Streamy live on the Ihearts Radio, while this is Eye on the Ball with Steve Rivera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
Hey, welcome back to the ball hero Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, You're Dave Silver, You're one, and we got breaking.
News new on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
Happy Monday to everyone out there. He's truly mister goody two shoes.
We hit the Lindo on a Monday, starting off breaking news with some Arizona athletics. The gymnastics team got a little bit of maybe a surprise win up in ten B yesterday. Oh yeah, they beat the Sun Doubles for the first time. I'm not sure, like twenty seventeen ish, I can't remember. They don't really beat them very often. No, I think it was twenty seventeen regular She's I'm just throwing the numbers.
Downt's see if I can find it.
Yeah, final score of one hundred and ninety six point sixty five to one and ninety five point seventy two.
Yeah.
I think I read somewhere that it's been a while where they've beaten them in the regular season. I guess they beat them recently. In the in the postseason, but it's a rare win.
The cool thing about gymnastics, too, is that these Olympians are coming back to colleges and competing. Like there's Jade care Is from Gilbert's, Arizona. She's still competing for Oregon State. She's been in two Olympics, and we're getting a chance to see them, you know, in college. Unfortunately, they're not in the pack ten anymore Pac twelve, but it's kind of neat every once in a while it's just like, ooh, didn't.
I just watch her this summer? Yeah, so graduations to them.
The men's tennis team had their ITA kickoff weekend where they had a chance to advance to the it ITA Indoor Championships.
They beat USC on Saturday.
Four zero, but lost a very close one to UCF yesterday three to four.
That's a good program, yeah, a solid at They six in the nation.
They are Coach Court right, Coach oh Shields. Yeah, I'll say this, and I say this to when he's on the show every time, the best coach at you a right, now, how do you move that program to that height and just kind of beat the tennis program, you know, just kind of like, holy crap, I mean every year's the last three or four years.
Yeah, I mean they've had, you know, way back when they had some pretty good talent, but there was very slow for a number. You just didn't even really pay attention to them. They weren't doing all that well.
No they are.
And they've had the staffords or the UCLA's or USC is the goal against, right, and now they're beating them.
They are they are the team to beat. Yeah, amazing.
They had that the USC game at the same time as the basketball. It was a pretty good crowd considering men's basketball was happening. That's probably where the rest of the sellout on the on the Saturday, that's probably where the rest of the sellout was.
Yeah.
I was wondering because the parking, did you go? Yeah, parking is the parking?
No parking for tennis, right, I got I got to park because I had the no no no, no, no no metoe for the fans.
The fans fans, Yeah, they had to go pay somewhere else. I heard a fan yelling at that paid twenty dollars for this and yeah ye stuff like that.
So Gradua'll they'll be looking to bounce back a couple of Fridays from now against Utah State to the women's team. They got a good win on Saturday following the men's team seventy seven to sixty two against number sixteen West Virginia, So they're on a three game winnings chicken.
Now.
The Kansas a couple weeks ago, Cincinnati last Wednesday, and obviously West Virginia on Saturday are fourteen and eight right now with their next game this.
Friday at Utah. Okay, that's good. Do some basketball.
Potential recruit for the Wildcats men's team, A five star Elijah Arena, son of Gilbert Arenas, has never done his top five schools to the Arizona USC, Kentucky, Louisville, and Kansas do me one war time Arizona, USC, Kentucky, Bouisvo and Kansas.
Well. Pretty good group. Yeah, pretty good group.
And he's in LA based in the area. Yeah, it's a legacy guy. Could mean a ton for Arizona. Yeah, especially with Ronnie the Rice Rice Rice coming, Brice coming.
Yeah.
I think that's one of the reasons why they got Rice to help persuade.
Yeah. Talk about super teams that might be turned into one they.
Got a handful of players among the McDonald's All American team as well.
Yeah, we'll see.
And then of course the big time game tonight in Tucson as the Wildcat stick on number three Iowa State coming off a win Saturday against Colorado seventy eight to sixty three.
Yeah, and I always say, I mean they won at a issue and they kind of scuffled. It was pretty close game. Actually threw most of the most of the contest. They kind of blew him away in the last it was ten minutes to three run. I think, yeah, but they were not totally unbeatable. And you know, let's see how the Michale crowd treats them tonight. It's gonna be something. I think it's gonna be fun. It'll be part of the storyline.
This is to your point, the points both of you guys earlier. We've seen the crowds at the other big twelve schools, right, uh uh, pretty good, some of them, you know, break and all that stuff. But I think Arizona will show their Big twelve power tonight right with the crowd.
Well, that's that's kind of the story we've been telling, is like, hey, you know, yeah, it's gonna be fun to go to Kansas and Iowa State and Houston and places like that, but those guys got to come here too.
Did you go Saturday? Did you go Saturday? No? No.
So one of the things that Ted Boyle was not to put him and he talked about the crowd and you know, he went zone and I'm.
Thinking, what crowd? Did you see? What credit?
Because it wasn't that great of a you know, considering, considering, But he says, I wanted to prepare them for this. I'm thinking, okay, because he was talking about from yesteryear when he was at Colorado and it was that crowd. Saturday was not that crowd. He's just trying to be nice or something.
I don't know.
He's he's looking for something. He can't win at Michale. Right, he's went over eight or that too. Yeah, so that's it's kind of a shame because they've you know, they've had a few, a bunch of players drafted off the team.
Last year, they still couldn't beat Off. You remember how close he was to beat in Arizota. Yeah, the one shot the chin kid off the tip of his fingers. Had to look at the replay for half an hour. You remember that. That's like a decade or still in TV. Really we were tape.
Yeah.
So this weekend Vanderbilt got an upset win against number nine Kentucky their fans from the field or from the court, and then they were find a five hundred thousand What.
Yeah, five hundred thousand. I think that's the bottom line rule.
That's because was it Sean Sean started this myths?
Was it last year where the duke player got hurt? Yeah? They showed the replay during the duke game, so yeah, I mean he was like and then John Shire came out. I thought it was gonna kill somebody. He was really mad. So they've been they kind.
Of went a too long time ago, like the BAC twelve did when they because sewn there was only team that they were going to storm the court for. It was Arizona, right, and they twenty five thousand. I think it was fifty twenty five thousand, the Sean Miller rule. Yeah, so there was one. Did you guys see the Houston Kansas game?
Yeah?
I was gonna bring that up. Oh go ahead, please do uh just finishing out the Vanderbilt story. You know, they got they got ten thousand for their football win against Alabama, another twenty twenty five thousand, uh for their win against number six ten. See, so they're racking up the find I saw a picture that showed the uh the ad pleading to the student section of the kind of reay, let's let's let's try to stay off the court.
And the five hundred five. Oh I was gonna say to you, Dave, So, five hundred thousand in the UA athletic program.
How many employees is that?
It could be a number, It could be a lot of people for a one hundred and twenty five whatever it is.
Yeah, who's that quarterback? Vanderbilt had the guy that got from New Mexico, Yeah, Pavas or something. Yeah, I think he went to make pava.
Yeah.
He got a nice little cash deal to come there.
I'm sure.
Yeah, yeah, but I'm talking they have money's a great school.
Well they've never win. Now they're winning, but they got alums. Yeah. It become doctors right right right?
And new uh eight people came out today. Auburn stay at number one. Uh So, as long as I was stayed with number three Houston, we went to six one spot six, number two.
Okay, that makes sense. One, two, three, Who's give me the top six?
Top six, Yeah, Auburn, Duke, Iowa State, Alabama, Florida.
And then rounding out is Houston is uhly in that mix? No no, no.
No, no, no no, not in the mix of give me not to know what you mean, give me the top ten.
Following Houston will be Michigan State, Tennessee, Marquette, and Perdue.
Okay, will the championship?
Will the champion team come out of that that ten?
Yeah? I feel like it hasn't given recent years. Do you think?
I mean pretty good real, pretty good chance they're gonna be one seeds and stuff.
So you one seed possibly back to my question, Arizona in that group?
No, no, okay, if you gave me the next ten, Arizona's not.
In that group, not today, maybe in March.
Okay, So you understand what I'm asking. It's gonna take it a little while, right, Yeah, it's gonna take.
A little while.
I mean seriously, I mean to be seriously considered. Now, you've got to be, you know, in the top twenty. Basically you gotta be a top two seed. Yeah, which is really just eight, but still.
Yeah, I mean, and Caleb does to show up, Yeah, I mean I think you're I think you're.
In that group if Caleb plays well all the time.
Yeah, yeah, does that make sense because you have one set that much of an impact on me and there one is, well you don't you kind of do need him.
You know you've seen it.
You gotta wonder how like the Doorsos are going to do in a big, high pressure game. It's not Campbell anymore, you know, it's Arizona, and they're gonna be the expectations.
Expectations are much higher.
Well, that's Saturday Saturday to me, and my story, my story specifically was, uh, they had doors who played out of his mind, Waka had fifteen rebounds, did really well, and Towson played another pretty good game in a couple of games.
Now, if those.
Three guys show up and play like that, I hate the word if, but if you know, if I hit the lottery number, I'm not coming back to the show. But if those three dudes play really well and they get some sprinkling of those other guys, the three horsemen on the briilter, right, this team can play. The thing is that's asking a hell of a lot yeah, but that's the team that could win it. I could show in March.
Yeah, they can do some get some momentum here in the next two months. Basically they still have time to go.
He's going to two bucks into the momentum.
Yeah, is that your jar here?
That's gonna be the I don't believe in the word momentum. But it's fine. You're you're still learning to have to have a couple of words. But I might get bleeped.
We already, like we said, number Houston moved up to number six after their double overtime win at Kansas ninety two.
To eighty six. So what did you what did you make of that game? Did you watch the game? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, completely great. Crowd can back and forth a little bit.
You know, one team would get out to lead and then going to run, the other team would build that lead back up. I think it just goes to show, you know, the almost all big TF teams will not give up. They're not they're down twenty I mean you know, yeah, Arizona a year ago, they're down twenty to an Oregon State or even in Oregon, that game is over, Yeah, twenty down to Kansas. No, we're just we have them right where we want them. That's that's the mindset of
all all Big Talf teams. Dave, did you see it? Did you see that game the Houston.
You know a little bit, not enough to really talk about it. So I watched it because I want to see Kelvin level. I'm trying to get him on the show in the next a couple of weeks. Uh, Houston should have never won that game. Yeah, did you watch regulation? You're thinking they're dead, they're dead, they're dead, and then they tied it miraculously. Okay, overtime, they're dead. They're dead, they're dead, and they got into overtime miracules.
Thirteen seconds and down six.
That game is over any other game, and it went to two over two overtimes, right.
He should have lost it in regulation, should have lost in overtime, and then he ran away with it over in double overtime. Yeah, that was that was what I was thinking for you, because he should have never won it.
No, there, Kansas looks good until the final thirteen seconds.
And Houston, but they were they were sticking around and sticking around.
And it was But that's all Big twelve, that's all the Big twelve teen.
Yeah, I'm try to go quick.
H he started suspended Jimmy Butler indefinitely, so see what happens with him a three.
Hundred and fifty dollars three hundred and fifty thousand dollars a game, walked out of practice, walked out of practice, got up and left.
He's had a little bit of an issue this year. I mean how many times have been suspended?
I mean.
The entire last couple of months. We got to go, okay, this go.
We're gonna get hold of Jim Rosborough on near the side, talk to him about Pima, his time there and their success and other things that he may know.
A lot about.
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This is I on the Ball with Steve Ravera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Subscribe now to the podcast on the iHeartRadio while just search Eye.
On the Ball.
Hey, welcome back to my I the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
I'm Steve Rivera. In today with me is Dave Silver Now on the phone the new head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders, Jim Rosboro. I always think you look like mister Pardy. Yeah yeah, no, Norm.
Hasn't anybody said that you guys look a lot like the same kind of hair. Oh right, Carol Pete Carroll.
People have said that, I hate to say that I'm considerably older, so he's he's still a young man. I'm a little bit older.
Yeah, but you're still going.
One of the reasons I want to speak to you because you're you're you're still active as all hell coaching the Pima women's team. Uh, you're you're out there. You must continue to love what you're doing.
Steve and Dave, I absolutely love it, and it's really been interesting the dynamics of coaching women athletes. And I did it down with Vicky Mays and the tennis team at the U for four years and now I've been out with Todd for eleven. I really enjoyed coaching the girls. And it's not that they're better or worse than the men, but it's a group of young ladies that we've had at PEMA for eleven years that want to learn. We've been good. We compete every year to go to national,
so that's really been fun. And you guys, when you both get totally retired, you know you're going to find that you want to be busy and do something that you like. And that's exactly what this is. With the team out here and working with Todd's and our other staff members, it's really been rewarding. Guys.
Do you think the level the level of play plays a factor in that where you know it's at the JC where the Division one is a little bit different.
Well, I mean yeah, and you guys haven't necessarily been. We coach them just like the Division one team. I mean, we're on them to do things right. The drills and stuff, you guys were the practices down to Arizona when I was there with Luke, and a lot of the stuff we do out here is just the same thing we do with our girls. Ball handling, you got to do it, a lot of shooting, you got to do it. So
it's really conducted like a Division one program. And when we get on the floor, there's an older coach that tries to be a little bit humorous, but everybody else is pretty serious and actually pay a little bit of money for the girls to laugh every once in a while.
But on the other hand, you know, we make it fun, but it's also demanding and we get better and I think the record you know for Todd's going to the national tournament and then my last eleven years is pretty good, well over fifty percent, So it's really worked out.
Well.
Why do you think the quality of play has improved so much? Really, it seemed maybe I'm missing it, but it seems like it's just really gotten a lot better, say in the last ten years or so.
Where's that come from?
Well, I mean, I think the truth be known. And you know, for quite some quite a number of years now, they've had these travel teams and they're going around the country and playing in their state and all this kind of stuff, and it was kind of a matter of the coach of the travel team throwing the ball out there. And there may not necessarily have been a lot of teaching, not in every program in the summer, but a lot
of them. It was just get to the whole and you know, you guys have seen or heard about that kind of stuff. It's not very good basketball. But lately
I think people have been taking it more serious. And I do know that you're in Tucson and in Phoenix, where we recruit quite a bit, coaches are doing a good job in the summer and they're teaching, and they're demanding, and they're teaching fundamentals and I mean in any sport, a lot of it is the fundamentals, and I think these guys are doing it or ladies doing it in the summer with their teams, and I think it's made
for really good people coming in. And this year, for example, I think we have six or seven new young ladies in the program and they came in sound. They needed to learn our system and learn what we were doing, and we demanded some other things and they knew, but they were more ready and they were more disciplined than they'd had had good coaching in the summer. And the
truth is, you guys know this too. They start playing on these travel teams in fifteen sixth grade, for crying out loud, so you know they've been out there a lot of years, and if they're fortunate to have a good coach, they come in pretty darn sound.
Before we get to the people think, do you think there's going to be a Kayton Clark factor where everyone wants to be Cayton Clark.
We have three of them on our team now. Steep Wow, I don't know. You look at the story of her. It's absolutely amazing. Wes Morn I know her high school, but I can't come out Dowling High School. I think she went to Dowling High School and Western Moy in iowand of all the things, now, ah, it was a perfect storm. The brothers were a little bit older. I think they played in the backyard. Father was there. They
were demanding, they were tough. And then she got to Iowa and it is my alma mater, so I understand that one I said I'll go Hawks. But she ran into really, really a good coach there. Alisa Bluter ran a great, great program, gave her the freedom she needed, understood exactly how to treat her. And I'm sure the last couple of years were tough because of all the attention. And you got the other girls on the team that are saying, you know all, but they all melded together.
It's it's really hard to say that there's going to be another, you know. On the men's side, there was a Lebron James, and maybe because the social media wasn't as prominent when Lebron was in high school, nobody knew about him quite as much. But Caitlin Clark, you know, she got to Iowan. It was just it's an amazing thing. And she's probably one of the most well known people in the country. So if there's going to be another one, I'd be a little bit doubtful on.
That lot of young she was on TV and did a lot of women see that, And you know, maybe I won't play volleyball, maybe I'll go to basketballball.
And she's a lot of big coverage on a lot of big coverage on our games. I told I told Josh, now we got a big one on Wednesday. Told Josh, you had a Charger playing because he's got a lot of extra money, and why in and see us playing Mason on Wednesday. So in any event, yeah.
You guys are rolling. I mean every years is a nice little run here. It's what seventeen to three or eight game winning streak?
What's going on seventeen and three? Wow, we've got a good, good team. The other thing, and I don't know how much you're aware, but the Division I schools did not want to play us a Division twoes anymore. They didn't think it helped their standing getting into the national tournament where they were seated and all this. So we play all the teams in our part of the league, the Division twos, We play them three times, and you guys would also know that's that's kind of kind of a
cru U Santa season. You play them home and away, and that's what we used to do play Eastern Western Central, play them home and away, and it was actually pretty good basketball, and we didn't have to sit out here and say, well, they're just way, way better. We beat them our share of the time. So it's a little bit different now, and maybe that's a little misleading than seventeen and three. But on the other hand, you beat the people that are in front of you, and we
have never disrespected the game. We've gotten out every single time and gone hard and done our stuff and so on. So we can only do what's in front of us, and we've so far taken care of that pretty well with a big game on with Masa on Wednesday.
How about local talent does this roster have? Is there a lot of two song girls playing that are able to.
Get to the.
Yeah, Dave, I'm just kind of looking at her roster here. I think we have, well, I think we have four or five girls that are from Tucson, and maybe not all starters, but they're good players and they're all contributing and the brand of ball is a lot better. We ran into a girl. I went over to Flowing Wells High School for a Christmas tournament and ran into a young lady from Douglas that I really really really like.
Unfortunately she tore or meniscus or something in her in her knee, but we may try to get her up somehow next year and rehab with us and so on. But there's there's talent here. I think you just have to go out and look. But then you also have to consider. You know, when you get the Nationals, you're playing teams from all over the country, and they're big and they're strong and so on, so we kind of have to tailor what we bring in to our hopes
of doing well at the national tournament. But there are some girls who can play here. You just have to go out and find them. I think Sunnyside has a good team this year, several several good players around. Bubble has a couple of good players. So yeah, there are some locally that with improvement, can sure help us.
So let me ask you, because I'm naive to this question, I guess Jim is there's two national ties are two leagues, Division one and Division two.
They're not just well US really.
Okay for US. Well, Also there's NCAA Division one, Division two, Division three, and AI and then there's the community college level, and there's a Division one where they can give full scholarships. And that's why you go out the Eastern and you
see only FOURIGN kids. I mean, we've seen some six seven, six eight kids that are coming from other parts of the world and they're on these Division one teams because they have full scholarships and we can only give room and board, and we just get we aren't full scholarship. I guess we give books and so on, but we are not a full scholarship league. So we have our own national tournament where last year, if I might brag, we were US and MASA. We're the only teams to
win four games at the national tournament. And Steve, I don't know if you ever had Riley waugh On last year, who was our best player in the guard last year, finished up her career with forty three points at the national tournament in a huge win. I'm saying forty three that's kolid, like you know. So, but there's two two tournaments and we've been very fortunate to go to the Division two tournament quite a few times.
I wanted to bring on too. You used to be a head coach back in the day. Are you kind of glad that you don't coach now? Given the nil and all the stuff that goes on and.
The Division One, I couldn't I couldn't be happier. And both of you guys know, if loud Olsen was here going through this stuff, Mike Montgomery going through this stuff, named some of the others, Lorenzo Romart going through this stuff, and maybe he still is, it's horrible. And you know this, they would not stand for it. And you see what's his name right from Villanova? Bennett from Virginia, And these guys are saying enough enough. What was the big talk
about Ohio State and football twenty million dollar team? And I don't know if that's true or not, but there is money involved, and it's it's just it's really to me, ruined the game. And I think you talked to a lot of people, and maybe they won't stay so publicly, but I think a lot of head coaches were absolutely sick about it. And the truth is, you guys know, recruiting was hard enough, right, I mean recruiting was tough. You had to get to know the family, if you
know the kids, they had hangers on and everything. So recruiting was hard nothing. Now it's worse. It's terrible.
It's amazing just to be able to keep your team. You almost have to re recruit every year. It seems like I have the transfers won farefoot Bortle is open on site, leave you stay.
Yeah, you go over and talk to our coaches here now at all levels. Yeah, you season's over. You've got to rerecruit because you have to get players in if you're going to be competitive. And now you got to re recruit them. It's it's not a very good team.
So I was going to ask you, there's no one that knows better than you, having spent a lot of time with him, and he I know this. Du he would have not he said, you know, hell, I'm out of this. I don't need discrun.
Yeah, I think absolutely no quest And again, recruiting was hard enough. I mean we got lucky on some kids. You get a Michael Wright in, Sean Ellett was here in the backyard, and those were not all easy. Now, maybe Sean was, but some of these other getting quit reads here. It was you know, it was a tough recruiting job, and it was it was difficult, and you were on it every day of the year. But now they've added all this money and how much you can get.
I mean, the talk around with you guys know, Lumar Ballo, who was here last year was Indiana for a huge amount of money and that's been pretty much published knowledge. So it's just it's really taken to me a lot of some of the fun out of the whole thing. I'm not a huge fan of any of that kind of stuff.
Yeah, it's funny too, because you know, these programs are hiring general managers now.
It's who maybe take some of the load off of the coaches.
That they don't have to go out and run around the country and that these you know, gms or whatever are evaluating talent.
I guess, so yeah, they don't love it.
Yeah, you look at the staff now, I mean, they've got more people that can be on the court and I don't know about travel, but yeah, they've they've got to get out and they've got to get the players. And I don't know what you guys would feel about it, but I just think it's taken a lot of the energy and fun out of the whole thing. And who raises the money? I mean, Kentucky, you know you can unlimited funds. University of Texas with crystale contact, unlimited funds,
Weber State up there. Well, you know they're not going to be involved in the big money. It's it's just it's pretty tough, I.
Think, right right, Well, you know we I had Monica as a guest here, I don't know, months or so ago, and he says it's kind of starting to permeate into the junior colleges.
Well, our budget is ten bucks, you guys know, not much more than that. Wet Yeah, yeah, yeah it maybe, I I don't know. I mean again, at the at the higher level of the community college, those coaches are looking to move on and they get a good player and they keep them there. So it may well be starting to permeate the community colleges. I have not heard of it, but I wouldn't wouldn't disrespect what he said.
So, yeah, so you you were tenth ranked. Uh you play MESA and.
You faith they've we moved up. We moved up to number eight today.
Oh you did okay? Well, breaking news nice time.
Breaking news.
Yeah, there it is breaking news.
So so you've you've had teams like this before. How what makes this different or special?
Well, they've really.
Now.
The truth of it is, we've got a good blend of the guards or the perimeter people. We've gotten a big girl, uh, the first one that we've really had about six three and and she's pretty talented. But they've melded together. Well a lot of times it takes longer. Our kids are about a month ago really started to good with each other and move the ball. And you look at the assists. How many assists for baskets you have? So we're sharing the ball as we say, make the
ball hum. So it's just really been kind of neat to see. And that's why you coach, and that's you know, you want to get your radio program better all the time, and that's why you do it. You love it. But we've been fortunate to have unselfish girls, girls that are willing to play defense, and to this point it's worked out pretty well. Now we got to think eight or ten games left before tournament, and again this game on Wednesday is really a big one for us. They beat
us up there. We need to beat them here and then we have to play them right at the end of the season back up there. So what we're fighting for is the highest seed in our tournament, our local local tournaments. So still a lot at stake for the pema Aztecs.
I was going to ask you, so you go into the game tonight one you can chure against your rival Iowa State and maybe chure.
As little for Arizona.
Yeah, well, I'm planning to. I've got a guest in town that has always known him for a lot of years, really really a good friend, and he's just coming off knee surgery. So whether he feels he can make the effort to get to and from the arena and so on, I don't know, but definitely we'll be watching and I'm anticipating going. So should be should be a good game.
Everybody likes this Iowa State team, and I think Arizona's back on track and looks to be playing pretty good basketball, and the pieces are fitting together, so it should be.
A great game. We talked a little about this at the beginning of the show.
You guys back in the day played a fantastic schedule, had the great teams that would come in Arizona. McHale rocked and I said, if you can afford tickets, you should get tickets to see the Big twelve. Tonight's one of those nights. How did you guys prepare for these huge games?
Well, I mean both of you were there, and really there was no difference. Now, the kids know if you're playing Duke. You know, every kid on the team knows, and they anticipate that that game, and they circled on the calendar, and the kids, as far as I can tell, love to play those big games. I mean they get geared up. They're playing against good people, want to show them up, want to show people they can play at that level. So there was never really any problem of
getting the kids geared up and then loot. As you both the well know. Again, he was a very even keeled guy. I mean, everybody knew it was a big game. Scout it, do it well. We're not going to be too high, we're not going to be too low. Get out and do our job and so on. So Syracuse was coming in which they did a lot of these great teams. The team and everybody knew and one of
the greater games. I'm sure both of you were there was that Duke game with Laitner and Hurley and all those guys back in what ninety or ninety one, one of the great games in the history of Michale. But everybody knew and everybody showed up and played and it was just a trific thing. But it was that same thing. Get prepared, cover the scouting report, get out and do your job. Nothing much more complex than that.
You know, as an Iowa guy, or maybe you know even close to Iowa State, what would you tell the current u of a team about, you know, getting through the old Big eight, now the Big twelve, some of the places they're going to have to deal with the Kansas.
Of the world.
Well, I mean it's Big ten. I thought years ago when we were at Iowa. Now this is you want to talk about a long time ago. But you were going in with Bobby Knight at Indiana Gy and Katie at Purdue Ohio State loaded that that was a huge league with big time crowds, and now you're finding that the Pac ten or twelve. I hate to keep saying, you didn't, as you guys knew, some of those crowds were not real, real good. They didn't even open up all the stadium at Washington State, so it wasn't like
you were going and UCLA never filled up totally. Now we got pretty good crowds going there, but USC we didn't have big crowds. So now you're going into tough environments. Every every single crowd is big in this league. And there's a great crowd here. So it's a tremendous league, tremendous basketball league. And again I think these guys have it right, the ship right it here and seemed to be on the correct track. So you know, we'll see, we'll see tonight. This will be a great game.
Thanks Jim.
Let me ask you to do one and do me a favorite. Could you leave us with the advice your dad gave you many many years ago.
Now, my dad told me years ago when Luke hired me. I've never really spoken publicly. He hired me for a thousand bucks a year. How about that one, guys, he said, work so hard he can't, work so hard he can't get rid of And that's kind of been my motto I passed on to my kids. So on works so hard he can't get ready, And that's what happened. I mean, we didn't know each other at all, and I was just kind of came in. Here was a little long
learned bell bottomed pants and all stuff, you know. But it really worked out well, worked so hard you can't get rid of That's been the model.
That cares mere model. It's a hat, that's a T shirt right there, Baby. Thank you Jim as always.
See you toay guys. Yeah, thank you Jim.
Yeah, let's go back and let's take the break and come back and the other side, maybe take a call to you want to talk about Jim a little on the other side. If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you know it's been successful for nearly forty years. Now
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Streamy live on the iHeartRadio, while this is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
Hey, welcome back to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty oh Steve RIVERTA, you're Dave silver dot one. Now we've got a call on the phone.
Who's this? Hello, Hello, who's this? It's Rick?
Hey, Steve.
How you doing, Rick? What's going on? Well?
You know, ironically, Hey, David, Hey. I was thinking about Roz the other day with chatting with Josh Passner or texting whatever, and I saw a Facebook picture of he Luke and I think Luke brought his whole staff to Arizona that first couple of years, and I couldn't I couldn't remember the names of the other two guys in.
The picture, Scott Thompson and Scott Thompson.
I think it was Scott Thompson one of.
The Scott also played a.
Yeah, yeah, I can't remember the other guy's name. But anyway, what I was gonna say about Roz, he's probably one of the most underrated coaches in Arizona Athletics that have come across the landscape. And there's a lot of good coaches that have come across, but he was very unassuming, very down to earth, and always seemed to treat everybody I noticed. He treated people with respect.
So go ahead.
No, I'm just gonna say he but the fact that he knew his ex'es and o's and he knew the sport of basketball, and I think he was way underrated through his capability.
Rick, I totally totally agree with you. I'll let Dave respond to that as well. But the good thing is now I understand you can observe and pay attention.
We just got to get you to do that when we play poker. But your great observation.
Great observation, because the one thing that he was brilliant at, and I was gonna say this when we came back before he called Rick, is he's a fantastic, fantastic scout of if eversont if Luke needed a scout against the best teams, he was.
The dude, how do you know that? How do I know that?
Because he scouted most of the big I covered thirty to twenty five years.
Sometimes the newspaper will put, like, you know the scouting report and say, you know, coach so and so did that.
But he was he was the best.
That's great because that's how that's why he landed a job with Loot. It was kind of in the book thing that was his thing. He was kind of a scout geek. And very good at it. I just appreciated the loyalty. You know that there was those two guys.
I mean, they were a team for how many years, twenty years until they were at the end, but they know at the end was just sad for a lot of us who didn't really know all the inside stories.
Sure, as part of the book, it took some things out, but he was part of the book of what happened.
And here's one of the when you mentioned him as a scout. He had developed a lot of relationships throughout the country that people respected his opinion and he learned to respect theirs. And it's that mutual trust the coaches and people in the industries have, even if their competitors, they have this mutual respect. And he garnered when he talked about going to Texas Tech. My cousin's from Lubbock, and so I'm thinking about going out for that game, but.
Go ahead, go ahead. Well, so this is one of the things I think I had.
I don't know if I talked to Josh about this, but I may have talked to Ross about this maybe a few years ago. One of the things that I thought Josh didn't do, or maybe he did I can't remember now, was have Ross go with him to be part of the coaching staff in Memphis, just to have that veteran coach and guy who knew basketball. You know, I can't remember who Josh had, but I know what he had in Ross, and he just didn't.
It's kind of like what Tommy did with Steve Robinson coming from North Carolina. Guy had been around as an assistant and head coach for years. So I can think a lot of these younger coaches do need someone to do that guy, someone who's had some history, someone who has a lot of experience in different parts of the game, whether it's scouting or dealing with the media or dealing with fans. Says I'm sure Steve is very helpful, maybe just quietly behind.
The scenes, you mean, oh Steve, Yeah, yeah, okay.
And one more things, Todd over a team. I've known Todd for a long time, even before he had the team of job. He was at the women's assistant with Joan and uh. He's so smart. He's incorporated people like joh Or Roz into his program. But he can be a better coach, and that's a that's a sign of a good coach. That he's willing to learn from other people and not let as ego getting away. So I'll let you guys go.
Rick, you up here very well, I'm gonna pay. I'm gonna write this stuff down next time I see you, all.
Right, Steve, put it in, Just put it on my tab.
Next you realize, Rick, you your tab is running right?
Yeah, I know. I think I owe you twenty bucks or something.
Thanks for the call. Uh, I love it. Uh. We got maybe a room for another call. But but that's what I was going to bring back. Ross, fantastic scout guy.
That's good.
That's that's the lost art man. I don't even know how they do it because they have to what so much film.
Yeah, and I guess maybe the difference now too is everything's on TV, you know, so you pretty much see things.
You know, game, the game, the call, you're on the air and eye of the ball. Who's this?
Hey, Steve has to go and miss Doug another.
Guy who watched.
I've watched a lot of basketball and uh, and hey, Dave, good to talk to you again. I haven't haven't talked to you, probably since we sat next to each other at the Tackbell Baseball tournament up in shot scale that time.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, so.
Yeah, first off, I know you're probably getting close in the top of the hour here, but yeah, with Ros, I mean I I echo what the last collar said, just class all the way.
Uh, but not just class. I mean he had the x's nose to back it up.
What I really I don't know what what Tommy does or what Seawn did, but his loop's assistance would all, I believe you can correct me, would have sort of a.
Position assignment where one guy was in charge.
Of the bigs and somebody was doing the guards. I don't remember is Roz had a specialty, but when I would go watch practices, I don't remember what, you know, which group he was working with, but he was he was very very on on the ball. So to speak with his with his group, and you could just yeah, like like the like you just brought up the scouting reports, you could always trust that the biggest games, it was gonna be a ROS game. Yeah, but yeah, I love
the guy, uh, Mike. My My Ros anecdote is that we were at the I was fortunate enough to be at the final four in Minneapolis in two thousand and one, and I got seats through that leg department and managed to sit next to Roz's wife, Kim, lovely woman, uh, really sweetheart of a person. And for whatever reason, there was somebody who's probably like I don't know if it was in the semis, maybe it was a Michigan State fan or something, but somebody was giving her a hard time.
And I just had something to the guy and for the gal whoever it was, and just said like, this is like the wife of our assistant coach. He's all class. Why don't you give it a rest, you know, And I kind of stood up for her a little bit, And for years to come, Roz would never if he saw me, he wouldn't. He never failed to thank me for that. It's just a small gesture I made. But and he also like mailed me a handwritten note thanking me for standing up for his wife's honor at this.
At the basketball game.
That's just it's just the kind of guy he is, you know.
So yeah, he's he's a real asset to the community. It's really good to know he's still working with with youth because he's got a lot to offer right well, you know, there's been a lot of guys through the program that have had sort of that same wry sense of humor. The Steve Kerr, Matt Mulebot, Jim Rosborough and even Luke just kind of deadpan. They just slipped something in there. You don't realize it's funny for at first, and then you're like, oh wait, that was.
Actually pretty good.
Dry.
Yeah, dry, that's probably the better word for it. If we have a second, Do we have a second? I'd better catch you another time, But Dave, sometime I want to ask you about the status of like local sports, uh, like the local news sports segments. I miss I missed the days. Yeah, I missed the days of you and all the others we.
Talked about a little bit. Yeah, he'll be back this week. And Putty more than he likes, but he'll be back this week.
Call us Dan, Yeah for sure. A big game tonight, go Cats. Yeah, see you there. Hope we win a big one. Okay, Thanks, let's go. We got to go, right, Yeah, let's go. Thank We'll see you ready tomorrow. Okay, Thanks,