This is Eye on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez sound Fox Sports fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services. I'm sure your most prized possessions, Katz are two sag at iHeartRadio station yet.
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Good afternoon, everybody, Welcome to Eye on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. Nobody's guesting with me today, but I have my guy Juan with me today, so you're my new guest.
One.
Glad to be here Another Friday, Another Friday.
Yes, yes, yes, you got control of the board, so we're in trusting to you.
Uh what the Friday? You're gonna be busy tomorrownight. Yes, they're gonna be watching that showdown between the youth and the cats.
You think they have you think? Hold on, I'm talking into something. Do you think Utah thinks since a showdown? I would think so.
I don't think they go into any game thinking like it's gonna be okazy one.
I think that's just their who they are. Yes, their program right.
No, you surely don't want to look at Arizona as a show now because of what happened last year. But I know the internet has been buzzied all over, back and forth with the guys on Twitter and blah blah blah and the fans.
Okay, stir the beast, then man, poke the bear. Do what you want.
But it's strange if it's true and I didn't check it out, I guess the spread went up to eleven and a half twelve and it's back down to tennish.
Really, I don't, did you. I haven't been keeping tracking. I had a friend tell me that it had been going back.
And forth, back and forth. It went down to maybe tenny. I haven't checked, which is kind of strange. That means that Vegas knows something that's going on either here or there. Uh, and who knows what's happening here?
Right?
They keep things kind of tight. We don't get to see them very often, not that I go anyway anymore to go talk to the football team. So we'll see, I mean, because that two point swing is a lot.
Yeah, yeah, So we'll see what happens.
If anybody wants to call us, I'll tell you who the people are in the second five two, four, one, six, seventy four forty.
You can call us anytime.
Obviously, that well, not any Yeah, anytime, we even have guests, so you can ask questions of the guests. And today's guests are Jim liven Goood, former you of a AD a long time obviously, many years ago, twenty years ago or so, and then he was also the AD at un l V after Arizona, and there's a lot of things going on at UNLV.
Obviously. We talked about this the last couple.
Of days with the kid leaving three or four games in and actually and expecting more more money for this year. So we'll get his reaction to all that and just how the world of sports has changed, because I know another guy is his teammate, did the same thing, not so much about the money. And a guy Washington who's playing for for Jed I said, I'm out, yeah today, Yeah, he's guess where he was from. Guess where you transfer from. Yeah, who knows? You might come here be nice anyone. So
and you need those type of players anyway. So there's that, and I'm sure it's going to continue to happen as we move forward. Okay, and then in the second hour
we have our usual guests, Jake Fisher. We haven't talked to him in a couple of weeks, we'll talk to him about the football team, his reaction to the loss, and what's going on in the world of n I l If you remember, Jake was one of the not first he's not the Ed O'Bannon guy, but he's one of the guys here under Rich Rod that helped kind of continue the nil pay for play type of situation back in the day. We've talked to him a number
of times. Sometimes he gets uncomfortable. We'll see what he's thinking now that the kids are arguing, hey, pay me or I'm out type of thing, threatening, type of you know, it depends who you believe on that story.
Who do you believe?
I mean, you have to think it's the player that he didn't get paid to what was promised.
I don't know. I don't know.
I also hear you know he got he got there. Uh is getting three thousand dollars a month, which is fine. I think everybody's getting that. Uh they go three and oh and now who has the advantage play the player?
And if you want me to stay, we can stay. I'll stay.
Did you see I'm not sure you have this sort of breaking news, But in Vegas, one of the casinos was gonna pay him one hundred thousand dollars.
Really, I think I did see that.
Yeah, casino is gonna pay him to stay and play. By that time, the damage had already been done with both the un l V and the kid. So and you know, he said, now we're not gonna do that. That that gives that's paying the hostage, you know, paying for the hostage. Uh, And there's no true winner. You get the body back, but then things are already damaged.
Yeah, just sets a precedent, right for any anyone else to go and do that. Sure, that's sure. I don't I don't think that's what college sports would be about. I think they of course they're players, they work hard, they should be earning this money. But how they go about it? Yeah, right, there's a way. Yeah.
Do you do you think having been a you're a student now there should there be a threshold? Should there be a limit to what they get?
Or you get what you get? I think you get what you get.
I think they should be happy with the fact that they're just getting stuff right in the first place.
Right, But obviously one hundred thousand enough, there's life outside of college football.
Sure, you got stuff to worry and think about and work for, So there might be something behind it all. For him, it might just be I need my money uh away for school. To look at him and say pick me, pick me?
Yeah? Yeah, did you write anything about two this weekend's game? The preview? Yeah? What about the defense?
We talked to Akina yesterday Johnson, Yeah.
So what were the time of questions? What type of questions were asked of? He's and he's pretty good with stuff like that, even if you're getting tough with him.
I don't know if anybody's got tough with them.
But now he's he recognizes that the play hasn't been absolutely stellar, but the reality is they are two and one. They won quote unquote the first quarter of their season, right, I get that, And I liked this quote, and it's been out there. He talked about how last year this team loses to USC, they lose to Washington and the city's excited, but now they're going to lose to Kansas State and the world's ending.
And isn't that true? Yeah? And that's how this place is. I think that's how any place is, especially when you have these high expectations. I saw something yesterday or this morning talking about the expectations have been lowered. Intend did someone say that a quote yesterday for football?
For football? No, No, it's been raised. No, No, this year it's been raised. What do you mean? Yeah, I think I think the expectations have been raised.
You know, you bring back a majority of last year's team and they went ten and three.
They I think there's a.
Lot of there's been a lot of overreaction to the Kansas State game, in my opinion, by the fans.
Yes fans, okay.
But I saw something maybe it was a goay see quoting somebody about the expectations.
I know Kena talked about it, and what did he say.
He said that those standards and the the expectations have risen because of last year, because of the hard work that they did. Rightfully, so, but you know, Kansas State's a good team. They're a good team. I think I think it wouldn't have been such an overreaction if we had had been a little closer score, if we had taken it to the fourth quarter. But it is what it is, and now we gotta go to Salt Lake tomorrow. Right, did I hear we?
Yes?
Unfortunately, I heard that too. As soon as I said it, I reckon.
I get it.
You don't have to hook with me because you are a student. But that when you're writing, right, that when you're writing, I get that. So there's that. No, that's fine. I think they have changed, though I don't know. I have to find that quote where the expectations have changed because of what's happened.
And I know it's overreaction.
There's no question that was overreaction to that loss, because I'm one of those believers and I brought this thought to here to me for a long, a long time ago. It's how you play that day, and Arizona didn't play that well that day.
Things could change.
Tomorrow and they can play out of their minds and win the game and then guess what, everybody who said it's over, hell with you. And then guess what a week later they could poop the bed again and then here we go again. And it's just the way it is. I see it in basketball. I've seen it in basketball a number of years where they win these big games. I'll tell you last year. Last year, and you're a fan, we didn't know going in how good Arizona basketball was
going to be right. We just didn't know. Caleb had just shown up, Bradley had just shown up. He joined a few of the other guys. There was a few newcomers to the program. And you're thinking, oh, okay, how good, and then what happened and you go and beat Duke at Duke and what happens everything in flights.
Everyone loves Arizona basketball, Arizona exactly.
They're gonna win, They're gonna get back to the Final four, YadA YadA.
And we've seen this. I've seen it.
I've been here thirty seven years, cover the team for twenty five directly, and it happens all the time.
And it's the worst.
The worst thing to me last year was they and pardon me, anybody who's listening, was they beat Duke. Because now you have to you start thinking, oh, these guys are unbeatable, unbelievable, and that's not true because it's what November eighth, I think it was November eighth, and then you have December, January, February, March, four months of having to stay at that level. Not gonna happen. Luke couldn't do it, Sean couldn't do it. Anybody since it can't do it, won't be able to do it.
Yeah, it just doesn't work that way. And now we're in the.
Big twelve, and now you're in the Big twelve, and it's going to be very, very difficult. It's going to be do games weekly type of games, right right, right right. That schedule looks tough though. Good luck to them, yeah, yeah, yeah, And they're no shame in losing, no shame in losing.
We talked about this yesterday.
I had Bruce Pascal on and I thought he made a good observation in the morning again with me on the show, that it's going to be great to be in this league. The final four weekends are going to be brutal right, they're gonna be on the road, and they could be finishing third, fourth, fifth in the league and teams like that, and you're thinking, Okay, they're in the Big twelve, they're in the Big twelve. They have maybe a better chance of winning the NCAA tournament because
they are in the Big twelve. I don't think. And Bruce pointed out that if you go to history, that doesn't always work. The guys, the teams that finished the third, fourth and fifth are third, fourth, and fifth place finishers. Just because you get beat up in the Big twelve doesn't make you that much better to go play. In fact, they might be tiring you out. So you look at
one way, you look at the other. We won't know until we know, right, and then the march when they get beat or if they get beat you think maybe that league is a little too tough, or because you get beat up and if people get.
Hurt, then you're thinking.
But then you're coming off of a Pack twelve season where you go, let's say twenty six and five or whatever, and you're thinking the Gonzaga approach. You're thinking, maybe we didn't play tough enough teams to get ready for the tournament. So you look at it one way, look at the other.
There's really no right answer, right, you know Vegas when they went and they won, and then a year later they didn't play very many teams or they were undefeated and they get beat by Duke the year later after they beat Duke, well they should have on that day, Duke was better the previous year.
On that day, un l V was better.
Exactly what And there might be a similar conversation this year. Last year, Arizona was better this year, sure, of course, of course, and we'll get to that. I'm just I'm thrilled for the fans that have waited a long time to see and pay for.
A great home schedule.
Yeah, because that's what this is going to be, minus minus the Kansas game.
Yeah, you know.
And there's no reason for mchil not to have an emptyc.
Right, there's no right to this year. Yeah. Yeah, and you've seen it.
You've seen you Your first year was was one Tommy's first year.
But did you go to games when Sean was there? No, went to a couple.
But his last few years were like that where it was, you know, twelve thousand, blah blah blah. They may have said it was sold out. Okay, maybe they were sold out, but the people weren't in there. No. Yeah, and because they weren't that good. They weren't that good. And Tucson loves a winner.
Yeah, you have to. You have to look good too.
You can can win all you want, but if it's a all right, that team just wasn't that good type of win, right, No one necessarily wants to see They want to see high flying entertainment. Yeah, big wins, big threes, all over the place, big donks stuff like that.
Sure they want to win, but they also want to be entertained exactly. Yeah, So we'll see what happens with that. I think the women are getting have gotten to that point too, now that they've got a nice fan base.
And did you cover.
Anything like that previously previously with women's basketball.
I haven't been able to cover it so far, but I've followed it, and I think the teams is team yours team is going to be interesting because because they bring back a lot of experience, in my opinion, a lot of young experience, if that makes sense.
Yeah, and.
That's what talked about earlier this week. They brought back a corps. They went to the tournament last year. They got that experience. So I think even though they're in the Big twelve, they should be front team to watch.
Right, no questions.
And then she has some probably experience on how to handle the team better. Yeah, whether she does or what, we'll see. Okay, Hey, let's take the break here and come back and reach out to jim Lymongoode and come back and talk about what in the world is going on with college athletics.
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Streaming live I Mean iHeartRadio WAPP. This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
Hey, welcome back to eying the ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Riverta. Now on the phone. We have former you of aa D GYM Live and good Jim. How the heck are you?
Steve? I'm great. Hopefully you and Jay are doing great too. I know you are.
Yeah, we're doing fine. But let me break some news to you here. Jay is no longer my full time partner, so he's not in with me today.
You know what I heard that or read dad or saw that somewhere. Steve, this man alive.
He had to he and nothing. He's gonna be my guest when we go to the casino. But you know, in this big world of money, he had to go get like a real job.
Oh, Steve. Terrible when people have to get real jo it.
Sucks, Jim, you know how that goes. You know, Hey, I'm going to audition you for a co host. Come on, come up north, Hey, Steve Rivera, anytime that'd be.
That's fantastic. We could go back and forth.
You know, you remember when Jim you didn't want to talk to me aunt quote you remember Steve, you treated me even fairly. We can go back like you're you're the you're the best I love it and that and I think the world of you.
You know that.
Well, thank you, Jim. I appreciate the last time we let me see this. Every time we talk to you, Okay, we say goodbye, Jim, be well, we know you're enjoying your your your your you're not your vacation, but your retirement. Things get more katawampy. They're all messed up.
Now.
We have a kid in Vegas, your old stomping grounds.
Leaving because the money wasn't paid, you.
Know, Steve, It's it's just absolutely crazy. And I mentioned earlier briefly that you know, we're up in Phoenix right now with Linda's sister and her husband. But the thing in in Las Vegas, the thing with the rebels is crazy. And I just you know, everybody's got an opinion, and I've seen all kinds of comments, you know, on one side of the other side, and in terms of contractual agreements that weren't met, or at least verbal agreements that
weren't met. But man, three games into the season, I seem but I just wonder if this isn't kind of the opening of the damn with the NIF situation.
You know, darn well it is because because it's just crazy. And let me ask you, and I don't know if you know the answer to this. And I've said this after Arizona lost to Kansas State. So Jim liven Goood gets this nil deal with whomever, whether it's the school or mister businessman in Tucson. He gets this fifty thousand dollars. Okay, you know I'm gonna I want you to come and play for Arizona. You're here for Arizona. I want to keep you here. When do you get paid?
One?
And Two, If Jim liven Good gets paid the first week of the season, what in the world do we expect from him if he's already been paid?
Steve the crazy thing about that, And as I understand it, and having a visit with a lot of people, not just in Tucson, but certainly regionally and nationally, the payment schedule typically with many places, most places is on a quarterly basis, but some places will pay on a week And my understanding in terms of the young man in Vegas was paid and was kind of a situation where they were paying his boopeting expenses and then we're gonna pay X amount month, But Steve, that is a great
question because how often that's paid and what kind of of the payment structure I guess we're talking about that becomes really important. And the whole thing. I mean, that's where the contracts come in and the collective. This thing
just needs to be regulated much more. What just scares me more than anything else is think about payments that are made and somebody gets hurt, somebody claims like this situation right now that you know I was promises, well purportedly, I was promised by somebody, but the person that promised
didn't have the authority to do that. There are so many loopholes in this, you know, this is one of those things that Steves you and I've talked about a thousand things over the years, but this is one of those things that I'm not sure how it's ever going to be solved unless there's some sort of written financial agreement that's honored. You know, certainly goes through attorneys in some way, but it's really getting scary in terms of
what's happening. Who knows what really happened in that case, and who knows what a lot of places of you know, agreements or things being honored gosh.
Let me ask you.
This is a hypothetical, but I know you'll be direct and honest with me. Nineteen twenty seven. I'm just throwing a number out here. Nineteen seventy seven, young Jim leven Goood is out working, and I don't know where you were. I'm just throwing a number out there. Could be in nineteen eighty ye you may have been in Washington State
by this time or whatever. Would you have changed your your career process or your career path had this been going on at the time, because I was I don't want to say, this's too much where an AD has this idea of being an ad and then they have to deal with this now.
Steve, it's amazingly appropriate and how timely that you asked something like that in nineteen seventy seven. I know that's just a date, but I was the athletic director and football basketball coach, taught no classes at Afreid to high school and Afreida in the state of Washington. And the direct answer to that, I never had a dream of
being in college athletics. And so quite candidly, if it's this day and age that happened back and then yeah, I think she thinks seriously about whether that that was a would be a good move getting into college athletics, because there are so many things that are not controllable.
And the nice thing of my dream, My dream was to and you won't ring a bell at all in terms of geography with you, but my dream was to the athletic director at Winanchi High School, a great high school in the state of Washington, phenomenal city on the Columbia River. Blah blah blah. But what's happening in terms
of fast forward? I don't know how anybody And think about it, with coaches, with administration, ads, with presidents, with regents, nobody knows what the final thing because like anything else, Steve, anybody can can say they're speaking for you. And in somebody situations where kids now are in the portal or
kids are transferring, who knows. I mean, whatever sounds best seems to be best, and whatever sounds best, whatever purportedly has agreed to, who knows what's going to come up a day later, seventy two hours later with a better offer. So I just don't I feel so bad for people. I feel bad for coaches, feel bad for athletic administrators of where what do you know is real? What do you know is true for kids? Parents? In this case? Right now? You know, parents get involved, agents get involved,
representatives get involved. So who knows what the thing is. But it's very time me that you would ask. Nineteen seventy seven, I can remember like it, Well, I I that seemed like a great job.
Yeah, no, no, and just and then a comfortable job, right. You know, I hate you're probably thinking I could retire doing this, you know.
Absolutely, and maybe maybe I'll get a watch out of it, or or even if I don't even get a watch, I'm doing it because I know that my family would be safe, and friends and so on. Yeah, and I just think I've got so many colleagues now that they have kids, their own kids who are in the profession and the business, and they just shake their head about you know, this is today, Okay, what's going to happen is the twenty seventh of September. What's going to happen tomorrow?
Right?
Or next week or next month?
Well, I remember this distinctly.
You got here at about ninety three, I think it was ninety three. You had just moved from Washington State and a little before you left or a little after you left. I think it was after you left. There were a couple of football players. They were messing with bombs in mailboxes. I think one had lost his arm or something, and I'm thinking, well, this is what you.
Had to deal with.
And then maybe a little after that, maybe a year or two, other things that happened, and you got to work eighties, have to worry about five hundred and fifty athletes. You know, sleep, go to sleep at night, hope nothing goes wrong, because you wake up to news that something happened. And those were the sadly to say, not that the were the good ole dais. Those are the times where you know, those are the things you worry about. Now you have to worry about that plus the money.
See Rivera, you have an amazing memory. That is exactly and the irony of that. On Monday of this week, four days ago, Kelvin Samson and I were just talking about that, talking about those in because Kevin and I were together. That's the full time at Washington State and those kind of things, and that you're exactly right with. It was kind of a prank. Kids were playing around with it and it went awry and and you're exactly
right with the explosive device that went off. But now there are so many more things to think about, and and the number of things and the the the reaction, and how many things now will go go forward in terms of this event because there they're not we don't hear about things and other schools, but the UNLV thing, it's I don't know, I don't know how you plug it up right. I feel bad. Harp's doing a phenomenal job. Eric Harper is at the un being and Barry Odom
is a fabulous hire and doing a great job. But think about this. They're going to play President of State tomorrow's three. You know, they've got a chance to They already have a great football team, but they have a chance to have a fabulous season. And now they've got two players who have not played a whole lot who they're trying to get ready to play tomorrow. Oh my guysh see, I think it's going to get even scarier
than it is right now because of the kind of thing. Somebody, people with very great with great intelligence, somebody will get their arms around the NIL thing, and they'll get their arms around the portal in that and figure out some way to be able to control that, because it's not about trying to limit student athletes making money in the NL. It's not about that at all. It's somebody told me here last week they were shot. It's student athletes had
to pay taxes on that money. They were absolutely and you know, but there are a lot of things. I mean this, See your career has been so long. Has some of these things have to shock you? Oh?
They do?
They do? They disappoint me. Jim.
I was on the phone with UH with guests Matt Moneno and Troy Hutchinson, and we were talking about this maybe a month or six weeks ago, and they were telling me, watch, this is gonna happen. And I'm thinking, what you're telling me that they're gonna they're not gonna show up or they're getting promised money and they're not getting paid. And I'm saying, that's not gonna happen. And guess what happened.
Well, it's happened, and the thing is going forward. Take I've always said that one of the things that's going to be really drawing more attention to this than anything else is during when we get in their tournament time or in their playoffs, right football, and a student athlete or a group of staff student athletes will say, you know what, we're not gonna play. We can make we're we're hearing that we're getting the short end of the stick on n money. We're not gonna play, and it's
gonna be something like that. I didn't ever thought that was real before, but that's real.
Right, that happened. Let me let me ask you. You've been in town.
You've been in town and then a number of jobs in your capacity through the you know, thirty forty years now, and you've been in Tucson, and I'm sure I want because I want your places where you've been. Arizona goes too and Oho and then they have a kind of a clunker of a game, that kind of a clunker of a game, and you know, the fans in this town, you you witness them, you witched them. In other places, they lose and they kind of jump ship, right, they
jump off the bandwagon. In Vegas were they like this at Washington State were like this is this universal?
And I'm asking a naive question because I know the answer.
Steve, I really think it's universal. And you know, as well as anybody. I mean, Walkcat fans are so into the university and so into the Cats. But I really think it's it's universal, and it's more of a disappointment. And and the fact, I'll tell you what the the ad right now having to do with uh uh uh doctor Pepper on the on the hype train, that that is so realistic, that hype train lever can be thrown, that switch so fast and all of a sudden, everything
through an injury or through a bad game. You know, I tell my grandkids all the time because of their interest in tennis and in volleyball and track bearing, you know everything in Steve, you know this that that's yesterday. Okay, that that tennis shot or that golf shot. There's nothing you can do about yesterday. That's exactly the same way
with with our wildcasts in football. There's nothing that we can possibly do of the Kansas State game in Manhattan, but we sure can about the Utah game tomorrow in Salt Lake City. And I know that sounds like it's over simplifying it, but I think sometimes we need to think about your your direct question in terms of our fans. Ever are I think that's just it's more so now than it used to be. The expectation level is so
much higher kind of everywhere. I mean, whether it's Arizona right now or Washington State's going through they've got a big game and you know they're off to a great start, but the expectations every it's the sky is falling in when either a bad play or a bad loss or a bad you know, in the elk column and the loss column. And I don't know if we're going to change that, in fact, if anything else. And that's in
the coaching profession, that's in the administration profession. See, but things are happened so fast that I didn't have to deal with a lot of that, but I had to deal with some of that. Yeah, because expectations and coach is and it's just what it is. I think it's more of a societal thing than it's about than it is about athletics or wins and losses. We just have a hard time accepting. And you and I have talked to you directly about this team. It's amazing how many
times we don't if we lose. It's not the fact that the other team might have it might have them be better, but it's the fact that we and you know what everybody goes through. There's gonna be those days regardless of how good you are. But isn't that true a little bit? No question in fact that we talk about we don't talk about this. The other team might have just been not been their day.
So we were just talking about this.
Let me remind you that.
Let me remind you one or a couple of things. So in ninety seven, Arizona goes on this fantastic run, right, they win the NC doua A title. Who would have thought it? They got it with a bunch of classmen. They go back and you're thinking, okay, ninety eight, we could be the first to repeat in a while. You were you and you were the NC double A committee
I think at the time, maybe yeah. And then you have this high of highs and then then they lose to Utah and then you have a low of lows because they had every chance to win win the next title. And it's funny, and I don't know if this applied to that, but I knew you were getting calls and you were getting you know, everybody upset or whatever. But this is kind of pre internet too, so and you were probably getting calls like two in the morning. The
quality of calls were probably not that great. But you know, imagine had this been in the age of the internet.
Well, Stephen, Linda always said, you know, I thought we had a private number, and you know that that and that was back and then, but those kind of things no emails and right then but not nearly social media. Say, but we were at dinner last week and talking with people about ninety seven what people sometimes forget, and you were there, so you remember verbatim. See, remember we lost to cal Stamford the last second of the season. Yes,
we were a big five seat going in. We we were we were down to South Alabama, we down with about three and a half minutes to go to uh Eric to Eric's dad, And I mean, that could have been Now it sank. Goodness it didn't because it was such a spectacular end of season, but that easily could have been one and done easily. The style of ball, the salad basketball that he played during that time, they were kid, yes, and and so it's just it's the whole thing and now it's it's morphed into the kinds
of things. The expectations level. I remember when when we first came that ninety three and so the ninety four season, uh, you know, obviously going to the Final four. I remember how nervous Loot was until we won that first game in Sacramento because some spells, whether it decentate Santa Clara, but it was night and day after winning that first game, so that there was no chance to be one and done. And Steve, I think that's the thing that's scary right now.
I hope we can get her and I mean, do you mean we all of us get our census about it and know, you know what, as good as teams are, whether it's football, basketball or anything, there are gonna be days when somebody else just has your number and things happen.
It's how you play day, Jim, how you play that day.
It's how you play that day. And absolutely so there's so many factors in it. Steve, You've seen all of this, You've written about all of this, You've seen all of this, so you know, but this is so different in twenty twenty four. And now we've got to at a great football sitt This is a really good football team that Bred has right, really good and so and tomorrow a lot of people will peg it on. If we can't beat the youths, well we certainly can, but it's going
to take a really good effort. And you know who knows.
Right, right, Jim, always good to talk to you. I love talking to you. We'll bring up the good old days.
And next call at a time, Steve, thank you, have a great night and a great weekend.
Always deployed you too.
Thank you those Jim liven good from you of a ad a longtime friend. So let's take a break. We already probably over right. Yeah, you're not in your head, so let's go and come back. You're an Arizona men's basketball fan. You know it's been successful for nearly forty years.
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Com Steve Bravera and Jakin. They have their eye on the ball on Tucson Sports Stage yet Fox Sports fourteen fifty streaming live. I mean I heard radio apps.
Hey, welcome back to Iron the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera in with me today, Juan, thank you one running the board. A good talk to Jim talking about the good old days and the stuff that they're going through right now. Every ad probably shivering in their boots hoping that nothing bad happens. But back in the day and you're a student, you know, well you're being a school president.
Obviously he's got a lot more issues.
But like the shooting that happened at this Yeah, come on, how worse does it get for the school? And then it looks bad, It looks horribly bad, especially the situation, and then you have a team. It was what seven years ago yesterday, yesterday, seven to years ago, two days ago the FBI probe hit u of A. I think it was seven years so yesterday, crazy crazy times, right, You're thinking, no, it's not possible, and well it was possible.
It took forever to get solved, you know, four or five years later, but here we are, here we are and then now this uh, now this with with with not the university being in trouble obviously, but just college basketball really kind of screwy.
Yeah, both being a president of the university and an athletic director, they come with a lot of challenge. You don't necessarily get a life outside of that job.
You get to obviously, you get to go home at night, but still, it's twenty four.
We got to be ready, it's twenty fourthever like we we think earlier this summer, we had a guess I think she was a former or she think she might be the head guests where in school in a class on the show. Okay, I can't remember who it was, but she talked about how athletes they're they're a full time job.
They it was a psychologists, maybe the psychologist.
Okay, So she talked about how she can get a clock two in the morning and she has to stop a player from oh you yossibly doing something. Yeah, and it's not that and you have five hundreds exactly now, now double that trouble that for university president. Oh yeah, he's not necessarily going into those specifics, but he has to worry about that sure.
Sure, let me ask you something. So I asked kind of this indirectly to Jim. If you're a young guy and you want to go into academics or administration in athletics, would you now given them what you see? Yes, there's a price and you get a lot of money if you're good at what you do. But it's a lot of bs going on.
And we're talking about college athletics.
Yeah, I wouldn't because for the reasons, just because of right now, everything's so new, everything's changing, right, maybe once they get a settled, once it gets settled.
Once there's a plan and kind of there's history behind everything that's been happening.
So tell me you think that it's going to get settled and it's going to be above board eventually.
Yeah, it was. It was not settled before. It was never really above board. It never really yeah, never really.
We can get the closest to it as possible, but it's never going there's always gonna have to be an issue with it. There's always gonna be someone complaining, and you got to get to that point where it's the closest it can.
But that's when I joined, well, look at what we have now, and I think I've said this before, maybe even this week where JT and and Bramlett or suing the university. I think it is for somebody because of the name image like this from the tournament. Really well, now, I think you may have been the one from last week or this week where Reggie Bush is suing the university for back pay or whatever he had in name image like this, And this is twenty five years ago.
When does it stop? When does it stop? It doesn't right now? And how many that's just Reggie Bush. That's just a couple of guys. What about the rest of them?
Yeah, there's more out there that.
Not to discredit anything for Reggie Bush or d T or Bramily, there's other guys that have done I've been more successful, I have a lot more meaning to a university.
Yeah, that could go and do that, right right.
Bless my parents' hearts, they were not wealthy. Their middle class even they to their pockets ran dry. And I'm kind of using that analogy to Arizona or athletic departments. At some point you run dry. Yeah, there's only a certain amount of money. And look what happened here, Arizona's bone dry. Yeah, because now they have to refurbish the money or replenish I should say, the money that they don't have and then continue with the money that they're trying to find.
For the future. Exactly. Yeah, not a good not a good time, Not a good time.
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So there's a lot of things going on.
Obviously, you can go to the Del Sol Sports Room where a sports betning room where we will be. We'll have a table there with a lot of cool stuff and just come by and see us. And obviously it's probably the best sports it's not probably it is the best sports book room in town. So yeah, give us a shout out when you go there. I'll be talking about a lot of that stuff here lives as we move forward. Okay, you'll probably be down there. We don't need you guys those days. I don't think thursdays you
won't visure you guys can come and visit. You're twenty one, Yeah, you're twenty one. You won't get thrown out, No, no, of course not. I would never get thrown out of any place. Yeah, because you're t shoes. That's why that's a good thing.
I'm gonna get a shirt that says that I'm gonna come in with that one day. You need a hat and your hat. Get a hat, Get a hat and a shirt.
Yeah, I have my next hat project will be I'm trying to find out where I can get it. So, okay, anybody want to call five two four one sixty yesterday I'm trying to remember what he talked about. Uh yeah, Once I remember, I'll bring it up.
But we got a lot of calls yesterday. Gabe has been calling TJ.
Mister money, Ta Money has been calling, so what would you do? We have you have your, you have your you're breaking news hearing about ten minutes.
Did you guys make predictions for this week for Utah?
Yeah?
I think Did you go with Utah? Yep? Did everybody think so?
Yeah?
I think that's the smart money, even the points.
Yeah, right, Jim and Jim Jim, if you want to call, you can call now.
If you're like.
I think it'll be a better game than the Kansas State game. I thought, I do too, season, I do too. I think that uh not that they've learned their lesson.
But I think that they they realized they're not as good as people think they are.
And I know the cliche is, you know, they.
Started to read their press clippings and they shouldn't have h and but athletes do that and they're not as good as you think they are. But it's it's they're not as bad as you think they're and they're never as good as you think they are. So there's that fine line, especially at Arizona. And you've been following for a long time, you know, you've since ten eight years old.
That's always been the case. Yep, hasn't it been? Yep? I mean, uh, we got a call, okay.
And part of that is when they think too highly of themselves, that's when they really mess up. And when they think they're low, they play out of their minds. Just historically, Hey, welcome to the show.
You're on the air. Hello, you're on the air.
Hi, how you doing Turn.
Jim, turn up that radio. It's all okay, go go.
We got about a couple of minutes, about two minutes, three minutes.
Well, I just wanted to get my two cents in about this week's game. I think it looks like the line has moved a little bit. Do you have any.
Idea what that?
No, we talked about that when you first came on. It went to twelve, I think, and now it's back at like a ten. Would you have a number?
And it was at eight when I looked.
Glass Man, I would have given that in a heartbeat.
Well, I think that would be what I would be looking for.
I think this is a really an even tougher matchup for the Wildcats this week, and it was with can the State. And you know something that needs to be made very clear. Kansas State had a very good football team. So it's not like we went and lost to you know, an alshol Ran. That's a good football team, even though they got hammered thirty eight to nine by BYU.
Right, well, they looked like Arizona against Kansas State. When they played BUYU, they looked like Arizona, like they were just not there.
Yeah.
So the home field advantages playing out for a lot of a lot of teams, and I think that the Wildcats will probably stumble.
Again this week. I did read and listen to.
The coach make his comments about you know what happened and what didn't happen, and he was pretty upfront about all that.
Which coach was that was that?
Brennan?
Oh, Brennan. Okay, so you saw yesterday.
Okay, there's an article on CBS Sports Line I read. So I'll give you the I'll give.
You the ten points.
No I ain't, no, dude, I'm looking for seventeen.
No, no, no, you're.
Not gonna find a sucker in me.
Oh what's that about? That's the line?
Then I guess where I'm doing it.
I'm doing it at the Cocito del Soul. Okay, you can give me seventeen and I'll say yes.
No, we'll talk later.
Oh I see there's a chance. Okay, okay, Jim, thanks.
For coming up.
This looks like this looks like another top tough proposition against the whole other style of lay.
Yeah.
No, you're right. They just got to they got to get better quickly here. Yeah.
Yeah, okay, thanks.
I almost got seventeen.
He was thinking, you'll call me later, Almos, got it almost it. Would you take seventeen? Take your time, it's not a test. I probably would. Yeah, I think so too. I would take seventeen. I wouldn't take fifteen. They just got to get better quickly. I don't know if they have that in them. So you were there for Brennan. Maybe he's the one that said that, maybe expectations.
I wasn't there. Oh you weren't there.
Okay, I have to go through the thing, but there's no question that the expectations have changed. Let's go, Let's take a break in and come back with your breaking news.