This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services Insure your most prized possession.
Hats Andy.
Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera in with me today. Is Troy sit a send from goazycatch dot com.
Are you doing, Troy?
Good? How about you?
How's your weekend?
It was good. I don't even remember what the hell I did which made me play the perfect weekend. Yes, well, I'll rain the little right. Everyone's the great flood of Tucson never happened. It's getting my house ready for the summer. Little little early monsoon. Yeah, a little giving for the summer. You know, I'm still recovering from my surgery, so I did a little too.
Much with that.
I hope my doctor doesn't get e O at me. So we'll see, we'll see. Good to see you, Troy. Thanks for getting some guests that you were doing your homework, No problem, no, we get justin Spiras. At four seventeen, he covers Arizona football, obviously from the website The Arizona Day Star works for that other station.
In the mornings, and then Ronnie Palmer at three seven running Palmer.
Yeah, yeah, could get a good story with.
Him, right Yeah.
Former UFA linebacker played during the Tubs era and now was on the staff I think, and has been a defensive coach, analyst, you know, whatever you want to list as a role. But was one of the main pieces in terms of helping the team get back to a Bowl game in two thousand and eight.
Yeah, so we'll talk to him. He hasn't been on the job very long, right, just started right before the springball Well I was gonna say March ish around there. Yeah, you know, good, good, we'll talk about that. We're talking a lot about baseball, softball. We won't have breaking news, We'll just can you just talk about it?
Right?
Yeah? I think the big news of the weekend was a baseball team. Yeah, doing what you did kind of doors opened for them.
I mean, once you get the home host team out real quick, Yeah, and you don't have to face them, it's a good day.
There was I who did that. I don't know if you remember.
Back in two thousand and eight ish, two thousand and nine, whatever, it was Panel and Dunlap took over first Loot and uh squeaked into the into the tournament, and things fell into place, and all of a sudden they were in the Sweet sixteen.
They beat what Utah and then who was the well, Cleveland State lost Cleveland State then yeah, yeah, yeah, and then they got to to Louisville and louis will beat the crap out of them. That's what Pedal said, I'll never ever respect Patino again, and Patino keep the crap.
Out of them.
But it was it was you know, that was a year when everyone said Arizon listening down year, and they were, and they were when all circumstances of the events, you know, Loot being out and Panel and and done up taking over with Reggie and Sweet sixteen. Hey, a lot of people would have killed for that. So Arizona gets now, yeah, right now, it's the standard. Right now, it's the standard, right right. So I gave you these numbers. Someone to me, uh and I you know, everyone thinks I'm mister snarky
and you know, paying the ass. So people have been posting it was one that has two people in the n NBA finals, right, Donnell and uh Ben Mathrin. So it's eleventh straight year that they had at least one right into the Plaust and I I, one of my buddies posted that, and I said, well, how many final fours they have in that time? And just just just to throw it, just to throw it out there, just from perspective. You can bring me these numbers that I'll give you some more. And then then he kind of
threw one. I said, they've only been to two in thirty years. They won't have been to two. I mean, we know the two thousand and one is las time they got to the final four, but actually ninety seven because ninety eight he didn't.
They had the best chance to repeat and they didn't. And they've come a couple of ninety five they choked, came close, came close. Sorry, ninety four they choked in the final four. But yeah, yeah, well check Arkansas are pretty damn good. Weren't they by like, what no, fifteen fteen in that game?
No?
No, no, no, no, are you talking about Chicago?
No?
No, I know Chicago, Rosemond Okay, yeah they choked, yeah rosebud Okay, Yeah, yeah, I was going back your ninety four.
Yeah, yeah, they choked. That that's a good word. So you know, it's it's it's it's tough, it ain't easy.
And then today Tommy gets another guy. I don't know if you know what the guy's name.
I have the Ivan part, the last names got to work on Germany. So waited for Byron me went nick that I guess what they were.
They waiting because I know they had somebody lined up for a couple of months now, didn't know where from or who it was because of the Carter Bryon situation. But Carter Bran makes it official today in a in a tab right in a in a post, when we already knew two three weeks ago, and he makes official, So they make it official.
Did they have to wait for that?
I don't think they had to wait for it. And yet again, remember the team hasn't announced it, like they've been not announced the other international signings. They haven't announced it themselves. But I think, uh, you know the lens of international basketball, how you always see euro Hoops or ESPN whoever break that news. They waited, probably intentionally until Carter made his decision. It's probably been a decision already by Ivan for a while.
Yeah, and I saw my guy Babcock's list he has he has him still going at fourteen and you wouldn't come out if you were any less than fourteen.
No, And there's some that have him in the top ten, in the top ten, yeah, there's a couple. There was one on I believe it was Yahoo dot com has him at ten, and then NBA mock Draft on NBA dot Com has him at fourteen. Then there was one at thirty two and twenty, but mostly in that lottery pick area.
Yeah, yeah, I don't think so, so we'll see what happens. And then I saw that what Aery McDonald has signed with the Indiana Fever.
Yeah, you know, I'm an exciting team. Good good part, good time to be there right.
Now, right, yeah, yeah, no question. Once Kaitlyn comes back. I'm wearing my keln shirt. I have no idea why somebody guy got it for me.
Some I'm wearing it. What else going on else?
I mean softball, you have you know to go to Kennedy transferring entering the portal by far Arizona's best player returning for next season. You could have made a case for her to be the best player on the roster last year. She didn't tweet up that Kim Dass broke that news going through her sources. But huge loss for Arizona, not a surprise. They've lost most of their pitching staff. Wasn't exactly a great staff to begin with, lost a
couple of players in the portal already. So you're looking at a complete rebuild after hosting a regional and it's a dark time right now in my opinion.
No, it is after having a pretty good season up to come on. Pretty good.
You and I thought about this last week a little bit. I don't kick your ass again. Okay, no, but you know, relatively speaking, you know, give it a big twelve. Yeah, well, Texas text can be in the finals, maybe, yeah, what do they have though?
They have that picture?
Yes, they have one star picture. But pitching makes breaks the game, Oh no, no question.
And the best picture up until well her and tennessee picture, you know, throwing seventy nine miles per hour, seventy eight miles.
Up until today. They just got down.
Yeah right, some great games, and I was watching more softball than I was baseball, although the baseball games were pretty good too. You you watched and they were already up by whatever they were up, said, this is nothing, but the softball was very good entertaining crazy stuff, crazy stuff the UCLA game, the LA organ, Yeah, the UCLA organ where she didn't step on the home plate.
Yeah, I thought she did.
No, she missed it.
I thought she did it. Let me see why I paid ball. I played ball, and not that this qualifies me.
But if you saw her foot, it moved really strange in the in the in the plate where you step on something and it kind of moves with that.
It wasn't dirt, it was something.
Yeah.
When I played second base sometimes I didn't touch the base when it turned double play, but my inner inner touched the base. I wasn't directly on it, but I was touching it with my insights. Yeah, people would say, oh, he didn't he touched it, he grazed it. It's good enough.
Yes, So I think that was just my opinion. But they obviously said.
She didn't touch it, didn't touch it, and it didn't make any sense, although she did come back and touch it.
So I don't know the rules of the rules, and whatever the rules said didn't make any sense.
No, and it almost costs right them the game justice kind of Yeah, and that well that was Tennessee yesterday. U c l A Tennessee and uh they were able to take Yeah that the Organ game was good to I mean this whole weekend of has been phenomenal, crazy, but you know, Tennessee got it done and then Oklahoma held on and right now they're going to be playing Texas Tech.
Texas Tech Organ the winner of Oklahoma Oklahoma and Texas.
Play Oklahoma in Texas Tech twice and ninety is going to pitch twice.
She pitched. Yeah in this whole thing. Yeah, it's the moment. It's a moment.
It's the time of the year. I mean, you look at UCLA when they had Rachel Garcia. She pitched every inning until they're able to get her some help. But if you have that one ace, they're gonna be pitching every single ning.
Can you finch? Where are you?
Yeah?
Alisha Hollowell, Yeah, who's the back in day?
Who's my back in the day pitcher?
Nancy Evans two weeks back, Kinsey Valery, Yeah, back in the day. And you know we're like three maybe three years apart or and I but you know, well you're back in the day, two year old.
Get used to it.
Get used to it again. If you guys want to call five two zero for one six seventy four forty. You appreciate the call. Get us through the day. It's gonna be a tough week for me. Everyone's gone, Dave Silver's gone, Blake is gonna be later another day. We're gonna have Coach Lopez here on a win Wenesday. I you know how Michael love tomorrow. So I just got to get some guests, guess some guests and some in studio people, so we'll see anything else.
No, you know, you look at this Arizona recruiting class number one on rivals dot Com. It's been there for a while. Really it was like three. No, it was number one above Houston b Yu. I believe Houston's too. Who's doing this rivals dot com? But who's Who's the guy in Yahoo? They have their own recruiting services that do the rankings, So we we personally do not get involved in that. It would be but no, the Arizona has the number one recruiting insight exact. The Athletic did
a story yesterday and then we moved into today. Was the the top twenty five rankings given all the transfers. I think Arizona finish eighteen o right right now with the loss of Carter, Yeah, yeah.
And probably not with the addition of this guy, which I'm sure was could get. But we'll see.
But eighteen okay, I think I post I post odds on my Facebook page last week.
Would you bet this? Would you put one hundred dollars on this?
On this?
Uh?
I think forty to one to win the National Championship forty one?
No, No, I wouldn't.
It's a wait, it's a dead money. The issue for me seventeen favorite.
Yeah, The issue for me isn't necessarily Arizona as a brand. It's you're gonna be relying on freshmen a lot on this team, and it's unpredictable. You can't predict if you're going to have a Cooper Flag style freshman or a guy that is like Carter that isn't exact who's very good guy. I mean, he's going in the NBA draft, but he wasn't a guy that was gonna average eighteen points a game and leave a team. You're right, So I don't know. We'll see how Copete plays, We'll see
how Brandon Burry's plays. Because of those guys, aren't those dudes, it's a tournament team that maybe could get to sweet sixteen.
Maybe that's so maybe to the sweet sixteen. Guess where you guess where they're stuck at the sweet sixteen sixteen.
Now, if they're phenomenal, it's it's a team that could get to a Final FOURIG national title name. But you got to see what you got, and until you play games, you don't know what you got.
And it's another uh, with that you considered a well, we'll see what they do in the in the regular season, and it's gonna be.
A great year.
It's gonna be a great watching year, phenomenal because of the games they're playing and who they're playing and who they're playing.
Uh.
And then and then comes March, and then now you're judged.
Yeah, yeah, and you're gonna be battle tested again during the non conference and get into conference play and we'll see what that schedule is like. But now only eighteen games in the Big twelve instead of the winning games.
Right, so we'll see what happens. Let's go, let's go. Who did I say? My first guess is gonna be Ronnie Palmer.
Ronny Palmer, he's calling us yep, Okay, let's go, come back and then be ready for him.
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Experts breaking down all the xs at ohs. This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera on Box Sports fourteen fifty.
Hey, welcome back to Why on the bout here on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. I'm Steve Rivera and with me today is Troy Hutchison from Goisycats dot com. Now on the phone me how Ronnie Palmer? Are you a coach on the football side?
Coach? How are you?
Man? I'm doing just fine.
Man.
It's off and running this summer, just just keeping busy. How you guys doing.
We're doing fine. Hey, welcome home, by the.
Way, man, it's it's it's uh, it's pretty unbelievable to be back. I didn't think of a better place i'd want to be right now, and we're very excited to be back home, no doubt.
You know, Uh, Coach Palmer.
I was a kid that grew up watching you and Mike Stoops and building that program from where you guys built it on the defensive side of the ball and the recruiting. Did you ever think back then when you were playing middle linebacker that you would be getting into coaching. Did you have that coaching urge back in the day.
I think so. Uh, you know, anytime you're at that position at you know, it's no different than a quarterback, right, a quarterback of the defense. But you do so much film study and you have so much respect for those that that helped you learn the game, and uh love the game. And and I've had some great mentors alone away, some special coaches that really helped fuel me long after
the you know, the playing days were over. So probably at some point, maybe halfway through my career at Arizona, I knew coaching would be in my future when I finally hung up the Cleeds. So, you know, big big props to Tim Kish, you know, Mike Stoops, Mark Stoops, Corey Edmund. They were they were pioneers and just really great mentors, not only as coaches, but as father figures and as men just to help help me in my career.
And great names you bring up right, Obviously, the Stoops brothers, Kish who's still around doing the National Football Foundation stuff. So let's assume for a second you're twenty years old, twenty one years old, and you're talking about middle of your career here and you, Okay, maybe I'll be a coach. What are you thinking? I'll be this kind of coach and this is how I'll do it? And could that happen nowadays because it's kind of removed from it.
Uh, you know what, as a twenty one year old, you know when you're when you're young, and you're you're highly energetic. And I think that the biggest thing that I took out of those years was, Man, those are guys I'd run through the wall for And I always knew that feeling, and I kind of bottled up that feeling of being in twenty one nineteen, twenty years old as a young freshman as a starter here at Arizona, and just I wanted to be that type of coach.
The kid's gonna run through the wall for me and just be excited not only to play football but just about life and then hopefully leave the place better than what you found it, and hopefully they could leave better than what they were and that when they came in, you.
Know, when the NCAA change the rules were, they were allowing analysts to be on the field and have practices and getting more involved with coaching and kind of opened the door for more coaching opportunities for everybody across the country. How did it all come about you returning to Arizona? Was that Brennan that called you? Coach Gonzalez that called you? How did that all come together for you?
You know, that's a that's a pretty good story, man. You know, I was actually in a really good position. I was on my fifth year as head coach at Monterey Peninsula College, which is a small junior college on the West coast where my wife's from. It was a very well, you know, well paying job. You know, I
did a lot of recruiting. We were having our version of success coming off of an eleven no season, and but I always had my eyes on returning to the Division one level, getting that taste of a head coach. You know, you just can't let that go. So I do have aspirations of being a head coach at the
four year level. Coach Brennan at the time was at San Jose, so I was always sending recruits his way, going to his clinics, helping out in any way possible with recruiting, meeting the coaches, big shout out to a Lonzo Carter. Really started building my relationship with him, actually before I became a head coach, but in my earlier years at Northern Colorado, when I was an FCS coach. But but really just started networking and building with those guys. Uh,
and then the plan is kind of aligned. And uh, you know, when Brennan took the job at Arizona, I still didn't reach out to him and didn't have a great personal relationship with him. But a guy by the name of Joe Salava was hired in January, and uh, you know, I think so so highly of him and what he's done in his career and just what kind
of a passionate leader he brings to this program. So when he got the job, we worked together for about maybe five or six weeks when I first got into coaching, not together as position coaches, but I just knew him from the staff and he called me and offered a job,
an opportunity to come back home. And I had actually had accepted another job this coaching game is crazy, but it was a no brainer to really look at this opportunity and the kind of in that assistant d line coach role, that's that's that's new to the college UH landscape, and and really to really put my statement on this program and really help elevate where we are now. And and you know, Joe is Joe is probably the UH
was instrumental the most in this opportunity. I didn't know Danny Brendan and I had met plenty of times, but you know what, we weren't on a on a calling each other basis. So Joe Salave is the was the guy. Uh.
The one thing that I've noticed not covering it on the day to day for the football side of it, UH, is how enthusiastic this group is, right.
Uh.
You talked about the defensive coordinator UH and Salva of course and some of the other guys on the other side of the ball. Just just youngish, very full of life and ready to.
Go at it.
Yeah. You know, that's that's that's part of the game. And football is supposed to be fun, you know, and the game's changed, you know, kids are changing. Twenty years ago, it was yes or no, sir, and you were gonna do with the coach said to do because coach said so. Right Now, nowadays you have to really be able to
teach and mold young men in a different way. And and part of our responsibility as coaches is to bring that juice and to have fun and show the kids that we can love them and we can make them work, and we can push them and motivate them at the same time. And it doesn't have to be ruling with the iron fists, so to speak, you know, like like the old school versions of football. So Danny does a
great job. He lets his coach. That's the one reason why I thought this job was so you know, obviously it's bare down and it's home, but I was going to be treated as a coach even though I'm working under coach slave. They give me my ability to coach. They let me spend time and meetings, bring up good points in in the in the UH, in our staff meetings, and and have a voice. So usually that that respect and that appreciation, it just kind of goes around our room.
And and our coaches are very very high energy, high motivating. We're running chasing after guys during practice, and they understand that, and I think it helps our players understand how much we care.
As well, you know, going back to your playing days and when you came to Tucson as a Texas kid, just seeing the Texas influence. Get back to Arizona with this coaching staff. I know it was strong with the Mike steps coaching staff, but it went away there for a while. How important do you feel it is for this university to have their footprint in Texas and see that again like it was back when you were playing here.
You know, that's a great question. I think it's very important. I don't think it's the only thing that matters, but it is a huge piece.
You know.
Obviously being in the Big Twelve Conference, Texas is very very close and accessible for a lot of places. But we have such rich history of Texas players, you know, the Earl, Mitchell's, Mike Thomas, There's so many. The list goes on and on of the guys that have had successful NFL careers, and Stoops did a great job, you know. I think part of the reason why I chose Arizona because of the name Mike Stoops, and I knew what he would bring from from a coaching standpoint. From a
defensive standpoint. And I can still remember my first recruiting visit. You know, we had five or six kids from Texas. And in that first recruiting class, Mike stoops Era, we signed seven guys from Houston alone, and that's not even counting the kids from San Antonio, from West Texas or from up north or East Texas. I mean, we had seven kids from the right of Houston area, and then the following year it was Houston and Dallas, and the year after that it was another big crop from Dallas
in Houston. So it's very exciting to see. Uh, you know, Brendan gives me a lot of leeway with with talking to a lot of the families and the Texas kids, and I do have a really strong relationship with kids from the South and when they hear a coach that that can talk and look like them, or say some of the same know some of the same areas or you know. And we have quite a few coaches on our staff that represent the state of Texas. So I do think that's gonna be kind of a home for us,
along with Arizona and California of course respectively. But yes, we're excited I'm very excited.
No, in fact, like you were saying, you can talk to talk and walk the walk because you are one.
Of them, no doubt. And it's uh, you know when when when parents have that conversation piece and you can tell they're a little maybe uneasy right of their son leaving leaving uh you know, the backwoods or leaving you know, the home base and going you know further down I in to to call it home. I can can leave the rest assured that it's a great move and a great decision, and and then kind of give them the why and show them the layout, and you know, this place is means so much to me and I know
my wife here. So it's you can come out here, you can leave home. You can always go back and visit. But then after a while you realize that leaving that nest is is key to growing up as a man.
So did you after you got out of here twenty some years ago, right, did you get into coaching right away and ask that question for this question? Do you think kids today are different? I'll know you kind of answered this question twenty years ago. And in terms of they want to learn, they want to be coached. Uh, even though you have to kind of coach them differently if you if you will given the money, you give them the nil all stuff.
Well, I do think this day and age has changed. You know, kids are more driven. There's a lot of different ways to to brand yourself and to promote yourself in I L is a huge tool that can can create generational wealth. It can really change the framework of one's life after football. We're back back in the day. You know, our goal is the NFL. Yeah, and if it was the NFL, you know, you kind of hit that wall of you know, like what what, what's next?
What's going to happen next? So you know, psychologically I could you can see a lot of athletes, you know, struggle, so but no, you know, after I finished playing my final season in two thousand and eight here in Arizona, I signed an NFL contract with the Washington Redskins, which is now the Commanders, and and you really for three years. You know, it was a combination of four different contracts you know, from NFL, UFL, and even CFL. So I gave it three years, and uh really started trying to
look at the framework of what was next. Probably after the rookie season you know, and and Tim kish had offered me the h g A a couple of times at Arizona, and and for some reason I continue to turn it down. And I honestly think it was great to turn it down, just because you never want to look around and say what if?
You know?
So I think I was ready after that third year, and unfortunately, uh Mike Stoops was let go a week or two before I was hired on as a quality control coach. So but but coach kishuh really helped introduce me into the coaching profession and I haven't looked back. So it's been great.
You know, obviously things change, especially from two thousand and eight today, but just looking at the renovations and the upgrades that Arizona's made with their facilities back when you were a player here to what the players have now, just her thought process of that and how much things have changed with the football program and just the facilities that they have now.
You know, that's a great question. Around two thousand and nine, I saw the renderings of this this football facility and expanding the stadium and the indoor facility. I think I saw maybe a couple of years after that, and I couldn't have dreamt of a Petter setup for Arizona football. It's a lot different. I will say that for all the alumni, all the Ogs that come back and experience this place and look around, there was nothing better than McHale.
We didn't we didn't know that we were struggling down there. We loved it down there at all the athletes. Like I said, I met my wife down there in the
training room after practice one day. You know, is you're you're in the same kind of dungeon, and so to speak, and you know, the basketball teams right there, the volleyball team, the baseball team, and we're all there, you know, just trying to figure it out before ni El, before all these really cool indoor facilities and separate football facilities, and we had our training table and our meal money and
life was good. But but now that you know, it's it's special to see what college sports is doing for all athletes and everything from the nutrition standpoint, the financial literacy stuff that we do here at Arizona, the mentoring, the tutoring, everything's so accessible for these kids that it really elevates your opportunities for when you are twenty two or twenty one or twenty three and on your way
towards graduation and leaving Arizona. You're you're already off to a a better space career wise.
I'm also assuming that you probably got some bonus points from the wife, maybe the kids coming back. Your wife obviously played the ball here.
Lauren. She's fired up. You know, she's not fired up to deal with the kids by herself all day. So I don't know if I got the bonus points or if I if I owe a little bit. I'm sure I do, but she's fired up. You know. We had to kind of sit down and in any opportunity for a job, you kind of weigh those pros and cons of the job is worth moving financially, is it's set
for us? And we Like I said, I had already accepted another job, another division one job in another state, and that job was very tricky for my wife and I to navigate. And then the same week, Coach Slavea calls and says, come on, let's roll man, and then let's just say it was a shorter conversation for Lauren
and I to come back to Arizona. She was very excited not only for me, but for our families, so our girls can can see the layout here, they can be around such elite people, not only people, but athletes in a program that we found home, you know, over twenty years ago. So very excited, you know, and very very unique to to come here at this time and just so motivated to see this place continue to grow.
You know, during the summer, you guys have a lot of busy recruiting weekends with official visits and people taking a look at the campus. I know this weekend was a big one, and you can't talk specifics in terms of players, but just the excitement level that you're seeing from these recruits and prospects, getting to meet the coaching staff and seeing what you guys are all about and just how teens are progressing for Arizona on the recruiting ground.
Yeah, well, you know, you're nothing without recruiting. It's all about people. We are in the service business, and it's about serving these young men and their families. And the recruiting piece has been elevated, uh in Brennan's tenure, Like from last year to now, it's been elevated from what I've been told from everybody in the in the athletics department. We're we're very excited. This was actually my first official visit last weekend, and we had a number of kids,
uh join in and commit. You know, we're keeping our numbers small because we love the intimacy and I think the families and the players really understand Coach Brennan as a as a head coach and as a man, and the staff and and we want we want everybody to really feel like home here because that's what Tucson is. You know, you don't even have to sell it because it is. It's just that it's it's such a home vibe. There's good people, there's good people in the community that
want to take care of you. Uh, it's a true college town. So a lot of stuff and ruiting. We just put our best foot forward and we you know, we we show who we are. But you don't have to over overdo anything or be fake or false in any sense because this program and the facilities and everything has been top notch. So I've actually enjoyed my first official business I feel like I was an eighteen year
old kid again. I'm over there in the front of the camera and dancing and hanging out and meeting people and let's just say, a lot of change out here at that you know, in the facilities. So it's been a lot of fun seeing how recruiting is going. It's a it's a challenge, but I I'm enjoying even the bad points or the bad times and the good times as well. But that's that's part of this journey which is called football.
That's what it takes to be an eighteen year old. I signed me up. Baby, I'm sixty. I need to feel that way again. Coach, thanks to Yeah, yeah, no worry, Thanks a bunch of good luck. We'll see you guys in a couple of months. Already we started getting ready for the next season training camp around the corner.
Yeah, I think we're about ninety ninety days to kickoff. Yeah, and probably less than sixty days or so until until fall camp. So yeah, we're ready to go, very very excited to see what we put out on the on film, and we're just gonna keep getting better. I want to know every day, fans.
Want to hear that.
Fans want to hear that, Thanks coach, Coach Palmer, all right, appreciate it, Thanks a bunch. We're going to take a break and come back on the other side, if you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you know it's been successful for newly forty years.
Now.
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Steve Rivera, he's got his eye on the ball on Tucson's sports station, Fox Sports sporteen fifty.
Hey, welcome back to I on the ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, Your Troy Hutchison.
Probably going to catch dot com.
And we got about ten minutes, probably about ten minutes, eleven minutestry. I just want to call five two zero four one six seventy four forty.
This is a quick calling.
I'm expecting to call somebody specific I wanted to get a hold of last week but didn't for a more timely story.
Let's see if he calls in. I'll just texted him earlier.
What else going on, Choy, It looks like Arizona baseball is going to be going to North Carolina as the Darkules beat Oklahoma fourteen to four today, securing their spot in the super regional.
What's your seed? They're the five seed, five seed, none seeded.
Not see that.
What does this do for Chip?
I mean it's the barrier that he hasn't been able to break. You hosted a regional last year, got beat oh and two Dallas Baptist knocked them out. It's a big milestone for him. I mean, he was very emotional after the win last night, saying that it's hard to win these games, and it is, there's no question about it.
But you know, getting to be able to be in a spot where you can potentially get the Omaha and get the program where it wants to be, it's a massive step for the program, especially in terms of recruiting. You're going to be on TV during these games, more people are going to see your brand out there.
We've talked about this before that probably baseball, softball, swimming are more of the blue blood sports historically, right historically, so getting to the get into Omaha is the holy grail?
Or is it realistic?
It's realistic? I think I think the standard should always be for softball baseball, because of how things have changed with an eel and everything, you should always be in a super regional looking to compete to get to Oklahoma and Omaha.
But is Arizona wealthy enough? And I think we're seeing that in softball possibly where they don't probably have the money or they don't have the coach. Whatever they're missing coach I was gonna say coaching, I'll say coaching money. Uh, whatever they're missing the missing link.
I think they have enough. I know they're enough money. Enough money in the transport portal maybe not, maybe not. But do you have enough resources, facilities and tradition to recruit at the high school level?
Yeah, just because you growed up in a Rolls Royce Troy doesn't make you a different Troy.
No, but you're not paying again, you're not paying these high school kids millions of dollars like you're at the college college basketball, college football level. Sure now the transfer is sure Like again NIGRII Kennedyan exception. It's it's not gonna happen, right, But can you at least find a hitting gem pitching that small colleges and other programs have Tennessee, they their pictures from South Carolina. Nobody knew who she was and they went and got her. Why Why is
a program like Tennessee out recruiting. Well, they've expanded, they've expanded their recruiting po.
And they're and they're good, but they're more recent good than Arizona's recent I disagree really this.
Time this was their first one College World Series trip in nine years and Arizona has been there three times. Okay, so but yet they're able to recruit at a higher level.
Okay sec.
Yeah, Yeah, but again it comes down to coaching and I think Chip Hall, you're you're in a position to get to Omaha. So the recruiting is gonna go again. You have White, spent Mason, it's been phenomenal. Yeah, players, Summer Hills one of the top prospects, and then I'll be draft coming up.
But those are the guys you want to get on your team. Yeah.
Yeah, But the key for both programs over the last couple of years, or really since the dawn the time is do you have the pitching pitching in and recruiting pitching and defense. And so if they don't get to the Omaha, it depends on how you lose, I mean, if you lose competitively.
Kind of like Arizona men's basketball. Yeah, it's been blown out by Duke, it would have been all.
What the hell, it's the same old thing.
But they played well, they came back, they made a game, blah blah blah.
So all the.
Season's been saved, even though it's still the same stuff.
Yeah. So for Arizona baseball, if you forced a game three, let's say, and you lose the game in game three and North Carolina moves on. Okay, they were the five seed, they were one of the top top ten programs in college baseball. You did a good job getting there. Nobody thought you were going to get past Oregon. That's a bright spot. Now you get swept zero to two and you get blown out of those games. I mean, you moved on to the next round.
That's good.
You got there.
But man, you weren't even competitive in it. Okay, well you can paint more pictures. But I get what you're saying. I don't know if I agree with that. But because he's the fourth year in, right, she's fourth year in at her place. We'll see, we'll see what it means, because it's tough to win. Like I agree with him, it's tough. There's so many good teams out there, got good players, coaching, matters.
And for college baseball, even tougher than college softball is the top recruits are going to them. I'll be draft. Even if you're recruiting them, you're probably not going to sign them. So that's another element to the college of course.
And that's the curveball.
That's the curve ball that you have to hit, you know, curveball in college sports because they have a chance to go somewhere else and get paid for real. Yeah, and we'll see what happens. Good for him though, if they go to North Carolina, see what they do with the chance to And you know, to all those who believe in momentum, they have momentum. I guess what sort of other teams when they get to this point. Everybody has momentum.
I think softball and baseball is very different from football and basketball in a sense that in terms of momentum, in terms of like if you get a hot pitching staff at the right time. In the posty Andy Lopez when he won the national title, that pitching staff got hot at the right time. They were good, but they went on this role. Sure, and once you get pitchers and roles, it really doesn't matter who they if they believe in that it doesn't matter who they face you.
You will use the word momentum, I'll use the word confidence, and then yeah yeah, because it's it's all one and the same.
Pretty much depends what word you want to use.
Where I feel like, I feel like basketball and football most of the time, and I get March madness, there's upset, but most of the time, the better teams are gonna win.
The chucky well baseball not to share that could happen. Texas is out, Vanderbilt's out, some of those teams that it's like, it's hard to win, especially in baseball, well and especially all sports, but baseball, since I know it did very difficult because you can have a bad day.
It's how you play that day.
All Texas and number one overall Seat went out in the regionals. I just feel like those two sports, you know, if you have the confidence and your pictures are rolling, you can beat anyway.
Oh yeah, cat one, you have your Texas tech picture. Yea, who she is?
You play harder, And I know people don't believe that, but I definitely believe that. You know, we talked about the Glora thing. When I asked that Lama and the loora thing. And then Fafida comes in to me if they played harder for you saw it? I saw I saw it, and I was chris as a little for it. But no, you could tell he just played harder there.
For whatever reason, there's that I don't know what it is, but players see it in practice, especially no question, and it's like, Okay, why wasn't this guy starting like it's not even debate who's better. Why don't we roll with them?
We saw that with Dawkins and uh and uhlil Tate And you're thinking, but you know, what do we know because you know, maybe a practice, but what do we know?
What do we watch people?
Well, this guy's getting paid millions, you better make the right decision until he doesn't.
And and uh fish was that.
Guy here with with the two quarterbacks and Rodriguez was the coach back then. Yep, you know it says job that's on the line that not yours are mine.
And again, sometimes they're not practice players, like cool T was notorious not a practice player.
Basketball.
Derek Williams apparently wasn't very good in practice, but when the lights turned on all of a sudden, it.
Just no, you see that I saw that a lot for a lot of people. And if you're just good, you're good, and that it doesn't matter either way. You know, you're consistent all the way through ye good, good or bad. It's like Gamon and Kalidklid just she just didn't work as hard as Damon, and Damon was fantastic, and so it was Kalid until they weren't until he wasn't right because you have to you know, keep the keep the
momentum going if you will that way, that word. When he went to Miami, he just didn't get any better well.
And again it's it's a drive that you could be talented, yes, but if you're not willing to put in the work, put in the extra and let's put in the extra weight room time, you're not going to make it. They don't know that that's maybe less talented than you.
No question, because that's part of it. I mean, that's part of who you are. Getting better, getting better, one to be better. And you see it's like this, like we talked about this the beginning of the show. There was almost eighteenth ranked blah blah blah. Pretty good team, right, it's going to be fantastically loaded with talent. There's seventeen other teams that are going to be in a better boat or in a better situation in that boat, but nobody knows because they don't really follow it.
They don't follow it until you see it.
It's like Florida International back in the day, two three years ago, whatever you've seen it for Atlantic Atlantic, where they come from. They get to the final four and he says, well, I didn't notice them. You didn't notice them because you didn't look for it, you know, he said, where these guys come from, Well, they're pretty good.
You wouldn't know until you pay attention.
And you're going to find out a lot about a team just looking at college basketball right now, what they're going to do in the weight room with Chris rownas with the strength and conditioning coach and everything that goes on there. Carter Bryant I had a feeling and whoever interviewed him to I'm sure they did too when they interviewed him, because we got an opportunity to interview him. He went from one ninety five when he first stepped
put on campus about two fifteen. He was soft, softy, yeah, but right before the season, Well, if you're gonna put on that much weight and get bulky and worth that hard in the weight room. They're gonna be a good player, and it showed up later in March for Arizona.
Sure, sure, okay with that, we're gonna go take a break, come back here the top of the hour. I'm not gonna have any breaking news, so we'll just continue the show.