This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez. Sound Fox Sports fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure Your Most Prized Possessions kat c R two, SAG and iHeartRadio Station. A good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to I on the Ball here Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. He's Jagan Zawis. We don't have any kids this week our child support payment, so I can say we shouldn't be having any kids anyway. You're
still coughing them for a little bit. I am a little bit. I think I'm you know, getting a little bits better by the day. I'm well enough to go, you know, do my job at the basketball game tonight. I'm still testing negative and so I got a call. Yeah, the question is will the Cats do their job to it? And you know, I think we'll we'll last REGI carry that, you know. Oh well, yeah, yeah, he saw he was front row on that bay. He wanted to make sure that we knew that he's not doing the game tonight.
So that's okay, that's what we get. We get. We get to ask him some questions then yeah, and he'll be he'll be playing with us, honest with us. He went through a few of these. I remember a few while bringing those up as specifically, I mean, what mind they were the senior year they went to say, they went to Stanford, Uh got beat and they and unless Reggie, Joseph Blair, Joe McClain,
Corey Williams, Reggie who is the guard? Who's the Reggie was? Must have been the guard because Corey was a three, Joe McClain, j B Ben Davis, Ben Davis uh and uh No, No, In fact, I don't think JB was on the team anymore. Remember he got academically ineligible. They went and they lost to Stanford. It was the team was kind of in disarray. I know Corey. I did a story. I don't know if I'll bring this up to Reggie, but TRD the story that they
were some in house kind of like jealousies. Because guess what happens and and and I'm not saying that all mention happened. A lot of them were seniors. So when your seniors and at the end of the your career, what are you thinking, NBA, I need the ball exactly. I got to get my numbers. They righted the ship and they fell into Sweet sixteen. But those are the things that remember, Sean would say, things are going okay now, but the outside noise, the outside noise, so everything and
anything can happen to a Dean at any time. Yeah. And also remember last year was kicking the crap out of Stafford and then they lost. Then they lost. Stuff happens, Jay, You've seen it a number of times. Sometimes the rambl are covered and sometimes they aren't done the last second. Can that was but you know what, that was awful on Saturday. I mean it was bad from the from the get go. You're talking about Sunday.
Sunday. It was nine to nothing and it never got better. Yeah, I think that they I don't know, do you think they lowed themselves into believing that they can make a run at any time that could be it, because you know that that's been that's been their thing, you know, I mean, I know I sat there through the whole game, waiting, Okay, they're gonna make a run. They make a run, They're gonna
make They're gonna make a run. And they never made the run. Stanford kept running right, no, right, and then when you have no solution, but you have a solution that just doesn't work. And defending the perimeter. You wonder if there's a time, if there was a time in that game where Tommy just kind of threw his hands up and said, you know, they're not winning this game. In fact, Jay, I know you're the Twitter guys. I saw something on Twitter yesterday fans. I guess they
took a shot of the coaching on the sideline and they looked distraught. Tommy had his arms crossed, and it had to be with a minute left, and they're saying, look, look, this is what the coaching is doing. They were getting round. What are you gonna do? You know, you don't have a twenty exactly? I would look that way too, And so they showed these guys they should be No, they were already either butt kicked. Yeah, you know, time and circumstances of a photo. Oh
look he's not smiling. What the hell was there to smile about? True? Yeah, you know what, don't listen to theirs on a fan right now? Running there are you know, and there and there's another thing, Jaya, and you know this because we we all went through this. Oh ninety seven, they lost nine, don't worry, well, that doesn't. Ninety seven has nothing to do with this year. Ninety eight has nothing. They're in the moment today. They got to get themselves out of it.
I know. But that's also a way of saying it's gonna be okay, it's gonna be fine. Sure, you know they can go. This is how bad it can be and you can still do this. You're trying to give fans perspective. Dand what the hell you wasted your time? Go have a shot of whiskey. Man, I need a shot of something, but you need a toddy hot toddy. I'm drinking some coffee. Okay, okay, but hey, he's a good game tonight, big game tonight, and
it's always a huge game. They're eleven and two. Yeah, I know why they're not ranked, but you know they're not ranked, but they're close. But if they win, they'll be ranked. You know, Look, Colorad always Color is that team in historically for Arizonea, it's that team that everybody looks at color and says you should kick their ass. Sure, but you haven't. But they're always tough to play. Yeah, well you remember
the last second shot with the fingertips. Yeah, yeah, I know his name is Yeah, you know, you know it's Arizona has a tough time with them all the time. And and you know it's because you know, when UCLA comes in, not this not this year's UCLA, but anytime UCLA comes in Arizona, you know, Arizona fans expect a tough game. Expect hey, we could lose because it's UCLA or whoever. Colorado is that team
that doesn't get any respect as a basketball program from Arizona fans. All right, so anytime Arizona plays Colorado, they think it's Colorado, you should beat them. Well, that's not necessarily true. And this team is one of those teams where Arizona better have its act together. They better not do what they did even close to what they did against Stanford where they're gonna get beat tonight, they need to play well. Totally totally agree. I was gonna
say now I lost the train of thought. And obviously they're pretty good UCLA. The thing about it with Arizona, they need every win in the conference. They just do because the conference sucks outside of the Colorado really u c l A lost to Stanford. In fact, I wanted to start the show today and then we got sidetracked. How about them Cardinals. How about them Cardinals they beat They went to u c. L A and not the Cardinals, card the Cardinal. Yeah, the Cardinals, Uh, how about them?
They're going to UCLA the Airson to turn their season around maybe maybe well they got the kid. Yeah, they got some guys back. Yeah, you know, so there, you know, they got more of their team back, and you know, we talked about that with Brian Jefferies yesterday. But you know, they're there, They've got more of their guys back and maybe that win, you know, it turns everything around them. Although I've never been that impressed with with uh, they're they're called Jared Haws. Yeah,
dawksh Yeah, Jared Haw. I've never been that. You know, he just doesn't look you ever see they ever see the movie hang Over to where the father in law calls calls the guy what do you call him, I don't know, like milky Rice or something, the guy the guy who had his tooth. Yeah, yeah, he just takes like he's just kind of playing in vanilla. Yeah, yeah, you're right, he was just kind of seeing he's Stanford, he's booking Stafford, he's books, you know,
he's a good guy. I'm not. I don't mean to criticize him and say he just he doesn't inspire fear in anything. You're the looks guy. He's not coming off the buzz guy, right. So it's not an airport in airport right, right, But he did airport you in nineteen ninety six, if you remember, he was with Kansas and he's the one that nailed the shot in the corner the defeated Arizona to that same team we're talking
about. So I the one thing I was going to say to you, and I remember what I was training of thought that Tommy has not I think he's gone. Whatever times he's lost, he never lost two in a row, never lost two in a row. Right, So there's that. Have they covered. I don't know he lost two out of three, you know, a couple of weeks ago. But yes, he's not lost in a row. So look and I and I think he I think he has a way of gaining the attention of his guys. We'll see and and again the
approach being we stopped talking about Stanford the day after the Stanford game. Sure, you said to Bruce, you think we didn't practice the day after that, of course they did. You know, you get it out of their system and move on to the next thing. Sure, Bruce is such an innocent target really, because you know, it's a question, it was a fair question. Did you see did you see ideas press converce a snippet or two? I I only saw a quote coming out of that that's saying five
stars and stuff like that or not where she wants to go. Okay, no, there was one. There was one that came out of the news yesterday. I didn't I didn't see it live or anything, but she was a bit snippy in a question about her defense and offense. He says, we're not gonna ban on defense. It got us to the national title game, and you're you're talking to a coach who coached I'm paraphrasing that. I'm probably screened it up, but we you know, we went to a national
championship with our defense, and we're going to stick to it. You know. It's kind of like defending how she plays. And it was not in a bad knock of Tommy Lloyd tone, but it was in her don't screw with me, don't don't try to me what to do exactly right, exactly. No, little little testy over there, Michael, Which is fine. I mean, let me tell you something, Tucson, and not to say that they're in bed with the teams, because you know we've been around,
but they are. Yeah, yeah, of course. I mean I just see I see media people defending the coaches, whether it's Tommy or da or Jed or whoever. There's a lot of there's a lot of defending of coaches in uh in the media. Now they're not that they're so much rooting for him, for them, but kind of like this is what they meant, kind of like defending them when they say things. Right, Bruce doesn't do that, so he doesn't do it at all, but a lot of the
other media does, including some media at the Star. Yeah, we should wait on Michael Lev's not one of those guys either. He could be on the show today because we still want to talk about, you know, a few the things that have been going on. Yeah, no, no, okay, So Michael Lev will be here in about ten a team minutes right,
Well, no, no, he's at four to seventeen. Yeah, no, we got right regigary Forgie first regigary about three in about uh Yeah, in about ten minutes, you'll be coming on and uh, you know, look, we'll ask him about Stanford, but we also want to say,
okay, what's you know, what's up tonight? Right right? In evaluating the team as well, you know, and again Reggie being a former player, is one of those guys that we can pick his brain about, you know, what this team is going through after after having something like that, uh, you know go against you right right. Uh, you know, Stanford's not always easy. Colorado will see what happens because they are good this year. So, like I said, we'll see what happens. Yeah,
I got I'm looking for this text. I got a text yesterday talking about asking you do Bruce and Tommy Lloyd get along because he seems to poke at it because they heard the press car on the shows. He said, what is that like? He just you know, Bruce is just kind of a target to poke at. It's not unfriendly. I don't think they have a bad relationship. No, I think Tommy likes to poke at him as sort of got a comfortable Let's also remember that there's no one in this town.
Back in the day, it was Bruce and I traveling with the team together, him and I together. Uh, and we're the only dudes that were traveling. Greg showed up every now and again. So it was me, Bruce and and Greg every now and again with lout for for twenty years or whatever it was for twenty years. Uh, and now then Sean, and then Sean came in and they those guys had a little test. Sean
would be Sean to a lot of everybody, even including Bruce. But but remember that Bruce is trying to do his job, and Tommy's all he knows well because none of us travel with him except for except for Bruce. About Bruce, about that is that Bruce has got to get as much material as possible, and he's got to get something different from everybody else who they're posting
what they've got the minute they get it. And Bruce has the right for the newspaper and stuff that's gonna you know, right and every day Bob is a little different, right. And luckily for Bruce because the other guys wouldn't have the material because he's asking a lot of the questions. You know. Uh, he thanks me when I go because we asked questions. You know. We add to the to the criteria of the guys asking like real questions.
Well, and that's another thing, because yesterday he Bruce gets into the weeds. He does get into the weeds, and that Tommy wishes he wouldn't, you know, And that's you know, what did you have for breakfast? Type of stuff? You know, But it's all part of his story. He's got you know again, he's got to have more stuff, more angle than everybody else, you know, because he could you have for breakfast
to day? So here's my story. As Jay got out of bed and brushed his teeth, he sat at the table and the eggs and eggs and it was all part of a nutritious day. Because you know what I'm saying, it's a part of the story. People don't understand that. But but if you're on a one and one you'd understand it. But when you're at a podium and everybody, yeah, and that's the problem. Everybody's getting the same stuff exactly, Like, why are you asking that? It doesn't matter
to me? Right right, Well, I'll bring your point of Channel thirteen, damon, Damien, help me to ask someone you know about his growing up being an insurance guy, growing up where we grew up and he was at press comments midway through the first season, I think it was, and someone looked at him says, why are you asking me these questions? Well, this is the only time we have access to you. If you're not going to meet me somewhere else at two o'clock in your office, where do
I get to ask that? And I'm trying to do so that's what you're get. So that's what you're getting. If you're going to say, give me five minutes somewhere here. Okay, I won't ask this question, but you know, what did you have for breakfast? Or yeah, yeah, I just found tweet. There's some language in it that I can't use, but not tweet a text to me asking about does Tommy Bruce every time? No? No, hey, But he poked at it question because it's it's
the militia type of stuff. You know, it's funny stuff anyway. But you know again, you know, we'll get to this with with Reggie here and I'm here in about five minutes. But this is a huge game. Very Arizona's really got it. It's got to show that it's right in itself and that it's got to try and show that that game on Sunday was a one. So you talked yesterday Ardi had another two. I'm play the first two, which is the five. There w a bull. They're the best
team in the West. Yeah, yeah, And he said that, he said, look, there's still a one. Yeah, but where they are right now is there? There are two for today? What's today? Which is fine? January third turn and fourth January before? So what does it mean? Not dead? That's like what they say if the playoffs were done today. Well, the playoffs aren't being done today, so shut up.
I know you're you're right, Steve. It means it's it's it's conversation, and that's what sure, that's what we're here for, correct, and that's what we do, all right. Reggie Gary coming up in about five minutes. They'll be sure to stick around. We'll get his take first on what happened on last Sunday, but then looking ahead to this Colorado game, and then you talk coming in on the weekend as well. Stick around. For more than twenty years, the Window Depot has provided the best price and the
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bees, or rodents serving Tucson and Southern Arizona since nineteen forty seven. Go to azypest dot com to schedule your free evaluation today. Dreamy live. I mean, iHeartRadio WAP. This is I on the Ball with Steve Brivera and Jacobzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Hey, welcome back to Why the Ball here Fox Sports fourteen fifty of Steve Rivera. You're jiginbas. I'm now on the phone. We have forwork. You'll they guard Reggie Geary. How are you, Reggie? I'm good. I'm good, guys. Oh, Happy
New Year? Sam? Do you Reggie good? How was your New Year? I don't want to ask you how you New Year's Eve was, because you witnessed something something that wasn't fun. Yeah, and New Year's Day was a little difficult. Uh, you know, fortunately, uh the night went a little bit better. But all in all it was a great New Year. But obviously a nice about that win in Stanford. So Grig, you see, you sat up front, got got to see it up close and personal. I mean, just what the hell happened? I mean, what
what do you think? Uh? Went wrong on Sunday? All across the board? Yeah, you know, you know, after after a pretty strong performance in cal especially in the first half. He really thought, or I had though, at least for that road trip that we kind of had you know, correct corrected some things, especially energy wise, and just being a little more aggressive and and kind of you know, our pickup points and just just overall being more aggressive and then just to come into the Stanford game and
get off to a slow start as they did. You know, we missed a couple of layups that didn't help. And I think maybe I don't know, the mythum just swung so great in that first half where Stamford has every every time they got to make buck and they just got more and more confident, really you know, propelled by their two freshmen, uh Styakovich and Cannon, and just you know, from there it was just you know, just
it was just tough studying for twenty minutes. Yeah, no question. It's almost like you you're stuck in sand and you can't get out, more like concrete. Actually, I was explaining to to the Jay here. Uh, it's not like you haven't gone through stuff like that. I remember your senior year at Stanford coincidentally, where things just didn't go right and you lost In fact, you lost them twice that year. Yeah, and sometimes that happens.
I do remember that that trip. It was a frustrating trip, things weren't clicking as well, and and you know, and when you find yourself on the road and everything is out aligned, you know, upsets can happen. I think Jayden Bradley said it best recently talking about some of the defensive woes that, hey, our connectivity which is not as connected as we once
were. And so I know they've been spending the last few days over the break getting and you know ready for these Rockey Mountain schools want to get that connectivity back, get that that defensive edge back, so hopefully that will be their time. So, Reggie, you're known for being a defender, one of the better ones in the in the team history. You can kind of correct me and say the best one. I'm fine with that. Uh but keny ken defenses are weird. Either you got it or you don't? Is
that true? Or can you You can get better at it, but can you get it or not get it? Yeah? I mean when we say that, I don't know if there's so much talking about defense, but maybe just some of that, you know, in a resilience fortitude that you know out of that mental and more more important physical toughness, and not everyone has that, you know, and that's fine, but it's something that everyone can do nonetheless, and you know, effet wise, you know, that's just
something you can control. And for me, it's something I enjoy it. And when you start enjoying it and have the passion for it and realizing the importance of it, you know, whoever that person, that's when that's when it has a great meeting. And when you do that team, that's when you're really cooking. It was on the shown that this year. First, you know, ten games, you know, defensive, they really were locked in for whatever reason that for game and since there's just been a little bit
of a little bit of a step back. So you go through a game like that and now you got you got a you know, a tough Colorado team coming in and I get it. You know, nobody in the Pac twelve is ranked but Arizona. But these guys they're eleven and two, they're pretty good. They're always tough. Yeah, they've always had a toughness about them. You know, how do you move on what's going on in the
locker room to get zeroed in on this game? You know, we know Tommy's in his press conference as they said, I've moved on, and he was like giving the media some crap about not moving on. But how, you know, how do you as a player, what what what do you have to do in your mind? You know, to get zeroed in on the next game and shake what it just happened to you. Yeah, you got to get back in the gym. You got to get back in the gym. And I'm sure coach Lloyd and the staff, all the players have
done that. You get back in the gym, you you almost you know, if you break it back down almost to a simplest compound and start with the fundamentals again and start kind of building the other directions. You get in, you start getting the shots up, You get into the film room, both individual as a team, and and you just try to figure it out because physically, you know, you're fine. It just mentally we're just not from the right places. And so it's important to get back on the horse,
get back in the gym. There's gonna be some question marks and some small anxiety going tonight's game about how we're going to respond. But you know, you have to respect Colild They're a good basketball team. They have talented player kJ Simpson. I mean he is a he's he's the first first team Pac twelve candidate, maybe even played the year type candidate. Coming off thirty four points last game. You know, they Cody Williams of talented fresher and
out of Gilbert who is on the tear right now. In the last two games he scored twenty and both of those Tristan the Silva, you know, we all know him. He's a he's a familiar face. I think they might. I think they're going to have him back for the games coming up. An ankle injury and so and it's a team that scores eighty five points like they want to get up and down and and they're explosive. So defensively,
Arizona's gonna have to be on tonight. So I also think that, you know, having covering you guys forever, that one game, you know, one game is a season. You move on to the next season. How how And this may be a dumb question, I even know how to phrase it. Okay, So you have one bad game, you win ten, you lose one, and everybody focuses what on the one? Right? Uh? And it was just something that happens. Did you believe that as
a player here. Yeah, I mean, if it's just a one off, in my mind, that's not too no concerning, you know, nights like that happened. I mean, uh, you just often you still have that yet still realization held on. I'm still a good basketball player. We're still a really good basketball team. And that being the case, if we just refocus our mind to get back to practicing and playing hard, that things will correct themselves and we'll go back to our winning ways. It's when it
starts crying over. You know, if you loft two in a row or three out of five, and you're stample side could a little bit bigger, that's when it can be a little more concerning. It's a dow coom. If it's a one off, get back in the gym, realize, hey, this is not going to occur again and be bad time out? Did you? Did you? Maybe some of your guys I mentioned the group earlier, a good group with Corey and JB and Ben. Did you guys play
pissed at times after a loss like that? Yeah? I mean, I mean whether whether I was playing at the U of A, you know, playing professionally, you know, coaching for the fourteen years I did you always want to have an end. You always want to play with a little bit of fire in your belly. And and and I think, you know, there's a lot of ways to go about that. I could do that.
I could play with that intensity and have a little bit of chip, but also smile and talk a little stuff and have a little fun but all the time be siously competitive. But you definitely want to have a little edge. This is Arizona. You're gonna have a target on your back. You have to realize that. Yeah, and you can find it almost disrespectful to someone's going to come in here and try to beat you. And so hopefully you have to play with that buyer. Who who on this team can can bring
that the most or who do they need to bring that right? You know, I mean all of you guys that they're really out, they're playing the art time right now, they're playing hard. You know, I just collectively they just have to get back to playing with that same fire together. And you know, that's what makes great basketball so great. You can it's not an individual sports. You need all five guys on the same page playing with that connectivity, and it's on one guy on everyone. You know, energy
is infectionous when one guy has it. When Colin Bonds was picking up bull court and guys are stending and Bobo is doing his thing, it's infectionous and they need that energy to be throughout the team. Right. So one of the things that Tommy did after the game that day and then again tuesday, we Wednesday in this press converce so was he called out the guards. They're getting the ask ask ask kick being a guard. And I said this yesterday
on the show. Back in ninety seven, ninety eight, if Bibby was off, Miles showed up, if Miles didn't show up, and baby Terry was showed up, differention they had like four headed monster right to different degrees. And your team, I think you were the guy. You were the guy, But this year they have four headed monster. Kind of was that surprising to you because the backcourt got beat so bad? Yeah, you know, I mean obviously, you know, you know, cantabiddy ability is important.
I think that's what Tommy's alluding to, that, Hey, take some personal pride and defend some people. You know, killed Love has done a great job offensely last few games. Colin Balstiwall, I think it's fair to be struggling with the shot and maybe that's affected him a little bit, but I'm looking for him to bounce back. K J. Lewis has been terrific, and so I Jayden Bradley. But I don't know if they give you the same type production as bottle will over the long haul. So you know,
they got the guys, Peel Larson, they have the players. It's more of a mental and physical thing right now, and they just got to figure their way out of it. Okay. So so having said that, figuring their way out of it, what is the way out of it? You know, the guards obviously have to play better defensively, but you know they just looked in complete disarray on on on uh on Sunday. You know, but before that, we you know, we're sitting here saying we don't
know what their flaws are and then we found them. So, you know, how do you play your way out of something like that? Or you know, let's say they fall behind early, you know tonight, what happens there? Well, I mean just go back to Stamford game. You know, after credit they shot they shot the ball at a rarely high clip and shot the ball. Well, so I definitely want to get Stanford credit for that. Defensively, you know tonight you get back on it. You can
start the game with energy the first five minutes. You come out and play the right way, and you come out with a lot of energy, and you see you're at and then you take a break and can do another five minutes. And you do that eight times and so you know, I think you just have to take a step by step. Not they're not get ahead
of our selves, think about the end of the game. Just start the game with the you know, we got the horses and got the guys, and if you face them, that whould be double down on Tommy's philosophy, double down on the team philosophy, and not splinter. And so you know, those are two ways they could address that. Yeah, no question. In fact, uh, that game would have ten assists. I think it was. It was totally not the team we've seen for two plus years where
they shared ball, they moved all around. I'm sure that was what you were. What did you how was your how was your your play by play? How was your color analyst job? That day? Was a tough no, I mean, I mean it's first of all, it's over the pleasure of with Bran Jeffers. But you know, it is what it is frustrating because you really want the guys to do well and you're right there with them and they were not playing well. You have to describe them not playing well
right right, and so that can be that can be difficult. But like I said, I have full belief in this team. I just think they're going to just get better and better. There's a young team, yeah, no question, and they are, and you know, we like to think that they're not because Cayle, you know, Kyler Boswell has been here for being playing for two years now. Well he's still like twelve years old.
So I mean, you know, it's you just you know, you just have to still realize, you know, uh uh what, Jade Bradley is a young guy. I'm a bunch of young guys. I know. I know. You you've got a key shot who he looks like an old man. He looks like he's been around for a while and you're relying on him
to, you know, to kind of carry some of that. But you know, they are still a bunch of young guys and people have to realize that, Yeah, the young guy's a lot of success right out the gate, and we're in that rare air number one in the nation, top five in the country, and that sometimes is psychologically it can be difficult to digest if you haven't been there a lot. You don't have some veteran guys, and they do have veteran guys, but just collectively, you know, that
takes them getting used to. Now they've taken a little bit of a knock. I'm loving. I'm going to love to see them bounce back and start going in the other direction. So I have here's another little anecdote for you. It kind of applies to this year. So in ninety five ninety six, you guys senior year, you lose a damon the year before, people say, well, this team might be okay. So I don't even think
you guys were rated or ranked in the first first to first poll. Right, you guys go to New York win the n I t be Georgetown in the finals. Here you are. I think you're making the top ten. And I said yesterday to a few fans on the internet, you know, the great Internet, that one of the things that is the hurt Arizona is to go to Duke to beat Duke get all these high expectations, the fans go crazy, and they get all these expectations, and they should be the
most unbeatable team. You guys went through that in ninety five ninety six, because that's how you started. Yeah, you know, that's exactly exactly right. You know, it was almost criminal what the AP and the basketball did to us in terms of taking us out of the top twenty five without having seen a flight, because they broke our streak at the time, coach Olsen had a streak up like two hundred you know, weeks in a row, so they broke it without even seeing this, which was I thought criminals,
and we were upset about that. To win in the preseason an I T and being number three in the nation right out the gate. Now, you know, keep in mind that team had five seniors. We had you know, Miles Signing, Michael Dickers and Jason Terry, so I thought we were maybe more mentally equipped then maybe this group a little bit, just because we had been together so long and we had been you know, number two and number three previously. But yeah, that was a year we went, you
know, not ranked the twenty five, and we handled the expectations. We knew every night where Arizona and what does that mean? That means we're going to the other team's best game and we need to be prepared to that, prepared that and actually prepared to play harder than them, and we did that. Were not the Arizona is We need to get back to that. And you're talking thirty years later and guess what the lesson still needs to be learned. Oh no, no, it's all relative. You know. That's crazy
about this game. That's why I love it. And yeah, the same lessons a fundamentally sound back then, are still fundamentally sound today. Yeah right right, Okay, Reggie is always thank you very much. Yeah, yeah, Jay, Steve, I appreciate you, guys man, thank you again and bear down all right, take care. Thank you the Reggie Gary. I love this stuff because it's accurate. Well, well, it's accurate because you know he went through it. I mean that's what life having guys like
that on. Because you know, Reggie, what was this like when you did this? Yeah? Right, right, and how did you react? Well? I think I think he gives us a lot of it. That year and they were unranked, they in the in the n I t beat Georgetown, Arkansas or whatever, and then all of a sudden, you're the crap. I want to say the S word, but you're the crap and gets it. You start believing that you said you don't your bulletproof, and then all of a sudden, somebody starts punching you in the face. You're
like, what the hell is that? Right? Exact? Not just once twice all day? Because you know what, they want to kick your ass, right, they did, and they did really bad, and then they want to kick your ass. So you know there you go, all right, thank you, Reggie, that was that was awesome. Appreciate it. Uh, we're gonna take a break, We're to come back. We'll take your costs. Five two zero four one six seventy four forty. What do you want to see tonight with Colorado coming into town? Uh? Looking for
a big win, looking for just a win? Uh? Do you care how much they went back? Give us a call. Five two zero four one, six seventy four forty. 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 Loot 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. Hi, this is formal while get Lemanhunely with Arizona Health, imagine how home GM can change your health, your comfort, and your time. Arizona Health is everything you need to transform
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Downtown Bowl Bash featuring fireworks presented by O'Reilly Chevrolet. Start your put Shanga journey and get your tickets today at the Arizona Bowl dot Com breaking down the hall, the exes and oh's. It's Steve Rivera and Jagin Salax. This is I on the Ball on Fox Sports fourteen fifties. Hey, welcome back to win the ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty I'm Steve, He's Jay. You've got about thirteen minutes. Have you got the call? Do you want
to call? Five two oh four one four forty. We'd like to hear from you. Good discussion. We've solved all the world's problems, including the best world tips. Yeah, we've sold how Kylon Boswell and lit Love. We're gonna get out in guard Colorado guards and not let him do what so far Purdue, Florida, Atlantic, Stanford all did to them. It seems so simple, right right, That's not no, it's not it's not.
You know, It's it's funny because it's it's in times like this that you find out how good a coach is a coach, right, you know, Tommy Lloyd so far has been very good at this is not losing two games in a row. Whatever issues they have gained them fixed by the next game. He's had kind of a short week because they played on Sunday, traveled back, right, you know, and now you know they're they're they're coming in on Thursday and having to play Colorado. But they did practice on Monday,
did practice on they did not get the day off. Yeah, you know, you know, and you know, and people who you know who question whether Tommy's a good coach or not? What does he have seventy one wins in two and a half seasons? Stop? Yeah? Yeah, Well so one of the guys, I guess who reads me and we had a quick discussion. The jury still out, Jerry still what the jury? Well, because well, I guess the jury for some people is going to be out until he does something well in the in the UH in the Double A
tournament. You know that in at Arizona, that's where the jury makes its decisions. Sure, and for Sean Miller never get you to go final four? What do you think do people what do you think people think of Sean Miller as the coach at Arizona historically? Now, yeah, yeah, he won a lot of games. They think he was pretty good, really good. Okay, give me give me a level okay, excellent, Okay,
you know, pretty good, pretty good? Uh average? By average, I mean John did maybe what you know, kind of the minimum No, so so social three four? Was he bad? Okay? So I think depends, Like now, I think it's pretty good because it's your three years removed from the you know, whatever happened happened. It's kind of the recency bias is kind of fading away. He wasn't actually it wasn't. Didn't get to the four. You know, had a shot or two fall and he
would have gone to the final four. Pretty good because he won a lot of games. I couched that by saying, and I did the numbers. Fifty to sixty of those games came against the Northern arizonas of the world, right, So he won a lot. Yeah, but let's put a little astress there. Yeah, because that's it's true. What does three elite eighth
get you here, three elites eight here, what is it? Yeah, bon chips and that gets you to pretty good, pretty good, right, And the problem with that is that was early on in his career, at the end of the at the end of the road, he didn't finish strong. No, in fact, people forget that he won a lot, lost a lot of games consecutively, in fact, since before Lute, because Lu didn't go on these losing streaks of five, six, eight game Sean did. And I'm not here to rag Sean. But he was very good,
and he still is a heck of a good coach. He just didn't know the formula here. He wasn't great. He was very good or pretty good. Well, it might better than sort of kind of what you would accept my in my departure and my departing column on him the next day after he was fired, I said, what is his legacy going to be? We're still talking about it and what is it? We don't know. There's like
two or three things to it right now. I ever got quite to it, never got to the final four, although he did get to the date three times. You know, had a last second shot at one of those. At a couple of those, you know the n C double A stuff that you know that that's part of the legacy. You can't ignore that that happened, and that that you can't ignore what kind of effect that had on
the program, right right? So okay, now, if the jury is still out on Tommy and I'm sure people and I want to ask you this later after this, how much of a sample size do you need? This is where I go to the momentum. This is why I don't believe in momentum, because if I walk to the door, say eight feet to the door, is it one step? Is that my momentum is two steps momentum. His three point is the moment when you start to fall towards the door. Okay, so I got eight steps. I got eight steps, and
I don't disagree with eight steps being some momentum. But you know he's got momentum after two steps. No, he's won two games. So so so where was I gonna go with this? So what's the sample size allowed for Tommy to say, Okay, he can coach. Yeah, well, I think we already know that he can coach. The question is how good of a coach is he gonna? Is he gonna be great? Is he gonna
be very good? Or is he gonna be pretty good? Right? So that and that part, I think right now you're leaning towards he's going to be great, right ultimately, sure, but you're holding back on that because you're waiting to see what. Let's say he gets a final four this year. Okay, this year he's going a final four? Is he great?
Yeah? Well he's gonna be pretty good because then Genhua, because the only other coach has gotten in Arizona final four has been low But and guess what, he couldn't win the big win, the big one, right, there was something else. But you know I've had I've had a person. I know this person will be they'll remain nameless. But who's Who's told me? And he said a number of times Ludelson was not a great coach because he only won one after well, I was and he should have won a bunch
more. I was gonna we had this discussion because I think I bought a friend of mine about three months ago, pulled me aside when I was selling the book. He says, oh, good coach, YadA YadA, But my friends tell me he should have won more. And I said, really, how do you figure at the same time of his good teams. I
think coach k had a few pretty good teams. So Jay, just because you can beat me and golf nine out of ten times, ten out of ten times, you guess what you're not playing me, you're playing good golfers. I mean, come on, should have he had good, good enough teams to play capable against those teams. But there's other teams. Well, I'll just say right now, anybody who doesn't think Luke was a great coach and shut the hell out. Yeah, they don't know enough he had good
teams. But at the same time, or you could have a fast car, but guess what other cars are pretty fast by a bull driver. I mean, do you sit here and think he had teams that could have or were worthy of winning the national championship? Of course we'll go to eighty eight, eighty eight, two thousand and one, ninety eight, ninety eight, eighty nine, eighty nine. So you hit a four or five because what
you run into stuff that happens better team that day. I mean, I remember whenever they're watching watching watching them lose to u n LV in eighty nine eighty sweet sixteen, and thinking where did this UNLV team come from? We didn't. We hadn't seen that, sure all year long, Utah utah ninety eight. Come on, you think that's gonna happen. And stuff happens. Stuff happens. You plan a trip to go to Disneyland, there's a crash on the road or a rain for something happens, right, something happens.
No, I hear that all the time too, It says, don't you think other teams are pretty good too? It's like it's like last year when Florida Atlantic showed up in the Final four, You're thinking, what happened here? You weren't paying attention. It's like your the analogy we used yesterday with Pennix, what happened here? Well, you weren't paying attention. Were all of a sudden this is a good team. Well where were you? Well, I didn't watch much college football. Shut the hell up there, exactly.
Yeah, No, I hear your friend is a lot like my friends. You should have wanted more. Well, it doesn't work out, but that and that doesn't make him not great. Exactly right, No, exactly. I mean, yeah, every coach at Arizona that's won a national championship and whatever sport should be considered a great coach. Sure you know every single one. Well, let me tell you. I'll give you a good example
Kendrea's later years. Yeah, people are saying, what the hell is he passed his prime blah blah blah, and then he gets him to the finally he gets him back there in his follow year. I don't blame him. Are you know what? Here's this finger? You like this finger? You can take this finger. I'm gone. Honestly, his finger was that I'm glad this is but you don't want I want to. You're gonna tell me I want a few championships. You don't like it, pull my finger,
take it home with you too. I'm not gonna pull. But you don't have a line. There's a line in the sand, and I'm not good. I might know exactly what you're saying, because you know again, and it gets back to the how hard is it to win a championship in any sport? Sure, in any sport. It's like you talk you talk to Laura Ianello. You know who's won a national championship in golf. She should go down as one of the great coaches at Arizona because she won a national
champion softball. You got a lot of Frank Bush. Frank Bush, well he does. I mean people know he was a great sure coach, but you know, we should ask him how difficult this was. David Rubyo a great coach, very good, consistary, good, consistently, lasted a long time, was competitive every year. But was he great? I don't know, no. I think even he would say that he wasn't. But he was just about just about there? Remember who you remember? Where we're at
here, we're two a results is the Dea Barnes a great coach. We not know yet the jury is still out right, but she had a hell of a star. We had a nice run there in that one season and and you know, and that's kind of created this expectation of her teams. The worst thing that we're going to find out about that this weekend as well. They've got Colorado and you're talking in both highly ranked. The worst thing to happen says you win early. Guess what people think you could do it
all? That's where you should be every year. Absolutely, it doesn't work that way. It doesn't, it doesn't. I mean, we have a great show. We should have a great show. Every year. That blows right away. That's to the point though, right to the point. Nice of all the time, we do the show five days a week. We're not on vacation times fifties to two hundred and fifty times. If we're lucky to survive two hundred good shows, we're doing okay, that pretty good.
We're better than most. But it's not easy. I think people the general fan doesn't understand that, especially playing on the road too. There's a reason why they call it home court of that again. And you know, you look at you look at Maple's pavilion. You saw it. There weren't a lot of people, the students aren't, weren't in town, so it certainly shouldn't have been an intimidating atmosphere. But still you're on the road, and you know they were on the road a lot in December. You know,
yeah, you know, I hate it. I hate that kind of travel. And you know, and when you're eighteen, nineteen, twenty years old and you're not sleeping in your bed, and I'm not making an excuse, I'm saying it's harder than playing those guys and Arizona typically, at least for my history, if they're in half filled. Arena's twenty five percent. It's like the first round of the NCAA tournament on that morning over Thursday. They don't play well. It's they need the bright lights, they need the whatever,
they need the big well and that'll be important tonight. As Reggie said, they've got it. They've got to come out with a lot of energy. They got to come out. You know, you can't be behind, you know, ten to two after the first few minutes. Uh, I think one the fans are gonna get nervous. That will change the atmosphere in the arena. And you got to think that, you know what's going on in their heads if they if Colorado comes out and punches them in the face
right out of the box. In fact, you should start saving some of those Twitter because you're on Twitter, I'm on Facebook. I'm gonna start saving some of the responses here in January and then eventually bring them back in March. Yeah, and you know and see if they still exist, yeah, or what they're saying here to there, if it's still relevant, or if a bad right ages bad is the right phrase, yeah, because a lot of those things do. But you know it's uh, and I've said this
before. I've said this a number of times on the show. We're living a time when everyone can figure out everybody else's problems but can't figure out their own. That that is it's true too, that is for sure. I mean, yeah, you know you want to go figure out your problems like coming yell at me about money. You want me to cut my grass? What about the weeds over there on your side? Man, I got a twin of lead for break in my backyard. All the leads Asters Association doesn't
bother you, any of my grandson to grow a fast. Get over to start raking. All right, we'll be back. We'll be back here at the top of the hour with the breaking news a stick around