches and you could be critical. Well, you know there's been four in basketball, five in in football. I think I think Dick Tommy left sort of a blue collar, uh, hard working, uh you know, diamond in the diamond in the rough kind of program that you know, I think I think Dick Tommy was the was a coach that kind of understood what Arizona was and and coached
within that. Yeah. Yeah, you know, that's a good way to put it. Right. He wasn't gonna go out. I mean they tried that one year to go out and get the five star and four star recruis didn't get him. But you know, he was always finding guys and you know, there there's some stars came out of Arizona who shouldn't have been stars or didn't think you didn't think we're gonna be stars, and so he kind of created that. I don't want to say blue collar because that but just
not you know nothing. It was his teams weren't made up of superstar high school players. There were guys who came here, worked hard, made themselves better, and it was hard to sustain winning. Yeah, because those guys are hard to find. Sure, they're harder to find than the fight stars. The five star guy coached them up right. But you see a guy like Chuck Cecil and you go, how the hell, you know, does a guy like Chuck Cecil become really good? How the hell does a guy
like like Teddy Bruski become you know, America? Those are the guys that Dick told me as Yeah, so me. He was a father Flanagan type, a guy who coached his guys up uh. And I think you're right. Over the last thirty years, thirty five years since since this thing started, uh uh kind of epitomizes the program. They are just a bunch of dudes, a bunch of dudes who worked their butt off and played above their
level. And I think people, uh, back when it happened, and you know, there's gonna meet in two thousand and you're thinking, Okay, it's gonna be better. No it's not. It turned out to be, No, it's not. Twenty three years later, you're wishing for the wish people are And that was where I sort of established my my uh feeling that Arizona was a team that a program that would win in cycles. Get a group of guys coached him up, coach him up. Then they're gone,
and you kind of got to start over each time. And and you know there were there there were two very you know good cycles. You know, it cycled up in ninety three, you know, ninety four, a couple of bad losses that you know, they missed the Rose Bowl by one game in ninety four as well as ninety three. Then there's the ninety eight team, and then then ninety nineteen kind of fell apart, and then you know,
then he couldn't It didn't look like he was cycling enough. People got to and he quit after after the two thousand season, where people got all over and saying, what you know, he wasn't getting there. It wasn't getting there to the next level. Okay, so we go from there to Macovic dumper just a big steaming pilot. But put him in the dumper. Yeah, just two years right too. Probably well he was here to year, but the two and a half year it was the worst thing that Living
Good did the whole time he was here. Jim living Good made that hire. I remember when they hired him. I thought, Okay, let's see what happens. But let me not to not to Jim. Not to I'll buy Jim. But when you go hire somebody, you get the opposite of what you just got right. And he was that. He was. He was the the wine and cheese guy, wore a suit on the field, that kind of control guy. You know, you saw that guy in the
locker room. You thought they're tuning him out. The first time I met him, I thought, holy hell, this program's in trouble for a while. What was the situation. Uh, it was for a golf tournament that that we started back during that time. They put a group together. It was the Chuck Cecil, uh, you know, golf tournament to raise money or the athletic department. And I was on the you know, we started it. I was on a committee that got that going. And we met
him. He was just he was just a big giant, yeah, very pompous guy. Uh. You know, we needed him to do some stuff, and he did the stuff, but he sounded like a jerk doing it. Um And I thought, this is gonna take a long time to fit. Yeah, And the tw two and a half years. The player, Well, yeah, but it took and then it took Stoops another four years. No, no one moved from Stoops. What Stoops legacy? Stoops Legacy to me was a good guy, hard working guy, but he never accepted
being here. Was he either head? Was he a head coach? And he was? And he I didn't. I think he was in over his head as head. He was not a He was in over his head. He knew what he needed to do, he just didn't want to do the stuff. Besides, he didn't want to do anything other than coach, coach, coach. Well, the joke or not, or the observation is Mark was more of a head coach potentially than Mark than Mike. You got the sense that Mike steps was uncomfortable with all the all the public, world side
stuff. He could have just coached X and o's on the field, recruiting, YadA, YadA, YadA. That would have been fine, but that's not what it takes to be a head coach. You gotta have guys around you that and then he was his sideline antics. You know that None of that ever really bothered me, but it did a lot of people. But it did a lot of people, and I think people saw him as a guy who just was immature as as yeah, just had body for prime time. Kind of not ready for prime time, right, Okay, So we
moved from there to uh to rich Rod. What was his legacy? Um, that's tough, isn't it. He never dug into Tucson. I felt that he he always had his eye looking for he was he wanted to win really bad, as good as as much as anybody else wanted to win. And he was, to me from a next is an old standpoint, the best coach that maybe Arizona has ever had ever. Okay, you never thought, Jimmy, Yeah, you never thought that that Arizona was getting out coached.
Okay, now dat now. He was focused on offense. The defense. You know it was not great, but you know he had he had, you know, some some nice seasons where the offense just if he would have I don't know if he was spent some time with the defense or pomp. The problem with the defense is that he didn't make his defensive coordinator recruit.
He got the guy here by saying you don't have to recruit, and then I think the defensive line coach also didn't have to the old guys, so so the old guys didn't have to recruit, and I think that that was I understand why he wanted to get him here, but I think the defense suffered because of that, and they didn't get the players they needed defensively to be a notch or two above above to where they got offensive league. I mean he, to me, his teams were like indoor Football league teams.
You thought every time they got the ball they could score. Yeah, And that, to me, his legacy was that. I always thought. I think they had a wandering eye. I think that's fair because at the end, when in South Carolina came calling and whatever happened there. Yeah, yeah, I think that's fair. I think that's fair because that's true. You know, it came from the big time, right. I think he wanted to get to the time. I think he wanted to win so he
could leave. I don't know he really wanted to win. I mean, he was trying hardness hell to win. He did win, but I think he was trying to win to get himself out of here. Yeah. No, I don't blame him for that. I think a lot of coaches do. He was a Michigan dude. Yeah, yeah, you know he could have had the ballad job. Sure sure, no, No, when you when you've tasted that taste, you want to go back, right, you wanted to go back to one of those Uh my my, I think that's
fair. I don't you know, scandals or no scandals or it may believe scandals. That doesn't affect him. Um he what he won, he got, He got him back to moo games kind of consistently. He had some great wins, incredible wins. Two wins over Oregon that went over Ohiowa, the no that I but the two wins over Oregon, the Oklahoma State game, the three those four games that clil Tate had um three years, you know, don't use c l A bunch of times got you know game Day
was here, you know, you know because of him. Uh you know it was a it was not a bad stretch. Yeah. The guys that the guys that I hang with say that was the most fun stretch of years. When you talk about a long stretch that we've ever had, good like Dick had a couple of good years, a couple of bad years. And when I say bad, not losing I didn't have a losing season till late but you know they weren't. But but the rich rod Gains were fun.
Every game was fun and entertain Okay. And lastly, someone, oh God to me because from the day he walked in the door. You know, you knew he didn't want to be here, right mcavic. You thought he was gonna try, but for his own ego, right, someone didn't even have that. Fummelin was just here to collect the check and get the hell out of town. And he just and he well, and he did that. He drove the he drove the program into the ditch the day he got here, right. Uh, and without any um, no one even held
him to the fire. You don't want it because no, he never had a chance to get held to the fire in press commerces ring because he was kind of a invisible Yeah, we didn't have a chance to talk to him about stuff, I could. You know. I went to his first spring game, and I think I've said this before. I went his first spring game. I just watched him on the field and he just looked like a guy who was so disinterested in what was going well. I think that was
just how he looked. I don't know why I came up with this. And we'll talk to the we'll talk about the guy side with Loot and then some of the others afterward, you know, up to and then we'll talk about jet on the jet real quick. So far, you know, so far a guy who he's trying really hard. You know, we're we're I think he's still learning, you know, to be a head coach and and all that it takes. I think he came here with kind of a plan.
But I think he's he's he's the what's what's right away, He's the little mouse on the wheel. Okay, let's as soon for a second, and I agree, I agree with you. He's been on that little mouse for a long time. Let's say this little mouse goes eight and four eight four three years. People are loving, you know, not just people in two songs, people, yeah, other places. But but you know, I don't you know, is like say they're playing you know, in the
end, he's still a guy who didn't play college football. Well, if you're gonna win, I know you're gonna win. But but but there's gonna be you know, there's fan bases that are gonna say, we don't want that guy. Yeah, but you know, the AD's gonna say, but we do. But I think I don't think it's a Michigan you know, you know, Okay, those guys maybe, uh, but we won't get there until we get there. Yeah, if we bossibly get there. But you know what I'm saying, what I'm alluding to, I'm not one hundred
percent sure that that that he's that at you. I would bet you would be that. I bet you your card in my car. I want better miles on that car. All right, well we'll talk about Yeah, we can talk about that. I'm not I'm not a hundred percent sure. Well that's we talked about that. Talking about basketball later. We got Michael Left coming up. We're gonn talk about Arizona baseball at the pack Off Tournament.
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Rivera, he Jackins Alice now in the Polia. Michael lev editor at the Arizona Day Start and the Baseball Beat writer. How are you doing, Michael Hey? Long time, no talk? How are you? Yes? Yes, into your position? But now you have some fun to cover this weekend. Have you had fun so far? And some games have been fun to watch. I really enjoy covering college baseball, even though the games can be really long and go deep into the night. Sometimes us just a good vibe.
It's a lot less um, a lot less secretive than football. There's sort of pressure covering baseball than there is football, So I think it is a good time. I think the Pac twelve Tournament, um, it's really fun. I'm glad that the league decided to finally have a postseason tournament. It can the format this year, it's a little weird, but I think, um, it's a net positive. Did you did you like the format? We're done. We're done with the round robin, now the three team
round robins. Did you like that and do you feel like it got us to where you've got a good four teams in the semi finals, or at least who belongs there. Well, I mean it's stilted in favor of the highest seeds. Right if you go one on one and you're one of the
top three seeds, you know, you advance to the semi finals. What the other thing it accomplishes is it makes it less unreal be you know, you forgetting I think of four games a day the first couple of days last year, and I mean you were having games going until one thirty in the morning, you know. I mean it was really kind of borderline ridiculous. This way, you get addition an additional team into the field. Everyone gets
at least two games, and nobody played more than four games. So I think it's just overall a little better balanced, a little more equitable, and a better way to go about it. Everyone has played pretty well in the last two games, and played well actually recently in all the games that you played. What do you see going forward with Stanford? Yeah, I mean it would be stunning if this isn't a high scoring game, right, Um, these are the two best offenses in the conference, without a doubt.
Um, there's really no one you can pitch around. Once through seven and both of their lineup the last time they played the game was twenty one to twenty. Arizona just kept blowing light leads and they finally went ahead, and they hung on for dear life. I think, honestly, what worries me the most about tonight is that Stanford is the home team and a lot of these games lately has just kind of come down to, you know, whoever has to last at back. You know, it's like, you know,
like Big twelve football games, whoever the ball last is gonna win. Um, you know, it might just be whoever gets to last up is the one who's in that favored position. Hopefully for Arizona's sake, you know, they got some confidence from the way that that last game ended. Chris Brazza a fantastic job of stranding runners um in the last couple of innings, you know, enabling them to walk off the the verse did you did you have
an expectation for Arizona going in? I mean, did you expect to see see them in the semi finals sort of have a chance to win this thing. But what were your thoughts about them going in? Yeah, I think it was definitely, Uh, there was definitely a decent, decent possibility of that. UM. You know, they've played much better over the last month or so. UM. They put that ten game moving streak in the rear view mirror. UM. Their offense has just been on fire for weeks and
weeks now. UM. And it's kind of like a situation that they're they're built for that, they were ready for. UM. We've seen Arizona teams in recent years twenty eighteen and twenty nineteen or the two prime examples, they did make n say tournament even though they were playing exceptionally well at the end of the season, and they were in that classification of, you know, the team you wouldn't want to face, right, There was no fact twelve
tournament at that time. Now there is, and Arizona is getting that opportunity and they are proving that maybe they are, you know, the team that you don't want to face. It's funny do you talk about the offense being on fire. Conversely, this reminds me of the Arizona basketball team where a very good team obviously played very well, but there one flaw was that gave up leads late in the game. You've seen it more than most in this
baseball team. They're playing very well. Two three run league boom gone. Two three run league boom gone happened a lot. And that's the issue, right, it is, It really is, and these are you know, for the most part, these are kind of the guys that you thought would be some of their most reliable pitchers. You know, Dawston, matt ever Long and Chris Brazza. He pitched well the other day, but he's had his struggles as well. So they really need the bullpen to step up in
a big way. I don't know whether it can advantage or a disadvantage that, you know, these teams that baked each other a lot, a lot of the same guys on Stanford that we've seen for a few years now. There's a lot of familiarity. M quinn Matthews is starting on the mound for Stanford. Arizona had faced him multiple times. You know, there won't be any secrets between the two. You know, it might just come down to who played better. And one thing I think that's underrated about this Arizona team
is they played really good defense. They've made I think only two errors in the first two games, maybe only one or two errors. Yeah, they were both by Tony Bullard. One was on pop up that he kind of locked in the sun, and then the other one was a row that he rushed a little bit. Stanford. Meanwhile, I mean they wouldn't you know, we wouldn't have this matchup if they hadn't loan the lead um the other
night with bad defense. You know, there was a triple into the right to the corner and Drew Bowser he overshot m third base on his relay through by twenty I mean here into the betting um, you know, enabling the duck to score on a you know what you call a little league comb run. So it might come down to, you know, just which team axecutes better, which seemed preked fundamental ball better. And that's one thing under tip hail that this Arizona team an area where they've made a lot of stride.
So so, uh, you know you're talking about that twenty one to twenty you know, slow pitched softball game of a few weeks ago. I mean it's you just Gotta said because of the pitching, that Arizone is going to have to score fifteen runs to win tonight. I mean that isn't that something that you you have to think you might not be wrong, You really might not be wrong. Um. I often asked my colleague Brian Peterson a desert swarm at some point in the game. I'm like, what's the number today?
And he nailed it. The other day he said thirteen and the score ended up being thirteen to twelve. So I don't know what the number is tonight, but it would not surprise me at all if the winning side had double figures, you know, Yeah, I mean last night there were I think there were two games yesterday of scores of it was six to five and eight to six, something like that. You know, the two games, the afternoon game in the night game, and those are relatively low scoring days.
I mean, offense is up, I think across the nation, the leading RRA and the conference during the regular season. So it's just kind of an expectation at this point that they're going to get involved in the kind of shootouts, and from an offensive standpoint anyway, Arizona is well built for that. So forgive me for not knowing this, Michael, But have you covered most of the games? Are you there now covering them? One? And two? How has three things now? And Charles Chip held up this year
and two? Three? Um, he's received a lot of criticism, more more obviously than recently because this team isn't Arizona like it has been in the past. Right, I don't know if that's warranted, But what do you feel? Okay? First one, UM, I haven't covered nearly as many games in person um as I have in recent years because of my other job responsibilities. I have watched almost every inning, um that you could watch this
season through streaming or whether if they're on TV. So I'm as well versed as I've ever been as far as Chip goes, UM, I think he has held up just fine. I think a lot of the criticism has been, you know, has revolved around his decision to keep Dave Juan as the pitching coach. UM. People have questioned that and they still question that, UM, And we'll see if he makes a change at the end the season.
He really had not that involved in the kitchen, you know, similar to j Johnson like chapters involved in hitting, He's involved in fielding and he kind of lets the kitchen coach do his thing. So you know, we'll see where that goes. So talking about some of the players, and Okay, I've been watching Arizona baseball since I was in elementary school, so I mean, you know, I feel like I've got a long history. I covered the team for a couple of years. Chase Davis may have the nicest,
prettiest swing of any player I've ever seen in Arizona. And I'm talking guys like Terry Francine, or Ron Hassey, Dave Stagman, you know, guys that go way back, some of the newer guys, guys who've been in the major leagues. I sit there and I just watch it over and over again. That the home run that he hit U in the Oregon State game. I think it was the Oregon State game leading. I mean, I've watched that over and over and Overgon because you couldn't even see the ball
off the bat. He hit it so hard. I mean, it's unbelievable to watch him play. I mean, is do you is he a step above like that? At least in your opinion. It's a beautiful swing. There's no question I've talked about this with uh, you know, fellow baseball nerds in the past, like why do you left handed guys swings luther and prettier than right handed guys. And I think it's because when you're right handed
hit her. You know, when you hit the ball really well, you still have across the plate and kind of chuck the bat behind you when you run down to first where it's a little bit of like a smoother operation for a lefty to just kind of glide glide into it when he when he pulls the ball, you know, into right field and you get shot down the
first uh you know, after it leaves the park. But he has not only a pretty swing, but is extremely powerful, yeah swing, and he has I think he's made himself a first round draft pick, which would be um, you know, really cool and a really big deal. It would be the it happened, it would be the third time in four years that
Arizona has had a first round kick in the MLB draft. Um. So yeah, I mean he's got the third thanks the third third most home runs in a single season UM in Arizona history, which again, like that's a really big deal. He's in the top five all time, and he really only played two seasons. So just think about that, and there's a couple of career a career records or a couple of records that have snuck up. You got Kiko Romero could break the all time single season RBI record. He
needs three. Yeah, I mean that could happen tonight, right, yeah. I mean he's two behind Ron Hackey's record of eighty six. And you know, back in the day, like I mean, you had these different bats, maybe different baseballs and a college baseball it's just a much higher scoring game and who were trending in that direction again, But Tico has been such a valuable player for them because he prevents other teams from pitching around Chase David.
I mean it's like, do you still at your own peril? Become very much to pick your poison situation. And even after Chase, you know, made an out and that the bottom of the ninth the other day, Kiko came up and he came through and knocked in the game winning hug. And my guy, it's maybe because of me. I'm all glove, no hit is the shortstop, the little long locks and the and the good defense
at short. Think about Nick McClary. He's not just all gloves. He's like a good hitter too, you know, I mean he's hitting around three thirty. He's been a great spark plug for them. He leads the team and runs scored. Um. I have always had this theory that guys who are interesting sectionally good in the field coordination is such that they will eventually make themselves into good hitters. I think Ozzie Smith is a good example of that.
YadA Molina is another good example of that. And make the to me um he falls into that category. He made himself into a good offensive player at least in college, and hopefully he'll hear his name called at some point during the MLB draft as well. Imagine, imagine you're talking about how good they are offensively and the power in it. Imagine it had they had a
Smith a little bit better, this team would be pretty dynamite. Yeah, I mean, imagine if Tam Walty had been healthy from the start of the season, you know, I mean he he kind of delivered some of those you know, Friday night shut down out and that you looked for. Once he got healthy, they didn't have that, you know, for about a month at the start of the season, and um, you know they started
out with t J. Nichols is the Friday guy. He's got an amazing talent and amazing stuff, but for whatever reason, it hasn't come together for him. Tonkos Susak he was the number two starter and then he got hurt had to be shut down for a little while. So you know, you really like to have that tone setter and that Friday night rolling and have that. And then you know, as we talked about, the bullpen has been really up and down lately and has left them down and in a few too
many situations. So is it is it an all hands on debt kind of night for Chip where he just says, everybody's got to be available and we'll worry about tomorrow tomorrow or how's her? Do you know how he's approaching that. I think that's the correct approach, because look, you automatically make the
NTA Tournament if you win the Pac twelve tournament. But Arizona has positioned itself where there at least in the conversation now and if you cannotch a really good quad one win over Stanford, which is going to be one of the top sixteen teams um in uh in the n s A tournament, it might not matter what happens tomorrow night. They might have played their way into this tournament. So I think you do take that all out approach. They had a
day off yesterday which helps a lot in terms of the arms. They're going to start off with left hander Brad and Dastro. I'm sure tonkos is going to be available if Zastro Faulter is early, and they should be able to use just about anybody out of that bulltime. And maybe one last question, speaking of all hands on deck, how is your new job going? Given you're busy and everybody on your staff is busy, It's been really interesting. Um, it's been a great challenge, um to be sure, and I
would say this I have gained. I respected Ryan Finley a lot before. I respect him even more now that he handled this job with such um, such grace. UM he like, you know, he kind of protected us. I would say from like the business side of things that you know, us as journalist don't really like to get involved in. UM. You know, it's it's a volatile time for this business. It can be really hard
at times. Goes to that it's been it's been kind of ENLiGHT na um, but you know it's been a it's been a challenge and um, you know what'll kind of few where things had from here? Super well, good job. We'll see what happens to night and we'll see you soon. Yes, stay loose in case they need you out of the bullpen tonight. I think I've called myself out of the bullpen, So get analogy. I like not Thank guy, all right, Mike, thank you cool. That was
good. That was very cool. Michael levedarshen Daily start speaking out. I mean, he's acting sports and he's he's I think he's a sports He the guy. Now they don't have anybody else. All right, let's take our break. We're gonna come back. We'll have uh time to call. We'll finish off the basketball right well, the phone lines will be open and we'll start talking about legacies of Arizona basketball coach. Yeah, they've only been a couple so yeah for that that minute. So but well we'll get into that
that That was a fun conversation, very fun. I promptu conversation. Be right back. If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you know it's been successful. For newly forty years now take a look back at the Ludolson 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 Loot 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. Hey, Walcat Nation, Jake Fisher here, I gotta tell
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a Team security dot net. Steve Rivera and Jaken Salez they have their eye on the ball on two Sons Sports Stage yet Fox Sports fourteen fifty streaming live. I mean I heart radio. Arm Hey, welcome back to trying about here on Fox Sportsport teen Cookie on Steve, He's Jay. We have about thirteen minutes if you guys give us a call. Good talk about baseball from now in the heat of it, Michael lev One, let's continue our little kind of talk about to right legacies. Legacies. We talked about football.
Now let's go to men's basketball. Okay. Of course Loot was here when I got here, and he was here when you were here. Obviously his legacy where do you start, right, I mean, he put as one on the map. Yeah, he proficial on the map. Not only you know Arizona basketball. He put her a whole town, that's true. And and I've said that a bunch that two sons a very different place if what
happened when there's on a basketball doesn't happen. Okay, So let me say this because if let's say, Bobby Ell, it's listening, and I won't distribute with Bob that Fred Snowdon had a lot to do with it too. He probably put the dot on the He put the dot where two sons and Luton made it bigger, right, And and the fact of the matter is
Fred left, Well, you know, he got fired. I mean, you know so, but no, no doubt that that And it's been said a million times and Bob says it all the time, is that Lute came here because Fred was here. If there's no Fred Snowden, there's no right he saw that it was possible agree with that, you know, And and Fred left his own legacy of of that, of that this can be a
place for basketball, right, that was Fred's legacy. He brought an exciting brand of basketball that was unusual, unheard of situation to the board, an African American being an American coach, and brought all these guys. He brought all these guys from Detroit and pieces like that that you don't those guys don't come to Tucson, Arizona. So so Fred Snowden started that, he created, He created a legacy buzz that then made a guy like lud Olson come
here. And then Luke built on that. So Luke didn't start this. Let's say that. I was like, he didn't start it, but he took what was here and he built this place into something that nobody could even imagined. Yeah, who got a call let's take this hire on the air and I on the ball. Hey, you guys, this is a gabriel Um calling from California. The one topic I'm gonna talk you guys about, I think, but the last time I called to you guys this week,
Steve has something to talk to me about. Yeah, I can't remember, umm about about Tommy Lloyd. I wasn't sure where you stood on the fence when he was not doing when people were criticizing him. Of where all the players. I don't know about about his coaching. I don't think he's going to be the guy, and then all of a sudden he's come. He's come on full board with a lot of good players. I can't recall if you were one of the guys that were given him grief. Um. So
with with his roster, I'm pretty happy. I'm pretty happy. I'm pretty happy about with his rosher. But I was just kind of concerned that um that that I was kind of curscerner about they worth but taking more time than they need to with UM, okay, with taking players, but but I'm pretty happy so far. So they just gotta go into the summer and start practicing, right, So yeah, yeah, That was my concern because there's been a Gabriel. You're not alone. A lot of you guys are out
there saying what's going on? What's going on? Howcome? And it's not happening soon enough? But we were saying in time, it was going to happen, right absolutely. That's where y'all thought they needed more time. And he, I mean he's still he was last year, he was still two months away from black roster. But from where he is now, so plenty of time. So the topic I wanted to discuss with YouTube guys is so
is I was late. I was listening to Jason Sheer Sheer and he and his wife we're talking about um. They did a football pot one and pot two about how their listeners are submitting questions about about Arizona football. And one the questions is one of the people that says, are you concern about Jetfish possibly going going to another job or bringing being offered some money that Arizona cannot
but let me but I want to give you my thoughts. So if jet Fish Chuck starts winning of around eight games or seven, I think I hope I'm not gonna I'm not gonna guess or I'm not gonna. I just hope that day he has some has a lot of money stored in the stays for Jetticas, just just to persuade him, Hey, please stay here. We
love you, keep working your ass off, we support you. But the noticing stay of Florida because when he was like a teenage year old, when he was kind of like my age, he was basically working at Florida for yourself. If that happen, I think wishing the best of luck and we I think we need to find a coach that will take Arizonas in the next level, like winning around nine to twelve games, are possibly going to the college football Playoff. And I think and I have three kinda days. One
I know personally so on on the Arizona football coaching staff. I think Brendan Carol Pete Carroll's son is a good choice. UM. The one coach I know personally is Ryan Grove. UM. Ryan Groves is a Washington, Washington offensive coordinator and I know him because Um, I was an equipment manager at Fradle's day when when he when from twenty eighteen to twenty twenty one. And UM, I think the third the third candidate is. I can't remember his
name, but I think he's a defensive coordinator at Utah. But we kind of need a coach that's kind of like Kyle Whittingham and just basically stays yeah yeah, days that one program and not just starts to jump. Well we'll go. You wanna go? Who you want me to go? You know, I'm just gonna say, we need to pump the brakes. Yeah, yes, Gabriel, thank you for the name. Appreciated game. But let's get to one bridge before we cross that, and then get to the next
bridge before you cross that. The very thoughtful Gabriel, We do appreciate that. Yeah, thanks, thank you very much, Thanks for thanks for listening. Yeah yeah, alright, let's get the six wins first, exactly, just real quick. I'm gonna say, when you're you're an Arizona, the next step is a you know, a prominent program a Florida, uh, you know, something like that. Jetfish doesn't just doesn't have the background to be the next coach at one of those places. I'm im he's got to
win a lot more than two or three years there. Right, we gotta do that first. So we gotta see that first, Okay, okay, real quick, we got Oh gosh, how you're on the Arona on the ball? Hey Jay, this is done? How are you doing done? How are you? I'm done? All right, that's um. It was a little bit trying to turn that thing down. Go ahead, it's down. I think you're there. I'm here. Okay, all right, we
can hear you. Okay, okay. Um. Now that we're into the Pac twelve the baseball tournament, yesterday seemed like a down day because Arizona didn't play. And it's weird because we're in you know, I mean, we're in tournament season. We're used to the girls being playing all the time. So but I think Arizona tonight, I think Arizona's got a good a good shot because we had that day's rest, so our pitching got to rest a
little bit. Our pitching didn't get overly overly stretched out to get to hear And whereas Stanford, they're not really playing for anything because they're not going to lose anything by losing. If they lose tonight, you know what are they going to be. They're gonna be the number number three national seed and and they're gonna host the regional and if they win that the Superregional, so they don't lose anything, right, I'm running this down right now, done,
done over evaluate someone? Well, no, because it's because I've been watching them all year. Yeah, I mean the pitching has been Is it driven you crazy? Is it driven you crazy? It really has because the guys that were supposed that that were that were good last year, Nichols and the Closer. You know, you expect the natural progression for them to you know, be a little bit better, and you know, who knows what what has happened and to both of those guys, but you know, we have
the offense that can keep us in games. Um My son texted me the other day when we were up twelve eight on August eight. He goes, it's too soon for the big lead. When it was twelve eight, I said, twelve's not enough, it's not enough. And it wasn't and it wasn't and yeah, and I was it was. It was a heck of a time. Yeah. But I do have I do have a tournament memory
I'd like to share because I think it's a really funny story. Back in nineteen eighty, the Houston Astros had a day off and they came to play the Tucson Toros and that was that was a team in nineteen eighty had Joe Morgan, Nolan, Ryan Jr. Richard was on that team and those guys. That same evening, Arizona was playing Gonzaga for if they beat Gonzaga,
they're going to Omaha. This was the eighty team. So somewhere around the fifth, sixth inning, Joe Morgan hits a baseball to the second baseman who throws him out at the same moment that everybody in the stands had the radio. We're listening to seven ninety K and his tea. At the time, Arizona gets a last out, they beat Gonzaga, They're going to Omaha High. Corbett Field goals crazy, and Joe Morgan's looking up in the stands like, what in the heck did I do to these people? That's too funny,
that's too funny because everybody around us. And then like an evening later, the PA announcer announces that Arizona had won and was going to omahas but that Arizona had beat Gonzaga right at that time, and Joe Morgan, who's you know, everybody liked him as a player, and all of a sudden he grounds out to the second basement meaningless out and everybody's too fun. That's too fun. That's a great memory. Don appreciate it. Thank you for calling him. Hey, we got we gotta get out of here. We
got top of the hour. So hey Don, thanks for the memory, Thanks for the call. Have a good weekend, Don don call. I have I have a vague recollection of that. I'm sure I wasn't at the game, but I remember hearing that that team, that team won the College World Series Terry Francona and that that group, well, that was a very good team. All right, let's let's take a breakwad to come back to the legacy thing on basketball, but we're not breaking news at the top of
the hour. And then in the then we're gonna have Jake Fisher. He'll come in. We'll talk about whatever's on Jake's mind. Always something good, so we'll grab back