Welcome back. This is Steve Roverta your Dave Silver. I missed the kids. We can handle.
All the interns are off. Yes, another good time spring break. Henry will be back Friday. So that's good. They're in Cabo or San Francisco or hey. But they have exciting lives as being college to don't you remember those days?
No, I.
Need to die. I think it went to feede.
Yeah, maybe went to Disneyland or something.
Yeah, for as a twenty one year old, I don't know. Maybe, yeah, I think we did. Actually, I just remember enjoying not going to school.
Uh. Cool. Okay, so if you guys want to call, we have about fifteen minutes before we go to the next guest. Who is going to be an author? Right, give it the name again?
Yeah, Keith O'Brien, who wrote a book about Pete Rose called Charlie Hustle. Yeah, so yeah, exciting.
You know, The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose in the Last Glory Days of Baseball A great title.
Does Did you have you read it? Maybe the four I've read.
I've read a lot of it, but not all.
Did did he know him beforehand or did he just I think he just kind of picked as a subject. We need to find out more on how the book originated. But again, tons of people coming to town for the for the book festival. And he's one of the sports authors. We've got a number of good ones, famous ones. Jack McCallum wrote for Sports Illustrated for years and years.
He's coming in.
And Joe Posnanski, who's a great baseball football writer, he's coming in. Just in the sports scene. And look at Tucson Festival books dot org. You can see the whole lineup, the whole grid, and see where your favorite author might be.
Did we have an author with you Monday? Were you here Monday?
We had Marin Fader?
Okay, she's she's with the Ringer, Yeah, And she spoke about the l A book fair, right is that Los Angeles book Fair?
And then this one do you think that? And she said, this one's big because it's big, right, So it's a big one. Do you think because of the weather up here? They bring? Why is it so big?
Well?
They do a great job of hospitality to begin with. There's a number of events kind of around just the weekend, dinners and party and they entertain people and you know, just just when they come in.
I think they're treated well. They stay at nice hotels.
The u of A is you know, a beautiful location, the weather, you know, fingers crossed will be good again, and the numbers of people I mean, I think I think a combination of snowbirds being in town and the U of A kind of being off, it just brings people to campus.
It's a nice weekend.
Generally it used to always be up against the Pac twelve tournament or some tournament, and this year I guess it could be again. But we're talking still over one hundred thousand people will be on. Oh. I mean, there's food, there's music, things for all ages. Kids, there's a science city they call it, you know, stuff for kids and stuff for grown ups. And you know marquee authors that people have read from the news, business, from you, mysteries, science, any subject you can think of.
Yeah. No, I'll be out there one of those two days trying to see. IM trying to find a publisher. So we'll see what I get if I get luck. No, I don't need an agent a plenty to publisher. You got a book in mind? Yeah, I have two, actually been trying to for a while.
What's that like?
As somebody that I'm sure a lot of people who are going to be there have similar stories to you, and and they like and you have books out too, obviously, Yeah, what is that like?
Does it take?
It takes a while.
You just got to convince somebody that you're worthy of a book, right and and your subject matter is going to be worthwhile to be read. And uh, you don't have a have a manuscript kind of in your head or to tell them what you're going to do.
I've been lucky. I've been lucky. And you know, it takes and then then the work starts. Then the work starts, you have to put it together. It takes about six seven eight months. That's why when you talk to you O'Brien, book, Uh we had this story. When did he passed? Like September October Pete Pete, Yeah, so had to be he he had started it then right away.
That's a heck of a quick I think it's been out before.
That was before before that, so it was that does not include his death, I don't know for sure. So that's let's see where how he's handled that. Because obviously you can add to the end of the story.
Right right, because he can have neither another book, which, of course, now he's going to be in the Hall of Fame.
I would like to say, maybe it's not the end of the story.
Maybe you know, there's a for afterward that comes maybe in the paperback edition or something.
Right, Well, it's like me when I read the hundred things every Arizona fans need to know and do before the death and everything was happening after that, he says, well, Steve, you're gonna have to add another fifteen exactly.
You know, that's your next book on Dred And now we got one hundred.
And fifty things. Right. Let me tell you, there's been a lot of stuff that's come out since then. You know, the scandal was shown and that book was before set. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was. Uh, I want to see the best book
that I thought was the Box Book. Right. That's when Sean Barely came on the scene in two thousand and nine ten, right, and then the other one's twenty fourteen, right as they were getting to be the only reason I got that idea, not that idea, I got the proposal was they were undefeated in mid February late February and then actually got hurt so the book was already starting to be if they win the title, I was
already ready to write that book. So when they lost and they started to lose a little bit more, we changed gears and then it turned into the hundred and one things. Yeah, so it's always kind of transitional, you don't know.
Yeah, well, I mean it's you've you're writing about the most popular sports in this area and again with alumni everywhere. I mean, you can market that all over the country, I suppose.
Yeah, And I have a little It's funny because I had Toldard on two weeks ago, I guess what it was? Were you with me? You know?
You went?
So he was on and every time I call him to talk to Steve, you write another book, quite, you know, because it's but it sells, I mean, and it's totally two different more than two obviously a lot of different things go into the book. Yeah, I think.
Well, we can talk about it, maybe off offline, but I mean I think you could you could make a mark some where on the West coast if you can get one of the players to do a sit down with you at some bookstore and say I've got you know, Tom Tolbert with me. Oh yea, yeah, you go there and you know, next thing, you know, Steve Kurr comes over too, because you're in.
And like I told you before, which when Show and Loot was around, we'd have these signings and he would come with me and they didn't want to talk to me. They wanted to talk to him and get a hor signature on the book. So you know it was I had had it made when he was around. Let's let's kind of if we're in taking it calls five to two oh four, one, six, seventy four, forty, we can just take a few calls before tonight's came. So what do you think Arizona is the favorite by three and a half?
Yeah, their favorite.
I was kind of surprised, but you know, eighty three seventy six, just a couple of days ago, they lost and they couldn't contain the big guy. So if Dickinson goes off, who knows how this game may go? And you know the whole you know, Caleb Love, what can we expect? You know, they got to had a big game from Trey Townsend kind of out of the blue the other day.
So wasn't that a wash? If you get something from him, you don't get something from somewhere else. That's kind of a true.
Well, like the THEYSAR did nothing right then in that game.
So if he just if he just defends Dickinson, well that might be enough.
Yeah, Well, wasn't some of the postgame talk that Arizona never double teamed him and maybe that would be the strategy. Maybe they weren't going to show that that day because that was going to be their strategy. Perhaps the next time they played, which turns out to be tonight. So I don't know, let's let's watch and they all knew that this is a good possibility of it happening. Yeah, the second second game in a week or what is the week? The five days, five days, five days, so
we'll see. I do like their chances, even though it's going to be close to Kansas City. It's I don't think it's a home court advantage, even though it's only fifty.
Miles away or whatever it is.
You don't think so.
No, I'll give you plenty of examples that Arizona had a home court advantage in terms of fans, not the court. Historically, Anaheia, they've gone to places and they've had overwhelming Yeah, crowds there and it meant nothing.
Yeah, well, I mean it's gonna be totally it's gonna be like ninety to tencent, no question.
For Kansas.
I mean it's really it's like forty miles away. Kansas City, I'm sure has a zillion alums, you know, and how often did they get to see them. They probably have a hard time getting into fag Allen. No, you're right now they have a chance to go see them, you know, on a Thursday in the middle of the winter.
Yeah. Yeah, And I'm sure that a lot of people from Tucson didn't go, But there's still alums in the Midwest in that area that want to see Arizona. They don't get to see them live, right all the time.
That's yeah.
Like as I was saying before, when they would play at games, and you know, especially on the East Coast and even in the loot years when they'd go play Georgetown or villanover Saint John's or something like that, and you know, Arizona had a pretty good turnout because they've got a pretty good contingent on the East coast, right.
Yeah, I think one of the bigger places I went to Syracuse and played in the Dome. It was ninety six Ben Davis. And they've always had people who had big in the West Coast. They always had, you know, people in San Francisco were LA and then they were just really good. So you wanted to see these guys and you.
Know, yeah, and it's kind of the same with football too. I mean it's different with a Big twelve because I don't know how many alums we have like in Midwest, you know, Kansas State.
But but that's how it was when they played in the Pac twelve.
There was always a big alumni contingent in Seattle and Portland.
And right the Bay Area, right LA.
Right back in the day, like we're talking to, you know, the Stott of Old had their people.
This game was on today Georgia Tech.
I didn't see him. I didn't see them. I didn't see him at all. Coach this year and I think the world of Damon. But you know, year two, I think it went okay. I think they were like an eight seed something like that. Yeah, in the in the in the AEC. The problem with that is the ACC wasn't very good. It's like it's like when North Carolina isn't any good Uh, it's like when UCLA wasn't good in the Pac twelve you kind of dismissed the whole league
because you're a cornerstone. Yeah, team outside of Duke isn't that good?
Yeah, well again it was it was them against Duke today, So it was seventy eight to seventy. They finished up. I don't know if this is their final record, but seventeen and sixteen. So yeah, maybe we'll see them in the n I T or something.
So yeah, yeah, go hope David does well there because if he does do well, they'll obviously kind of chase him down for another job.
It was crazy again with all the realignment that we've seen in the last couple of years. But you know, Stanford and Cal playing each other.
Yeah, I saw that.
And then like in the women's game, it was.
The Big Ten championship and they have two better teams than that, the two best teams, and.
Come, you know, one year removed from a conference that we all followed forever?
Have you followed because Arizona's team is not that great and didn't generate headlines? Did you follow the women's sports very much? Given the cat CalArts no longer playing for basketball probably not probably not.
Yeah, No, I mean we'll see maybe once the tournament begins and there's a little more exposure for it and it starts to will be trimmed down by who's playing.
Well, there's a few pretty good players, right, I mean, not to the level of Caitlin in terms of notoriety, but the good the women from Connecticut Beckers. Then you have Juju at USC and then you have I forget her name at UCLA, the six with seven. She's very charm her name very good, very good. And then the the uh, the player at Notre Dame maybe player of the year, and I forget her name too.
Yeah, and again those names will kind of come to the forefront.
They're on TV all the time, and we're what, you know, the game starts soon and they always they usually play games like Monday and Tuesday after the men's games that weekend, so they're kind of, you know, kind of away from the major action.
We have a few minutes, maybe two or three minutes before we go to our break real quick. But you talked about this off air with me coming in about Ada. Uh. We've talked about her every now at the cursery level, just at the you know, surface level. But we heard news yesterday. I think it was us right that Auburn. Auburn is looking at her to possibly take her away from Arizona and go coach there.
Yeah, that was some of the some of the rumors and some of the stories, and you know, who knows where where those are coming from necessarily, but you know, I think her contract is up after next year, and who again, there was some reporting about where that may stand, which could be reason for her to think about going somewhere else, which would be sad for the U of A. She's you know, she's the best player in school history, and she was able to get them, you know, very
close to a championship. But the last couple of years have been tough. It's been hard to watch sometimes and again well and a lot of it's just been hard to watch off the court with them losing players to injury or transfers. Yeah, and the portal has not been very kind to them, if.
You, if you feel free, go to see the Azy Desert Swarm story on her. Kim Dust did a pretty good job. I thought she did a fantastic job, in fact, maybe highlighting that that in the story not from her, but from somewhere else and maybe out of other places that she wants to go where she's appreciated. That would mean something here, right, Yeah, that you're not here? Uh that was there? Nil money. She's talked openly here on
this show that she needs more. We know that the players are going to be getting more money with the shared expenses, but the women's teams is not going to get a whole big percentage three percent. To me, that knocked me over, to tell you the truth, that's all you're getting. That's all they're getting. I'm thinking, what because football and basketball getting the majority, right, and you think, holy moly, I thought that'd have some title line implication. Honestly, Yeah,
because that's the world we live in. I don't know.
I mean, I think we need to kind of just see how it plays out, especially with these with the new money coming. You know how that's going to you know, affect these programs and the players they get. It's it's a whole new ball game, it really is. I don't know how these coaches, you know, sleep at night wondering, Yeah, what's my roster going to look like? You know in two months or two weeks if players start leaving after the end of basketball season and jumping and Dave.
We talked about this at the beginning. We're going to go in a second. How basketball to me is turned in like the horse racing, where the best horses get to the big games or big races because the people paid a ton of money for them, not necessarily. In basketball, Indiana paid a ton they lost today they may make the tournament, and other Arkansas ton There's a lot of teams that spend a lot of money and got very little for the return.
And Umar Bollo gets that big money goes to Indiana and they could be finished.
They could be finished. Right. You got to go take a break here, come back with mister O'Brien on the other side. Are you ready ready to discover your soul.
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Steve Rovera, He's got his eye on the ball on Tucson's sports station, Fox Sports Sports een fifty.
Hey, welcome back to Ie on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, you're Dave silver. How on the phone, we have Keith O'Brien, the award winning journalist author.
Yeah, I was going to say.
The Tucson Festival of Books does return to the UFA campus on Saturday morning, over three hundred authors are going to be in town. We've been talking about this for the last few weeks, and our next guest is a steve mentioned Keith O'Brien, author of four books, including Charlie Hussele, The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose in the Last
Glory Days of Baseball. Keith's work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, the Washington Post, and National Public Radio, amongst many places, and he was also a staff writer with the Boston Globe. And Keith, welcome to I on the Ball and we're looking forward to seeing you here next. I guess tomorrow.
Basically, I can't wait to get to the desert. Guys, thanks for having sure.
So when did you come up with the idea to write the book, because it's been out a while, right, The.
Book came out a year ago and just came out in paperback this week.
Nice. You know.
I I'm from Cincinnati, originally born and raised.
I'm too young to remember the Big Red Machine years.
You know.
I'm alive, but I don't remember them.
And but I grew up with Pete Rose and that story in the eighties and I'm so it's really the wallpaper of my life, and and and so this idea had really always been on my on my list of things I wanted to write about, and I began to dig into it into in the summer of twenty twenty one.
So let me ask you. Can I ask you your age?
As sure I was born. I was born in seventy.
Three, oh seventy three, because I went sixty four. I grew up in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Charlie Hustle. Mister Pete Rose was my one of my idol idols, if not the idol with the big red machine in
the mids seventies. My years of you know, inspiration got to be inspired by right, Joe Morgan, Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, you know, Geronimo, all those guys, and so to me, you were kind of living my fantasy here obviously, and then as you get older and then I think it was eighty nine, things kind of fall apart from my vision of this guy. So how was it for you?
Well, I mean, before I wrote the book, I sort of felt that I had, over the years, had felt every single emotion you could have about p Rose.
Yeah.
I felt pride, I felt sadness, I felt confusion and I think I felt all those things over the years, and you know, with the book, you know, I really wanted to set my personal feelings aside.
I think if you go back and you look.
At what had been written about p Rose, everything was always shaded by the writer's own opinion. You could tell just by the words they were using that they were there to make it case for Pete Rose, or they were there to tear him down. And and what I wanted to do was look at his story through the prism of history, tell that story with granular reporting, unprecedented reporting and interviews, including twenty seven hours of interviews with Pete Rose himself, and and you know, write that story
and let people come to their own conclusions. And you know, when the book came out, of course I had no idea that.
You know, it was.
That Pete would be gone within months. And so in some ways it takes on greater significance.
Significance.
Now, what did you learn when you met him that maybe you you know, again you're growing up and you're you know, you're aware of him, but you got a chance to talk to him for all that time. Maybe what are the some of the things that surprised you about.
Him, you know, Pete.
People often ask me, they say, you know, did Pete try to charm you, you know, while I was with him? And my answer to that question is is he didn't try to charm me.
He was just charming.
And I think, you know, getting access to him and being able to see that, you know, spending one on one time with him for hours, you know, it helped me understand why the press in the nineteen sixties, seventies and eighties would defend him and in fact, at times not even report the things that they need to be
true about his gambling. It also helped me understand why many young people would, young men in particular, would be sort of drawn into his inner circle, and these young men would do Pete's bidding, you know, ultimately placing his bets with bookies, placing his bets on baseball. I don't think I would have understood, you know, those things if I, if I hadn't felt a small fraction of what they had felt, you know, by by spending time with him. I think that was crucial to me and into understanding
this story. I think the other thing that spending time with him helped me understand was really the core of the man, and I really began to realize that. You know, Pete Rose succeeds as a player and becomes an iconic player and fails as a man for the very same reasons. You know, he he succeeds as this player that we love because he will not bend. He he will.
Not be weak.
He believes in every scenario that he is going to prevail, that he is going to come out on top. And and you know, as he told me once, you know, I'm an eternal optimist, and and and what better quality
to have as a hitter. But those same qualities, his refusal to ben his refusal to be seen as weak, and his during belief that he would prevail, well, those are the same things that would set him up for his ultimate failure and his inability to reckon honestly, with the wreckage he caused to himself, to others, to Major League Baseball, and and that is ultimately why he lost everything.
Well put, yeah, well put, because it's all true. Right, When was the last time you were able to see him before he passed? Before he passed him? Did he help you with some of the sales? Early? Great question?
So you know I had this incredible access to Pete, and then.
One day in.
The late winter of twenty twenty one, early twenty twenty two, Pete just stopped calling me back and the line went dead. Wow, And so no, no, he didn't help me sell any.
Did you figure out why was that? Well, I don't know why.
To be totally honest with you, he and I never had a crossword at all.
I was pushing him.
I was asking at times difficult questions, you know. I wanted to tell the full story here, and so yeah, we spent hours talking about amazing baseball moments, those glory days of baseball, the seventy five World Series, the nineteen seventy All Star Game, the hit streak in forty four, the forty four game HISTORYK and seventy eight, et cetera. We talked about all that, but we talked about the gambling too, and his lies about it and his other mistakes off the field. And so I think that was
hard for him. But ultimately, I think the real reason why I lost access to him, uh is a more basic one, and that is simply I was not paying him, you know. And and I think I think he was advised to stop talking to me as a result.
I had a chance to see him, you know, in his later years in Las Vegas, and we mentioned not paying him. I mean, one of the books about him came out. I can't remember which one, but if you wanted to get an autograph, you had to buy the book, or if you wanted to.
Get anything, you had to you had to buy something with Pete.
And this was you know, some casino in Vegas, and he was just you know, he was there and he was attracting attention. Let me tell you one other thing, speaking of a big red machine, there's a couple of guys here in Tucson. I didn't You may know this, but Paul Moscow the picture and Pat Darcy, who gave up the Carlton Fist home run, are two Sonans.
So they're here. In fact, they went to the same high school out here.
So we've always kind of had that in our back pocket when we were talking about that.
That team and Pete rose in that era of baseball. So there, he.
Didn't know that. I did not know that.
I know, I think Terry Francona keeps a home there, but I did not know about, uh, about those other guys.
So is this you're just quoting Pete on this book, or are you talking to other people around him who were close to him.
No.
I did two hundred hours of interviews with others, spoke to everyone who crossed paths with him in a meaningful way. Uh, interviews with three different men who placed his bets on baseball, his ex wives, ex lovers, family members, people who were in his dugout, people who were in the opposing dugout, people who had never spoken before about about this story.
Uh.
And not only that, you know, I utilized federal court records, thousands and thousands of pages of federal court records that had never been explored before. That should owed how Pete Rose's world unraveled from the inside, not in nineteen eighty nine when it all you know, when it all goes public, but really starting in nineteen eighty six, it's a three year unraveling. And that was primarily told through these court records that no one had ever bothered to look at before.
So if I could real quick, So you're you're thinking about doing this book, did you? You're what was the premise? Like you said, Okay, I'm going to talk to him first to see if I can or if he'll talk to me at all, or you said I don't need his help. What were you thinking, because you do need his help kind of not kind of you do.
So you know, I was going to do it whether I got him or not. And frankly, I didn't think I was going to get to him. Pete had never spoken to an author for a book unless he was getting paid, in fact, unless he was unless he had editorial control, and he was not going to have either here, and so I didn't think I would get access to him. And I thought, well, I'll just have to, you know, report this from every other angle in order to get
to the nut of it. And and that's what I was doing when I did ultimately get that access.
And I and.
I do think that, you know, my Cincinnati roots did help, you know, uh, you know, thinking back to some of our earliest interviews, Pete would be talking to me about growing up on the west side of Cincinnati, and he would say things like, well, you know where that church is or you know where that field is, you know, because I was from there too, And I do think that created a familiarity for the both of us that that he liked.
God, it's amazing, No I guess as we wrap things up, the Hall of Fame question has been lingering here for all these years. And then Trump makes a comment the other day about how he should be pardoned. I'm not quite sure if that was the right word he used, or what do you think I mean?
Is something going to happen with that story.
Well, the pardon in the Hall of Fame or separate exactly. He ultimately does plead guilty to federal charges for file filing false tax returns. He admits to that in the late nineteen eighties early nineteen nineties. He serves time for that. You know, President Tump Trump could parton him for those crimes posthumously. That would have no effect on his Hall of Fame status. You know, he would have to be reinstated by Major League Baseball in order to appear on
the ballot. That has not happened for thirty six years. I don't know if it will happen or not. My personal feeling, though, is that we've just frankly lost perspective about the Hall of Fame. I think we like to put players on pedestals, we like to ascribe moral value to them, and the truth is we don't really know the people that we cheer for we don't, right, And so my personal feeling on this is that we should vote players in or not based on what they did
on the field between the lines. It is truly the only thing we know for sure. We simply don't know what we don't know about these players, and if what they did off the field is so wrong, then I say let's put it on the plaque at Cooperstown right there in bronze for perpetuity, right next to their accomplishments.
Right right. That's why I often say, you don't want to know your heroes, don't want to meet your heroes. Right. Let me ask you finally, just the last question for me, just out of curiosity. When you did this twenty seven hours of meeting with him, did you ever go to dinner or lunch with him? I did, Okay, So my question would be who picked up the bill? I think it's a legit question because if you know what I'm saying, you know exactly what I'm saying.
So, uh, you know, we would often actually meet at at his favorite diner in Las Vegas, the place where he always went to, the place where he was well known. He would sit down they would bring his orange juice. They knew exactly what he wanted.
And you know, at the end.
Of those meals, I would always reach for the check and Pete Rose would say, no, no, no, He's like, no, one's gonna accuse me of being a short.
Yeah, that's why I asked, because at least he could have done that. And you know, you you your share, but yeah, no, fantastic, Thanks so much. Look forward to seeing you and and and listen to you guys when you guys come in.
Thanks for having me, guys conversation.
New York Times bestselling.
Yeah, the book again is Charlie Hustle, The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose, The Last Glory Days of Baseball, And that was Keith O'Brien. He's written some great stuff. This is his fourth book, all different subjects too. Not
too many sports books in his arsenal there. But he'll be appearing on Saturday at eleven thirty at the U of a Mall tent, so he'll be outside, but it'll be covered on a tent at eleven thirty with Jack McCallum and Joe Posnansky, and then continue on Saturday with another side of sports with Russ Bradbird, who you had on yesterday, Lewis Moore, and again Keith. That'll be at the Integrated Learning Center, which is the down below underneath again two thirty on Saturday, so he'll had a couple
different chances to talk. You get this book signed, and it's great to have him.
Yeah, no, good stuff. Thanks for getting them, Dave. Let's take a break here for our final segments. If you're an Arizona men'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
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This is I on the Ball with Steve Ravera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Subscribe now to the podcast on the iHeartRadio WIP just search Ie on the Ball.
Welcome back to My the Ball. Here a Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, you're Dave Silver. We have about twelve minutes left or end of the day. Big game here in about four hours, hour and forty five minutes. Yeah cool. If you guys want to call let us know what you're thinking. Is five to two oh four one six seventy four forty great interview.
I thought it was a nice interview. Yeah, it was good. Keith O'Brien has written that book about Pete Rose. He'll be here as part of the Tuson Festival of Books. You can go to the website to get all the schedule of everything. There's literally from ten o'clock until four each day Saturday and Sundays. Everybody knows this is like the fifteenth anniversary, so big event and good to have people like Keith coming in.
Yeah, yeah, you could tell he's a pro. Right, he knows his toff.
He's written from good books and he writes for you know, he doesn't mess around in New York Times, Rolling Stone, those types of publications.
Right.
Well, okay, cool basketball? Now know updated on your New Years scores that have disappointed you.
Well, of course, my alma mater, SDSU having trouble getting out of the first second round whatever it is in the in the Mountain West, losing the Boise State eight. But in our Big twelve, Texas Tech is ahead of Baylor forty five thirty two. So the winner of that will play the winner of the Arizona Kansas game.
Right, Yes, the evening session.
Is it one for? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah, this is a gauntlet. Baby day was.
Of tough Baylor's I thought Baylor was pretty good, but they're you know.
Yeah, yeah, they were kind of the paper tiger of the league, kind of looked good, look, you know whatever, and then just didn't kind of play up to par at least perception rise. Right because byu b YU is playing some of the best basketball in the conference.
Yeah.
Well and plus you know, Colorado kind of surprising with a couple of wins just to get to this point to play today, to get you know.
Yeah, I don't think it'd be Houston. It's gonna be Houston. Houston's a one, right, so Houston would be four and Arizona was a three I think, right, Yeah, so it'd be one, four two three three, So Houston would be playing BYU. Yeah, we talked about that.
The style of difference, right right, Houston and would be playing uh, Baylor Texas Tech.
Yeah, Baylor Texas Tech. Every game is going to be crazy. Did you ever believe like Richard called and says, you know, losing their first game whatever back in two thousand and three, I think it was. It was the time that Gardner was on the team and Luke and probably the best one of the best teams that lud ever had, right when they were going through some issues with hurting. Luke
I think had hurt his ankle. There were some injuries and there was some thought of it maybe just you know, and he hitted the Big Pack twelve tournament anyway, just kind of show up it out, blah blah, blah. And they lost in the first round of that of that tournaments, and people were saying, all they threw it, blah blah blah.
They didn't throw it. He just got beat. That was a game that Jason Gardner forgot his jersey at home and they played in l A. I think it was LA, and uh, you know, he had a horrible game because you know, when you start thinking about stupid stuff, you just it just comp compiles and you played poorly.
And well that's what happened to him. I think they played UCLA for years. It took Lute so many years to agree to even do that. Get behind the back to ten or tournaments. He was, you know, then they started winning it all the time. And then remember those early years, I don't know if you were even here yet, where they played them here, they played them on home arenas. So there was one I think at ASU and one here and one of poly.
Yeah. Well then they played him at the champion of the regular season titles title.
Yeah, maybe that's why they were at the home and that's I mean, that's just a sign of the times.
That wouldn't happen anymore.
Well.
Samson talked about that because he played I think it was in ninety one ish, ninety one ish ninety twoish. He brought his team Washington and they played UCLA and Tucson love because they hated Ucla. And he became like the darling of the tournament because he had upset them, and he talked about that a little. I remember that very well because he's he I think he's got some Native American in him. Yes, And there was that, and and he became a very popular guy down here and
he's a good dude. Yeah, and his dude and people and he even mentioned that that he remembers that people turning on Ucla and and liking him because he had knocked them up.
Yeah, I do remember that.
And there was a there was some good pieces written about him as Arizona was about to play Houston this year, just how much he appreciated Loot and Bobby. I mean, he really went back thirty years just to say he was a young coach and he was kind of taken in by them and it treated him well. And you're right, the fans here I do remember that time where I think Washington State had Ucla on the ropes.
Yeah, fans were going crazy for that.
Right, it's always good.
Good, And then remember Arizona owned them for a long long time. They couldn't get beat by them. I was saying, thirty nine.
I went to a mathematician to say, what's the probability of this happening? Happening? Because you can't be the team thirty nine straight?
Now, didn't they beat Arizona like two or three times on the road? I don't tell you what the coach was, Sean Miller, Tony Bennett. Oh, I mean yeah for that.
Bennett was the coach, and he's style and he had some good guards. Thompson I think was one of them. Thompson, Uh why state, Yeah, he had Bennet could coach. The styles was horrible, you know, drip drip, drip drip did
no fun to watch. But that's what beat Arizona. And I think Arizona if they play a team like that, well, Houston does that, But if they play a team like that in the tournament and then maybe hit a three year for something like that every now and again, it's gonna give him trumple be trouble.
It's kind of weird because you know, Bennett retired in the middle of the season and then they just fired the coach who replaced him. Today, I want to say, so Gia, Virginia went from winning a national title a few years ago to doing this.
Guess who the favorite to coach that team is.
I have no idea.
IWA State guy, oh something, yeah right, huh yeah. So we'll see what happens all these coaching that would be.
That would be a step up from where he is it Iowa stay State into the ACC team that just won.
The not just but a few years ago won the national title. Yeah, maybe change the direction of how they play. I don't know if you remember this, but in Virginia at least uh Luke was still married to Christine and they opened the new gym at Virginia. This had to be oh yeah, Chase Buddinger's first year. I think it was when we went out there and I was part of the you know, I was traveling party to cover the team, and uh, it was huge. It was huge. It was you know, and Christine has a lot of money.
She's a big booster in Virginia. Fantastic time. But Bennett was not the coach at that time. No, but I do remember that game. It was a big deal.
I mean, It's kind of interesting how arizonas opened arenas and open stadiums for teams for the years.
It's a draw first time, you know.
Oh yeah, it was a TV game.
It was like on a Saturday night, you know, early in the season November. Let's let's get Arizona on ESPN at you know, right from Charlottesville.
Why why is this happening? Oh, it's the first game in this arena.
Yeah, I remember you had to find the Richmond and then drive to where we're going to. Great location, obviously historic, you know all these houses that were you know, back in the day.
Exactly.
Yeah, anything else we got, we got about eight minutes. If you guys want to call seven minutes five, two, four, one, six, seventy four forty w win tonight? What do you think.
You know?
I want you.
I'm not a media member anymore. I'm a fan these days. It'd be nice if they would win it. Just it just extends the interest for us.
Here.
Let me ask you soment. Okay, so, so you've been in the business. So you were in the business wrong time. I was in the long time. I'm going to give you three TV stations to a two to a station six people. You don't know names of those six. How many were rooting for Arizona while they covered them?
Yeah, I would say that the reason I rooted, say you know, underneath the table, Yeah, clapping out out front was just the experience of having fun things to go do and exciting things to cover.
Professionally, I mean, I look back when I.
Selfish men, Dave you selfish men? Honestly, I mean I don't know. I reflect.
I reflect on on the big moments, like people are, what was your favorite thing to do? Well, it was probably covering the championship in ninety seven?
Well why was it?
Because they played six games in a row, right, And it was and it just kept on going and so professionally I would root for that just to have great experiences.
So yeah, and part of it was that year was no one expected it, right, no one expected it? Were you and there in ninety eight, I was, no one expected that. How disappointing was that?
That was?
That was tough because everybody had high hopes. I mean even the non sports fans of Tucson who just knew, hey, I'm on, you know, they're basketball and they just won the championship.
They're gonna do it again, right, and it didn't in such a thud for to finish that way?
Was sure, sure, yeah, no question, Yeah, okay, so six out of six I would say, you mean, who was rooting h to win?
And just yeah, just kind of you know here.
I'll tell you this is probably true too, is that as reporters, we were rooting to have you know, a successful run and stories to cover. Management probably wasn't too thrilled because of my because of the money. You go, oh my gosh, now we got to pick up and go and send these guys you know somewhere else.
So that it was rough and where does that come from? Because the same thing for us, right, the newspaper. But they had a budget because they anticipated this happening. So in TV.
Same we thought, you know, we would think, didn't you guys realize they've been doing this twenty five years in a row. They're going to go somewhere. It's going to cost us X amount of dollars. It blew me away. I mean honestly, I was, oh, sorry, yeah, like what we just didn't budget for you guys to go you know away again. And you know how it was getting credentials, It was hard if you didn't go to one round.
Yeah, this is kind of behind the scenes stuff.
But if you didn't go, you couldn't go the next round either because you weren't there.
And you know, sweet sixteen. So we used to get that problem.
Yeah, so you went, so you had to go.
We used to go.
They had to find and it just wasn't you. It was a photographer.
Yeah, it was usually two and sometimes even three. And when I got to the point where, you know, we're talking final fours.
There was new Sercervice. I think I know that.
I remember in ninety eight we definitely had four people, you know, so we were, you know, going out to Anaheim with four Well I'm sure we drove, yeah someone, no big deal, but anyway.
Right, No, that's how it was for us too, and we were at the underdog ob shiate the citizen against big old daily Star people. You know, me Quirky and two other people would go and do our thing and then you know, don't forget the hotels, don't forget the meals.
Of course, it was expensive, you know, and that's why I was always kind of surprising when when they would come to us and go.
How much how much is this gonna cost Yeah, like just like last year, and.
You would think though, just by the by, the common man would think that's a no brainer. Yeah, you're going right, and Tev's got money. We thought. Now it's like not so much. I mean, you've seen what's happening on all the stations and only one newspaper now and they're struggling where you have like Bruce the only guy in Kansas and now out covering the team. Yeah, because it's just the way the world is.
And yeah, I guess, thank goodness, we still have a local newspaper that they can do that can that can afford that?
Yeah, because yeah, the TVs, I don't know.
I guess we'll see next week how things go with the tournament where they send.
People, if they do. If they do send people.
It's probably a little bit easier now than it was twenty years ago, just to do things technically right, where maybe one person could handle things. But you know, back in the day, you know, I can only do so much and I had to have some help, right, That's how it worked out.
Well now, well, and I'm sure back then too. You can get the feed off the off the podium and and everything you need is there. I shouldn't say that public to the producers, you know, but that's just how it is.
Yeah, you know all the quotes you need that.
Yeah, and we've kind of lamented that you even on this show just about the lack of access, but you also had that chance to go into the locker rooms in the NCAA tournaments too, which was which was really good for everybody.
And in this tournament too because that's Vegas. That was Vegas. We that's when we really found out which we have it too mon that uh that uh eighten the entry Eaton had a personality that he was a joke story he was only eighteen eighteen almost nineteen, where he was a joker. He'd mess around for around blah blah blah. Because we had no idea, We never had access to him until the post heason.
Yeah, I mean for sure.
And also you know, basically when you don't have access, everybody's kind of doing the same story, right, and you know, the TV's pulling the same little SoundBite that you guys are pulling for your quotes and stuff. But when they had access to the locker room, we'd turn around the next day and go, WHOA, where'd they get that story, it's because you had, you know, five minutes with you know, DeAndre Ayton that we didn't get.
Maybe because we were too busy.
Doing something else, right, right, all those that's the way it is scooped right, right. And then you say, well you didn't send us Yeah that's what Dave. How come you didn't have that story? Well, because you know, I was doing something else. I had to run out to the truck. What about this story I did do?
Right?
Yeah, exactly.
Well, okay, guys, everybody's time. Thank you Dave again, as always, thanks for takeitho O'Brien. Yeah, it was terrific. And see at the book festival co Hen Gonzales, good luck to them, Pima. Yeah, and we'll see You'll see you next week, Dave. Just gotta know your schedule. Thank you,