Monday, February 26, Hour 1

This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure Your Most Prized Possessions kt c R two SAD at iHeartRadio Station. Good afternoon, everybody, welcome to Eye on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, He's Jagan Zaliz. We got our guy Kevin in this day, Monday, and it seems to me that the sun is unshining, although you can't see it

because the basketball team is fine, both men's and the women. It's a little cloudy out there. But yes, the sun did come up again for Arizona. You have a big win on Saturday, well even more so, and then Asu lost. I loved somebody somebody on Twitter put out but it just said Washington State's time in first place in the Pac twelve and it was a video of Aaron Rodgers running out with the flag in the game where he got injured like two plays into the game. Incredible. There's always a tweet

like that. Somebody always comes up with something clever, right, that's pretty funny. Well, well thank you, I wrote that right away once it happened, and the big fans didn't want to thank his shoe. I'll never think his shoe fans is that, but hey, you take what you can get. Yeah, you know, it's it's funny because I look, I never cheer for Arizona State. I just don't. But there are Okay, did you watch the game? Yeah? R okay. I sat there and

I watched that game like I was watching an Arizona game. Did you cheer them? I did? Okay, Wow, I did. I cussed him because you know they were they got a big lead and then they led him back in it. And I mean, I watched that game like I'm watch an Arizona game because you know it was it was that big. And I said, here's the funny thing, and I'm gonna I gotta give these guys a little props. Both, you know, on either side of me at

uh you at the at the table on Saturday. You know, my son Adam is on one said, actually he was a little further down with another duty, but he came and sat next to me after the game. And my brother Jean on the other side. Both of those guys said, as you will lose. I mean that issue would be Washington that. Yeah, it wasn't a major shock because of you know, you've been covering. We talk about this all the time, and everyone says, well, how does

this happen? Happens all the time, the get up game and and and that's when Arizona remember when Arizona and Issue were good together. It happens very rarely, but when it happens, it's a one two, not a juggernaut, but it's a one two bunch. It was hard, yeah, because you have to survive both of them, not just one of them. I mean in Washington State looked nothing like the team they were not Thursday night.

It wasn't even I mean, well it's like you know, Isaac Jones, and and and and and and uh and Rice and the guy the number zero you who made all those three pointers. Well, none of those guys look like they looked on Well you saw here, here's the case. And I truly believe in this stuff. Uh. The coach what's his name, the Smith Smith did some great celebrating in the post game blocker room. Yep,

forty eight hours. He couldn't do that. They were already celebrating that that victory and maybe the weekend, like they thought like they had won the league because they thought they had happens all the time. Well, that that whole you know, the way the pack puff schedule is configured where you've got you

know, Thursday Saturday or Thursday Sunday game. That second game is always a hard game, and it always it's always affected by what happens on Thursday night, no question, it's like next week, next week when they go to l A. They play u c l A Thursday, right, and then US see the next Saturday, I think it's Saturday. No, No, it's u c l A Thursday Saturday. So even if you flip flopped them because bigger game, blah blah blah, because you got to get it from

now, you've got to get it for both games. I would like to think that in Arizona's case, playing u c l A first is better? Is better? Yeah, they go play LA. If you beat them, you know US is bad. Except they weren't bad well Saturday because they got up for the game, right and they're healthier now. Right. But you know, I think you say, Arizona would have a better shot of beating u c U S coming off of a UCLA win. Then you know, they go in and have a nice win against USC. Now they got to

play UCLA. It's the second game of the weekend. It's a little harder. So we'll get to that point next week when we get there. But they did recover. I didn't think they recovered as well as they should have because they were kicking the crab by and it's again once again. Oh wow, these guys are playing really well and then what happened. It just kind of went flat in the second half a little bit. Yeah, yeah, and that happens too. But still, this team, this team, and

I know we don't have access to Tommy, I would ask him. I would ask him, does this team frustrate you as much as it frustrates people, because it's come on, in one half they look fantastic, the other half they look so So guess what happens next month. You can't do it right, you can't play so so yeah, there's no wiggle room. Yeah, you know you're hundre percent correct, and you know that's gonna be interesting

to see. But it seems like you like to you like to say that one because of what happened in Princeton last year, right, that everybody is going to have their full attention. Is that what you just never know is that your teaching moment that everyone talks about, Well, you're learning more like to think it is. But you know the look, Caleb Love wasn't on

that team. Uh Tishad Johnson wasn't on that team. But on the other hand, those two guys have seen the promise, so you would think that the two of them would like, dudes, we cannot be you know, taking taking off a half or even you know, a segment from one TV time. They've been doing this all their lives, all their lives. Yeah, you think they nobody now, right, all their lives. They just

can't. And I remember last year when they played Princeton. The one thing that Kyra did justin Kya did when the introduction line, what did he fail to do? Shake the other dude's hands? And they said felt disrespectful. Oh I remember that, and he says, what what did you just do to me? You guys so you got to respect opponents? Uh, let me ask you something, each of you. What did you what was your

takeaway from third from satur from Saturday's game your biggest thing? And I have my own That's why I asked nothing really really, I mean, they won the game that they were supposed to win, the game they were never they were never really threatened. Just that, you know, they did what they needed to do. That's okay. Honestly, I kind of feel the same way. I didn't really walk out of the arena and feel any one specific

thing that stuck out to me the most. I think there was a little bit of I almost expected them to win a little bit more decisively, yea, but it wasn't like it was ever in question like Jayson. It was decisive though they won by sixteen. Okay, so let me maybe you'll chan change your minds with this uh shot. Uh Tommy getting on bosswell, and I made the point of asking him about that because yelled at him and got on him and and and put him to the bench and then brought him back

and he played better, much better. And Tommy, I says, you know, everyone saw it, we all saw it. Your your thoughts on getting on him, and and how were you pleased to what happened? And he said, yeah, I hate to do stuff like that. And it's funny a coach hating to do stuff like that, you know, Alost apologizing. No, So I thought that was needed and essential to to Boswell because he looked disinterested. He looked like you saw the tapes. I'm sure,

like you know, don't talk to me like that. And he and he that came on a play where he played horrible. It was horrible and he lost the ball and he lost the remember just previous to that, they stole the ball from him at half court. Ye, So I think I don't know if that's going to get him right, but he used to got his attention. Yeah, and and that that, yeah, I mean that again, that's been the big the big thing that people are scratching their heads about

what's up the season is what's up with Colin Boswell? You know, I mean to the point where you think you have some sort of a personal issue going on that his mind is not on on his games been so good. There's a lot of internet speculations on campus to talking. I won't go there because it's too personal and I don't really care about that. So we don't know anything right right, right, We're not that group. You know.

It does make you wonder, but no, I remember seeing that we all, you know, we all at the table like whoa, whoa, whoa whoa. Yeah, you know, yeah, so I think that's a good that was a good thing. Obviously he wasn't at me, so it was it was as well, So lose baby steps because guess time is running out, man. Yeah, well again, you know, but but you know, I mean, the thing that we hear is that no matter how far

into the season you are, you have to keep getting better. Right right now is not the time to say, Okay, this is as good as we're going to get. And so there's still things that they need to do, whether you call him, that they need to fix or progress that they need to make, and and so you know, there's it's always trying to advance and be better than they were the game before. And that's you know that that's an effort towards that. So yeah, I completely I completely forgot

about that. Again, you don't you forget about stuff like that. When they win the game, you think, okay, everything was fine. They won the game, They were never threatened. They took a big lead early. I know, they led by a bunch, but you know, and it got down to you know, single digits in the second half, but

there was never a point you thought they're gonna lose this game. Now, if you had the fourteen and a half on Friday that could have gotten on Friday night versus the sixteen and a half that you got on Saturday, you're not very happy if you had sixteen and a half, right, And it was just little things, just you know, turnovers and poor shots, and it is what it is. They won by sixteen, so that's a good thing. And then the women, the women pulled off a dumb my god,

pull off a double that was unexpected. Well well, I mean we talked about it on briefly. Briefly No, no Friday. No, that's right, it's Friday night. So we did. I mean, we just talked about the game being okay. We just got confirmation a Dea Barnes gonna be on the show tomorrow, Fantastice. We're gonna talk about it. So I don't know if she's listening or if somebody over there is listening, and if you are, don't tell her. But I'm gonna say, I'm gonna

admit that I didn't even watch a game on Friday night. Why am I gonna sit down and watch Arizona get blown out at Stanford had other things to do, and as I didn't really have other things, I was watching a movie. I don't even remember what I was watching. I didn't watch a game. All of a sudden, my daughter comes out of the out of the room and says, Arizona be Stanford. I'm like in basketball, and she goes, yeah, I like in women's basketball. She goes yeah,

come on, and you know. And then I immediately shot over to Twitter to see what's going and saw highlights and it's late as I think three minutes left in the game, they were still down eight or nine, Yeah, and came back and one because they outscored in like thirty one sixteen. Well, and the game was sixty one all and Arizona outscored scored the last seven points for the game. But the game, so to use the point of Arizona beating Stanford, guess what it happens. Conversely, didn't you see the

you follow me on Twitter? I'm like me, per No, you don't, but I do. I tweeted, what the hell? I know what He's right, This is exactly what I to I was gonna put it out on a as a as A did I put it out on my Twitter account, and I said, for those of you still grieving Arizona's loss to WAZU on Thursday night, this stuff happened. Does happen exactly? Answers a great tweet, right and and and and it was and it was a retweet of

of the Arizona BA women's basketball Twitter account that said this just happened. And I said, this happened, It does it does happen. You could be on both sides of it at any time, at any time. The game we talked about, you know, before we went on the air, Oha State had lost seventeen straight road games. They go to Michigan State, They're getting their asses kicked the whole game, and they went on a buzzer beater in overtime to beat Michigan State, Michigan State a game that could cost Michigan

State even getting into the tournament. You know, those things just happen to do. And you could go through any sport, any team. It happens all the time, especially to the to the degree of big good teams. I want to also talk about, because I'm not sure we'll be talking about this is a national story. The court Stoparts and Sean it was kind of the Sean Miller rule right here, because who's going to courch from other schools except for Arizona. Right when you showed up, it happened here a lot.

Yeah, and you know, how do you prevent them? You win the game. But now it's going to be changed. Probably there's been a lot of a lot of stuff, a lot of people throwing stuff out about how you can work on No, no, no, no whatever. They you're not going to prevent kids. Await sixty minutes and sixty seconds. They want to go. Now it's a celebration. Now. You don't want the

delayed gratification, of course, like when the New Year's ball drops. You don't want to wait another five seconds ago, you know, to do the thing right. But the funny think about it, and not funny the ironic team or whatever word. It took a guy from Duke from Duke. That's my change, that's my thing. We saw kid here at who's on high, the kid who got hurt badly. The guy had a life altering injury. I'm gonna try to truck him down and see because but it took a

Duke guy to change the narrative. Well, and and I want to I want to break this down some more. You know, on the other side of our guests, we should say, had guess Jim Monico is coming on, athletic director of Pima coming on in a few minutes. And then in the second half, Greg Hanson, we invited him on to talk about the new athletic directory. Had a long piece and is a Sunday column yesterday.

But Greg is one of the few surviving people in the community who have worked with all the athletic directors dating back to said Dempsey, So we would kind of get hit some of his input on that. But anyway, the point I was gonna make, uh was I forgot the point I was we were talking about I know we're talking about well, uh, I was I going to say something really important? It was? It was. It was a really good, good point about this. But you might want to tweet it

out. But yeah, but you know, as but as you said, you know, it took it took somebody from from Duke. You know, oh, somebody said, uh, we have to keep we have to work on this, or somebody is going to get hurt. Like dudes, people have been getting hurt for decades in court storm. That's that's that's what I was thinking, that everything's like yesterday. But now that the Duke guy got hurt. Oh, he's the first guy to ever get hurt. And it's

crazy because Kaitlyn Clark got bodied. But that was I'm not saying it. I'm not saying it was you. But it's just you know, it takes a special there. Yeah, there's some things that we got And I do want to talk about this some more because I tweeted so I could read it in a big ish I'm not you know what, I'm not talking to you the rest of the day. All right, Well, we'll be right back. Jim Monico, Pema College of Pemia as techsa Athletic Director, coming right

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Go to azypast dot com to schedule your free evaluation today. Steve Rivera and Jacin Sallez, they have their Eye on the Ball on Tucson's sports station yet Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Hey, welcome back to I I on the ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. I'm Steve Rivera. He's jagan Zaus. Now on the phone, we have Jim Monico the Pima aztecs A d for the next couple of months and then righting off into the sunset one month. To be clear, I don't think you're looking forward to it, you know.

I mean to say something. I saw a story a while back, and I've kind of kind of knew something was going on last semester, but you kind of just thought recently or in the Chris it was time, right. Yeah, that really it kind of solidified what I was thinking. Because you're you're a young man. What are you gonna do hopefully grow older without

stress? Do you already have I mean, forty three years I've been working and not full time, you know, more than full time because you're coaching and whether a police officer off duty work, you're always ninety one hundred dollars a week, So you just kind of get a beaten and I guess I kind of I kind of burn out a little quicker because I probably exude a

little too much energy. So do you already have like a long list of things that you're going to do in books that you're going to read that you're really never going to get to because you're going to be busier than you were before. Let me tell you I was stupid enough to get that second master's degree and I haven't read a book in about nine years. I'll make sure you read my and just make sure so so, and we'll get to that in a bit. Let's kind of go back to the final months or days

for you. How has this year been knowing that this is gonna happen? You know, I I had it in the back of my mind that I was thinking it was just probably time. But you know, I've been trying to get things done at a little quicker pace. There are a few things I wanted to finish up, and I'm trying to get to them because I want to make sure when I go that not only did I try to leave

it better, but finished everything that I wanted to get done. Well, you know, going to that, I mean there's obviously some things even right now that you can say, Okay, I left these things. These things already in place, they are going to be in place when I leave. These are areas that I think we've already done a great job, that you've done a great job with over time. What are some of those things,

you know? I think getting the fields to where they were now, getting our study haul set up for athletes so that they had an opportunity to you know, it's not like the college doesn't help them, but because their schedules are so different, they need times when they can get there. So having that set up for them, getting our coaches full time that that was a big deal for me. I thought they deserved it, and the college agreed.

When I pushed it forward. You know, a couple of things that I didn't get finished yet that are in the works is redoing all the backsops for baseball softball because they're old. But that's in the works and should be done by the end of the summer. And then we have in the work

trying to get their scoreboards replaced. I've raised the money to do that, so just there are a few things left that I just wanted to get done and make sure that you know, if they weren't done, they were at least in the work so the next person can pick it up and keep moving forward. And I think you've been there about five years, right, I can remember a lot of the candidates were, you know, coaches there and you've got the job. How fun has it been or is it still not

so much fun? No, I'll be dead serious with withft you. I love this. I mean, in all honesty, it's really in my wheelhouse. I've been able to get some stuff done. I've got such an amazing support staff as far as at the college and in in our coaches and our players that just they work so hard and it's just, uh, you know, if people keep saying, you know, what did you do. I don't know what I did. I just came in with an attitude and an

idea and everybody jumped on board. And if if they didn't, I wouldn't have been successful. True, Yeah yeah yeah. Uh. And and then you, I mean, certainly the coaches that you put together over there, you know, we are none of us know how long they'll be there after you're gone, but you're certainly going to leave a coaching staff behind. It's uh, you know, pretty Uh, it's done pretty well for themselves, been amazing for themselves. They're incredible. I mean, come on, our

athletics from top to bottom. I mean, we're getting ready to go to nationals with all our qualifiers from track and we're taking thirty eight student athletes. Thirty eight that's just incredible. We have a shot to take a national championship there and come home with a bunch of national champions So, I mean, it's just it's just from one sport to another, there's no real drop off, and it's been great and the graves have been still have been great,

So I mean, you don't get much better than that. So I'm not from here as we know, and Jay, I don't know how much you paid attention. But I've always said, and I said this to you, Jim Pemo's kind of plaking a back seat to Arizona for a long time. It's done this and you know this. I'm not telling you anything you don't already know. But in the recent years, and I couldn't tell you how long ago, that this situation that you're in now has kind of like the

Glory years. I could be misspeaking. I don't know athletically, but soccer is nationally known, boys and girls, the basketball our scores teams like crazy, both men and women. It's just so many things. Where would you put this glory years? Am I overstayed in it? You know? I don't know. I mean, I've been in Tucson thirty four years, so I've seen a lot. But you know, you have to. It's so

hard because I just I'm just I've never been that kind of guy. I enjoy winning, and but you can't look at yourself and go, I did this. You know. Maybe it's because right now we have had coaches on campus full time except for tracking golf. You know that that allows them to make the student athlete a little more accountable because they're there all the time and they can see what they're doing and making sure they get into classes and practices and weight room. So I mean as far as winning, no, I

don't. I don't think we've ever been a success full as we are right now. But that's not because of me. I think it's because a lot of things that we've put in place and and got to happen that hadn't happened in past years. Right, Edgar Soto did a great job. I mean, Larry Tledo started athletics, so and they were practicing and hangars down at the airport. So you know, to say that I don't know, I

know we're doing incredible and people are very happy about it. And and it's just and listen, we don't and I told you this a bunch of times. If it isn't for you and the and the Moralesies and and the and the kvoas and everything else, we don't, Greg Hanson, If we don't get that pressed, people don't know. And and that's also helped us tremendously. So Jim, just uh uh, just tell us a little bit about

what you where do you think junior college athletics is headed? You know, We've talked about, you know what NIL and the transfer portal and all these things are doing you know, at the at the higher level, but obviously impacting and impacting your the junior college level. We've talked about it with some of the coaches. But you know, what is the future? What are we talking about here in terms of the role that junior collegers are going to

have in collegiate athletics going forward? You know something that question, if you ask me truly right now, the last and I'm not and I'm including high school, I think the last real amateur sports right now is JC ball because they're in that in between high school kids are now getting nils and it's a big deal, and a kid's on in the ninth grade and he's talking about where he's going to high school or where he's transferring to junior college kind of

gets left out of that, and they're the last frontier in my opinion of real amateur athletics. Now, where does it hurt them because of the transfer portals, because of people looking going do I take a fifth year kid out of the University of Miami or do I go ahead and take a kid out of a JC that's an All American. Well, he's already proven himself at

the Division one level, so you're probably going to take that kid. So it becomes less and less of junior college and then high school kids getting that opportunity because it at college athletics now is insane when you have people like Nick Saban walking out the door going I just don't want to do this anymore.

I mean, it's going to be difficult and for j C ball if people don't look at it for really what it's worth, and that's the opportunity you're given those student athletes, male and female in any sport, an opportunity to not only improve their craft and maybe get a break and go to a big time school, but getting an education. And if people don't look at the fact that you're keeping kids in school, JC football's in trouble. J C Ball's in trouble. Period. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's the answer

that we thought you'd say, right Jay, Because it's tough. It's tough now, especially under these conditions. Let me ask you. We got about five minutes, so there's a lot to talk to you about. You're sixty ish sixty, What are you gonna do? I mean, competitors compete, what are you gonna do? Well, I'm gonna try to compete a little bit better at golf. I'm probably gonna we're gonna travel a little bit, you know, I mean, And that's exactly the key here, right.

I'm gonna be sixty three years old in July, and uh, thank god I made it through this this illness this winter, which is just insane, and you know, I'm just gonna do Honestly, I don't want to punch a clock. I'm just gonna sit back and if I want to do something, I'll go clean golf carts or paint my house and play some golf and get them traveling in and then who knows. You know, I've been asked by several people to coach football, and I'm like, I need a year

off and then we'll just we'll see where we're at. But you know that, you say, what are you gonna do after the day after you retire? So I'm gonna stay in bed. I don't even care if I'm not sleeping because I wake up at five o'clock anyway, don't do that, go clean the yard or so one day. I don't know what that feel like, you do it, do it, you'll enjoy it, Thedn't you do it again the next day. It can become a bad habit right away. Right, you might gain some weight though, you know, just beat a

slug. Maybe start a radio show or something, right, go do a radio show with these with two old guys. Yeah, the three old guys, three year old guys. Exactly right. My knees are about eighty five, so we can call it that. So, so let's talk a little bit about you know, things going on this season. You know, just how things are going basketball, both basketball teams nationally rank. You got baseball you know Underway and and softball and those just U I don't know where you

at, man, how you feeling about things? Oh amazing? We uh we We just had our golf team. We just finished second up in our first tournament. So that went really well. Track, like I said, is just blew it out of the water. They're just we've got I want I might be missed speaking, but I think we have six number ones right now in the nation. Wow. So yeah, And actually we in a couple of areas and I think one of them is high jump. We're actually

one and two in the country. So tracks doing amazing and they head out to Florida on Wednesday for nationals, for indoor nationals even though it's outdoors. Baseball just ran off twelve in a row, had a rough weekend, but they just tore it up. Softball went up to Phoenix and beat them to took a double header from them this weekend, which is huge because they're number three in the nation, you know, and basketball women just went up to

number eleven. I want to say men are thirteen, but I didn't get a look at that. So I feel great. I mean, we're in a great position. Yeah, no question. With about a couple of weeks left, right before the tournament starts. Yeah, so basketball has uh we we're gonna end up hosting first games, so with March seven and nine, and then the at large bids go out if you don't win the tournament on the tenth, and then they'll take off the next week and they'll be gone

for nine days. Track will come back the end of the week, and uh they start their outdoor season right away at Willie Williams. And then like I said, baseball and softball are going full full more, and so's golf and and they'll be getting ready for nationals and and playoffs. We have about a minute left, ninety seconds. Jim. Let me ask you this might be a weird question. I think you were you were a police officer before all this. How did that set you up to become this or to handle

you know, I've always h coached. So my dad, you know, he was a barber at first and didn't make a lot of money in the sixties, and and became extodian in high school. And my mom worked in the office, and you know that he was always a big guy. He did it. Wasn't a sports guy at all. Didn't didn't like him. But he always wanted me to be a teacher. So when I had to

retire, my legs finally let go. I always coached as part of being a police officer, So it was just natural fit for me to go back to school and and get my degrees in that and uh and and and going that route. And I've been blessed to have two amazing careers in my life already, and not to mention a husband, dad, and grandfather. So I'm a pretty lucky dude. I think I know somebody who knows you. Uh, my brother Jean, I believe was your your sergeant at some point.

He sure was. Yeah, okay, I don't know if that's a good thing for you or a bad thing, you know, to get that out there. Great guy, he was a great guy. He was a great sergeant. I wanted to give a shout. He's texting me, goes, Jimmy worked free. Yeah he listen. You know, Jean has has always been on my side, and even when I had to retire, and and of course he was coaching softball eema. He's uh, he's always been uh, he's always been on my side. So I owe him a lot.

He's a great guy. I love him. Well, Jim, We're always on your side. Thanks for joining us. We'll have you back before it's all over. Yeah. Oh I appreciate you guys so much. Thank you always be will Thanks much. Thanks so so. What I realized from all that is these you know, Kevin Bacon has six degrees of separation, Jay's got about sixties and Tucson. I'm like, okay, you know, hey, that my my my my kids hate that. Yeah, they hate

that. Everywhere. I always find that fascinating, isn't it? Everywhere we go? Man, it doesn't matter everywhere we go. Okay, funny story. We got to go now though, all right, we do have to get out of here. We're gonna come back. We'll take your cause. I want to talk court storming again. Uh you know, I've had a lot of thoughts over that over the weekend. So let's let's do that, and then we're gonna have breaking news at the top of the hour and Greg

Hanson in the second hours. To stick around. 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 five years as Arizona's beloved coach. Lessons from Loot is an insight to how he built the program into a national powerhouse. Want one Email me at Steve dot Rivera ninety five at gmail dot com. Hi. This is formal Wildcat Leman Huntly with Arizona Health imagine how home GM can change your health, your comfort, and your time. Arizona Health is everything you need to transform your personal space and your life. We off a complete line of cardio

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fourteen fifty streaming live on the iHeartRadio wapp. Hey, welcome back to my I on the Ball hero Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve, He's Jay. We've got Kevin with us. We got fifteen minutes. If we want to call us, please do low. Our line is open five to zero four one six seven four four zero. We'd love to hear from you. Good weekend. Uh, Mosday's a big game. Yeah, uh, Saturday's another big game. The rest are all big games, raw big game.

Well, you know, as you know again with Quhingon States in ACU, that put that put the you know, pacwech championship in Arizona's hands. But it's a tough roads on the road. I've said this a number of times. I don't know how many how many, but I'm gonna ask you guys, now, do you think the and it's helped them all your the Duke win all the wins, But do you think the Duke win the first game

kind of threw things out of whack for Arizona? No, because because I mean right, but I think what you're implying is that the Duke win told us that Arizona is better than they are. And I don't think it necessarily did that, partly because Duke has not turned not to be all that great, right, Okay, realistic people would understand that. But and that's kind of where I was maybe for some fans, Yeah, but where you know, we beat Duke. We were able to win the national title from day

one, which is unrealistic. It's unrealistic to think that you can win the national title. Even if they didn't beat them, they would think that. But I'm just saying that no one thought they'd be Duke that first game. No, But but what I'm saying is that regardless that Arizona, you can

sit there and think that there Arizona might win the national title. So whether or not they beat Duke is but but they did, and that's what gave them more loftier expectations by the fans, which are are real unrealist or realistic

or not realistic. Actually, I think it had had more to do with the other games that came along, you know, uh beating Alabama, beating Michigan State, beating uh uh. But we've seen that those teams are again but as but as Arizona's going through that November December schedule, they were winning all these games, you know, That's what it was. I think it was the whole body of all the games of course that had that had fans believing this team is really good. But the key is, Steve, it

is really good. They can win the national championship. I think you're I don't know, maybe I'm putting words into your mouth but I feel like you're saying they beat Duke and they gave them an unrealistic expectation they could win the national champship when I think they the National championship is a realistic who's the day? Who's the day? Though? That's fans. Are you talking about fans? So that's what I'm talking about that, yes, they can. I

think it is a realistic expectation, and every year they think that. But I thought that, I'm thinking that you didn't think they were ranked twelfth in the country. But going to Duke. They beat Duke on the road and oh god, let's get the reservations. Now, well, there was some of that. Uh, there was a lot of a lot of that. And then again like to your point, the Alabama win, the Michigan State win, the Wisconsin which I think it was a very good win, has

kind of kind of kept it up. But then they hit the Pac twelve. Yeah, and they said, oh no, yeah, yea, let's take this call. Hi, you're on the Aaron Eye on the ball, Hey Jay, Hey Steve, this is done, don how are you? I'm all right? The win over Duke Art and I want to talk about the court storming stuff too, but the win over due. It did set some expectations. But the college basketball season on the whole is such a it's like March madness the whole way through. I mean, who who's really health

served? As far as the top teams like Houston and Purdue. Well, the last week Creighton goes to Yukon or beats Yukon and then loses the next game. It happens all the time. People just see it here. It happens all the time. Yeah, that's it's just crazy. It's a roller coaster. Yes, And to try and to try to hang national championship hopes on on every single game in a thirty game schedule, that's that's just exhausting. Has been. That is a really good point. All right, what

do you What do you think on the court storming issue? You know what, I have mixed feelings on it because I've been on the court a time or two, like back from high school days and stuff like that. Of course, at Arizona we don't storm the court because if we win, we're supposed to. So that's that's another thing. But you got to think back to it's sometime between like two thousand and six and two thousand eight or something. They had a court storming at Tucson High in. One of the players

we talked about that mister K Joe K I think was his name. Yeah, And you know, almost all of those kids that are running onto the court, you know, they just want to be there with their friends and

you know, and celebrate this good time. But with so many people in those small places, I mean, it's like you can't even be a Dodger fan and go to the game in San Francisco and wear your stuff, you know, you with the crowds and everything, there's something could happen at any time, right Well, yeah, so I got mixed feelings about it because I know it's a fun time, you know, to run out the football field after a big game or whatever. But it's you know, it's it's

like time in place. I don't know, I don't know. It's well, they're going to try to figure out what to do, but it's going to be almost important. Don't know what. I don't know what you do Joe K. Two thousand and four, two thousand and four, two thousand and four. You know, maybe maybe the players just find their way to the sideline and to a nusher and and wait it out. No, come

on, or you hit the lottery, you hit the lottery. Let me see, I'm gonna wait a while to jump up and down because no, no, no, no, no, I'm talking about the players that are on the floor because we're talking about player safety, not not the not the students have to protect the car rushers. Yeah, so what are you sharing

about them? What are you saying they should do. I'm just saying, go find a nusher, Go find a security person, hang out with them, because anybody that's rushing the court is going to try to stay away from security, right, get off the floors. What you got to do. And that's exactly all right. Don Hey, thanks about playing surface as fast as you can. And then if you're on the wrong side to the locker room, just make your way around the outside. Dog tomorrow calls about world

peace, we'll save that one too. You know, it's I think it's a fun thing for all the students. I think it's a fun thing to do. You make you you, you upset somebody. But on the other hand, there's players safety, there's a safety of the referees and all that stuff. A lot of stuff to worry about you understand with that thought, and so we'll see you walk. It takes a boutch Don appreciate it. Take care. I think it's a tough situation. It's a very tough situation.

You don't, Okay, he's sounds like I think he's thirty nine. Now I'm looking at an ESPN story that ran in twenty thirteen. But you know, the story on him was he you know, he got knocked down, He got pulled down in a in a court storming at Tucson. I saw a high school court's from when he got tackled, suffered a torn carrot and artery, and I think he ultimately had a stroke. And you know,

he was headed to Stanford to play basketball. But nonetheless, and in that case, it wasn't I've you know, if you've seen the video of that, there wasn't anything he could do. Somebody just came up right behind him and tackled it. So those instances are gonna happen if something that doesn't happen. But you know, I watched Philip Hoski's Philip Hoski's situation. He did not try to get off the court. He saw it coming. What was what point was he on them in the court at the very end or

was that the very end? How could he prevent You know what I'm saying, as soon as he saw the court storm happening, he needed to be on his guard, and he was walking off like nonchalant. Well, he's been accused of not being on his guard or being on his guarden, and some people accused him of pushing the student and tripping the student. Have you seen that? Yeah? But what I'm saying is what he should have done is run the hell off the court because he saw it coming. I don't

I don't know if that was preventive. And you see you've seem you know, you know players, and you know you do that and you figure out there's just different ways, sure, you know. And again I'm not putting it all on him because you know this thing and I don't know what they're gonna do. There's been so many different things that have been But you know what we know doesn't work is finding the schools because the kids don't give one

call. Yeah, yeah, because they're not paying stuff. You know, the SEC Institute of those fines for football field storms, and that doesn't even someone just suffered one hundred thousand dollars fine last week, I think the previous week, uh one of the sec schools, and so that that doesn't matter. What I thought was funny guy that uh Jay Bellist, Do you see

what he said? He said, you're not going to stop the court storm, but the next one, get enough security that you keep everybody on the court at the end of the courtroom and everybody gets a ticket or gets arrested, and that'll stop it. And that was kind of interesting. I don't know how you do that. You'd have to have, you know, one hundred cops there to do that. Do not let anybody off the court. You tell them if you go on the court, you're going to get arrested.

And then if the court storm happens, everybody who runs on the court has to pay one hundred dollars or two hundred dollars fine or whatever it is. Right, I thought that was that seems viable. Sounds good. However, having worked for an organization that has to pay the cops, the extra cops I know is not cheap. So one hundred cops, right, It's the only thing I've heard though that seems viable, right, because you're not going to be able to have enough cops there sure to keep it from happening.

And that was Jay Billis's point. You're not gonna stop it from happening no matter how many cops you have there. I mean, we've seen videos of the security people get on the field at a storm and they just let the cops on the side. And the problem is the people getting hurt are the old people trying to jump the fence. Right, the whole idea of okay, everybody wait and then you can storm the court. That doesn't work, right, And then it didn't work on Saturday. So I think you

find a way to punish the ones that actually storm the court. I don't know how viable it is, but that's the only thing that even came close to seeing. Hm. Maybe that might work. Yeah, good luck with it. But you know, I don't know. I mean, Steve, you know, we've been here how many years and there was one remember forget, but that scared the crap out of me. People were jumping over the stepping on the table where I was sitting me and the next guy jumping over

the top. And those are so called I wanted to get to another statement here. Those are the old people, so called old people, like who are sitting Yeah, who are sitting behind? I wanted to go there because I'm gonna ask. We have doctor Robbins POSSI me. On Friday, they got into a Facebook debate about the kids being on the sides, right, that they should move them on the sides. We've talked about this not ever possible. No, the kids don't pay the bills. The lums who have

those seats are not going to change their ways to move that seat. And I'm thinking, why doesn't anybody understand this? There's too much money involved, especially now, and it's never gonna happen. Also, we're talking about behavior here, right, so like if you've moved, I mean, we aren't even talking about earlier. Just this season we've talked about and last seasons two with the UCLA incident. Yeah, we're talking about students getting too riley,

too unruly. You want to move them closer to the benches. Yeah. I have a vivid memory of a court storm that I was in on and that was when the students were sitting in bleachers on three sides of the court those seventy eight The seventy eight game against ucl was seventy eight, seventy nine. Yeah, it was against UCLA U S. I was number four, beat them and the bleachers around on those recites emptied faster than you can even

imagine. And I was one of them, right, and and uh that, No, you're not gonna be able to do that, for sure, I don't. But you can't give those seats to them anyway. You can't, just can't. I don't understand mean people Terry Francona sitting in the front row in the floor seats. Yeah, you know you can't have students behind those guys. No, it's it's so much. I got into it with one of our guys team Unions, and he has all the solutions to solve

the world, and I think they're not gonna do it. And one of the people responded to me is, well, why don't the people who buy those tickets give them to the kids. You're gonna tell me you're gonna spend five thousand dollars for a ticket and give those tickets away? Who in the right mind? And then they responded, I talked to a couple of people that they said they would do that. Who stop it? That's like the person that went on and tweeted, Arizona's got hiring for you? Why are

they hiring a football coach? That is so I don't get it, Jay, to the point. To the point is I read this for our discussions and stuff. If I read it just for whatever reason, I'm thinking, why in that world am I reading this craft? I don't look at me. I don't know what it's like on Facebook, your Twitter, and you're thinking, does it anybody doesn't make any sense? Read it? And I continue to read it, and I'm thinking, what the hell that's your ticket?

I mean, first of all, how do you find someone to pick you? Like? Walking around campus? Like, all right, who's the who was my front row seeds? Who's sober? Who does not drink? Who's not gonna yell? What are the people who have those seats? Are you kidding me? You mean to me, I'm gonna pay and give them away? Doesn't make any sense to me. Zero, We'll talk and we're gonna see if we have doctor, doctor Robinson and Friday. What's the possibility

of what you possibly do? All right, we're at the top of the hour and take our break. We're losing our mind. Kevin's back with breaking News and then Greg Hanson at about four to twenty stick around