Why it's Tucson Sports Station at te see, Fox Sports fourteen fifty AP and iHeartRadio Station AFTY. This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services Insure your most Prized possess yets.
Hey, good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to Iye on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. You're Javio Morales. Thank you, Henry for coming on in another big show on Monday. A lot to talk about football, high school football, and tour to Tucson. So if you're into eclectic stuff or different stuff, this is the day to be listening to us. Have your How are you?
I'm doing well. How about you?
I'm doing well as well. A little rush, Yeah, we all are. That's not it. You brought me a gift, and that's nothing gift I wanted. I'm sorry to tell you. The gift give her back? Would gift give her backer?
Who?
What is that? Yeah?
Yeah, that's for Jay. Oh he'd burned this thing. Yeah, okay. Brian McBrayer gave me that cap. I saw a purple cap. I grabbed it because you have a Breeders cup cap.
Yeah, purple, welcome to the show. You this is your first time on the guest.
Right, yeah, other than one at the other place.
Oh yeah, yeah yeah, well the new place. Yes, right, cool. Welcome everybody. Welcome to Monday. We're gonna have a lot of talk about you a football obviously, back to action this week. Maybe talk a little about the basketball program. Uh in men's basketball, you were at the women's game what yesterday was?
I watched it. They played at UC San Diego. It was a road game.
Yeah, tell you how so you watched it, you wrote about it, yes, okay, so we'll talk about that as well. First, let's just kind of maybe get back to did you listen to the press conference? You're you're typically you're a teacher, so you have the day off, right.
I didn't, But I've some of Michael Lev's tweets on it.
Oh so you didn't. So what was the theme of the day.
The main thing, one of the things I got out of it was, and Jason Cheer tweeted too, is that he's asking for fans to come out and support them because this is a tough time and instead of fans like turning away He's asking for them to like be there for the players.
That's one of the things I got from it.
Okay, let me ask you this, how do you think that's going.
To be received? We were talking about Arizona fans.
So you look at some of these other stadiums and they're filled no matter what.
I know.
Utah played BYU but that place was crazy Rock Saturday. But they sell anyway. Yeah, because they have a smaller capacity. That's one thing Arizona has to address about their capacity. It's it's at a time as he reduced theras considerably.
So you know, let's just let's let this go there because we've talked about that. Have you seen the San Diego Stadium?
Yeah?
Very nice, very nice, right, very comfortable, forty forty two? Maybe I don't.
I don't remember.
It is very nice, very new obviously, But does it matter. Listen, Let's say Arizona did this to result to a forty two. Yeah, would it matter then? Because if you're gonna get forty two anyway, why arrange it to be forty two just for aesthetics?
Well?
Yeah, I mean it's at the stadium nowadays because people have other means of watch a game. Sure, sure, big screen TVs and cheaper beer, yeah, cheaper food, and other stadiums now or not, they're not. They're not like the seventy to eighty thousand stadiums that you see the new ones.
Not for the teams. Yeah, not for the teams that that would get them, you know, like the big some of the big twelve can and he sees Yeah, so okay, I'm sorry, but yeah.
You know, Arizona has that big upper concourse and they really can't tear it, tear that down. But what they could do is be creative with it. Maybe sell all those seats for like five dollars and have all those all have all that money go to nil, and then just just try to sell the lower bowl, yeah, get that to get it all that comfortable. And then if they sell those top seats for only like five bucks and they're gonna, I mean, they'll still sell a lot
of it. It's better be better to have them feeled than not field, right, I mean said, I said, Yeah.
I'm here. You've been thinking about this. It's the head idea I have because.
You know, you see Arizona game and you go to games, and I see your photos of the stadium. It's like it's an ice or with all those empty seats. But if they are all it was like a forty thousand guarant you know, season ticket holders and and uh tickets sold and and it was built to that, then that's not nothing wrong with that.
Okay. So okay, let's like that idea and we think it's a good idea. Do you think now, and you're a native, you go to games when whether you like it or not, do you think that people would actually take advantage of that five dollars sale.
Families that normally don't get in. Can?
I mean, you know, it's it's it's something that they really have to think about because I know they sold out the supposedly sold out the Colorado game, right you were there?
Was that a sellout? Okay?
No? But but also but also have given the circumstances of events that they weren't playing well in Colorado? Uh no, I lie, I did not go to that game because that was something that had happened to me. Okay, so I didn't go. Uh but uh but I saw it. It wasn't it was you know how, And someone's already called to be and I'm like, I'm negative Nancy for the crowd. But I'm not. No, I'm truthful, the truthful terry in this. Because they arrive late, they leave early.
Tell me, tell me, Steve, you're full of it. If I am arrive late, they leave early, and if you're not winning, they don't go, you know.
And it's happened a little bit of McHale now because we've heard Tommy Lloyd kind of a couple of years.
For every reason. You know, he says, great point because we were there Saturday when they played uh and they had maybe twelve thousand, a lot of empty and I'm thinking exactly what you were thinking or just saying that. He said, well, if you're going to talk the game, if you guys are big time evans, you better start
showing up, right remember that first year? Yeah, yeah, he had every right to say that too, right, Yeah, I mean, look at all these other venues and again a lot of the venues are more geared to students, and they're maybe a little bit smaller than what But mckel's not that big.
I mean, the thirteen thousand considerably to other arenas. Correct, it's kind of like an average size, not big, not too small, And it has sold out for the most part. But the Arizona Stadium, especially compared to like how as you did theirs, is there's too much. There's too much on the on the east side.
Now.
They have to be creative with that now and hopefully they're thought about it like something where they can't really they can't really tear that down, or maybe they can, I don't know, but they can range it where those seats are like really low cost and you have that money go to NIL because you're not going to sell them at anyway.
Right, do something like that.
It's a great idea because it gives people a chance to be part of the part of the program, right given to NIL by buying and and who knows, maybe they'll catch fire again at some point in the in the in the Brennan years, right.
And I mean things can change year to year, they can modify that. But for now, I mean, that's it is an eyesore. And I know, I know that those tickets are not very expensive now anyway, you know, I'm not sure, but you see people sitting up there, Yeah, and I'm sure they're taking advantage of the prices, but it is it is something to consider because right cycle stadium at Utah.
That seat's about forty thousand.
Yeah, don't you think bandwidth for Arizona? Forty five would be the max even on good days? Even on good days because we've seen it. I've been here a long time. I'd only pay attention to football attendance unless I go that you're asking a lot for them to go fifty or asking a ton, and it.
Has to be huge game, right, what's capacity of fifty is a fifty seven? At one point it was that lough. I think they lowered it.
I think so.
Yeah, because of this the bit chair back seats now, so it's probably like around fifty to fifty two.
And that's going to be on an exception, right, rather than the rule. So forty five. If you got that and figured out how to get the forty five consistently, maybe win a little, that would be It's okay. Back to today, so you get here that today it's a Friday night game, late game Houston. Two bad teams. I'll say bad teams because they're bad teams. You what do you think? Sheer and I are giving out numbers, so I'll say what I said and I'll see what he said.
I think it's going to be like an Arizona Bowl crowd, like a like a thirty thousand.
I said, exactly that, And that's that's there's a little Bowl game that's kind of pushing it to thirty thousand, you know, right, But he said twenty five. I said, okay, yeah.
I say, I think about thirty thousand.
But again there's variations that they tell you how much tickets are sold, right, and then you see that the crowd is in this same as what the tickets.
You remember when you and I covered the Toros back in the eighties nineties, blah blah blah, and they would say, you know that, and it'd be like twenty five in a July. And that's no disrespect. I mean that's how many people showed up in.
A one hundred and two degree weather, right, So you know your tickets sold and all that.
But I hope they do. They're still, you know, working their butt off and doing all that. But I understand if if you have twenty bucks in your pocket, hub or mean, would I go?
I don't know.
It all depends on who the fan is too. I mean, if it's a die hard a fan that usually goes, they're going to go. If it's a fan that's new from out of town or casual fan, they're not going to go. So it all depends on who the fan is. And as students should go. I mean, they're the students, so the students should always fillip zone as well.
Ask when, because I was gonna ask him, are you going to go? Henry?
Yeah, I think I am eight thirty eight, fifteen to fifteen anything.
I wasn't planning on it originally because I think the basketball team's playing at the same time against Wisconsin.
So you watch that, that's a pack And guess who Tyson's fighting that night too, Yeah, so you know you and guess what what else are you doing?
Football? High school?
High school football. Yeah, it's a smortgan sport of stuff.
It is.
It's a lot And I tweeted it out today that THEA should seriously look at moving those Friday games and Tucson to either Thursday night or Saturday afternoon because of the especially Tucson High and sell Point.
They're so close to the u of A.
That's going to be a logistic nightmare, especially Tucson High, because they're gonna be planning at the same time the u of A's playing.
Okay here in that area. How much is gas and bread in your Pollyanna world as.
Well?
Yeah that's somebody. Somebody tweeted back to me.
I wish you would have made the suggestion early, because already me plans like I don't work.
For the a A. But I suggest doesn't really matter.
Do you think they even get a whiff of that?
But if they will, I don't.
Know if they get it with Hey, that's a good idea.
It has to be done right away.
Today's more a veterans day, so they're not gonna do anything today, but it would have to be done like for tomorrow if they make a decision like that.
Yeah, I know.
Some referees are kind of like up in the air because a lot of them work at the U of A Games. They either work on the chains or they do some other stuff that help out the officials, So they have that going there too.
Frustrating preparations because if they go Thursday, you have one fewer days, one less data to get ready, and if Saturday, well now you have to co make arrangements a different way.
Yeah, I mean Saturday might be more sensible because it gives the visiting team from Phoenix more time to get here and settle in. If it's Thursday, then they have to go to school and then travel here. So but I wouldn't be surprised if these just stuck to Friday, which would be would not be obviously not a surprise at all.
Yeah, let's kind of set up the day today. So have you ever Morales here with me? All sportsdosum dot com does a fantastic job of carrying the local high school scene. If you don't follow it, please do. You'll get your stuff for the youth sports more than you need, more than you want. But it's all there for you if you like it. I kind of dabble in the Arizona stuff, but I have time. Uh, and then we're gonna talk about a lot of the high school stuff too.
We're gonna have Calvin Ethon here in the first hour, in about five minutes, and then in the second hour we're gonna have t. J. Juskowitz. It's we're about ten days away from the eltor to Tucson. Everybody knows in Tucson what that is traffic and uh, cyclists about nine thousand cyclists going around town. Javier does some help for me in the mornings, she gets and gets and helps them direct the traffic and or at least know who the cyclists are.
Right, Yeah, you're you're the roster guy.
I give information to the person on the radio, big aluh information and background information the riders that are in the.
In the in the leadia and then uh, which is which is valuable stuff? Okay, so that'll be in the second hour. We might have time. Henry's gonna let me know about the today's press conference. I don't know if we'll do that because people we read it last time and people say, why why are you doing that?
It's even longer this time.
Okay, we we might do it. We might take a couple of clips. We'll see Henry and then figured out. But I'm really I heard Kevin over the weekend on Saturday. There's talking a lot about basketball. We'll do both because he played basketball and he played football. He had more of an impact in football, So I wanted to ask him how much you of a football needs Kelvin Ethan because he was the guy, the verbal guy, the captain guy. And whether t mac or Noah are the captains something
there's disconnected. I've been saying this for weeks now, they're they're more of like inspirational like examples, they're they're not vocal. To me, it doesn't seem like they're like vocal like you know, get people riled up type leaders. And that's there by example. Yeah, and that's exactly That's exactly why I wanted to get Kelvin. I said, Kelvin, uh bless his heart and and and all that, because they need dudes like that they either not to kick asked, but to get them on the right track.
Yeah, Dick Tomy said he's the best leader that he had they could, right.
It's probably in the years that he coached Pobby's for some stuff that Dick didn't have to do.
Yeah, I mean he relied on him to get the guys motivated and uh, you know ready mentally. And you know, I think I think Fafida and McMillan lead in their own way. And I think McMillan actually the last couple of games has actually stepped forward a little bit more to be a leader than he started out with, even admitted his body language was not what it should have
been that for a few games. So I think the last couple of games he's kind of showed some kind of you know, some determination, and he's he's talking more, it seems like to his teammates during the game. So they need more of that, they need more of being were people watching it, we'll see that they're more like a unit.
Okay, Henry, can we go?
Yeah?
Okay, we're going to take off now come back in about three four minutes with Kelvin Ethan. Get more involved with the basketball team and the football team.
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Breaking down all the exes and ohs. This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera on Box sportsporteen fifty.
Hey, welcome back to I and the Ball here Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. He's Avo Morales now NFL. We have former U of A football player and basketball here, Kelvin Ivon. Kelvin, how are you.
I'm doing good. I'm doing good.
How you got We're doing fine. Thanks for joining us. You've been on the show before. I was listening to you over the weekend and I'm thinking Kelvin's coming up with some stuff. I want to talk to him real quick about this. So so back. Oh god, I want to tell you almost thirty years ago. Sorry to say that, Kelvin if sorry, Yeah you could, yeah you can probably still play. You were talking about and it sounds brilliant
stuff about kids today. The good thing is you're you're a former player both basketball football and a former coach. So I'm gonna get a lot of perspectives from you. You were talking about kids today or maybe even back then. Show up to Arizona or places like Arizona. One want to play a lot right away because they all have visions of the NFL or NBA and blah blah blah. You still, it's probably worse now, yeah.
I mean yeah, I mean, I mean, you know, now you got nil, which helps out a lot now with a lot of these guys. I mean, they put a little change in their pocket. But yeah, man, I mean when you you came to school, man, you was just looking having that dream man of you know, becoming rich and famous one day. I mean, that's that's just the dream.
So and you said, and you said, and if you weren't getting time, you're wondering what the hell like you you had? You had damon, you had some pretty good guys ahead of you, and you're thinking, what am I gonna get mine?
Yeah?
Man, you know you you you plan on playing with those guys when you get recruited. You don't see yourself as you know, being the odd guy out, possibly having a red shirt or something like that. I mean, I think I was mentioning that a lot as a kid, you don't staying when a coach want to show you he actually liked you a little bit. You know, he wants he given you an extra year of school and where you can get your master's degree or something like that,
and it helps with your development. But as a kid, a lot of times you look at it's like I'm a failure or I'm not good enough to be here, so I need to go somewhere where I can play.
No question. And that's what struck me with you, with you, because that's the way the things are today, especially with the you know, immediate satisfaction. So when did you kind of realize that when you were like thirty, you know what I'm saying, because at the time you're still probably young thinking and you're not alone. It's this is a lot of.
Kids, well, I mean definitely ass as you get older or whatever. I didn't have a choice but to stay because I ain't gonna lie. I wanted to leave out of the first semester after the first of us that
I call my grand mom. I say, hey, you know TCU sounds great right now, right right right, And you know, right next to being home, and a lot of it was the distance away from home, you know, being from I didn't realize how much it costs to fly back, how much it cost to fly back back in the day, you know, you get the free ticket to fly out here and everything, and so you don't realize how much it's gonna cost your family to come see you at games.
Yeah, yeah, no question, no question, Yeah, Calvin Javier, it's you know you also put on this now with with the transfer portal, coaches of other schools probably getting a hold of some guys and say hey, you can come here and play right away or as before they couldn't do that, And I think that's that's caused a lot of guys getting into the portal and then moving somewhere else.
So I mean, if that was if this was going on when you were playing, how many how many guys you think would have left h and moved on from you can remember.
Well, uh, well it was going on and you just had to sit out a year, right. I had plenty of people contact me, trust me saying you're gonna sit on the bench over there. And you know, coach are telling you because they prepare you for it when they're recruiting you, right, so when they recruit and they be like, hey, if things don't go right, you know you can always
come home if things don't go right. You know you'd be a better fit over here at Way far Ist so at you know, Texas, TCU or Baylor, and you know, you think about it, you start looking at their rosters and you started thinking to yourself, like, man, I could go play over that right now. So, uh, it's just it's just one of those things though, with with with with now, with the with the portal being there, it's just the thing where you got to re recruit your
guys every year. You have to. You have to give them love and a little bit more love than they used to have to give us back in the day. You know, one of the biggest jobs for the head coach now is making sure all the guys are good. You want to stick around.
So what kept you here?
Well, my grandmother, my grandmother, my grandmother told me when I was a kid, I mean I was a kid, I mean I was was that my first, Grandma, I wanted to go, I wanted to transfer, and she told me, Kevin, you never could quit at anything you've ever done, So it was that challenge.
Yeah, let me say, let me say. That's another reason I wanted to get you on the phone is is I think the team this year football team specifically needs a kill any fund they probably need too. Well, you don't want because let me say, and I'll ask you a different question with tell me earlier, but I think they need someone, you know, the leader guy that you were.
And obviously they tell me love love that part of you too, but they need someone to say, come on, dudes, and then how you would do it, let's get your crap together.
Yeah, you know, I remember being in this situation. We were in a situation where we were three and five. I remember, and you know, things were looking awry, and it was one time where I did step up in the leadership at the time, and and all the was was as a player saying, first of all, you have to have the respect of the team of coming every day, working hard, doing all the little things that expected of the team. Of what a or what a winner looks like.
That's the first thing your actions have to speak loud in your words. So they have to respect you before you can even speak a word to them, and they and then believe in you at all. But but but secondly, when you do speak to them, you have to speak to reality and say, hey, look, guys, these coaches. One of the things I would say, these coaches get the coach the rest of their life, that this is our only chance to play.
Right.
Hey, let's let's let's get over all the accolades and all the paths on the back and all the money that they're paying us and everything, and let's remember that we're here to play football, and we're here to figure out a way to put our name in history so we'll be remembered and not just be an afterthought.
You sound so sensible now, I'm sure you gave him a piece of their mind too. I mean nice because it have to be on the radio.
Oh no, I mean, I mean, I mean it's not as what a lot of people think. I mean, we've been in situation, were in a situation where I did get a little greasy. But in a situation like this, that's what you just have to remember. You have to remind these guys a lot as a teammate man that Hey, you know a lot of you guys got a lot of great dreams and everything, but some of us really love what we're doing. You know, follow us and and it's something that simple. I mean. And then you got
to get out on the field and up. I mean, you got to get some fourth and ones, you got to get some short yardist touchdowns and everything like that. In tough situations where there's two guys right there in front of you and you got to jump over one and run over the other one, you have to. You got to figure out stuff. Your players make plays, and people follow people that made plays.
Yeah, I remember, I was, and I was just looking it up to in nineteen ninety eight, where you guys had a twelve and one season.
The year before that, you guys had some tough losses.
He lost by thirty at Washington fifty eight to twenty eight, something like that. So it's kind of similar where you guys were going through some problems there in ninety seven. So what do you what do you remember about transitioning from that where you guys had those kind of problems to having a twelve and one season.
What was the what was the key to that. I think it was that year.
Actually you're coming from the year before we were five and six. Uh So going into that ninety seven season, you were excited. Everybody stayed and worked out, We were excited about just getting.
To a bowl game.
We all were embarrassed about being at home in ninety six. I got talked about a couple of times, you know, hanging out a couple of boys that were back home playing in the Common Bowl. Was like you at home doing ball time, you know. And I vowed to never be at home again doing both time. So that had
a lot to do with it. But but yeah, you put that time, and you put that extra work in the weight room, so when you end up three and five, it's just it just now it's like, forget who the coaches made captains, forget who who everybody think of the leaders. Hey we're going this way now, guys, and hey, the people not want to call out efforts and want to want to keep blaming on the coach. And what I hate more than anything is when they blame the coaches
and the coaches plays and all that. You know, I believe, you know, great athletes, great talent. I'll do any playbooking in the world. Okay, I don't care what your playbook you have. If you got some real players that love the game, they're going to figure out a way to make things work. And that's that's what I used to come to the guys with some some just like that. Come on, now, I don't care what they're calling. Let's figure out a way to make this work. Our name is on this.
So let me ask you. Do you what's your observation. Is it a little bit different than mine where they need some you know, maybe kicking the butt to get them going.
You know, I don't necessarily think they needed a kick in the butt. I think, you know, one of the toughest thing I've said, I think I've said this the whole time is you have to have people behind you that is pushing you for playing time. OJ Keith had, OJ Trunk had me, and I had you know who Paul shields or same thing at the tight end position
or the offensive line. You go back and look at that team on both sides of the ball first, and I just feel like with it being a new coach, they didn't get a chance to make that they had when Jed Glaura had Noah behind him, right, So he knew if something happened, I got this young guy behind me that might not let it go. So I feel a lot of it has to do with the new with the coaching change, uh, and being just with the
players themselves with the season. I just think some unfortunate injuries and everything, and having that target on your back of being one of the top teams in the country and and you hadn't quite played a game. I think they probably was was was feeling feeling themselves too much and didn't realize the dog fight that they were in for.
Yeah, I couldn't sense that too.
Uh.
You know, it's it's a unique situation they had coming into this because they had it was a player It seemed like it was a player led team rather than a coach led team because of all the guys, the key guys that came back. Not a lot of guys, but key guys came back. So here's Bren Brannan coming in, never coached at this level, He's coaches sat as a state and you have these these big names that were
getting national attention. So do you think he might have kind of backed away from them to a degree to not not supersede what they're what they meant to this team. And do you think that kind of backfired on him or how would did you have handled that? If you're a brandan coming into that situation, it's really unique. Not a lot of coaches have.
To deal with that.
Yeah.
Man, that was a tough one right there. I felt for him. I've said this, Man, I felt for him when I when when they when the guys came out on the court and announced that they were coming back and they were accepting him as their coach. Like wait a minute. I was like, I was like, oh, man, okay, I was worried about that a little bit. I mean, because you know, when you have star players like that, you're a new coach coming in, you don't want to
really rough with no feathers. I mean, you respect what they've done, you respect their resume, so you kind of respect them and give them a chance to get going. And we saw that in the NAU game where I mean he got ten balls. If I was being the coach, I mean some kind of way, I would have stopped at six and started going to other people. So so I feel like so the defenses could have had the adjusted him but hey, I'm on the chair on the couch talking about that. These guys got the job, so
they they're they're figuring that out. But I just felt like that you don't have a now and t Mac and those guys having so much you know, leadership over the Polynesian guys on the team whatever. It just felt like that it was their team and the coaches kind of set back and let it happen. Now, I do respect that a lot of time, because I do hate the coaches that come in We're gonna do it my way, and you guys, I understand whatever happened then, but this
is what we're doing. I kind of respect the coaches that give gods a chance, especially the guys that came back to see if they got it and see how things are going. So I do respect that. And that's what Tommy Lloyd did. Remember Tommy Lloyd came he started all the guys that was on the previous team.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I thought that was smart of him because he made them responsible for the team. And I just feel like just with these guys with the football team this year, things didn't go as quite as good because of again some of the injuries and the guys that we lost. I think people underestimated that same thing from the ninety eight team, where I feel like that the guys that we lost in that team and us coming in rank so high was really not realistic like that because the losses that we had were huge.
Yeah, hey, let's switch to football real quick. Thanks for that information. With the football team basketball, you're one of the voices pregame post game. What do you What do you like so far? What do you don't like so far? But I think he's probably more like than anything.
Man.
I like that their deep life is It seemed like they the legitimate have nine to ten guys that could get a team some real playing time. So I think that, you know, coach is gonna have to figure out how to keep all those guys happy. So I'm happy that
he have so many good guys. I just think it's gonna be tough figuring out how to get the comrade Martinez is and the you know, minutes in these these big games, and how he's gonna figure out the big man rotation with four legit guys that could play there. So man excited for the talent on the team. Just it's such being a coach trying to figure out how to get these guys significant and playing time.
Let me let me ask you this, Okay, now, I want to put your coach your coach hat on now, so deep down I know this probably from you coming that it's not your job to make the kids happy. You're gonna go after the best guys to play.
Yeah, no, yeah, i'mna play the best guys, man, And it usually comes down to playing those guys thirty minutes a game. So it's just gonna be some minie square, you know, squeezed out for some guys.
Uh.
You know, I think it's been cool with Coach kind of playing everybody earlier in the year. And I remember Coach Osi used to didn't do that a lot, Like he would make sure you didn't get a lot of minutes because he wants you thinking that you were, you know, playing so well that you deserve to play more minutes, right right, right, That's the way I felt what he was doing. But you know, he's giving these guys just
enough time. Like you see Carter Bryant man, I mean I thought he would be another guy that would be uh, you know, short some minutes coming into the into the season. When these tough games come up. But you know, he gave him enough minutes the other night to audition for a more in it. So it's just gonna be tough figuring out how to get those guys on the court because that that that top seven eight is pretty strong.
Man.
I think the backup point guard position is going to be interesting to see how kJ lewis, who looks like he's getting, you know, brought up in that role.
Uh.
There also seems like he's gonna be a guy with the second unit that possibly could be a point guard. And I'm sure they're gonna use Kate Love at that as well. So it's gonna be interesting to see how that all shapes out.
Yeah.
Uh, you know the fact that you know Seohn Miller is a good coach, but the motto when he was coaching was a player's program. It was more like a player's program directed by me. Basically, I don't want him down. I don't want a bad mouth. This is this is more of a players This is more of a ployer players program under Tommy Lloydber He's letting them breathe and
letting them play to their strengths. And uh, you could tell just by the and you probably experienced this when when you played with for Loot is just the the uh, the camaraderie and the business like manner that they do it and the fun they're having. That's that's winning basketball. Now where you feel restricted or you're afraid they're gonna be sent to the bench if he missed a shot
or make a turnover. I think he lets them play and he's relying a lot on something like Caleb loved to be a leader, and Caleb has kind of embraced that. I think he's he's got the right kind of mindset. He's he's he's not not you know, overwhelming neither with these guys.
He's he's uh.
From what I can tell from watching on TV. I'm not at the games, but he seems like he's more of like a facilitator and more of a guy that wants everybody to contribute and not him take over the game, where maybe that happened a little bit too much last year.
Do you feel that, yeah, well, no.
Man, Caleb is just maturing. He's a guy that's in his field year and he has the two thousand points and he's done all almost everything except actually win a National Championship Player of the Year last time in the PAC twelve. I think it was easy for coach Lloyd to talk to him and say, hey, look, man, you know the only reason for you to be back here is the opportunity to win a national championship and the better your stock to play in the NBA. That's the
only reason you want. Every other ward you can think of. So the way to get there, the NBA people told him is to understand that he's gonna have to be a catch and shoot guy. He's not gonna be able to be a guy that put the ball on the floor ten times and make a million moves and shoot thirty foot threes. You have to do it on the catch and shoot. So that's one thing you're noticing he's doing is three point attempts are off catch and shoot.
The other thing that's that's beautiful, he's moving the ball around because he's understanding that to play with NBA players, you're gonna be playing with superstars that demand that basketball and you have to get off of it. You have zero point five seconds to get off that ball or it's a hanger inad he's gonna blow up in your
hands and something bad is gonna happen. So I think that he's trying to, you know, use that idea as far as the way to play ball with this team, because I think that that's gonna be his best opportunity to play in the pros is to be a better defender, which he has a great chance to do with with Bradley next to him in kJ Lewis, because with those two guys he gets to play against with he gets to play the third best offensive player because kJ Lewis gets the best guy and Jay and Bradley gets the
second best offensive player. So now Love becomes a better defender almost by default because he gets to go against the third guy. Right, So he has opportunities, man, to show growth with this team because of the talent that you know coach Lord as a symbol.
Kevin, I was good talking to you. This goes by real fast, and guess we'll have to get get you back on another time. Talk more about you know, some updates and stuff.
Oh man, I appreciate you guys, Man brad out, thank you.
To take care of Kevin. Yes, that's Kevin from twelve ninety does a great job. The former you of a guy and he's I think he's been a little nice, you know, because he likes the team obviously. But I don't know if you believe what I'm saying with the you know, they have to something.
With the Yeah, with amalteam.
Yeah, well it's feel like there has to be something from the first game, yes, when it hasn't maticulated, you know.
Yeah, the Roth the year. I want you to ask me to tell me the question you asked him again because I was because I think you're party onto something. Let's take a break here, Henry, thanks for an Arizona man's basketball fan. You know it's been successful for nearly forty years. Now take a look back at the Ludelsen
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 lut is an insight to how he built the program into a national powerhouse. What one email me at Steve dot Rivera ninety five at gmail dot com.
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This is I on the Ball with Steve Ramiro on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Subscribe now to the podcast on the iHeartRadio app just search I on the Ball.
Hey, welcome back to On the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. Please have your morales from ollsports tuson dot com. And we've got Henry working the board. Uh so, I'm the handicapped in this room. Uh so. So thanks Kevin for coming on the show. And I think that's good stuff. Let me ask you how you've covered a lot of teams through the years. You know, we covered a pretty good one and and
loot what what have you? What have you learned about coaches in your time covering coaches?
Well?
What?
And I listened to your show quite a bit, so I've heard you say it the coach. The players have to you know, know that the coach runs the show and they have to be accountable, right And I know that you've mentioned before that the players have to realize that they have to do the job or else, you know, somebody else will step in, or that they'll they'll have to perform or there will be changes. But uh, there
has to be some accountability there. The coach has to show them that, you know, the buck stops here type of personality, not not where they they're you know, too demanding and stuff like that.
Well that's rowbeating.
But they have to the players have to look at the coach as being the guy or they or the woman, you know, if they have to look at that and and the and the coach has to portray that image that hey, I'm all things go through me, and how you play depends on how I lead you guys, and
you have to perform accordingly. If they don't feel any kind of accountability or if they don't feel like they're gonna, you know, that there's anything that's gonna happen to them, sure they're gonna They're gonna continue on their bad tendencies. We see a lot of penalties in this team. We see a lot of mistakes and stuff like that. You know, I'm not I'm not saying that this is a poorly coach team. I'm just it just feels like we're who's
who's directing the show? And why why aren't the players understanding that brand.
Is the guy? Yeah, I don't. I don't get that feeling all the time.
I don't.
I kind of know where you're going with this because I've said it as you said, I think coaching matters. I've always thought that, having done governed Loop for a long time and dictomy and things like that. There were days when he may have lost control of time or two, but he put his foot down and that was fixed. You know, Chris Rogers at a time. There's a couple of other players. But let me say so you covered
high schools as well. Who don't give me the who give me the qualities of a good high school coach? Because it translates to any coach.
The quality of a good high school coach because you're dealing with young guys is girls, is that those players would do anything for that coach because they see what kind of a person he or she is, how they communicate with them, how they stress development, character, how they you know, they show a hard side and the soft side.
That those are the best coaches. And that's why players, especially young ones will warm up to a coach that will get on them, like really get on them if they mess up in practice or in the game or something like that, but at the end, at the same time, talk to them and you know, encourage them. Those are the type of players, you know, coaches that players really
warm up to you. And you could see that a lot in some of these high school football coaches that we have so many good ones in the southern Arizona, Pat Nugent down down the line, there's there's so many good ones.
Zach Neville f at Tucson High. He's really coming on.
He's a young guy, but he's he's he's demanding and he always talks and he also talks to players.
You got to be that.
You got to be both sides. You can't be too passive and he can't be too aggressive. And you know, again, I'm not I'm not there every day, I'm not in the i'm not in the meetings, I'm not in the locker.
Room with Arizona.
But I feel like there needs to be some more of like that kind of you know, personality from the coaching staff. And I think Dwayne and Keen is that way. That Dwayna Keen is a perfect example of something that would be a good coach in that manner. But that's his personality.
Sure, sure, yeah, no question, No, I agree with the demanding.
Uh.
I think some of the things that I've heard through the years. You got to know when to h to kick him in the butt, not figuratively, but you know, yeah, emotionally in otherwise, and know when to give him a hug. Just kind of that fine line of both. And today you know this, it's almost you have to treat them with kid gloves but not. And that's the fine line, right.
We talked a little about, you know, Brent Brandan coming in in a unique situation where the the star guys came back and and a lot you know, I think people in Tucson, you know, really wanted these guys to do well because of that, because they came back and they put them on a pedestal, and I think the
coaches worth grateful that they came back. And I think that kind of, you know, in a strange way, it kind of it kind of made for a different type of dynamic that we usually don't see in in uh, you know, in sports where where the players are put on a higher level to to uh, you know, a respect level including the coaches, whereas when we were talking about the coaches should come in and say, you know, we respect your decision.
To come back.
Where we're you know, excited about that. We're going to work together, you know, we're the coaches were we've we're going to have the we're we're going to set the agenda, and we're going to work together like that. It's nobody's team, it's we're We're a coaching staff that has to run this program. That that had that had to be expressed from the beginning. And I don't you know, and I know I'm not the only one who thinks that that
was expressed, uh, you know, to to degree. And you know a lot of people complain about no, if if you had and everything taken hot out. He's he's the identifial leader, identifiable leader of Arizona, and he does so much, so many things, and he and he plays through so many difficult situations. He gets sacked, he has to run for his life a lot, and he's out there, you.
Know, doing what he has to do. And a lot of people respect that. And he has struggled.
But the offensive line has had some injuries, so it's not the same offensive line that was last year by any any stretch. But you know, like Calvin said, there's no off a FIA to have anybody behind him that's going to push him another notch. We don't know really who the backup quarterback is going to be when they comes in. Well, if he has to go him out right, we don't know that. We know there's we know some
of their names. We don't know who's going to be the guy that would have to come in if the FIA got hurt or if he has to get pulled for whatever reason. You know, that's different too than what we've experienced in in past teams. So accountabilit accountability, feeling that that urged sense of urgency playing to the best of your ability because you have to play for the coach and the coaching staff.
Do we fill that a lot with this team? I don't. I don't think we do not enough anyway.
So I think that's a big, big question mark with Arizona is how how is that coach the player interaction. What are the demands from the coaches, what's the accountability of the players.
Yeah, no, I agree with you. We're what eight games in nine games in. I think it's not fixable with that right theory, right now because you've already you know, you've already gone through nine weeks or ten weeks of this. It's kind of a renew next year and kind of establish establish what you tried or needed to establish. And that's gonna be tough because you have a lot of the same characters if they come back on this year's team. How do you It's kind of like you're a teacher, uh,
and you were a substitute teacher. I'm sure you're teaching. You're being the main teacher is a lot different than your substitute teacher because the kids treat you differently, and if you're a sub they don't give a crap about you. You're just there. You're you're the substitute teacher. Well, you know, you're right that.
The mentality part of it is that you can see that a little bit because they're they were recruited there by a different coach. They there, they stayed there basically too, you know, to as a group, not because of Bret Brennan. They stay there because they wanted to remain close and you know, the nil money was there from some boosters. They they didn't stay at Arizona because of Bret Brennan.
And that's not a knock on bren Brennan, but it's again that's that's a different type of dynamic that we're not used to seeing. And you know, their coach left and there's a new guy there with new coaches that they're not familiar with.
And these these are big name guys.
I mean, no, if a Fida was a Heisman Trophy candidate, uh to t mac is a is a All American. These aren't just guys that are trying to prove themselves. They are guys that have already been highly thought of or highly tilted. So that that's that exactly what you said. That mentality is like are coaches in here. We are who we are, and we're going to do things that we think we could do to win and win games. And we could see that there's some problems because of
the injuries. I don't mean to make it an excuse, but there has been a lot of injuries. There's been you know, some people did leave the program when there was a transition. A lot of people like on the defense, really the defensive line had to replace the whole defensive line, right, so it's not the same team as last year and the mentality is different.
Okay, good stuff. Let's go take a break here. We're gonna get some breaking news from Henry and then talk to teg just Ques for El twor de Tucson and and talk more about whatever we decided to talk about.