Monday, April 28, Hour 1

This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera on Fox Sports fourteen fifth Day, powered by Nova Insurance Services ensure your most prized Possessions.

And everybody.

Welcome to Eye on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera today. I have my fifth rounders, Troy and Ray. No, you guys are first rounders. Hell with that, fifth rounders. You guys didn't slip to the fifth round. No, I think we did it good in our interview process. I don't know you think that's what it was better than some people. Welcome to the show. Referring to something that we'll talk about down the road. A lot of stuff happened. Almost did a bad word.

It's funny.

Yesterday I was out somewhere Troy and someone said to me, do you see what Kurt Bryant did? He says, what do you do? He says, well, he declared for the draft. I said that was kind of a four gun conclusion. We already know that the question is will he come back? Because he has a chance to come back. We already knew he was doing that, right, he did that a week or Sogo or whatever it was.

Yeah, you know, I think Bruce was the one that wrote about it a couple of weeks ago that he was going to go through that process. And in today's college basketball, yeah, and NBA you have to he should, you have to write. Yeah, And it's been the case for a while, especially if you're that guy. Now it's whether they're going to pay him to come back enough just to come back, right, I'm looking at in my estimation, no less than a million.

It had to be more than a million. Yeah, No less than a million. So yeah, more than a million to have him back.

I do think though, if he does come back, this team's going to be fantastic.

If he comes back, there, in my opinion, easily at top ten team one year next year. Yes, I know they were this previous season. They're in natural range. But you look at the roster with him called Pete Burry's having Jayden Bradley back.

On a lot of weapons.

There's a lot of firepower there and there's toughness there that we've seen last year and out translating to this upcoming season ahead of time.

Right, right, what do you just to that point if he comes back, you have what they have? What do you think that the difference this year was that didn't get him over that Sweet sixteen top?

You know, I think they took a long time to figure out what they had exactly. We saw the pieces not really mixing well in mid season. It took them a while to get out of that. But you know, go through the Big twelve, you win the games you're supposed to and upset a couple of teams, and right there with Houston. I don't know if it's anything they didn't wrong this year in terms of the Sweet sixteen. You just ran into Duke, who on any given night

Lost that year.

You kind of how I read that kind of is that they were as good as they were going to get the right into a better team. Right, better team they don't be Duke, maybe not once out of ten times, two out of ten times, right, uh so, you know,

You know what, talent wise.

The talent wise, Yes, because I was gonna say, I think this past season was his best team in terms of what he got out of it, the toughness that he got. Yeah, because I think that that first year team plays last year's team, This past season's team, I don't think they're mentally tough enough to ham in that game.

Yeah.

Wow, I still think that that team had better more talent, better talent for sure.

Yeah.

No, if you want apples to apples, they don't get any better mental or whatever.

No, you're probably right.

Get you get punched in the mouth guy like a walka and he just kind of.

Yeah, pulled over right right.

Yeah.

I think that players with Dylan, with with Henry, with the Chicago Dalan. Yeah, and then you have Matthren obviously and those guys. So yeah, okay, I'll give you that this team.

It was.

It was fun this year, given even the ups and downs.

I'll say this, if they didn't face Duke, Let's say they faced outside of Duke, Florida and Houston, that they faced any of the Sweet sixteen Sweet sixteen teams, they could have won that game.

They could have gone to the league.

Yeah.

But the draw, Yeah, I know, it is what it is.

Yeah, you gotta be one seed higher, you don't, you don't face them or whatever, But it was it was you know, at the end of the day, everyone's happy about the season because how it finished.

Right, and then actually won't have one guy. I need this guy to go off.

Right, right, you have a few guys that could go off at any time. Yeah, yeah, no question. Okay, So we'll worry about that one when it happens. Welcome to Monday Show. I think we have a pretty good show today. We're gonna kind of getcap the the the draft over the weekend when as it pertains to Arizona guys, there's a few of them out there. Right, We're going to have yourself and Michael lov going to be here in about ten fifteen minutes. We'll talk to him about what's

I don't know. That's pretty nuts on Brennan, but it's on the previous Yeah.

I was gonna say that shows what Jedfish was able to build at Arizona. You look at that recruiting class with that Troman Nooman was a part of. Some of them are still in college and they're probably going to make the NFL. You look at the guy like Jonah Coleman over at Washington, cary O Davis, maybe Ephesians, Price Sock. So at the end of the day, that twenty twenty two or twenty twenty three roster that won Alimable, you might be talking about thirteen fifteen guys that are playing in the NFL.

Yeah. Well that's a lot from Arizona.

That's a that's any decade and a three draft span.

Yeah, and that's a two decade kind of thing from Arizona's past.

Yeah.

So yeah, we'll see what happens, but we'll get more. We're into that when when Michael lev comes on the board here and then in the second hour, we're going to talk to one of those guys. I got you checked down, thankfully, Jacarija, Corey Krofsky, Merritt, Jacorey.

I'm sorry, Why did I see Jacory?

Uh? Yeah, So that'll be fun. When new Mexico guy, we'll talk to him. Uh maybe reminiscent about my time there and his time there. But Arizona, he was here for a cup of coffee.

Yeah, and you know what, to his credit, you know, he did play in the one game and then the NCAA eligibility issues happened and occurred and are well noted.

But he's stuck with the team.

A lot of guys usually, you know what, I'll just go work out by myself, use the facilities when I need to.

I'm gonna focus on the draft. He was on the he did the practice squad stuff.

He did.

Hey, I'm gonna pretend to be I don't know, r J. Harvey from Central Florida for you guys, I'm going to pretend to be this guy. He helped the team get better. He didn't have to do that, and I think it paid off for him in the long run, because then you have coaches like Alonzo Carter who know a lot of people, not only on the college level of NFL level, they're gonna have nothing but good thing sit about you.

And I think that plaid off then, you know, and he went to the commander's right commanders. Yeah seven, Yeah, I know, I thought, and I'm telling her this and you probably feel the same way.

He was a difference. He could have won two or three games for Arizona, you know. And that's kind of the bad luck you run into. As for Brennan, you come in struggle with what you have and then this guy comes and then goes ah, man, what could have been.

It was two big blows they took before the second week of the season. They had him, they had him, and then they also had Raymond Palito mysteriously disappear from the team. So you're without your left tackle, you're without your star running back. So instead of maybe a seven win season, you're looking at for and a lot of stuff went wrong and a lot of injuries happened, but you have those guys.

Maybe it's a stabilizing force. Yeah.

Yeah, you can always and you can always think that right or hope that that was the case. I still believe that he could have won a game or two.

He was so good. He was just so good.

It was surprisingly good to me, given he was at New Mexico and did well. Not surprise in the sense that how did you get up in New Mexico? I mean he could have been somewhere else.

Well, I remember before that, and I forget the school's names not coming to my mind right now. He was at another school before he transferred in small, smaller school and then did well with daniganzol Is that in New Mexico?

So you follow recruiting, you fool you?

How many times percentage reds give me where you have this kid smaller school, he levels up and it really works out because because most of the time, that's what this whole transfer portal is. They're hoping that, well, no one noticed me in high school. I was this one star, two star whatever. But I'm better that I'm better, I'm a Scooby, right, No, I go somewhere bigger and I still perform really well there and then now I am who I am.

How many times does that happen? I would say maybe before I had a ten times. When you look across the country, I mean, look at Arizona. They were gonna have that with Jaquori Krossky America. They had it with Jacob Cowing, They had it with other guys on the roster in previously years too. Now, will you hit on all of them? No, they have guys that they've taken that haven't done anything, but well.

This year might be that factor too. We'll go ahead out.

Yeah.

No, they have a couple guys on the user right now that are maybe that forty percentile. But you look across the country and I think the ones that everybody really focuses on are guys like the Jacob County guys like Jaquoriy krossky Merrit. Because it wasn't just Arizona offering them. You're talking about Ole Miss got Jaquary acrossky Merrit to commit. That's an SEC school, Jacob County. I think he had asu USC, He had other schools highly interested in him.

Right, right, No, you don't know, because you will, You're right, and then you turn on to be thisantastic player that no one really paid attention to you for whatever reason. Yeah, okay, so we'll talk to him at the four or fifteen hour. We have Ray here, we can do some breaking news, right, A lot of stuff, A lot of stuff going on, women's basketball weekend, tennis, just got some notes, some information, right, Bafford has I'm gonna only be here today and tomorrow,

Did we go through this week Yeah, journalism pay, Journalism pays, we hope. So this weekend op I.

Need a raise.

There you go, yeah, okay, what time is it? I'm sham we got goeh, like four minutes. Also he was Alabama State.

Alabama, thank you. I was thinking like southern Alabama. I knew that wasn't I thought it was how long do you one year to you? I think two years there, one year at New Mexico. Yeah, for four years, then.

Four years.

Yeah, well he's my age.

But you think that he'd get a get a COVID year.

I mean everybody else was getting one of that.

I think the problem was is, if I remember correctly, they had a game where jerseys and jersey numbers were being switched up, so they didn't know if he was on the field or off the field, and it was hard to track.

And you know, wow, the.

Little things, the little things that screw you, and then the big things. Oh he's another year the Vanderbilt player, he went.

To j C. No problem. Say, if you're at Miami, you could be a tight end for ten years.

So he's like eight years. I think, yeah, I saw that story. Okay, let's just go. We're gonna get Michael lev and come back.

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Streaming live on the iHeartRadio WIP. This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty eight.

Hey, welcome back to wind the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty via. You're sure, let's you say, Ray, We're gonna get ahold of Michael lev here in a second, so be prepared. I'm just trying to get him on the phone now, Okay, Well we'll get him in a second. Uh no, So we'll talk more about how many guys? About five guess because the free agency for drafting, Yeah, drafted and total total five total? Yeah, I just pulled that number out of my butt. Did a good job.

Okay? I saw that? Yeah?

Yeah?

And then one former Wildcat got signed. I forget where he went. Bill Norton signed.

Oh yeah, he was a Texas kid. Yeah yeah, yeah, so he was done there, done there.

I didn't play much, didn't play much at Texas. I think the time at Arizona that's enough tape there to have him sign him.

Yeah.

Okay, cool, Hey, I think we'll get Michael lev on the phone. Michael, are you there? Yes me, Michael Monk. How are you doing on a Monday?

I'm doing well.

Did you? Were you busy working the weekend?

Maybe contemplating your columns for this week in terms of Arizona football signees draft?

E's all that stuff, A little.

Bit of both of the work. The work this weekend was busy work.

I've been doing a lot of you know, little stories on women's basketball editions.

Yea and that sort of thing.

So nothing too deep, okay, but uh, you got got a piece coming out.

On a high school softball player today, and got a piece coming out on Arizona Tennis's Colton Smith.

Later in the week.

Oh yeah, that should be good.

So yeah, the bigger pieces on the way.

Yeah, no, cool.

So let's talk about football specifically. Any surprises outside of uh T Mac?

Well, I don't think t Mac was a surprise.

Frankly, I think a lot of the pre drafts narratives were bs. He was the number one pure wide receiver in this draft all along, and it was actually a great fit at Carolina, so that didn't surprise me. Where Jonah Salva and Iyah went didn't surprise me. It was about the range. I think early two, I think Tyler Loop being drafted and Cory Krossky Marrit being drafted were pleasant surprises.

Just the math was kind of working against them a little bit.

Uh, just not a lot of kickers get drafted, but Baltimore has a unique situation where we have a need, so that made sense.

And then, uh, this was just a really like rich running back draft.

So I wondered if you if the numbers would just kind of work against Jaikory, but his workouts were so good.

And I think it actually benefited him to.

Not play very much this past season because about two hundred fewer hits that he didn't take.

No, that's a fair point. You know, how do you when you look at Tatoro McMillan to the Panthers and just that spot and what they were able to do at the end of last year.

Just you said it's a good fit. But why do you think it's a good fit.

Well, first of all, Hi, Troy, how are you good?

I'm doing good.

This is why it's a good fit.

Carolina doesn't have a true number one receiver, Okay, so let's start with that. Their number one receiver last year was Adam Fewen, and I think he's thirty five at this point and he's contemplating retirement, so he's at the end of his career. He's also someone who has openly stated that he is willing to be a mentor to younger players. Not all professional athletes are like that, so I think it's going to be helpful for Temac to have that type of presence.

So that's one I think. Another is they didn't have that.

Body type in their room, six foot four true outside receiver who can also play in the slot, which he did at times for the Wildcats and actually did.

A lot of damage over the middle this past season.

And I think a third reason that it's a good fit is they have an up and coming quarterback who showed over the last month or so of the season that he's actually good.

We all kind of thought he was going to be a bust the way his career started out.

We're talking about Bryce Young and he really came on late and he bawled out and he pounded the table for Tetoro McMillan. So you're making your young quarterback happy and you're giving him another weapon. And I think the last thing is that it's a relatively small market, so there won't be as much scrutiny and pressure on TMAC as there would have been if say he had on to the Dallas Cowboys at number twelve.

You've you've covered a lot of players over your career, especially at the LA at USC. Where does where does t MA mac fit in terms of quality player? Better among the better players here? And I've said this before the season started that I thought had he had a great before the season started. I didn't know it was good or bad or in different whatever. I thought he had the chance to become the all time best.

Football player here.

Ever, his stats won't show that, but to me, in my eyes what I saw, he's pretty damn good and probably is in the top five regardless of the stats. Can you compare him to somebody at your previous life?

This is a great question because I covered USC and I saw several really good receivers during my time there. I covered Markeith Lee, I covered Robert Woods. I would also throw a Dori Jackson into that mix. He was, you know, similar about as close to Travis Hunter as you would find in terms of being a true, you know, two way player. He mostly played corner and dabbled that receiver. So Jorry Jackson was probably the best athlete I've ever seen.

T Mac is unique because just because.

Of his size, you know, the way you just don't see a lot of six foot four guys move the way that he moves. He's just so fluid and natural, and I think it even threw off the evaluation for some scouts and draft knick types because it's just so effortless for him out there that it doesn't maybe look like he's running as hard as some other guys do, but he's still eating up ground because of his mom stride.

It's funny you say that, because I was struck over the weekend by the criticism that he was getting he's not making cuts or he's not working in the start. And then it struck me like Kalid Reeves, right, a guy who was just a dude who you gave him the ball, you cleared out and let him play. He didn't work hard like Damon, but he got the job done. He was fluid, athletically gifted. And t Mac is the guy just give me.

The damn ball. I mean, just give me the damn ball.

Yeah, and he I mean, I feel like it was. The pre draft process was weird. Even during the draft, it was weird.

They would show highlights of guys making these one handed catches.

I'm like, WHOA, I may sure that stuff for T Mac. He's got like a bowload of dose.

Yeah right, I mean, I think I don't know if Troy was there for this, but I'm pretty sure the first practice he ever participated in at Arizona, he made one of those ridiculous catches.

On the sideline and all of our jobs just dropped. But by the end of his career at the U of A, he just did all the time.

It was like routine again, very natural for him to go up and pluck the ball away.

From the frame.

One handed, two handed, acrobatic, crazy contested catches like he can do all that stuff, and for whatever reason, I feel like he didn't get credit.

For it, and the lead up to the draft it was very strange.

I don't know if there was just a couple teams or scouts out there that didn't like him, but I don't know.

It was weird. But I think all's well.

That ends well for him in a great spot, and I think it's a it's a place where he can drive.

Yeah.

No, I was gonna say he probably has the best ball skills I've ever seen at Arizona through covering, and you know, just living here in Tucson, I can't think of a receiver that could go up and get it like he can. I know Dlon Griner was very good at it.

So was.

The guy I had on the show here. God, he was a high jump all you do is catch touchdowns. God, tell me, tell me, Michael, God, what's his name?

Is this someone from the last time?

Yeah? No, no, no, no, it was a rich rock guy. I know you were talking about. Yeah, yes, that's it, that's it. Yeah, but not like that. No, no, but he would get up and leap and you know whatever. But kind of that guy.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean I would argue too that t wasn't utilized to the fullest, especially in his.

Last Yeah, I totally agree, totally.

Agree, definitely had he definitely could have had more touchdowns if they had utilized him properly in the red zone.

But of course last year's team barely got.

The right zone.

So yeah, there was just there's just a lot of problems with that offense. Again, I like it hurt him to stay. He would have been better off, you know, with the with the benefit of hindsight if he had gone to an SEC team. Oh, because he probably would have played in a better offense on a better.

Team, would have been on one of the playing for one of the.

Schools that gets the benefit of doubt, and uh, you know in the media that covers the NFL.

So so let me ask you.

Now he's gone and we were at the Spring Showcase whatever it was a week or so ago. Uh, what's gonna happen to Noah now that his buddy's gone.

Hopefully he'll be better.

You really, it's hard to say that having an amazing, like generational talent on your team was a negative in any way. But there's no question that Noah would look for him on almost every play and wouldn't necessarily go through progressions and would end up holding the ball kind of running around a lot of scrambled drill plays. People should find this story on Yahoo that Nate Tight wrote.

He was like double the national average. So hopefully, you know, he'll just run.

An offense as opposed to looking for a guy, and that will actually help to make him a better player.

You know, I think one of the unsung heroes of the last several years for Arizona has been Jonah Salvinea, and we see him going the second round there and just looking at the the what stability he gave Arizona over the last three four years. Just your thoughts on Jonah, not necessarily where he went, but the impact he was able to have in Tucson and what I mean.

If t Max is Unicorn one, then Jonah's unicorn one. A. How often do you see an offensive clignement come in and start as a true freshman and then fulfill the promise that everyone said that he had. I mean, there were guys are, oh, he's gonna be in the NFL in three years. You know, you hear people say that. Sometimes you roll your eyes. He was the real deal from day one. A couple things stand out about him.

And then the other thing I would.

Say, is just how naturally big he is, Like he carries his three hundred and thirty pounds like it just looks normal on him, you know, like he's not he's not overweight.

He's just a big, thick dude.

I think he's gonna play ten to twelve years in the league, and he's gonna make the Dolphins of their fans very happy.

Nice since you've talked about the women's basketball team and you're probably the new uh the beat writer slash columnist. It wasn't too long ago, two, three weeks ago, whatever weeks ago, the whole city.

Was, Oh, what are we gonna do with Diaz? Gone, what are we gonna do? It looks like they're doing we're gonna do. Okay.

Yeah, I was saying to some friends of mine that it's kind of funny.

That Arizona women's basketball it's kind of more or less finalized their roster before men's basketball has, and Becky Burke has been the coach for only two and a half weeks or however long it's been. Obviously, the circumstances are different. There's no like, you know, oh, I'm gonna enter the draft and see what my stock looks.

Like situation with the women.

But she's done a really good job so far, at least on paper, of bringing in a mix of players who either have extensive college experience, or they had pedigrees of some sort, or they won state championships, or they have some.

Extreme skill like shooting or height.

How it all comes together remains to be seen, but I like the look of the roster on paper, and I also like some of the additions they've made to the staff. I mean, bringing in Julie Haregrove, a local legend, gives them a West Coast you know, someone with West Coast connections, and then hiring a general manager, which the program has never had before, bringing.

An assistant coach in from Texas. It's a lot of smart moves.

It seems like, you know, whether it was all Becky Burke or whether it was a combination of Becky Burke and Desiree read Francois, there was a plan and that plan has been executed.

Yeah, no question, I can so far so good, right. I don't know what I would greater in terms of overall, but it looks close enough to be an a given the situation where there was nobody.

On that roster is maybe one.

I mean, who knows, right, I mean, like, yeah, it's impossible to tell, right.

A lot of these players from you know, from uh what you called mid majors, so this is a step up for them, and we never you know, I'm gonna guess that the vast majority.

Of the audience that's listening to your show today has never.

Seen Buffalo women's basketball, so we don't know what the product is gonna look like. She talked about like being defense first, but kind of using that to play fast.

I think there's gonna be ah.

More pace, more three point shots, which is a little more modern way to play ball.

You know. I want to see how hard did the kids play for her?

Yeah?

Give her given aren't going well, yeah, given her prescote wich, I think they're gonna have to play hard for her.

Yeah, I don't think, I like, I don't think she's gonna be an easy coach to play for. And we'll be similar to Idea in that regard. Sometimes you know, kids don't like that. Will we'll see what the culture piece looks like. But I don't think Desire would have brought someone in that she didn't think would build a good culture because that's extremely important for her.

Yeah, okay, what about So what do you have next?

You had something today, like you said, remind us and then I guess when's your tennis player. I'm looking forward to that one because the dude is good, the dude is fantastic.

Yeah yeah, So.

Okay, So today I've got a piece coming out on a softball pitcher named Claire Achilles from Tanka Verity High. She's a sophomore two way player, real standout, rising star. And Colton Smith is ranked like one hundred and sixtieth in the world and he's made money on the adv Tour yet he's still in college. So I'm going to kind of find out why that is, how he's able to do that, kind of you know, what he's all about.

Coming to town.

Yeah, okay, Michael's usual. Thank you very much, enjoy the week.

Thank you, gentlemen.

Take care of Michael Eleff from the Daily Star. Good to talk to him, get his perspective on what's going on. Let's take a break here, maybe take some calls here before we get the breaking news Holse. If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you know it's been successful for nearly forty years. Now take a look back at the

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Streaming live on the iHeartRadio app. This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.

Hey, welcome back to wine in About here on Fox Sports Fortune fifteen. I'm Steve Rivera, Your Troy puts your sin, got Ray Mann in the mike here, control board. Give us a call five two zero four six seventy four forty. Let us know what you're thinking, whether it's football and the draft, hoops, waiting for bright Brian Carter, Bran women's basketball, whatever you guys want to call. Just let us know what you want to talk about. We happy to tell

You know I love it.

Uh So just give us a quick call five two four one six seventy four forty. Uh listen what you're up to, what you're thinking, blah blah blah. Tonight the Warriors. I know this might have been a breaking news thing, but tonight the Warriors could.

Close it out. Yep, no, no, yeah, there go three one.

They could go two. Okay, they're two to one. Yeah, okay, so that's in this in home. They could go three one?

What's up? Spread? Do we know two Warriors our favorite? Two or three?

No?

I wouldn't. They might tie it up.

The Warrior fan over here, it's getting ahead of himself. Jimmy Butler, Jimmy Butler, Jimmy Butler, come back. Yeah, I think they might go three and one today, do too? Okay, we'll see what else?

What else? Troy? You busy doing nothing.

While I have a story coming up on I uh. Wagner, the new potentially a new place kicker for Arizona was transferring in from Illinois State.

Talk about shoes that needs to be filled, right, yeah, big shoes.

And he's had three years at Illinois State averaging I think the percentage was sixty nine percent success, right.

Yeah, that's tough.

That's a lot different from you with Tyler last week. No, no, no, no, no, what a fantastic kid. I didn't really know his story until he said with about coming from Dallas and and Doug Fath and all that. Didn't know that because I covered Dug Fath thirty five years ago.

Well, I remember when he first came. They worked him out up on her. Yeah you know, long game was not his saying it was all the short game, right. No, No, that's exactly leg and exactly of that. And then him and Luke because haversacker, Lucas kind of took him under his wing and they just hit the ground running, worked hard.

And that's the memory.

I didn't want to go there with him because I didn't want to say that, but that's how I remember it.

Yeah, he didn't have that boomy leg because they didn't have that. They had both of them.

Lucas was the lawn kicker, and if it was anything inside I would say thirty yeah, well sorry, anything inside forty is what I'm trying to say.

Then it would be Tyler Luke.

Yeah, because it felt like, okay, if it's thirty five yards, you should take a penalty, so you could back it up for Lucas because you'll miss it. And if it's anything about that, then just go to him, because Tyler's not going to have the leg to get it.

Sure, No, No, I thought the same way. I didn't want to go there because I said, maybe my memory is not the same. But yeah, you're right, he didn't have that leg. I wonder what the heck. And he's a former soccer player, Uh how he kind of developed that in over the last two three years.

And you know, one thing that he talked about is a golf swing, trying to work out your golf so making it all one. And this kicker that's coming into Arizona talks about a golf swing, one consistent movement. So a lot of similarities with kickers and golfing.

And they're all kind of goofy football players because all you have to do is one job. If you screw up that job, everybody knows you screwed.

Up that job. Nobody knows the kicker until you miss. Yeah it was, or you're great one of the two.

Yeah, like an offensive lineman, no one knows your name or who you are until you get a penalty or something.

Yeah.

Yeah, no, But tremendous development for Tyler Loup. But no Ian Wagner. You know, his last year at Illinois State hit about seventy five percent, so career sixty nine percent. But he also did punning as well, so this is going to be his first chance to just be a place kicker.

Junior senior.

He'll be I believe a senior, but you know with eligibility now, yeah, he'll be twenty seven by timis out.

Kind of you, right, but had family and j yeah, yeah, you serving the country, had family in Cira, Visa.

So it's a little bit of a homecoming for away. Okay, when's that coming out? That is going to be coming out tomorrow morning.

Okay, gotta be a gotta be a server, got to be on that system of goasy. You'll get the first question, but after that then then you got to you better make that first question good to make sure you get a second question answered.

Okay, how can people do that? We never talked about that.

Yeah, just going to goezycats dot com and when you log in, it'll ask if you want to sign up for the premium membership and I believe that is nine to ninety five for the month or not ninety nine five cents for the year, So oh what.

Nice? So you could do the monthly fee of basically ten bucks or one hundred for the year. I think that's a good deal. Buses. Yeah, yeah, okay, okay, how'd you get him by yourself? Yeah?

Just when he committed to Arizona, followed him on Twitter, followed me back, and I was like, you know what, let me do a story real quick with him and ask him if I can ask him a few questions, and there we go.

And before we can't talk to him at all.

Right, well, once it gets on campus, he can't talk to him. But he is not on campus, so yeah, we're okay, cool, good, good for you.

At four fifteen, we're going to talk to uh Corey Kraft, right okay, and then at four o'clock we can get some breaking news, right okay, anybody calling, will please do five to twoo four one forty uh women's basketball.

You know, it's hard to set a bar because of how saying chaotic things were last year. In the last several years, you lose most of your roster. She's done a good job of adding players, but you just don't know what they're gonna be in terms of not only quality, but how are they going to play with each other? How's that chemistry gonna go? You're bringing in a lot of transfers.

Let me ask you, because I didn't, I didn't cover it. I didn't I really talked about it here in the scale of drama, okay, well no, no, let's that'll be a question. But on the scale of how good they were one to ten, howard they or last year? Yeah or okay, on the scale of drama, what were they about an eight?

Okay?

So that kind of doesn't jive, right, doesn't jive and drama people kind of kind of didn't see it solid because you don't, you know, you have to answer like why are they leaving?

What? Yes, so, and without have to go in into details. Right. But but I think the one thing that.

You won't have next year maybe a five in terms of competitiveness and drama three maybe three.

I mean, you can you never really know. But the hope is that you kind of stop that that's settled.

That's that issue, because it's been not only last year, yeah, in the last three four years, right to be honest, really title Yeah, there's been nothing but consistent issues behind closed doors with the program.

Right, so I think that will be eliminated, possibly very likely, and then the quality of play that you've been used to might be matched over the last couple of years or exceeded or maybe not.

Can you do better than what they did last year? I believe so, but I think real realistically, just because you don't know how these pieces are going to fit right in a good way or yeah, thirteen sixteen wins, I think is that margin or that's where you want to be in year one. If you're ahead of that, cool. If you're a little bit behind that, oh, well to your one, you're going to have to give this. You're gonna have to give her time to build the program.

Yeah, no question too. Yeah, two or three years, right of course. And then with desiree Hi in your hair, she'll probably get more leverage because it's her higher Now.

The good thing for Becky Burke, and it was a good thing for Idea, but it didn't work out for Idea is it's not the packed call. It's not the talent that you see in the pack roll with Stanford's and Oregon Oregon States and you know UCLA's and USC's of the world. Look at Big twelve, Okay, Kansas State TCU. Outside of that, it's pretty open. So there's not those just top five, top ten teams sitting up time.

And if they do well, you know that there are other schools other players are going to want to jump on and then nil, that issue will never go away.

No, And and Arizona is what it is.

Right.

You know you take your girl either to McDonald's to be Vacci's or Flemings.

Well, I'll say this for you to cook for her. I'll say this for Arizona. An Idea proved it right, we're way back in the day. Night Butts didn't use it as well as idea. Did you have great facilities compared to most of the women's basketball court?

Okay I didn't because it's mostly built for a built for the men's program.

Yeah, Now, I think whereas I think Kansas they have a women's basketball court, they have a volleyball court, some some have their own basketball venue. But when you look at McHale in terms of the venue itself, there's not going to be a lot of bit built in built in place for you to to succeed exactly. Yeah, because they share.

Yeah.

I didn't really think that or know that, but that makes total sense and another reason why they are so. I think though, if she does win, even marginally, that people will gravitate to her.

You just got to her number one job obviously, bring talent, get the coaching staff, he get all that organized. But you have to be able to sell the program. And sure Creditedia she did a great job when they're of selling the program. You have to be that an energetic and engage because if you're not, nobody's gonna care.

No in fact that she's doing that right now at s you right, she's out in social and she's doing what she does. You are who you are, and that's what she is, and she she'll do good at that or do well at that.

So that's not I would say then one of the big things is you just got to sell yourself to the community, right right.

The fact that she's not from there, has no ties there. That's probably her her not demise, but that's her. She'll have to overcome that well and that and that's why you bring in Rudolfson's granddaughter on the.

Yes, yes, but to.

Your point too, yeah, you know that's why she's got some connections here. You get smart connections, smart move yeah yeah, and tremendous coaches too.

Right, Okay, that's a thing.

Uh yeah, I think kind of like what Troy was saying, like as long as like like around like a mediocre season, I mean she had and anybody who's been following you know she like you know that she has like kind

Yeah, And there's no pressure not to become successful right away, right because one the person who hired yous here and heard you for a reason.

Well, and it's it's not that Okay, hold that tut Troy, You're on the air, nine on the ball. Who's this?

Hey, Steve's done?

Hey don.

Hey?

Just talking about the women's program and what Troy was saying about the facilities. If you remember the video that came out on the Socials, when Becky Burke walked into McHale Center, She's looking up and you could see her she goes she mouths, wow, And I think that Arizona across the board has a look of a pro style situation. You know, we know the football stadium is is old and it has its issues from Michale Center is is knife.

Oh yeah, in the.

Community and and and build a thing the right way.

Yeah, no question, that way.

I see it.

In fact, two years ago, I think it was two seasons ago, when Ada had like six players, seven players, and she played us close. But I was thinking, God, she's coaching her butt off, because you don't. That doesn't happen easily, right, And she was competitive. They were competitive. They worked hard with the limited limited people. They had not since probably the championship year when they went to the finals.

Yeah.

Yeah, and they did it this past season. The girls that were playing were playing hard. But what you were talking about a minute ago the drama where players were missing games and there was no explanation, right, there was no injury report, right, and there was this, and there was that, and that's been going on for a few years and that I didn't really I didn't think much of it, but it was it was like exhausting, like when are we going to have the whole team?

Right? Right?

Right? That doesn't happen by accident. And I say that a lot, but it doesn't happen by accent.

Again, you talk about the playing with six players is impressive, but why are you in that position for every year and so eventually that's part of the problem too, even though you got the most out of that, Yeah, it could have been a different situation.

Yeah, it's impressive. And then you say, but why is it happening? Yeah, yeah, okay, thanks to.

The impressive thing was is?

Was it?

We knew she could coach right other stuff, Well, she.

Can get she can get stuff out of her players, and that's what she was known far. Mean, she she did really well until until until, you know, until she did until she didn't right, right, Okay, thanks don, yep, thanks thanks for the call. We're gonna have to take a break here, come back with Ray and breaking news.