This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez Son Fox Sports fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure Your Most Prized Possessions kat z R two sad in iHeartRadio Station. Y. Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, He's Jay Gonzalaz. We will talk about who we have in the studio with us a little bit. But how about them Wildcats? Wow, Steve, I mean, how good are these guys that we keep saying that to
each other? How good are they? That's the whole thing. I think that people are gonna overreact by that, although they have every reason to be overreacted to it. But but I'm gonna sorry, I'm gonna sound a little. They pay per due. We don't know what's gonna happen. It's on the road pretty much on a neutral, semi neutral court. Then the next few games, but everyone's gonna start. I saw today people are they gonna go and defeated YadA YadA, okay, okay already and they get these high
hopes and then March comes. It's different. It is it's just different it is. And and also remember in the in the Pac ten era, from Pac ten to Pack twelve, nobody's ever gotten undefeated in conference play, no matter how bad or good you've been, without question, nobody's ever gotten undefeated. So yeah, on that guy, I knew that people are gonna start saying, God, they seem could go and defeated. Right, Relax, yeah, relax, enjoy it, Enjoy it because it's gonna be a fun,
very fun ride. Uh, there's a few holes, but there are probably holes, and who knows what they are. And I turned to Shear at some point it says, what are the couple of things? And I said my piece and he got he knew exactly where I was gonna go, right, And so there's a few things that I have. I have, But what's not to like about this team? I mean, how good are they? Even? And we just keep I know I just said a minute
ago, but we just keep repeating that. We look at these guys and you know, it was a you know, they were it looked like they were going to be in a dogfight all day. The game was twenty three all and the next thing you know, they're up eighteen points, right, right, No, and the coach guard, I think in his guard says
exactly what a couple of other people have said. They're deep, they're fast, and they're deep well, and they're and they're tall, they're they're gonna deep, they're and they're physical and now they're physically so what don't what do they lack? And we won't know what happens? Yeah, right, and we're not gonna find out until it shows itself. Right, it hasn't showed itself right, Uh, my whole thing. And I didn't ask the question
because he already talked about it a couple of times. How good are they when the guy that isn't as consistent as he probably should be? When Pele has the game he acting right because he hadn't done that, right, he hadn't done that, and so how good are they when he does that? Well, that's how Bad's how good, that's how good they can be.
And that's how good they were on Saturday, right when you know, when else we were making fun of him though, guy was six for six, you know with the four three pointers and he was like four for nine from the freezom right, like what are you doing? Right? It's like your ballo to you. But he's pretty good for the breathing, like, oh, you can't shoot him, Oh he should shoot the jumper from the gus
the jumper. But uh, you know, you know, I think a lot of people looked at this game because, look, it's turned out Duke maybe isn't as good as you know, people thought, you know, when Arizona went in there beat him, same thing with same thing with Michigan State. Maybe they're not you know, they're not so good. But everybody thought, Okay, Wisconsin's really good. They're on winning streak. They beat Marquette, they beat Michigan State on the road. Here they come, they're physical.
Everybody hates them because of what they did ten years ago here and Aarzonas still handled them just the way they've handled everybody else. I mean, they didn't look any different to me than they did than Duke did, than Michigan State did, then Colgate did, and anybody else. They just they just whooped up on him really bad. Yeah. Yeah, So so here we are. Now we have another few days to wait for Purdue, and who knows what gonna happen there, but I think there'll be another test obviously to
Bollow and to Creebus. Look, you make no bones about it. This is not this is not a road game or a neutral court came for Purdue. This is in Indianapolis, which is just you know, right around the corner from where West Lafayette for Purdue is. You know, their their crowd is going to be there. I don't know how many Arizona fans will travel to that, but you know they're going to be outnumbered. But it's a it's a great test. I was reading a uh. Uh, Tommy Lloyd
talked to Seth Davis and uh he had to call him the thing. Talked to him yesterday because he had to call him this morning and talked about how you know, Tommy took this game without knowing before he knew what his roster was going to look like, for which can come when coming out the Purdue game. You know, he took the Purdue game and he hadn't he hadn't yet signed you know, really the three guys were making the huge difference.
He hadn't signed Keisha Johnson, he had signed Jade Bradley, and he hadn't signed of Caleb Love and but he went ahead and took the game anyways, just because he said we need to play these games from sure sure who we are? Sure no? Which is great for him. And now he has a pretty pretty good team, this team, this team, and not that the national people don't fall in love with Arizona at some point. Now they're going to be jumping on the scene and and you know, talking them up,
which they do all the time. They've been doing it for thirty years. Well, sixty three of sixty four first place votes in the apple of the day, I thought it was sixty two sixty three, but whatever it was, but one one, one person voted for Houston. It had to be somebody in Texas. No, it just came up. Tell me somebody from Purdue. Somebody do they who's who got? Oh it's Houston got the other one used to go the other vote? Oh really? But if somebody
who covers Purdue, that's funny, Yeah, very funny. That's very funny. You think if you're voting, you know, you're like, okay, is going to play them? You know, voters on the number what would you do with just number one? Right? And and you know what, why did you vote for him? Yeah? Don't it doesn't. It doesn't matter, It doesn't matter. I'm sitting here. You know who that who that is? You get you get to vote for whoever you want, because I know most of those guys. Let's see, I just kind of said
a second ago, we were getting ready to go on. It was on Twitter somebody place, somebody put it up on Twitter, and and it said that that was that was the one. The one vote for for Houston came from a reporter who covers for Dude. Yeah, no, that's fine. I mean, come on, we all have our opinions and and pick who we think is the best. Yeah. You know, I you know, I voted for the Heisman Trophy and yeah I didn't. I didn't vote for the winner. Yeah, we'll get to that. We'll get to that.
Yeah, but Arizona is what it is. It's not doesn't need all sixty three votes obviously. Uh. But but they're good. I mean they're good. Yeah. I'm gonna reserve judgment on how overall good they are because of the four or five teams I've covered over the thirty some years i've covered.
They're the top four, the top five or six right now. Yeah, but but you're not measured by going no, right, You're not measured by going twenty you know, right, yeah, you're measured by you could go thirty three, you know, and you won't be measured by thirty three. And though do people at Kentucky three go ahead, do people at Kentucky talk about that thirty team that went undefeated before the lots in Wisconsin? Exactly?
Think about it, Steve, To this day, we still think there's about five or six Arizona teams on the court who could beat the national championship team. Oh yeah, right, right. They weren't the best team. It might not even be top ten. And now you don't even talk about ninety eight, which was better than all of them. Right, they might not it might not be one of the top one of Blue's top ten teams, right, but they won the national team, right, and they're beloved.
Their people are wearing their uniforms again, step some people are still wearing the still still wearing enough. So you know, we'll get to that point at some point, you know when as we get closer, but it should be another week. That first half on Saturday, it was fun. It was loud. It was loud. Oh yeah, well, you and I were texting or the group was texting. Then it had that feel again. Had the field had the feeling into the students were there. It was to the
roof. It was fun. It was loud, people were early, you know, people were walked into you know, I park park up by Gettings Long up on the by the tennis. Okay, so how was it then when you just get well, I couldn't park there, it was it was full. So they said, I got. They sent me to the Makaleon. Oh really nice because I was the last guy to parked there because I DK got in there and then I could. I drove around and then I
finally found one up on the hill right there. It was one and so you must have gone right I got there, must have been right after you. Okay, I got. I ended up getting there about forty five minutes. Okay, I got to get there an hour. Yeah, yeah, yeah, after about forty five was packed. It was jammed. They went and they said, you know, go to the makalon I went to park so you got close park yeah right? So no, no, it was packed. A lot of people, you know, walking in you could feel
it. There were just a lot of people you know, on the walkways headed towards towards the entrances and stuff, and then you know, you know the way we come in, you go down the ramp and the court opens up to you, and it just you felt it like like I was hoping you you would feel it right the way you like to feel it on games like that. Right, right, I was a little I wondered if it was going to have that because it is Wisconsin. It's not Duke, it's
not North Carolina, it's not Michigan. But people were they were ready for for Wisconsin, right, and then remember that they're not gonna be here for a while because they go to Purdue. They go to Phoenix and then Vegas and then then yeah for me a while. Yeah, but enjoy it, man, enjoy it. It's funny because I watched I watch Who's the Coach? Timmy comes out, you know, the dude, the dude you can tell you's young, and he's having fun with it and he says, I'm
glad we're doing this. But you know, it comes out raised his hands. They scream for him, YadA YadA, but he's he's eating this up too, as you should. I mean, Sean kind of was a reluctant guy who just kind of, you know, went about his business. He walked on the court and it was like vision. He's looking around, he's checking things out. He still comes by every game. It's a knuckle he doesn't you know, he doesn't miss it. And you know, you can
tell there was a little extra bounce in his step. He came by just a little faster than Yeah, yeah, yeah, I noticed that he was coming. He hugged the other coach, and you can tell there's a lot of respect for him after being It's like it would be like Ross becoming a head coach. You're this long time guy, uh and you make Paige your dues long overdue probably, and people like him because he's likable. And then the game, I mean, and then he's not likable after the getaway because
he beats the crap. But but but the game, I mean, you know, just what Arizona did you know? And again, you're looking for holes, you're looking for something, and there hasn't been. There weren't any there was nothing that walked away from that game Saturday and said, okay, but they didn't do this, yeah yeah, yeah, no, right, yeah, no, you'll guess what you'll you'll see it. Once they lose, it'll happen. You'll see it, and it may happen this Saturday.
Purdue. Yeah, I love, I love his quotes with you. And then you didn't have anything up. But it didn't matter how he talks about just go kick their asses, you know, blah blah blah. You don't hear that. You don't hear that. No, I'm glad you're hearing that exactly. You know. It's funny too, because as when it's press conference ended, you guys, you guys stayed there because yeah, well, as I'm walking out, the Wisconsin coaches walking in and they stopped and they talked
to each other. Yeah, and then I just heard told me, well, well, yeah, but we've got we've got Purdue, Alabama and FAU coming up. Yeah. It's kind of like you tell the coaches. I'm like, man, you guys are really damn good, and you kind of said, yeah, but we got this is that He basically said, let's see what that looks like. Sure, sure, but in order to be the top team and to get all the boats, guess what you have to
do. You got to play those games. If you don't, I bet that they do, because the Alabama game is going to be not a neutral place, right, FA usually be a neutral place in Vegas. But I don't know how good the FAU. Maybe they go on one of those final four things. You know, I'm going to be interested to see how those guys saying handle handle Zechy. I mean, he's so damn good. But you know, maybe you know, Arizona's got a bunch of guys they can
do it. And I'm sure you think this too. Barbos played very well, but Crevis looked you could see little straw, little steps, so baby steps up improved it. He's just all that, all that experience, he's getting this fantastic more physical, he's getting better, is getting getting his shot inside. He's guarding really well. I mean, a couple of guys tried to take some stuff inside, and it was like everybody wanted a piece of something, right, And then that happened a whole bunch as well too.
I mean, you know, the Wisconsin leading score didn't you know, didn't score very much because he you know, he kept trying to challenge those guys inside, and there was always somebody in there, right, there's always a rim protector in there. It's not like you're gonna you know, one of those guys is out in the in the rim is wide open. It's not. And that's it again, that's what Arizona has been doing. So it was you know, it was a fun weekend to see. You know,
you see that game. You kind of at the end you just kind of shook your head and said, damn. Yeah. Well yeah, you're damning a good way. You're doing a good way. Okay, so cool. So football is gonna be pretty quiet with that today because it's you know, like it's still the ways away, but obviously everyone's you have breaking news. Yeah, okay, so I won't talk about football for now. And the Cowboys played ball yesterday. You know how it is, how it feels to
be Jake, It sucks. It sucks. Feel my pain, dude, feel my pain. Said you know, when I posted the picks, I said, it's either a bad thing for Steve or a good thing for me that we had three of the same picks. Bad thing even pretty from the jump. From the jump, all my teams were started losing right away. Oh god, this is gonna be a bad that's my weekend every weekend. But I I hit the Army game and I almost and you almost didn't. Yeah, and then I hit it. I didn't hit another game time.
We hit the Cowboys last night, so that's my only game and then I had one tonight with Miami and that's so many points. I don't know. I just need another win. Yeah, No, Jacob, it's it sucks being you. How do I know? Because I was you this weekend, you yesterday only everything else. If your mama says she love you, check it out. I don't have to check that out. My mom's dad. But it's no. But I just my base. You say, I gotta check it out. Hold of gaba. She loves me too. But uh
no, it it's it's it has been. It has been tough being me picking games this uh this year, and it continues to be bad at it. You got a feel part? All right, let's take a break. We're gonna be back. Bruce Pascal from there, don't Daily Star is going to join us. We'll talk a little bit more about that Wisconsin game yesterday and I mean Saturday. IFEO wasn't just thinking about the cast and the up
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welcome back to I'm About here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. You're Jaginzeliz nowter the fun. We have Bruce Pasco from the Arizona Daily Star. Bruce, How you doing good? Thanks for having me guy? Yes? Hey, So, I think in your career you've covered a few number one teams in the country. I was with the with you for a number of those. Uh does this one feel different? Wow? You
know, I don't know, Steve. I mean, you're probably a better authority on that than me, but I don't I think maybe a little bit and sense that you didn't really expect them to get into this spot. I thought it was possible based on the fact that that Tommy Lloyd's teams have come out of the gate so strong the first two years, and now he had some talent, but we all weren't sure how it was going to come together,
and obviously it has as good as anybody could have expected. So it's a little bit a little bit surprising, I guess is the main thing, and then maybe maybe somewhat and that they're so balance and diverse, but that was also, as you know, you know, a key trade of a lot of Ludelson's great teams too, So that isn't that And I think maybe the only other thing that strikes me is it's still, you know, December eleventh, and adversity hasn't hit this team yet, so you know, is
it going to be number one? Really? After that happens? And inevitably every team runs into something at some point during the season. You know, Bruce, Steve and I were talking that, you know, we a weakness hasn't showed itself. We know there's something there somewhere, but so far, yeah, in all a games, it's like there's nothing that you could pick at that says that's you know, that's a team weakness. And again not to say that they don't have one. They've got to have one somewhere because
everybody does. But it hasn't showed itself, and it will at some point any thoughts, any guesses on what that might be. You know, it's funny because I think I think Greg Guardy kind of hinted at it a little bit when he said, you know, when Larson hits those threes, that really changes what you can do defensively because and they're not. They're still I'm looking here now, there's still a thirty nine point one percent three point shooting
relatively. I guess you could say that's a weakness, but like it's still pretty darn't good. And but I think that that uh, you know, a lot of that courses Kylin Boswell, but they're they're they're not they don't rely on the three as much, and so it hasn't been that big of an issue. But I think, you know, and they had some times where maybe they haven't gotten that much support from the three point mine, but
obviously they've been okay because they can do and many other things. And I think I think maybe that that little piece there or something, and you know, maybe there's some other things, you know, maybe I mean, the
defense. It's really hard to point to any weakness there. But I mean, you know, again, when they had something like they had the other night or the other day when Marsion hits those three, then all of a sudden, you know, they don't know what to do and they have to have to go out on the perimeter more and that gets do more baller, more space and creevous and even Keisha Johnson. I mean, it's just that,
Yeah, they're they're they're tough that way. So I don't know, that's a great question, Jay. I think maybe something will develop we'll see more of, but so far it's it's hard to point to really any one thing. So listen to both of you. Let me tell you a scenario in ninety seven ninety eight when they had Bybe Dickerson and jt uh and those three guards in addition to just time am I and Miles. How can I forget about Moscow? Yeah, so four guys and you're thinking, okay,
it's like a three card, right. If one guy does not on the next goal, step up, if the next guy doesn't step up, the next gu step up, it's hard to see all three or all four going boom. Well, guess what happened in that one game with book right, all right, And not to say that that could happen here, but like to your point of the three pointers. The percentage is pretty good right now, but it's not good with their main three point shooter, right that.
That's probably thing he's certainly individually you can say that. But yeah, you know, you look at a guy like you know, like like Caleb Love, and he's the guy you think, he's certainly the most prolific shooter, and he's the only hit and run about thirty percent right now. That's not
good. But he's doing so many other things that nobody really expected. And he's been pretty selfless and pretty pretty good assist guy and a and a really good defender, and so overall, like you know, if you're Arizona, what you you know, you'd like to see him hit more. But he also seems like you know, and Johnson two both clutch kind of guys that
seem like they they like they lift those big moments. So you know, maybe statistically they're they're better than they look statistically, I guess, is what I'm saying. And you know, but there are some things like that. I certainly did like to have a you know, a knockdown three point guy, and you know, maybe they don't really have that. Bos Will certainly been a very high percentage shooter, but he's careful of the ones he's taken. Yeah, and that's he's got other things. Yeah, you still don't
see, you know, the saline Stodmyer kind of shooter. Not not not that said, but you know what I'm saying, the guy who's he's a three point shooter. You don't see that in any of those guys. They all can and they make them, you know, at a good percentage, but none of them is the guy. So that that that's probably because there's some point you're gonna need somebody to make for you at a critical time, and who do you go to? Uh, you know, and maybe that's
a good thing, and that nobody knows who to cover. I don't know, but so you know, yeah, no, I agree with you to I mean, I think maybe that guy, you know, but Boswell, he could be that guy with the ball of hands already. And then you know, and then I think if Ariz, I mean, maybe you're hopeing Love efficiency he proves a little bit there because he certainly has a mentality to be that guy. There's a lot of discussions about how Caleb Love is really
and we talked about this some last week. Has really developed into you know, more of an all around players. I didn't think anybody expected him to be. When Tommy signed it, everybody thought, oh, guy, here comes the guy who's gonna want the ball. We've been saying that all season. Maybe he keeps doing all these things. A couple of key steals, a couple of key passes, he fed Ballow on that dunk. I mean, he's just done so much. And I don't know, I mean how
unexpected that was. Yeah, you know, I mean I think, you know, it's funny because I remember talking to Chris georch is a respected basketball writer in Tennessee who runs the Blue Ribbon year Book, and he was like the man, you know, he just got He just was like he was he just took the fall for like North Carolina having such a disappointing season, and he was the top scorer, not an efficient top score and the team
totally underachieved. And so I think, you know this, people heaped on him, and he came here, you know, needing a new reputation, and you know, I think it's a combination. And maybe he wasn't you know, maybe he was a better player than he showed. Because of that that situation. But also he's definitely grown and I think, you know, to what you said, Jay, he needs, you know, if he wants to be in the NBA, and he's got the skills to be that, you know, a big time prospect that way, but he needed to
round his out and get more efficient and round his game out. And that's that's exactly what he's doing. So it shows kind of a maturity that he knows I don't need just you know, I don't I don't need X amount of points, but I can do this and this and this and and uh and help myself that way. And you know, he's definitely he definitely is helping himself. So it's for Arizona. It's the perfect combination where a guy
is helping his own resume but also really helping the team. And and you know, if you're Arizona, you just hope that continues because that that can always be you know, that can always be a dice equation when guys are trying to get to the pros and you know, how does that intersect with what the team wants, et cetera. No question, I thought that this
weekend too when I was seeing the play. But I think that Tommy has some some of that some of that reasoning too, because I think he's the one that saying you got to go rebound, You've got to be the more complete player. There's some assists, go after the rebounds and things like that. Here's a silly question for you. So you've been covering this team a long time obviously, Uh, this is probably you're covering the number one team, a boring team in as much as this is not a shoan team,
like every week you wonder what the heck's going on here? It's pretty smooth. Oh you mean yeah? You mean, just like as far as this happening and then guys getting in trouble or whatever, no, no drama, no drama. Yeah, I mean that that's the thing as a writer, like as a as a beat, Right, that's what I look at. I mean, not what I look at, but like that's what I feel like. Like this is the first season, I think since twenty fifteen that
it's literally been just about basketball for the most part. There's been a little little tiny stuff here and there, things with rumors or whatever. But you know, he had you know, Alonzo Trier and that whole deal. They wouldn't say what he was doing, and you know, blah blah blah,
why was he sitting out? Nobody would say, Elliot Pitt's same deal, you know, and then you have in the FBI thing and and all kinds of avalanche after that, and you know how it is, you guys, I mean, you'd have to go to the games early, like super early, to see who was there and who was warming up in case anybody was suspended or something happened. And this year it's been yeah, I mean ninety eight percent of times, just pure basketball we're talking about, and so it's
it's different that way. I mean that that's kind of what more strikes me than the fact that you know they're really good, because you know they're always they're always gonna be pretty good and just a really good and off the court, it seems like it's pretty smooth. Yeah, yeah, okay, so what do you what do you think about? Now? You got Purdue coming up? Zach Eedy. I mean, he's really damn good, but there's one's got some guys to throw at him. That's gonna be the matchup that
everybody's gonna be talking about this week. Yeah, I mean absolutely, I think it's gonna be just you know, and and also produce pretty veteran. They've got a lot of a lot of guys who've been through it, a lot of high profile games. I was a little surprised to see the way they kind of broke down against Northwestern and threw the ball away frankly sometimes, and they seem like they're not a team that usually does that kind of stuff. So so it'll be, you know, it'd be interesting to see.
It is obviously gonna be a it's pretty much a home court environment for them, you know, if they if they can produce and in Arizona's I mean, obviously this is the biggest test as they could ask for. And you know, but either way, it's gonna be it's gonna be good for him to to learn from from what they can do, no question about that.
And and uh, you know, for Ballow, it's a chance to you know, if Ballo wants to be if you're talking about individual Zumarbala, if you will you know, if he you know, there's been some kind of concerns. I sense that he hasn't been the player he was early last year or a lot of last year, and certainly this is his chance to really really put him stilf on the stage and show that he's a guy as well. And if he's not, Crevous has done fairly well, showed himself pretty
well so far, So we'll see what happens with that. Yeah, you know, and in Crevious, this is a little known saying that he actually played against me. He was a young guy in that Lithuania New nineteen team, but he actually played against Zach Edie in Canada in twenty twenty one. And there's a picture in the Feeble website where Crevious is actually I don't know if he blocked it. It wasn't clear, but he had his hand up on the shot as he was about five feet from the basket and it was
just pretty cool to see that. And so he's I'm sure he's looking forward to that matchup as well, so he games into It's not a big litmus test. But we had a little poll over we talked about it on the Area or less Bright I think it was, and then Javier put a little poll after hearing us talk about it about m vps to this point and not a big deal, just kind of curiosity. Uh, he used three people, we use three people is it going to be Caleb Love, is it?
Uh? Uh? Of Johnson or Boswell? In other words, who's been their best players so far? Yeah? Boy, I mean you can slip a coin there. I mean, you know the first couple. I mean, I probably would say Johnson just because he's come through those two, those two big games, those two clutch games, Michigan State and Duke. He really came through and just and in a lot of intangible ways. And but Love too, you got to give him credit. He also came through
in the clutch in both of those games as well. You e didn't even have a good game at Duke, and he's still when when they needed stuff to get done, he got it done. And then Boswell has just been, uh, you know, he's been just like super fishing the game and his growth has been, you know, predictably astronomical. You know that he's he's you know, he was projected to be that kind of guy. But man, if you had to pick one, you know, it's a toss
up. I mean, maybe I'd give it to Johnson a little bit of edge, but it could be any one of those three guys and the season goes on or others. I mean, you know, we talked about Larson the way he broke out. I mean, he does a lot of stuff that doesn't even go on the box score, and you know, and then Ballow if he becomes the player that he has shown at times, and he did the other day he had another good game. I mean, you know any one of those five guys really, yeah, no question, Okay,
I can remember. We know you're busy. Thanks so much for joining us. Yeah, thanks for having traveling. Thanks Bruce Pascal from The Daily Star. Thanks cool cool. I'm trying to find that post. So much stuff I'm scrolling down. I had pizza yesterday. These Twotler people. I hate these two people. I drove across the street. Okay, I just got to your picture of the of this at the start of the game, so they're gaining on it. There it is final results. How many votes?
One hundred and fifteen votes, okay, t Shad Johnson forty one point seven percent. So yeah, Kylin Bobs about thirty two point two on Caleb Love twenty three. Wow, because it was it was thirty. It was thirty three. It was very even, very evil the last we checked. But I don't have any problem with that. I don't have any problem with that. And again any one of those three. Yeah, fine, but and Keishot Really when you think about the overall impact, the more physical play,
and that's an attitude you're a you attribute that to Johnson. Yeah, that's why I think people are saying that he's sure. He's been so good. All right, Thank you, Bruce, appreciate appreciate you. Coming on, take take this break, well, take your calls. I have two zero four, one six, seventy four forty what'd you think of the game on Saturday? What do you think of the game coming up on Saturday against Purdue in Indianapolis? Should be a lot of fun being Aerson. The fans are
having a great time for stick around. Give us off. I have zero four, one six, eventy four. 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 Ludolsen era in my new book, Lessons from Loot. It was a labor of love through the eyes of twenty five former players, coaches, and friends to give insight to the coach and the man who led them, competed against them, and inspired them. Twenty five chapters for his twenty
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Putshanga journey and get your tickets today at the Arizona Bowl dot com. This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez. Sound Fox Sports fourteen to fifteen. Subscribe now to the podcast on the iHeartRadio app just Surgeon I on the Ball. Hey, welcome back to I on the Ball. You know, Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, you're jingos Aus. We have a potent we intern here with us today. Yeah, he Leon Eleon. Let's your last name again? Yes, okay, we'll just
call you, and we might even just call you. Some of my friends call me Ian or Eli uh in whatever roles, or my grandparents actually call me by my middle name, which is well Steve and I we forget thinks, so we might even call you Jeff. We had a Delina we just called D. Yeah, D, so you might be E. Yeah. We'll get to the about the alphabet at some point throughout this whole thing. Yeah. Yeah, we haven't had an E before, so my work.
Welcome. I hope you're enjoying watching how this thing works. Yeah, yeah, do you have so many tears? I EN's out of Pueblo High School right now, Yes, the journalist apartment. Yes. I graduated Pueblo from the class of twenty twenty and then I graduated Pima in twenty twenty two and right now. I'm hoping to graduate the Yomi in twenty twenty four. You have an interest in radio, interest in radio and in general everything that's journalism,
but mostly mostly radio. Maybe far in love with it? All right? Man? Cool, Well don't don't. We hope you don't fall out of love. We'll try not to ruin that for it. All right, we have a collar. Hi. You're in the air and I on the ball. Hey you guys, Hey, gab Gabriel. How are you guys doing? We're good? How are you? You must be doing good? Right yeah, yeah, yeah, so far, so good. Just taking names and kicking asss so personal, So Gabe going good? So Gabriel quick.
So I'm out with some people on yesterday or Saturdays. This Gabriel kid, how old are you? Because they love you as a caller. Don't get your head, you know, to twisted, but they love you. They love music. That game kid who said that one of my buddies because they listened to the show and they said, get Gabriel. It's pretty cool. How old are you? I'm about twenty eight years old, and I am in my career wise, I am trying to pursue a career in a
reptile conservation. Well, okay, I thought you were like twenty two twenty three because he said you saunded older and I said, no, I think you're a student at UVA. Uh yeah, yeah. Well, so next year I'm going to go to u of A. I'm just finishing finishing my general education at Feesle City College and I'm just getting everything in line for me
to transfer. So okay, So by I've been to Tuson this year for two of the Arizona's football games Oregon Oregon State and UCLA, and I really want to go to one of the men's basketball games at McHale, so that's on my bucket list. So anyway, obviously I watched the game on Saturday and Arizona basically kicked the crap out with Scanton. And let me ask you this question. In the past twelve, I mean, in the last year of the past twelve, which teams scare you? None so far? Yeah,
yeah, exactly exactly. USC is just basically trash. The son of Lebron James is basically overrated. U c l A is straight up pathetic in regards to the team North Bobby Curley always drinks, always drinks a cups of coffee and acting like a de arranged lunatic arguing is if so, So they're inconsistent to be honest with you. And no, no, no teams in the patch twelve. Once Arizona plays in the Raguar Conference, none of them scare me. But the important thing is they need to dominate in conference and
they should not take any team lightly. They need to just basically kick their crab out everyone and win this conference because it's the last year of this pathetic conference for Tramford. Wow, Gay, that's a little bit of a rant. So that was good though, But no, you know, I mean the pack Paul is shaping up to just not be very good, right,
you know u LA and USC. He both got beat by what you would think are lesser teams over the weekend, and even though USC had a Brownie James, So I don't know, you know, it's kind of like Arizona and then everybody else is like way down the street right now. But we'll see, we'll see how it developed over the course of the season. Tells the Fish and uh Arizona doing, I mean, before they played Oklahoma Health
just in general house, how's everything going? Well, they were recruiting all week right, Steve, Right, and you know about the kid who's transferring, he's not gonna he's not gonna see you to sit out Morgan, Jordan Morgan. So they lost something there, but I like their chances. The line's gone from one and a half to three I think now right its three and a half of I think, so yeah, and uh and Dylan Gabriel actually signed with Oregon, so I'm guessing he's not playing, so yeah,
yeah, well yeah, why would Dylan Gabriel play for Oklahoma? Why would they let him if it's gonna be a cracker right right, So anyway, so you know, look, I think they really I think they start practicing, maybe even today, to start getting ready today or tomorrow because they were doing some recruiting over the weekend. And so we'll see, okay, all right, anyways, thank you for answering my questions. You guys are take it easy and be safe, all right. Thank you Gabriel, thanks for
calling. Thank you. It's fun. He cracks me up, man, he cracks me up. He's always always got you know. He's certainly a fan, that's for sure, for sure. But now there's there were you know, there was, but there was a bunch of a bunch of movement. We saw that Dylan Gabriel did did announces he's going to Oregon, so the Oregon will have another you know, step in guy to step in and
be quarterback. I was listening to a conversation about how all that's really affecting recruiting, that how it's becomes you know where you know, the pot of gold, you know, for for high school, for recruiters, at college recruiters recruiting high school was to get that five star quarterback. Yeah, that's become so devalue with all these quarterbacks moving around. Very true, because you
can even get a great quarterback, very true. Sure, sure, and then the five star quarterback that old say assume Oregon or or or USC had that was sitting in the wings. Now transfers go somewhere else. Right, So it's a big domino effect because you already wont an established quarterback. Right, So Oklahoma's movie too there. I mean, the three quarterbacks for Heisman finalists over the weekend, we're all transfers transfer right Dayden Daniels from ASU,
Panics from from Indiana, and Bonnicks from Auburn. They all transferred from somewhere else. Now, they all played a couple of years, so they didn't come in for just that one year like some of these guys are doing. But even go back Kyler Murray was a transfer. What's the name Baker Mayfield was a transfer? Yeah, yeah, you know all those guys, you know, Jalen Hurts was a trans All those guys are transferring, and and
that's where that's where you know coaches are going to get their quarterbacks. Of course they're paying them big price for them. Who was it? It was a Matt Rule at Nebraska said a really good quarterback in the transfer portals a million and a half to two million. He said that. He said that. I didn't see that. He said it. He said, a good quarterback, a top line quarterback coming out of the transfer portal is a million and a half to do. I'm sure that the n C double a and
there and they're thinking, didn't think about that. And if it's not paid for play, I don't know what is. Of course, it's paid for play. Exactly what it is. You can call it what you want to call it, but that's why it's called which which which you know makes you as an Arizona fan, you go, you just hope the NORF of FDA is the exception to the rule, right, I mean, yes, he's gonna have to get his his n I L you know, to scare.
But you know, here's a freshman. You know that they hope to be able to develop and that they hope he able to keep for the duration or at least until he becomes an NFL draft prospect, which is that two years? Is it three more years? Is it one more year? You know, who knows what it's going to be if at all considering his size,
But but I know that it was. It was really interesting discussion just about the fact that you know, you don't have to you know, which means that if you're gonna go in high school players, you can go get alignment, sure, or a linebacker, or you can focus on other positions and you can go get your quarterback from the portal. Because there's been some really
successful teams sure with quarterbacks have come out of the portal. Well, sure, look at look at the quarterback to Washington State, right, he shows up, he's a senior. Well, so Jayden left the grant. So Jayden left because of him right now, the guy's gone. Now the guy's gone, and Jayden's probably about to lead because well his situation and now someone's gonna move into there, and he's going somewhere else. I mean, it's just some musical chairs of quarterbacks. Well you know U C l A,
you know d Day Moore, Dodaymore. He's going, He's going somewhere else. So and even Washington's backup, Michael Pennix is leaving, and Washington's current backup is also leaving. Yeah, because he must know they've got somebody that they're about ready to bring in that he's not gonna be able to play it. Right, that's what these guys are looking for, paying right, you know, quarterback, you gotta you gotta get on the field. Sure,
sure, No, it's just the way it is. It's it's unbelievable, right, And why did Jade Delora leave Washington State because they had a new offensive coordinator who is coming with a quarterback camp Ward, Washington State isn't everybody happy anymore? What's happy anymore? It's kind of like you know, you got a nice car, but there's always a nice one on the street. I use that in an analogy, you're going to say something from something I know, I know where you're. I didn't want to. I didn't want
to do that. I didn't want to do that. I know where you're That's what I won't say here. Okay, my mom likes my analogy, like Steve. It's just it's just it's just making for for some really interesting stuff. I mean, like Arizona's got you know, another quarterback after you know, if of sure a top of the line quarterback, the kid from Colorado, you know, are they getting another one for you know, in this class and you need back You need backups, backups, right, look
at there was one who needed a backup this year? Yep. I mean what would it season have been if for three games your quarterback wasn't that ankle healed faster? Right? And then if Jaden's the quarterback rest of the game. You know, are you talking five and seven? Are you talking six and six? Or you're still talking nine? Sure? Sure, Destiny, baby, Destiny, it all figures out, It all comes up anyways. How big of a how big of a I saw today? I don't know
who said it? A big prestigious bowl. I can't remember the word. How big is the bowl game in relative terms, it's it's a it's the middle of the Road bowl. Okay, well I heard prestigious that it's the middle of the Road Bowl. So that's why that. The New York six Balls are the other prestigious. Those are ones you get into. Those are the blue bloods. Right now, you're somebody right Arizona playing in both of years ago, more than a few years ago. But you get into those
at night. You know, your your promode on, you know, every day on ESPN or sure whatever network is covering your game. But you know, the Alimble Bowl, it's a good bowl. It's the best of the next bowls after the New Year's six bowls. Okay, yeah, for the Pac twelve, it's the top non New year six Pack twelve bowl. But as a bowl game, you go, oh wow, we're in the alim This is like you know, man, No, you know, part of it depends on who you're playing. It's a great bowl because they're playing on
right so it will get a lot of attention. You know, Tommy and Tommy Jed Fish and his boys, we'll get a lot of attention because they're playing Oklahoma. Sure, they're on a roll. You know Ifafita has gotten a lot of national attention as well, mention team are in a minute. Sure he's getting some attention. So yeah, and then we continue, Are you gonna have some transfer issues on your transfer? You're bricking news yet because
they continue to be people decommitting or yea or leaving. Yeah, and that's not exclusive to Arizona. No, it's everywhere. It's everywhere. It's all to the place. There will be some stuff I've been gathering, but there's a lot of other stuff going on. Okay, okay, cool, I guess I should turn on the volume. There we go with the first hour. All right, that's our first hour. Eleon is here hanging with us,
so we'll see. Uh we have a little more chat with him a little later, but we'll be back breaking news coming up top of the hour. Stick around better, chick around. H