Monday, March 25, Hour 1

This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez sound Fox Sports fourteen fifteen powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure Your Most Prized Possessions kat z Our two sad at iHeartRadio Station. Ay, good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to Eye on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. It's not a tape voice outside partner Jac and it's like not over the phone. We can hear you. I could. I could just came to pick up my mail. I leave tomorrow. I'm not sure it's a good

thing. Leave me hanging here, Steve, leaving me hanging here. These drives have been adventurous. How long did it take to get to Sela City? Twelve hours almost of a minute, twelve hours, twelve It ate my max maybe eight and a half if I yea, that's just stopping go to the bathroom so much. Yeah, well that's what kind of stopped. That's my max, stop and go. It was okay, it was not bad weather. It was fantastic up there until we left and started to snow.

But it was skill cool. The Arizona had come and gone, and we'll talk about that. Get your impressions and my impressions of the games. We're gonna have a guest here who's there covering kind of the West, I not kind of the West, the West, uh, and following Arizona and Gonzaga, so we'll get his impressions of that and the little dynamic that there is. Chuck Colepaper cup Upper, a longtime friend, longtime college basketball guy. So we'll talk to him. And then you got I got Doug Tamerro.

He's the uh, he's the media relations guy for as U Athletics, their version of Matt inswer over here. Doug's been doing it for about fifty or sixty years or so, but he's also the media coordinator for the Final Four, and they're you know, uh, you know I've mentioned I. You know, I'm volunteering at the Final Force. We're starting to get emails from him, but all the things going on, So I just thought would get him on and just talk about just what it takes to run the media operation

for an event like that. You know, arguably, you know, it's up there with you know, this Super Bowl and the World Series and and some of those events in terms of what you got to do, particularly on the media side of it, So we thought it'd be fun to talk about what he's going through right now because he's probably working, you know, fourteen hour days and every day of the week and it's already next weekend. But

they do a great job. ASU was hosted a Final four. For people who don't don't know that when when when you're talking the n C double, a's where whatever city it's in, it's being hosted by a school in that city. For instance, you were in Salt Lake City, even though the even though the event wasn't at UH at the at the Utah. At Utah's Jim, they were the host ace he's the host of the Final four.

They've hosted regionals. You go to LA and it's usually it's pepper Dye because I know you sail in USC generally don't do that, so it's near in LA, it's Pepperdine. When we were at actually when we did the one in San Jose, it was actually the PAC twelve that was the host, and they're allegedly hosting one next year in Vegas. Last year was n LV, so that you usually see their school logo on the court and you know who's hosting. Yeah, a site. Let's do a quick review from a

Saturday's game. What do you think you you at all? Both you guys Kevin's with us today. Did you feel a little panicky at any point? Maybe when they were up by three with a purfew minutes left, I would say, I would say when we were up by three, and yeah, I just they could hit their threes at any moment. They could start rating

their threes. I knew that. And their pace is another thing. I knew it would be a little bit of an issue at times, but no, this whole tournament, I felt pretty confident in the team so far. Yeah, there were some nerves around our house. I was watching with my wife and and my two daughters, and there was some nerves about that. But you know, it's like I gather myself when the game is over and I realized they were never gonna lose that game. You're a pretty good You're

pretty good seismologist, right, I mean we were all. But see, I'm an Arizona fan. I get nervous if they're not up by twenty. I tweeted that, as anybody nervous about this thing. Yeah, of course they're nervous. You know, if they start to fin you know, if they're up between ten and twenty points a whole game, I'm still nervous because I'm like, don't let it get under ten, because then you're gonna blow it. Right. But they were never gonna lose a game. They were

in charge the whole time. In the end, you know that they were when you look at how well they played defensively. These guys couldn't make a three pointer and they were the best three players were they weren't shooting, They weren't They weren't even getting three point shots. Yeah, their best shooter didn't shoot enough. Yeah, yeah, he didn't take enough shots up and the Holmes guy, very good player, obviously, very lanky, and very good

game. Arizona fits. I don't know. With about five minutes left, I'm singing, okay, and I even put this is a you know, Cohona's time, and it was it was they they found him, They found him. They were there. Uh And you know, we hadn't seen Bradley play like he did, and he was. He was outstanding and he had to be. He had to because Boswell was not right. But Boswell didn't have didn't have a great game. He didn't have a bad game. He just didn't play great. He didn't you know, he didn't stick out in

any way. And he didn't score, he didn't, you know, but he defended he you know, he didn't hurt him, no, but he just didn't add anything. Well, you saw this happen the week before with the organ They took out Love and Boswell put in kJ and Brent Bradley and they did very well. In fact, they caught up. They made the game better and closed the gap with that smaller lineup and it worked again on

Saturday. Yeah, and as Tommy said, it's important to have a team that can do that, right that when that when somebody's not having yeah, you well, meeting there the expectations that you have for them, that you got somebody who will come in and will That's funny because uh, this is in November, December, January, February, March, five months. He probably did that or whatever a few months too late, because he would have

never said that two months ago. He was giving Boswell a lot of leeway, a lot of leeway until recently he says, you know what I'm not saying saying what he's saying, but in his mind. He's probably saying, Okay, I've given you enough and you haven't done it. We gotta we

gotta go. We gave you the torch, and you're like, you're you're putting it out, So let's get somebody which is perfect, right, and and you know, and look remember this he did that with He did that with Kirk Gesa last year, right, So that's kind of who Tommy is, right, Yeah, yeah, it's kind of that's kind of who he is. Loyal, loyal oil until okay, now we can't do that anymore. So and it's good that you know that he's going he's going to do

that because he's gonna he's gonna go with what works. And it was coming off of Boswell, very good game on Thursday. So the good thing is and in fact I'll be doing a story about the guards here in a couple of days. Uh that he has four right, one's a shooter, right, and the other guys are defenders, and he all different rules and they're all different kinds of players. Like like kJ Lewis is a really defensive minded guy. I mean, he'll score as me score, right, he can

go in, he can go into the lane. He had a three the other day. You know, Bradley is just's he's he's quick, he's a defender, he's a good ball handler. Another guy he'll go into the I love when he goes into the lane and shoots that ten twelve foot because you're always gonna make it every time. Well, he gets into if he's in that lane, he needs to give that ball. He's going, I joked with the other day. So he's just downhill and he's headed to the beat.

There was one the other day that he clearly should have given up the ball and he didn't. You know, Boswell is a guy that I think he just kind of manages things. He'll get he'll take the shot if it's open. A few times he'll take a little bit of a nil advice shot. Then Caleb is Caleb. You know, he's the guy who's gonna go out there and hunt shot. And he looked fantastic in the first half. You're thinking, you know, that's the guy we saw in November December,

and then all of a sudden we saw him from January February. The second half. Yeah, but you know, and then Key shot another key role. You know again all around a creevous an incredible game. Yeah, you know, I mean I all season long, I don't think I ever sensed that he was that much more let's say, athletic or or quicker than Ballot, but he is. Yeah, he moves his feet a lot better than than thanmar you know. Yeah, he just gets into a little trouble.

Again, he's not he's not as he's not as physical with the ball in his hands as Umar. But from a defensive standpoint, he did he did a much better job than anything Umar was doing. Yeah. Well, both those guys are going to be in dire need of help. Help, but you's going to need them this weekend or Thursday because Clemson has a pretty good front court. Yeah, tall, athletic, So we'll see how he plays well now. You know, I was actually very impressed because again, they

never they never showed any panic. They just played. They were business like the whole time. I thought they were. I thought they were physical. Uh uh you know Pally did you know Pally was Pali? He didn't do anything really stupid. He was perfect. And I had talked you, I'm not sure you saw my story. Just how crucial is because of the Maya Cowitch stuff, right, and he didn't know that, And I'm thinking I

went too much to the games. See this is exactly what I talked to you what the day before, how crucial he is in crucial times because there's so he does so many things, and look, no one thing sticks out unless see, you know, unless see he'll have a high scoring game, which you had a couple of those, but no one thing sticks out as the best one of that on the court. But there's so many things that you know, he's he's just he just adds a lot to the overall let's

call it the you know, the big picture of what they do. Yeah, he hit a couple of big threes that were just big three. Everybody, everybody, you can point to everybody, And I kind of mentioned that everybody had a role. All eight guys that played had a role. Even I don't know how you feel when when Keyshot throws up a three, but you're thinking that's not a good show. Oh he made it made if it's from the corner or from the very top three point line, I love it

any all day. You hit two of those, you know, And and it goes to what Tommy said, you know, in the press conference the day before he said, you know, now he feels like every time he's going to take that shot, he thinks he's gonna make it. Yeah, yeah, give him that a bad shot, give that confidence. Uh, there's be a lot of storylines in the West. Guys, who's there? North Carolina? Carolina? Who where did he play before? Played in North

Carolina? The lead and then you got Alabama. So if Arizona gets to the lead eight, there's a storyline either way because they played Alabama earlier this year. So it's yeah, it ought to be fun. It should be funny. It should be fun. The only fun is in l A downtown. It's not fun place. It's so you know, busy down tires. There's nowhere to be downtown. Yeah. So but it's gonna be okay, it's gonna be at the Crypto. So I'm sure that there weren't a lot

of u A fans this this weekend. It was probably more of the bus, not the bus, but the team flight with their fans, and they'll be more a few. There will be a ton of fans in the West in LA as they usually are. So it should be a lot of fun for fans to visit the game or to see the game on Thursday afternoon, four o'clock o'clock in the afternoon. You're gonna do Uh, we're not. We won't have a show. No one's gonna listen. I'm not. I don't want to listen to myself. I want to watch a game. No,

I think that's a smart move. Yeah, I don't you know, No, I don't you know what if you're an Arizona fan and you're listening to us while you're watching you that's a bad way to watch a game, that's a bad way to watch a game. So we'll we'll preampt the show on Thursday, but I'll be here with either with you know, the the interns of me, or I'll get some guests. George Mightas was great so

last week he was here for three days. But well, we'll get somebody and try and get some people who can help us break the stuff down. So, with all the things going on, looking at Arizona's a seven point favorite. Yeah some point favorites, which is a big number for this kind of the big number. Let's talk real quick about the women and we'll talk more about them later. Uh, what a what a fantastic season it was? It was. It was odd at times and very good at times.

Uh, they gave it all that all they kind of they should have won the game. They should have won the game. Yeah, they should have won the game. And they didn't. They let it get it. It was theirs to win and they had it. I don't know if they ran out of gas. Uh they did. They just didn't play well, very well down the stretch. They didn't defend uh their their guard that scored all

the points at the end. And it was one of those things where I don't know if they couldn't defend her because they were out of gas or they just they just didn't have an answer for her, and they let and they got beat by one person. And that was too bad. But uh,

you know we did. Yeah, we watched the whole game, and and it was I thought they had it and they had a big lead, and then they let whittled down, whittled down, whittled down, and then this girl came in and just took it over and she went all Erry McDonald on them and they got beatn Yeah, maybe we get to maybe a week or so when she kind of decompresses from this letter, do that. Yeah, Okay, but because it showing the whole year, it seeming we were thinking,

what's going on, what's going on? And then she kind of comes through with seven people who were all in. We're all in. That's all you need, right, seven to be all in, right, and she did admirably well. Yeah, you know, they won a tournament game for the what fifth year in a row or something like that, so you know, good for them. Go get some go get some more players, just

get some numbers and see what happens. I mean, it's unfortunately, I know, if you saw Greg Hanson's call him yesterday, the five transfers all went elsewhere. It did really well. Maddy Connor averaged nineteen points a game. Riott Bondeley's playing for Colorado there and the I think in the sweet sixteen

she had a big game, you know, big day yesterday. You know, I think that that's too bad that those players did not stay because they all went somewhere else and did really well, except for my Anagie, who's just not playing anywhere right now. Right. So well, it's not to say that she didn't recruit very good players. She did. They Yeah, they just definit it's gonna be a fit, Okay, they're just they're just not playing here and that's too bad. All right, So let's go,

let's take a break. We're gonna be back. We're gonna have a Doug Tamara from as u As Media, but he's doing the Final Four Media, So we'll kick it around in terms of, you know, we can what can he can expect from guys like Steve showing up and wanting everything right? Steve, everything right now? Is that? Actually the thing that you guys are most worried about is is the food the buffet? All right, We'll be right back with Doug tamorrow. Make the right choice for your home when

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He's Jacob Self now on the phone. We have camera the Final four media media coordinator. How are you doing, Doug. I'm good, Steve Jay, how are you guys? We're doing well. We kind of joined in to see if how that party is going to start for us into ten days or whatever days. Well, uh, it's it's been well underway. We actually have a walk through tomorrow at the stadium where we all walk around and

see how it's changed from you know, football field to basketball court. The process starts, you know, the media area of course, the media dining area, which is always very important, and uh, you know, look at the look at our space. Look at how the space works. You know. One of the small things about the set up in Glendale as opposed to most of the Final four is where I've been, uh, there's not a lot of walking space or walking distance between locker rooms and media rooms.

So everybody will be happy with that. There's some facilities where, you know, we have to shuttle the players from golf carts and golf carts from locker room to the media area, and everything's within walking distance for everyone. So that's one of the small things about Phoenix that people love. They love the three hour time difference, games tipping earlier, and they love the sunshine. It's a little bit spread out in some places, but you know, you

can't have everything. So you guys, you did one of these just a few years ago. How much easier or has it been easier this time around, knowing, you know what, knowing the setup that you had, and were there a lot of areas that you felt you needed to change or improve or anything like that. Well, I tell you, I tell you one of the things is that was pre COVID and this is post COVID. Now we're kind of almost back the full you know, full COVID I mean,

no one's wearing masks or anything. But it is different because the whole NCAA Final four went through a whole process. There's a lot of cutting back. But now I think we're pretty much back up to the regular thing. It does help to have hosted one there, but it was seven years ago and I can't remember yesterday. So tomorrow will actually be a really good refresh on what goes into it, you know, what all happened. It's it's kind of crazy though I know Gonzaga and I know North Carolina. We're here,

but I struggled to remember the other two teams until the other day. It was Oregon in South Carolina. I had or I had Oregon, but I never would have come up with South Carol. I remember Frank how big he was. Let me ask you, Doug. I think, I think, and you can say I'm wrong. Seventy two thousand last time about Yeah, yeah, it was a solid you know, I forget the exact number is probably something I should remember and have ready when somebody asked, But it was

a round that amount. You know, I don't care who shows up, We're probably gonna have seventy two thousand. I mean obviously, if Arizona makes it, you know, you would think the ticket demand goes up. Kentucky and Kansas being out, you know, that's that's two teams that would obviously bring a lot of people. You wonder if Yukon makes it, you know where all their people make it again? All the way from there, even

though they played in it last year. North Carolina is really far. But you know San Diego State sitting there, you know that they're they're a drive away. Houston, obviously, I think they would empty out their city to come here. But you know, there's still some there's still some teams out there that probably would fill the place. So I think when it's all said

and done, you'll have seventy some thousand in there. Okay, what do you what do you hear mostly from these whiny media people and what they want and what would make it, you know, perfect for them. What are some of the things that they bring? I tell you what, They're no different than any other folks. They like to eat, they like a good deal. It doesn't have to be perfect, but you know, as long

as it's available throughout different times. Parking is really important. But what's really good is the media hotel is right right close to the stadium, so we really we don't really need a parking shuttle and most people are Uber and or using a ride share of some type these days. They liked their access and last year was the first year where the open locker rooms were actually back.

Most feed ahead, so you know those Thursday, Friday, Sunday days where the locker rooms are open and the media can go in and interview the kids. It's pretty it works out pretty well. Those are the main things they like. You know, the NCAA still has media on the floor. Some of the site lines aren't perfect. Some of them are in the end zones because they created more seats for the players' families on the sidelines. But there's you know, the media is still on the floor and that's not the case

in a lot of places. No, very true on sidelines and the end zones. If I get a call, yeah yeah, so what are what what's your biggest challenge right now? Ten days eleven days into it left? Well, I think the biggest challenges you don't know who's coming. I mean, you could have four schools that have been here before been and I mean if North Carolina shows up, you really don't have to tell them what to

do. They were here two years ago. It's their same staff. It's you know, although although we all know in college basketball the players have changed, you know that the staff is here. It's when you get new teams who are a little bit overwhelmed with how much there is to do. But I think they get overwhelmed when they get here they realize how much help they

have. I mean, I'm normally on a committee of about eight of us sids that's at every Final four that assists with the media relations and helping people get to places. I bounce off that committee this year since some of the local media hosts and do more with the volunteers. As Jay knows and the stat district, you shouldn't the quotes and the notes and all that kind of

stuff. But I think I think the main thing is how you move forward is is Sunday night you kind of look at who's coming and say, Okay, who's going to need some help more than the others. If it's Yukon and it's North Carolina, you know they're they're not going to need as much help. To be honest with you, Arizona would be pretty easy because they're driving. You know, when when you don't have to worry about what time of flight lands and don't have to charter to worry about the charter and all

that, that would be easy. But what's probably amazing to is when they get the media schedule and they realize they are busy all day Thursday and Friday. That's a little bit overwhelming because we do keep them busy. So so I know, you handle all the you know, the meet you know, the newspapers and TV stations and stuff they come radio stations. But who are you also responsible for doing doing every putting everything together for CBS or is that

a whole different like committee or so our committee. There's a schedule that they follow, and you know, I can tell you that the schedule has grown every year. You know, it used to be a couple interviews and then the press conference interview and then a couple other things, and it's turned into this you know, car wash of seven or eight different interviews and we get it all done on Thursday. But Dance Ay Coordination Committee handles that there's about

ad sids that are on site that kind of shuffle players and coaches. The other thing they do that day are all those cool scoreboard shots where you see the guys screaming and you know they're yelling into the thing and they're wearing their uniform. There's just so much going on on Thursday behind the scenes. It's really overwhelming, but so much gets done that by the time Friday hits, there's less to do. I like to say Thursday there is a lot of

behind the scenes media. Friday is more of the media that people are open. So let me ask you a question that you have to be honest with. It's like me asking Jay Jay are you a good guy? And every year every time he says, yeah, I'm a good guy. I hear some debate about it. But okay, So when when you you were announced to be a Final four host and then you're gonna host it, does it bring joy? God, here we go again? You know what it's look

after twenty twenty. I'm excited to have a job, right, you know, I'll I'll never not embrace the fact that I'm employed at the university working athletics because it could all be taken away. It is a lot of work. I will be exhausted and happy on April ninth when it's over and there

is a lot of work to do. Probably the biggest bummer is we have so much to do, you know at Arizona State at this time of the year, with hosting events and you know, other sports and just just everything that goes into our normal job that for next week, I don't touch that. I mean, I don't touch spring football. I don't, you know, you just have to stop. And so that's kind of the only bummer. The other thing is, you know, it's not like we get a

lot of benefits from it that are tangible. Like you we get a lot of tickets to sell, you know, you'd like to think maybe we have five hundred tickets to give away or to sell our seat. There's really not a lot of that. But but it's it's still a wonderful thing to host. It's it's awesome for the city. I know, anything that brings in

business to our community to me is a win win. And downtown is going to get the Kronkite School, for example, is gonna get a lot of foot traffic next week because people are going to be in town and we'll go take a look at that. The businesses, the bars, the restaurant, I mean, Glendelle doesn't have a hockey team anymore, so this will be a busy place Saturday and Monday and and also the off days, and you

know, I know they could use that. Yeah, so I'm having worked the last one there, it seemed to me like it was like, you know, this isn't the n C double as first rodeo. I mean, they've done this so many times. You know, they do it every year. Of course, a lot of different things, but you know, I just got a sense that it's sort of very formulaic. Would you call it

that in terms of getting everything ready? Yeah, I think what's crazy is the time zone thing is a real change, because you know, the time zone usually you're tipping games at nine twenty and six twenty and here it's at three and six, and everybody loved that. But everything gets pushed up three hours, you know, the time the media room opens, the time you start the press conferences on Friday and Sat. Like, everything gets pushed up.

And everybody's happy with that because the earlier game times, but it does kind of change the difference of it. And plus half the people don't know where the same time as specific exactly two hours, so that's a whole other bit of confusion that we try to clear up. But yeah, it is kind of formulated. It is kind of you know, lather, rents, repeat, and that's why out of the four teams, you do kind of

hope that you get at least one that's been here before. Yeah. Yeah, so for yourself, guessing that you've been to probably more than twenty maybe twenty five if not more, and this is the hosting capacity, but you also work them when you're not doing this. Yeah, it's so. In two thousand and five, Bill Hancock added me to an NCAA Coordination Committee, which is the committee I'm usually on where I was saying, how about eight

sid's kind of helped the process be there. And I bounce off that committee this year to do the local media stuff and you know, the volunteers and all that. But I started in two thousand and five. I believe this is about my eighteenth Final four. What's ironic is my first Final four. I wasn't on the committee yet. It was actually nineteen ninety two. I was an intern at Cincinnati. We made a miraculous run with Nick Van Excell and Bob Huggins. We ended up in Minnesota, played the fab five.

I was traveling with a team and what's ironic as we stayed for the championship game, and I watched a young guy named Bobby Hurley win the most Upstanding Player. So that's kind of a circle of life. Wow me in the Final four. Seriously. Wow that. Yeah, that's a great memory. That's that's awesome. Yeah, Bobby, Bobby. I told Bobby I was at that game when he first got the job. He's like really, And

I was like, yeah, I was. I was there when you you know, did the five to five thing, and I was there the whole time. And he said great. He was like, wow, I think you thought he was pretty old. You were year before exactly exactly exactly. Yeah. So okay, so you well, I'm just listeners talking to Doug Tamroll. He's coordinating Final four media. Uh up and U up in Glendale and in a little over a week. So when do you hit the site and stay there, you know, for the duration of you know, every

day, you know, when does that become your office? Uh? So what I'll do is I'll drive up Monday and I'll hang around Monday and be up there, drive home, but Tuesday I will go there, check into the Glendale Resident Marriott whatever that is right by the stadium, and I will just make that my home for a week. Hosting NCAA events, you have

to be on site, you know. I spent forty two days at the NCAA Golf Championships, the last three bays total because that was that's a longer event than the Tour de France, and we hosted that to three straight years. So I've been away from my home base hosting NCAA Championships for the last three years. Nice. Well, guys all do a good jobs. So what's on the menu? Well, you know what, I don't know. I'm going to find that out Tomorrow'll probably get a refresher tomorrow. I know

they've they've made the late meals smarter and just gone with pizza. Nobody nobody hates pizza, so safe as long as you don't have to get a receipt for yeah, exactly exactly, Well, we hope you know. Uh. I don't know if I'm allowed to say this because a sun devil, but

obviously Arizona would would certainly bring a lot of people. And I've been the Final fours where it's somewhat dead and I've been the final fours where there's a there's a team nearby that brings a lot of energy, and obviously a lot of energy is always fun. Yeah, so we'll see I will see Doug, and I'm looking forward to getting up there. Appreciate. I know Steve is too. He's he's yeah because he's hungry. So we'll uh we'll be

up there and we'll look for you. Sounds good, gang and uhh, we'll talk to you next week and and Glendale and the City of Phoenix will all be right. Don't and don't let'll ruin your day. I just I just he handled all that fun stuff. I got the serious stuff. He's got the fun stuff. Thanks. I appreciate it. Take care, guys, Take care good. Doug Temrill on the issue. You know, he

does such a great job. You know, he worked quite a while under Mark Brand who it was under Mark Brand that I started working with regionals up there, and just you know, I just remember seeing Mark and he'd be walking around and he he had like a notebook that was but would you say that is about yeah, you know thick. He had this notebook that he's lugging all over the place. But they probably should get say, there's a

lot of work that goes into this. And then and Doug, you know, he's picked up the picked up the torch and done a great job over there to do all that. I haven't looked at ticket prices. I think the last some time someone said seven fifty eight hundred dollars a ticket. That was two three weeks ago. If Arizona wins a game where two, yeah, you might want to double that at least. And so I'll check that out during the break and we'll Seeah, we'll come back with that. All

right, we'll be back. Well, we'd love to take your calls. We'll talk some more basketball with the Arizona The spring practice starts. It starts tomorrow. We had justin spears on last Friday, so we can talk a little bit about that if you want to. So we'll be right back. If you're an Arizona man'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 lout is an insight to how he built the program into a national powerhouse. What one email me a Steve dot RIVERA ninety five at gmail dot

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on the ball on Fox Sports fourteenth. Hey, welcome back to win in about Hero Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve. He's Jay. If we have Kevin with us today, we have fourteen minutes. If we want to call five through zero, four one, six, seventy four, forty, we'd love to hear from you talk about the basketball team. What do you think? Were you at all concerned, scared, whatever? Whatever? We were talking Earlier, I didn't see as many pain in the next on the

internet, maybe because I didn't look, maybe I missed it. But now I see a lot of people. But there's still some people saying, well, they've got to win one more to prove it to me. How many big games do you have to win to be to be a big game winner. That's fine, and I think probably that's helped by the fact that they're playing. Ain't Clemson instead of Baylor. You know, I think I think

the fans would probably be more afraid of Baylor. And now that's Clemson saying what they're sixty, you should be even though they beat Bailey, even though they beat Baylor. Of course, so we'll don't see it that way. No, of fans don't see much in any way except as long as you're winning. As long as you're winning. But you know, you look at the paths Steve, and it's it's it's a pretty good path for We said this before the tournament started. It was perfect. Let me ask you something

because I know somebody posted something and I kind of disagreed with him. A guy said, I guess said on Facebook. Okay, so so here here's the path they play in Utah. They go to LA and fans will be at both places to go to LA and then the perfect that the Phoenix is more people or fans will be there. And I'm thinking that's not a guarantee. No, that's not and it's proven not to be a guarantee because people

from anywhere can get tickets. Sure, you know, should there be you know, should there be some a bunch of you of a fans like you remember the twenty fifth two thousand and five, you know, the Illinois game. That place was loaded with Illinois for sure in Arizona and you know, and there were a lot of Arizona fans when they beat Duke at the pond

in Well, let me let me go one another way. You were there in two thousand and three, No, ninety eight, ninety Let's go to ninety eight two thousand and three when they have the best team and they lost to Kansas. Right, They've been to LA a number of times, right,

right, and it has doesn't didn't guarantee anything. Yes, well you got a few more fans, of course, but other fans, fans of other teams, they get they tickets are especially now, I mean I was just looking on you know, or before you had to get in that lottery to get Final four tickets and if you didn't get it, you didn't get tickets. Now, tickets, you know, they're all on the market and you can get tickets to these games if you want to go, you can

go. And if you're from Connecticut or North Carolina or wherever, you know, because of because a game is in your region or your area doesn't guarantee that it's going to be a home game for us. Even if it is, it doesn't prove anything. I'll gue you Vegas, Vegas, in Vegas. A number of times with these games, Arizona overwhelms the sticks, right and what happened or not much? Beat them up much? Yeah? No, yeah, no, I mean, yes, it's nice to have.

Yes, I was just gonna say that, it's nice that, you know, you come on to the court and there you get a big cheer. There's a lot of people rooting for you in the U of eight, chance and the whole bit. But the other fans are there too, and and and tickets get spread spread out a whole lot more than than they used to. So and you think, just common sense would think, oh, they've got more fans, are gonna get cheered, there's gonna be a lot of

cheers. Blah blah blah. Let me tell you something. Arizona had twenty percent of the fans in Utah, Salt Lake City of them. Because underdogs are overwhelming fans from the crowd, especially in those first two Arizona was against it on the court and in the stands. If you were in solid if you were at that game in Salt Lake City and you were not an Arizona fan. You were chairing for the other team. It happens all the time, I did it. I mean, yeah, well, set that Sanford

and Kansas is States for that late nineteen What a fantastic game. And ninety percent of them were pulled for Sanford. That was a fantastic game. And you can't do anything about it, no, because they love an underdog. Yeah no, yeah, it's yeah there. I mean I don't even think you'd call it a home court advantage. Yes, you've got you got a lot of your fans there, but it's not to the level where you would call any site like that a home court advantage for anybody. I mean,

think about the the ninety seven Kansas Kansas game. Right, once Arizona starts beating Kansas, the whole place was for Arizona, sure, right, because Kansas was you know, Kansas was the big beast in the in the tournament. Sure, And that's the way it happens. And it'll be like that on Saturday. You know, Arizona will have its fans there, but everybody who's not an Arizona fan is going to be rooting for Clemson. So many

times LA has been the kiss of death for Arizona. All right, just stay in fact ninety four, it wasn't when they got to the final four with the Kolid and Damon while they came out of LA and came out of LA. I remember the week after. I'll remind you what happened after the week after LA, Loot went off on the media, primarily Greg and about I know more about basketball and this little pinky than oh that one. That's because you got to the final four. Yeah, after all these years of

in the final four, and that was that weekend. Jim, Jim Livengood had just become a d uh soon after he had already been to a final four. What was of being the first time because they lost to the year and you said the year before that? Yeah, so he that was his ammunition. Yeah, well he was like that in in in eighty eight, that in Seattle, yeh, because he had the ammunition. Yeah, you know, after after they beat the North Carolina he said the same thing.

Yeah, because of the UTEP thing the year before, right, God, god, you know they put up they put up a great graphic. I saw do you see that graphic? Yeah? I told my daughter that I said, I covered that game. She goes what I said, the game eighty seven the last time a team filed out their filed out four starters in one game. Remember that. I didn't know. I didn't remember that.

All I remember was Tim Hardaway hitting every freaking shot that second. It was a one point game, right, Yeah, hitting every shot imaginable in that game, and Arizona went blank in the in the second half run in the overtime. I think though, that I believe, And I was talking to somebody, even Chuck about the basketball gods and YadA YadA, where eighty seven had to happen because Steve was not playing. Yeah, and then you had this magical year of eighty eight. Yeah, does that make sense? Because

he had he played you, Pubby would not have happened. But it was that. It was after that. Luke got mad at me after that game. He's always mad. I know, he's mad at me a bunch of times, but he got on that one at the press conference. Because that year, I think, I think that was eighty seven, when they lost here in the first round to Utah. That year, they blew double digit second half point spread something like seven or eight times. It happens, yeah,

seven or eight times, and they did it in that game. And that was my first question, Oh you know, oh that's on you time and place. Man. That was he made his you know, he made his opening remarks, and that was I said, look, you know, you know this has been a problem all year long, something like that. I may have even used the number this is the X number of time you guys have had a double digit lead in the second half. You know,

can you pinpoint you know why that happened all year long? Instead of answering, the question goes, well, you saw all those games. You tell me. There was a little bit of a back and forth on that, and after the game, an Iowa reporter TV reporter comes up to me and says, you know, I wouldn't resign if I were you. I'm like, resign from what? Well, you gotta fight with Luke? And he thought I he thought I did something to Lute and that that would cause me

to have to resign my job as a sports right. Well, I won't even say a TV reporter or Iowa guy or what it was pretty funny, Yeah, what it happens, and we'll see what happens now. I but you have to like where they are. You have to like very very much so, I mean so, and historically they do well in sweet sixteen. Historically they do well really well in the in the second round. The one thing that I very I noticed very much so, and I wrote this in

my column after the first game. There was a very big collective side of relief. Oh he he When he mentioned it in his first opening statement, you're thinking it was there, Yeah, it was there. It was huge. The whole town. You could tell just went yeah, yeah, the whole town. I don't think they do that. They do that in Spokane. They want eight or nine straight in the first round. It's like, okay, this is what we do. But Arizona has this this thing that

there's been such such high profile flots, personal first off flots. You know a fourteen thirteen or fourteen and two fifteen. Yeah, no, I get it, I get it. I wrote about most of them. I wasn't concerned that they were gonna lose, and it's not my place to be concerned, but I was thinking, if this happens again, what do we Right, let's take this call. Hi, you're on the air, and Hine on the ball. Hey guy, this is Rick Vic? What's up? Vic? Hey, So I gotta fight with you guys. I don't think

we'd have bad luck in la. It's only Anaheim. What is not l A? Okay, this is okay, Okay, I'm on the Atkins die. Should I be on? Hey, it's not it's not the same. It's like seen in Phoenix and Tucson. Brother, Okay, we'll go there. And I was there at the sports reading when we beat Ford to go to the final four, Damon and them. So al A has been okay for us. We're gonna be fine. I don't know about that. I

don't think about it. So they've lost a number of times in Anaheim, right, yes, but not in l A. I was well Crypto Gardener, the gardener team. We lost to Kansas, uh the ninety eighteen, we lost to uh Utah, to Utah, but not in l A. We've been okay, I'm gonna look, you know, I'm with you. I hear you. You know they had find pictures, flights, pick your battles. Now. Look he makes it. It's a good point. And it is the pond. It has been the pond that's been that's been the

death. Yes, yes, I'm not even run and this one I got to ask you and I could be wrong, Jay, you know. Then we beat Clemson in North Carolina and eighty eight back to back to go to the final four. Uh. They beat uh no in the eighty eight. Eighty eight final four was in the Sweet sixteen was in Seattle. They started in LA. They were at poly Pavilion. They beat Cornell, then Seaton Hall, Seaton Hall. I was there for those, Yeah, Seaton Hall, Clem with a Campbell win. No, that was eighty nine, but

that was up in Boise. That was Vegas. They lost to Vegas in Denver. But the first the first round was in Boise that year, and and that same year and that same year Arizona hosted here, but they weren't allowing teams to play at their site anymore, so Arizona went up to Boise and that's where they beat Clemson. Uh. And then then that Sweet sixteen was in Denver and they lost to UNLV in Denver. Okay, that's right, that's right. Victory. We'll see about La. We're gonna be okay,

We're gonna be okay. I got a real good feeling. Remember his last words. Okay, because I'm gonna get the text from him in the first five minutes, because he does this to me all the time, giving up. I'm gonna go watch smoke, watch guns gun smoke, because that's just go too my line. Do you pick you? I line? No, you're not lying. I love that. It gives me good luck because

Matt Dylan never not the fight it and Arizona won't lose. Yeah. How many guys did Matt Dylan kill and you never had to go to jail for that? All right, thanks Vic, We appreciate it. Care guy. Yeah, he picks up a point. If Anaheim is not l a okay, it's not. Okay, Well, Artie Marino thinks it is because the Angels play in Anaheim, but they're the Los Angeles Angels, so I don't know. Maybe it's going the other way, but I can't it. You

know, they haven't had inside. There's a bigger difference between Anaheim and Phoenix than I mean Anaheim in la than two Soon and Phoenix, because the whole thing is filled in between Anaheim and Laure And some people see that that's Southern Californa. It's all one big jack and it takes if it's raining. It takes about an hour and a half. Well, it takes less time to get from here to Phoenix than does to get from Anaheim to let's say, from Dodger Stadium to to the A Stadium. Okay, you can. You

can hold on to anything you want to hold on. What you do, Steve, you do it this time of year. You look for any any little thing. You know. I you know again, I I I really liked the defense that Arizona was playing in the in that first half. They weren't getting any shots off, and it was and it was awesome to see.

Bruce and I were sitting next to each other on Saturday and we looked to each other and Bruce says, this is probably the best defense in the first half they've ever had, ever played that this year, this season. They got into them, they were facing them, they were on top of them. Uh. And then that dude hit a long he hit a hit a killer blove three. Yeah, he hit that long three. And then

pale standing there in front of it, let him shoot another one. I'm like, well, you saw him make one just a few minutes ago from there. Why were you not up on him? I was yelling at him, and he was their shooter, your guy, bray, we didn't get a take enough shots, didn't didn't he didn't get off almost sent on the year he should be shooting him. Well, they didn't let him get shots off. So there's that. And they and they held up in the in

the final minutes of the free throw line, which was was admirable. Okay, all right, let's take our break. Uh, there's a score here, Yukon thirty nine, Syracuse twenty eight at the half in the women's tournament. That's where Arizona would been playing if they'd have hung on and beat Syracuse. But they didn't, so they're not all right, let's take our break. We'll be back. What's your name, Kevin? Kevin will be here with breaking news.