This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez Son Fox Sports fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure Your Most Prized Possessions kat z R two, SAG and iHeartRadio Statia. Good afternoon, and welcome to Time on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm your host today, Ja Gonzalez. My buddy Steve, who's normally here with me, is on the road. He's headed to Duke where he's gonna be covering the game tomorrow.
Big game, huge game, one of the bigger games Arizona his head outside of NCAA tournament games, bigger, not big, non conference game. Duke is ranked second Arizona's twelfth. So that's an opportunity of Faresan to make some noise. But Steve's on his way, but he'll be checking in. We've cooked up a pretty good shock. My buddy Kevin here, Hello, Hello, who's gonna be hanging with me today? So you'll be hearing from Kevin and I. But Steve's gonna call in during the third segment of this
hour. We'll pick his brain and see what he's uh, you know, what he's thinking about heading into this game at due he's covering it for All Sports Tucsons, so you can follow him there and pick up his game story after the game and any other any other stuff he does related to the game. But he's on his way. He'll be calling in from the Denver Airport today. We're also gonna be obviously talking the Arizona Colorado game. We got
the two beat rioters. We're covering the game for either team. Brian holl a frequent guest of the show. It will be here at three at about three twenty, and he'll he covers Colorado. He's been covering Dion since that whole thing happened, and so we'll pick Brian's brain on what, you know, what's going on over there. They've going there, they're going through some
tough times. They've lost four of their last five after that really celebrated start that they had winning those first three games, and so it's got a little tougher for them over there, a lot tougher, a lot upper. So we'll see if it's also gotten tougher on Brian as well as But Brian will be in here and then we're gonna get Justin Spears. We'll get the Arizona side. Justin will be heading out to Colorado tomorrow and so we'll get his
thoughts on the game where at a press conference with Jed Fish today. We're gonna play some of those clips here in just a second, but uh, you know, I think producing show and then the last segment of the of the show, Kevin's got Steve's picks. I don't know what they are, but Kevin's gonna do Steve's fab five Friday picks. I'll have mine by that time. I don't have him yet. I've been thinking about a lot of games. So I've got some I've got some thoughts. I had a little
better week last week. But Steve, Steve's hot man. Steve's gone perfect two weeks in a row, five for five, two times in a row. Control what you can control. You know exactly what Steve's doing. Yeah, pull off. Yeah, So he's got he's gone, He's gone five. So he's on a run of ten straight picks against the spread. So he's left me in the dust. I'm not even I'm not even thinking about catching him. And he said number of times he's not worried about me catching
him. So he's just trying to do well. He's up. Uh, he's pretty high up in that pool that we talk about. There's a thousand people in it. Steve's in the top ten. Yeah, he was talking about that. Yeah, he's quite proud of that. Yeah, I'm sure he is. It's a it's a tough it's a tough pool to win. So good for Steve. So we'll we'll do the fab five Friday pick. So let's you know, let's go into the Jed Fish press conference because you
know that's what you know, we that's the guy we didn't get. We didn't get with Tommy Lloyd this week except the stuff he had to say after the after the Monday game. So Steve will have some stuff to talk about there. But you know, press conference, it's a it's a huge game for Arizona. Every game is a huge game. You know, they want
to keep this ball rolling. We've been having this conversation about which is the bigger game Arizona Duke in basketball, Arizona Colorado, And you could you could argue that the games only get progressively big right here and out, kind of regardless of who the opponent, right right, And I've been saying there's no wrong answer to that, right one. It depends on yourpect. Are you a bigger football fan or a basketball fan? To me the Colorado game.
And here's why, you know there's all this buzz about football. We're still talking football as Arizona's getting ready to play Duke. You want to beat Colorado to keep this conversation going, and and Jed talk about this. We'll play that that clip in just a second. You know, if Arizona goes to Duke and unless they get blown out, whatever happens, win or loss, it's kind of like, okay, great. You know they didn't lose by a lot. They're at the number two team in the country. Not a
bad loss. They beat them. People are going crazy right now, we're talking you know, the Arizona's the top ten team. Yeah yeah, yeah, win wint right right, So as long as they don't go get blown out at Dukes, whatever happens to Duke is fine. Arizona Colorado. If they lose this game, it cuts off a lot of the buzz about the basketball team. With Utah coming in, they want to fill it up. You know, you don't want to lose this game. They're supposed to win
it they're not. They're actually ten and a half point favorites. Now the line has moved up. It was nine and a half early this week. Now it's ten and a half. So you don't want to lose this game. So I think that's why I think this is a bigger game overall for the conversation. And I do agree with with the bassment already of your assessment.
And I feel like for this football program in terms of outside the locker room, in terms of the fans, right funds, all that stuff, this is kind of a teetering point in like the program like are we going to be serious? We talked about it on Tuesdays. Are we gonna be serious? Or are we just going to be another Arizona team? Is it gonna be another nice seven? And the seas? Right? So that's that's
right. Things at stake. But you know, Jet talked about how much you know they're they're ranked in the in the College Football Playoff Frankines, they're ranked in the AP, They're ranked in the Coach's Pull. Here's what Jet had to say about what does that mean to the program? Well, I mean it's all you could ask for right throughout these tougher times through Arizona football. You know, in the recent past, I would say that there was
not many conversations about Arizona football. And now when you're talking, when you're being talked about and you're becoming relevant, that helps your recruiting, that helps you know your opportunities for more for your kids. Maybe there's some more nil opportunities. The more you're talked about, the more wins you have, the more the fan base are willing to support our kids, the more money that goes into a collective, the more multimedia rights, some more marketing opportunities our
kids might have. So everything that we could do to help our kids is happening. And then winning, as I've told them for three years, is what really helps, you know, and that's the truth. You want to get paid more, win more, you want to get more opportunities, win more, And that's really what it comes down to. And I think that's really the biggest benefit that they're seeing. And that's really it. He at the end, he said, it's about winning. You got to win to
keep getting these opportunities. Yeah, because the losses against USC are only going to last so long as in terms of improving morale, and improving the general feeling about the team. So you do have to out actually win these games and well, and you have to win the games that you're supposed to win exactly right. You know, if Arizona had lost to say, Oregon State,
you'd gone, well, Oregon State's pretty good. Washington State as we've seen since then, right, Arizon should have won that game, and they won it big, so they did. Ucla is another one. You think that UCLA team that came in here didn't look like the UCLA team that we saw a couple of weeks earlier, so I you know, it was important for them to win those two games. But now you got a game that
you're supposed to win. Arizona has been an underdog the last five games, and you know they went three and two of those games, so now they're the big favorite. They really need to win this game to keep this momentum going. And again with you know the season finale home finale with Utah coming in the following week, there's a lot of ticket sales at stake for this
game. Yeah, it doesn't it does not get any easier, like you said, and Jed's been talking about it a lot the past couple of weeks about the ticket sales, and I was looking earlier, Jedfish said that there's forty one dollars tickets sold for the final home game. Again, you talk, five thousand tickets are sold after the UCLA game. That speaks to exactly what you're talking about. You have to win to get people in right to care. If they get lucky, you can get a daytime a daytime game,
and all these kinds of things. You know, they can't fill up the stadium, and that's you know, that's what you're looking for. So it's a huge game. I think it's a I think it's a you know, well again, as you said a second, every game gets bigger than the last one because you win this. Now Utah's coming in, they're going to come in ranked. You're probably top twenty. I don't think top ten.
You know, now you got you got a chance. You win that and then you start getting to that ten win thing that I talked about on Monday. So but you know, he doesn't want to get ahead of himself. He talked about taking these games one at a time. You know, that's that's the cliche, and he did talk about that in the press. Conference, but they really do. You know, one of the storylines is,
you know, Deon Sanders. It's always been all season long. It's been a crazy uh atmosphere around Colorado and UH and Jed did, in fact, was on the coaching staff while Dion was playing the last couple of Dion's last couple of years he was in Baltimore. Jed was on the staff during that time. Eds, He's been around some good players. Yeah, So he was asked, you know, he was asked if he had some Deon stories. He declined the stories, but he did talk a little bit about
Dion annoying him a little bit. I mentioned before, Uh, he's a fantastic guy. He's got great character, great personality, one of the best players ever played the game. And uh, Colorado was lucky to have him. And it's gonna be great to see him on the field before the game for one minute or two minutes, whatever that is, and then after that. I wish him the best of luck. I wish his team the best of luck. But no, I just remember him as a outstanding he for
us. He played nickel so uh at that point in his career, so I thought, you know, he wasn't gonna say anything, right, That's what that was. Yeah, I'm not gonna say anything that Dion's gonna use. You possibly could Dion does that. He'll you know, if somebody says
something, it's it's you know, it's in the locker room. Well, I was also thinking Dion's also one of those guys where, depending upon when you met him in your life, you might not have a lot of family friendly deon stories to share a little while exactly exactly so, especially when he was that, you know, with the Cowboys and the Niners and that stuff, and those times for him were that's when Dion was Brian prime prime, Prime is prime. Right, So but you know it's gonna be interesting.
Well, we're gonna have Brian Howe in here again in a few minutes. We'll talk about what Dion's been like, particularly the last several weeks when it hasn't been going so well. He uh, he's uh, he's got somebody else calling plays. He promoted a guy to co offensive coordinator and uh uh, you know it was a sign that he wasn't taking the losing very well. We'll ask Brian how is that the case? But uh uh, Jed was asked what's changed with the new guy calling uh uh place for Colorado.
I know coach Shermer well so been around him at different times, recruited his son as a matter of fact, and I think that he's you know, so he was an analyst there, so he knows what they were doing. He was in all those meetings. He was probably very involved. I don't know the exact extent of what the analysts do over there. I know that our analysts have a great feel for what we're doing. I would guess that when they made the decision to let coach Shermer call it, what they've really
done is he's not going to change the offense. It's impossible week nine or ten of a college football season, when you get twenty hours a week with the kids, to just go in there and all of a sudden implement what he was doing at the Giants, or what he was doing at the Broncos
or anywhere else he's been. Now, will there be challenges, sure, will he have a little bit different wrinkles, Sure, I'm sure there'll be some protection changes and how they want to handle certain things in the running game. But from watching last week, there's still most of the stuff they've been doing the whole year, and I can't imagine that really having a significant change until the offseason. Well, I think that that kind of says a lot.
And he's right. I mean, you know, these are college kids. They're not you know, NFL guys who get to spend eight hours a day figuring out a new game plan and stuff. Right, They're not changing their their offense. They may call plays differently, as he said, they may change some protection protections and stuff like that, but you're not going to see a big difference in what they do. And I'm sure Brian, Brian
will uh you know, will attest to that. Uh you know. To me, the the whole uh impact of that is what's going through Dion's head. Right, he's not, you know, because he the offensive coordinator that that he let's say, quote unquote demoted, was a head coach at Kent State. So you so now you know, halfway through the season, Dion says, you're not doing the job I need you to do. I'm bringing
up this other guy. And so those are the kinds of thing locker room stuff, coaches room stuff, that's the kind of locker room and he's gonna kind of run like, right, that's it constantly innovating and reinnovating locker room. That's like I was gonna say before we play that clip. Because Deon's not a loser, right, That's one thing he's not. He's not gonna wait right bad performances because he expects of others what he expects. I'm sorry,
he's nice. He's not gonna wait around to make change that he thinks they need to make in order to get better. You know, he talked to and after the last game. He talked about how they they got to go get some better offensive linemen, and people took that as well. He's he's ripping his own offensive lineman. Their kids. Yeah yeah, yeah, but they kids day, you got it. You get you get a scholarship to come and do a job. Right now, you're also getting nil money
to come and do a job. There's gonna be a lot less patience for lack of a better word, They're gonna make moves, and he's saying we need better offensive line. You know. I I've heard coaches say that usually on the side, not publicly, but Dean he doesn't care what we think.
And it's not it's not like Dion is a complete stranger. Did these guys they respect him as a player, so they know, hey, if he says I'm not up the I'm not up the par I'm not up the par I need to I need to do a little bit better here in these certain areas. Exactly. All right, let's go and take our first break.
We're going to come back. Brian Holl from the Boulder Daily Camera and Buff Zone will be coming on and we'll get his uh perspective on you know, what's been going on in Colorado, not only all season, but really the last five weeks where they've you know, they're they're one and four in the last five weeks. And so we'll talk to him, and we talked to him earlier in the year when all the deon stuff, what's going on, But now we'll talk about the game coming up on Saturday. So stick
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to fifty. Welcome back to on bolling out Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm your host for the day, Jay Gonzales. Steve is on the road headed towards towards Durham for the Duke game tomorrow. He'll be covering that Frost Sports Tucson. But on the phone, I've got to Brian Hall, Colorado Buffalo's beat rider for the Boulder Daily Camera. We've had Brian on a number of times, including earlier in this year during all the Dion and color A hooplas.
So, Brian, we appreciate you joining us again. How things going over there? Pretty good? Just uh, I can't believe it's Game channel right here. Seriously. Yeah, so uh you know we we we did talk to you during you know, all the raging media frenzy over you know, Colorado's first three games and when they beat a couple of ranked teams and just got just captured, you know, the whole college football uh, media attention and everything that goes with it. Since then, they've lost five out
of six. So just first of all, tell me, you know, how's the mood as far as that goes over there, you know, still trying to be optimist. What's going on? Yeah, well, the message this week was is very much focusing on the positives and the optimism of their
future. And we talked a lot to weeak about how how much Colorado and Arizona marror each other, and the Colorado is just you know, kind of a step behind Arizona right now because you know, yeah, the year one, yes, this is the year three, but uh, you know, Cala was just trying to learn how to win go through that as well, and they finally that's when going on that earlier this season. But the bus
just haven't learned how to win those close games against good teams. You know, the expectations really with what happened in those first three games had to have gotten incredibly unrealistic because in the end, this is still a first year. Dion was, you know, a brand new coach to the Power five level. You know, the much discussed roster flip. Uh, you know for the entire program, do you think people got a little ahead of themselves after
those first few games. Yeah, definitely. You know you could see the flaws in the team even during that three and those stretch. I mean they it was a really good winn against CCU and then the great debut, But you know, I think a lot of that of TCU didn't have any film on this, you know, the other teing that didn't have any film and caught by surprise. It was a perfect storm. And you look at TCU and that's not a great football team this year, that's a four and five
football team. Uh. You know, Nebraska and the CSU were both rivalry games and they were supposed to ball out CSU and h and barely beat them in double overtime. And you know, so that we saft laws even in the three and oh start. And I think that the national hype was just it was insane and I understood it at the same time. Uh, even during that how much did the did that loss to Oregon, you know, forty two to six, I mean, look, it's Oregon, They're going
to bring you down to earth. But was that like a big thud or was it kind of expected? Because you know that kind of started this whole thing. Yeah, at the time, it was certainly you know three and O. The hype you know in that game was I believe it was ABC, uh, you know, right in the middle of the day, and and to lose like that was a big sude. They came back the next week and you know, they lost only by a touchdown the USC and they
got down bigging that game with then rallies. So I don't think it was really the Oregon game that hurt them so much. It was I think it was the Stanford game, right, you know that they were up twenty nine to nothing a few weeks ago and I lost that thing forty six to forty
three and double overtime. I'm not sure they've fully recovered from that one, and that had some tough games since then, but you know, I'm not sure they've fully recovered from that collapsed against Stanford and that was yeah, well they well they haven't gotten to twenty points the last two games, and admitted the UCLA's got a really good defense, Oregon State's got a really good defense.
But what's the way you know, Colorado's offense had been you know, had been playing you know, including the forty forty some points against Stanford. You know that's a little bit. You know, that's quite a calm down for them. So Dion makes the change with his offensive coordinator. You know, Kevin and I were talking in here before you came on that Deal's Deal's not the kind of guy who's going to wait around, and that's kind of
how people have taken it. What are your thoughts on why that happened and how's it working? Yeah, not really, you know, some one of those things we don't have all the answers and not really sure why it happened. My deck is from listening to him and the things I'm hearing is that there was just a disc between whether it's Dion and Sean Lewis out of the corner or Schador and Sean Lewis, whatever it is, I think there's just been a disconnect where, you know, Sean Lewis is a great coach and
he's been on everybody's hot boards for years. Right, He's a great coach and he'll he'll continue to be a great coach. But for whatever reason, I just don't think that hard has worked out very well and they want to go in a different direction, and it's like something different. Did it look
any different? Yeah, I looked a little bit different. You know, Pat Shermer obviously, you know, long time NFL guy, and uh, you know there was a lot more you know, Uh, they still passes of running back trying things like that, kind of the extension of the running type passes. You know, they did a lot of those, but they didn't work. I mean I think there was twelve cargets for the two running backs in the passing game that that met at twenty five yards. Yeah,
so you know it didn't work out very well. It was It looked ugly last weeks. I mean, other than the Organ game last week. What the works off as the performance? Wow? Crazy? So you know, just your perspective on Dion, especially going through this losing period, have you you know, has there been a change? Does Is he kind of the same Dion just dealing with it differently? I mean, you know he I mean, he was the star of the show for the first part of the
season. I know people are still talking about him because he's still Dion, But what's his mood been? Like, what have you sensed from how he's going through all this stuff? I think they're great, you know, and I actually told him the other day I had at a moment that with him, just find myself. He's the best post lost coach we've ever dealt with by Conrad, a lot of them obviously, you know, but he's really
good. I mean, he's he's never waivered. He actually asked that Stanford could have easily come in there fuming, and he literally said to us, you deserve my best. I'm gonna give you my best here, and you know, sat and gave us a full press conference that after the u c l A. The FID tried to you know, cut things off around nine minutes and Deon said, no, I'm good, keep going, and he
went another ten minutes. Yeah. So you know, he's doesn't really do and he's the one that's been trying to drive the narrative and the perspective that hey, we're still in good shape. This is the first year program we're building. We're fine. Just wait until we see us in the future. Yeah, Brian, I'm Kevin High. I was wondering, so Dion has been extremely mature through all this, and I was reading one of your most
recent pieces. You talked about's maturity through all the losing and how he's finding value in that situation. How is his connection with his father as quarterback and head coach relationship, How does that helped lead the team through this tough time. I think it's been helpful because the door is immature, and growing up with a father like he did, and being around in the AFL kind of players that he's been around, I think he has given him aspective. And
you know, he's close to Tom Brady and guys like that. You know
he can lean on that for experience. And you know, I was I was kind of surprised about that answer the other day when he was like, Hey, I don't I don't mind going through this because you have to learn how to do it, you know, And you know, that was a mature response to it, And you know, I think that helps a lot when your quarterback is not anicking, it's a frame and at the same time, it's still battling because they were horrible the other night, and then he
goes and gets an injection, then the in between the third and fourth quarters and comes out and scores two touchdowns and all the leads back to the comeback. So a lot of all those things together have help this team so let's get to a little bit about the actual game on Saturday. The first thing I wanted to ask Jed this question, but I didn't get a question in the short press conference. You know, it's a first year program. They got a lot of new guys. How's the depth right now? Are they?
You know, are they going through you know, injuries and trying to figure guys out. You know, it's kind of like a you know, we know Jed went through this. They they played three quarterbacks, but I think actually four quarterbacks in Jed's first year. You know, has has depth taken a toll or you know situation? Are they pretty low on players right
now? How are they here towards the end of the season. Yeah, they started well, definitely had I think it was seven scholarship play the season, so they're already eight below everybody else, but they had they lost some guys the injury or whatever. But I haven't really like the depth of been an issue. I've got the line, they're just not that good. It's not like they've been injured linebacker, same thing. They struggled finding some the
right pieces there. But they're not injured. They just haven't performed. So I think it's more of the I've got to get better talented places, I mean, been an issue. Yeah, so I'm sure this was a game that both teams probably circled on their schedule at the beginning of the year as a very winnable game. You know, is is that still sort of a
mentality for for Colorado that this is one they think they can get. Arizona's rank now they're on a bit of a role, but still, you know, Colorado, you know, after U C. L A and Oregon State has got to feel like we got a shot at these guys. What's been that approach? Yeah, the teams they think they never gave I do think still probably look that Actually, for what I'm hearing from a lot of fans, they think next week is more winnable than this week. Yeah, Washington,
I just still view as a winnable game. And you know, I know Arizona probably do it the same way. I mean, they've got five straight ranked opponents, now get a struggle in Colorado might seem easy. But what I'm curious about is Arizona keep that up well Historically, Anti as a somebody who's been you know, following Arizona since I was a kid. This is a this is a game that you know as a fan, and I know other fans are thinking the same thing as one that it's a little scary
because you know, Arizona's done this before. You know, they get on a roll, get a game that they should win, and then they go lay an egg. You know, I go back to the ninety two season when quote unquote Desert Swarm was born. Arizona was on a roll, won a bunch of games against ranked teams, and then closed out with a three game losing streak. You know, we're kind of at that point of this season in sort of a similar situation. And uh, I know Arizona fans
are watching John Ford. I don't know, you know, Jed's just saying, we just want to go one and know, you know, did the coaches thing today, but just a you know, a really interesting thing. But so what what kind of game do you expect to see? Uh? You know, we we know that in Colorado has got a very posent offense. Jed mentioned that defensively, how's the matchup for for Colorado against Arizona? Yeah, you know, defensive, but it's still struggled about this year.
Their their best attributes are. They're really creating turnovers and it's been pretty h so we'll see they can keep that up. And they they forced six turnovers the last two weeks combined. And and so that's one thing that Arizona's gotting guard for is you know, these guys hit hard and of course bubbles like
you know, it's a mishandle of a snap and things like that. I mean, they force the way they hit and now they're opportunistic with their defensive backs and so you know, I think it's a good matchup for CU. Theirs have been aspect a lot of the year, but it also got trying to hunt on one fight. So you know that that's one of the best cornerbacks in the country. And so I'm curious that Jeff done how much FITA goes after Travis. How's how's he been since he got back from the injury?
Pretty good. He didn't have a very good game defensively Stamford and everybody saw that the part Stamford came back, but Dion told us, but that was because I was didn't focus on defense. He was worried about Austens and he had a monster game on offense that night. He refocused himself through the bye week and he's been really good. He had two interceptions against u C. L A. He was locked down last week against Oregon State. So he's been really good the last two weeks. All right, man, Well
we'll see, We'll see how it goes there. You know, we headed up that way tomorrow. But it should be a fun game. I'm looking forward to this, you know, with all again, despite all the how it's gone the last few weeks. You know, Colorado was still they're still in the conversation and people are still talking about them, probably always will because of Dion. But I'm looking forward to to as you said, after five straight you know, ranked teams. Okay, how is Arizona handle this?
So I I'm looking forward to seeing this one. Yeah, Kenny, especially not only if I say rank, but he's not the loik after that. I mean that eight game stretches is the fund that you probably look at and say, this is the one you probably don't have to gear up for as much dangerous. Yeah yeah, well if they do that. If they do that, they'll be in big trouble. We know that. Hey, Brian, thanks again, appreciate it. Have a great weekend and have a good
game on Saturday. Thanks for talking. Thanks. That was Brian how from the Boulder Daily Camera phone, breaking up a little bit. But I think hopefully you still got all that. But you know, it's this is I really am interested in how this game is going to play out for that reason. It's this game that historically Arizona has trouble with after a stretch like this, this is who Arizona is. It's the trap game, right, yeah. One, and we'll see if Jed and his guys somehow get across to
the players. Don't let up. Don't let up. Yeah, I mean, and if you're gonna separate yourself from the other programs that are kind of in this weird zone that Arizona's in, you gotta win games like this, win the games you're supposed to win, like you said earlier, and that's how you build like expectation, right winning, Go on to the next one. Okay, we're gonna take a break. We'll be right back. I think we're gonna get Steve Rivera for this last segment or over the phone from
the Denver Airport or wherever he's at. So stick around and we'll get Steve on and we'll get his breakdown of the Duke basketball game. So come on back after this. If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you know it's been successful for newly forty years. Now take a look back at the Loudolsen
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, Listens from Newton 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. Hey walk at Nation, Jake Fisher here,
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or a second income. Come be a part of a winning team the A Team apply online today at a Team security dot Net. Steve Ravera and Jagon Salez they have their eye on the ball on Tucson Sports Stage chef Fox Sports fourteen fifty streaming live, I Mean iHeartRadio WAP I got the hicups, folks, So super timely medical time. I welcome back time the ball on Jacob zalas your host for the next hour and change. But my buddy Steve Rivera's
on the road, but we've got him on the phone right now. He's toiling in the Denver airport in a long layover, headed to Durham for the Duke game tomorrow. So we're gonna break this down with Steve, who you know, in one in twenty four hours has become an expert on this game coming up tomorrow, right, Steve, sure work, But you know, here's the thing, and seriously, you know you've you've been through a bunch
of these a bunch of these Duke games, Duke Arizona games. They've they've played nine times, had a whole bunch during the time that you were covering covering them the last two times, the twenty eleven game, in the in the Sweet sixteen and in Anaheim. Then in twenty thirteen they played a neutral Syche game Arizona one, both of those. What are your thoughts right now in terms of in terms of the series and what that what it's been like, Steve, Yeah, they've been I think I haven't. I did not
cover the last two. I was working for Fox, but I wasn't covering the team on the road. So those are huge games. Obviously at the Madison Square Garden, Arizon was not expected to win that one, and of course the big game in the tournament when Mark what's the Dame Williams had a fantastic game, Derek Williams had a fantastic game, which you know is kind
of almost propelled Sean Miller to his first Final four before it didn't. But I've been you know, two thousand and one, what a fantastic game Arizona Party should have won that given the injuries and then a couple of calls, but then and then and then MAUI I was there for that big game in two ninety eight. I think it was No. Is there a better rivalry East West? I'm not too sillar, there is no. I think you can argue that because and you know, you see it right now, and
how many people are focused on this game tomorrow night, national media. You know, you're seeing them on social media that this is a game that a type of game that every you know, everybody wishes there would be more of these. Yeah, you have no question. I just saw that Duke got situated with the Kansas rivalry too. They just set up a home and home with Kansas. But that doesn't start to I think a year next year or a year after. So until then you have Arizona and Duke and two of
the power conferences back in the day with lut and Skazhevsky. I wish this would have been done more often, but but hey, it's happening now, so why complaining? Right exactly, Well, and you know, and you hope that this sort of becomes the new thing. You got two young coaches,
guys early in the early in their careers. They haven't developed the quote unquote egos that maybe a Lout and a Skazhevski and somebody like Tom Izzo or you know, somebody else might have where they say, I'll play you, but I'm not playing you home at home, which is what we're seeing over the years, that they're going to play each other. They're going to go play to each other's places, hopefully because they know it's good for college basketball,
right right, No, no, and look, it's happening. Arizona may not be doing it at home. Over a couple of teams, but the season or the schedule that Tommy has developed here, it was fantastic, not since General Loot was here. Have you seen it? And maybe they'll start bringing into mcale which benefits you guys, the guys who spend money to go buy tickets. Right. Have you been to Cameron for a game?
No? No, that's one of the reasons why I come here. Decided to come because here in Kentucky or the pib of the last two places, I haven't seen at college basketball game. I've seen it everywhere else. Have you have you Have you ever seen Cameron from the outside of seen a big sure of it. Yeah, looks like they played in the Western the regional when they played in North Carolina State a few years ago when they got beat the first round. I think it was Kevin O'Neill's first year. First that
year we came. We made a road trip to Cameron and it's smaller than you think. Yeah, it's just a little building. It's a little building like a church almost. Well, the whole place looks like a church because that's that's just the construction of Plus there's a big, giant church in the middle of it. Well, well, let me ask you something, says father Jay. Will I be if I light if I go into this church?
Well, I didn't. So if I'm okay, you're okay. The co host, Yeah, if I if I didn't get it, you're not going to get I think. I think you're just fine. It's a cool place. The campus is is beautiful. It's like no other campus I've ever seen. And it's funny because I purposely wore an Arizona T shirt when we went to the campus just one day to visit the campus and go to the bookstore. I'm in the bookstore buying Duke gear wearing an Arizona an Arizona T
shirt. It was kind of fun. Oh, you should have got that picture. You would have been able to use it tomorrow exactly. But okay, so let's talk about the game a little bit. I mean, we don't know much about either of these two teams other than Duke is number two, rank number two in the country, Arizona's number twelve. You know, Arizona's got a guy named Caleb Love who knows who knows Cameron. He's played Duke a bunch of times. How much of a factor do you think that
can be for for Arizona. I think it'll be a factor for him because you know, we haven't really talked to him much, but he seems like he's unflappable in the times that we talked about, uh, talked about him and and the team. Uh. So I think that's they're in good hands and we've seen him. He's kind of like, uh, he's got to play with the chip on his shoulder, yes, uh. And the other
guys and and we know this. Arizona's very talented and they played well in in November, and I think they have nothing to really lose in this game outside that they get blown out, and I don't think that's gonna happen, right, So it's kind of like playing with the house money without really having a house money, right when you think about you know, some of the let's call him veterans, even though like Kylin Boswell is only a year you know, into this, but you know, the guys like Boswell, Pally
Larson, Umar Balow, even Keisha Johnson who went to a final four last year. You know, how do you think Cameron will affect those guys if at all? Yeah, I don't think. I don't know, I don't know. Maybe early in the first five minutes, but I don't think they're gonna get intimidated by it or so. I think they're gonna settle in. I you know, you see that the pictures in the in the TV, all the crowd and all that, But but I don't think it's gonna take them at all. Yeah, you know, I think it makes it.
It's gonna sound weird, but I think it makes a difference that this game is on a Friday night in Durham instead of a Saturday afternoon. I would imagine that it's crazy there no matter what. But still, at least from an Arizona standpoint, I know that a Saturday afternoon game gets gets a crowd in an arena more riled up than say a Friday night or a week night game. Well you even though your daughter when they're not studying on a Friday
night. No, I think you're probably right. They're gonna be ready for some of them have gone about twenty five. Wow. Wow, that's crazy. That's crazy. So, uh, you know, getting back to you know what, you know what we expect to see. You know, we talked about this yesterday. You know, I'm gonna I'm gonna take Sammy's money on the over, because you know, he thinks it's going to go under one fifty two and a half. I'm thinking a game where both teams get
into the eighties. Well, I you know, yesterday I was joking with you guys because I wanted to stay out of this bet. But I think, I think, and then this is hard for me to say. I think you're gonna win the bet because both teams like to run when they'd like to play fast. And let's assume that they go to uh seventy five, seventy five, seventy seven, seventy five, and it could go into overtime. I mean, if it goes into overtime, it's definitely over one fifty
two, right right. I mean I've already thrown something down on that because I fully expect it to be, you know, on top of what I got with Sammy going so double down, the double down exactly. And I may throw some more tomorrow once I get to Vegas, because it's you know, on other bet with he has he has Arizona under seventy two points. Yeah, no, no, that's not gonna happen. I don't think that's gonna happen. Yeah, they're gonna get too many. Both teams are gonna
get a lot of easy baskets. I think the defense here is gonna be It's where in November. How good is the defense gonna be? Right? And a lot of running up and down. I hope there's not a lot of fouls because I don't want anybody in out of them. What about Tommy, you know, I mean, he's been a Gonzaga, They's been a bunch of big games, final fours, the whole bit. I didn't look back to see if he's if he's you know, been on the bench, you know at uh you know at now has he they played each other?
They played I don't think they've been in Cameron, but they played each other and again the Zagas I think beat him in the tournament. I think I could be wrong, But but think I could be wrong. But thinking about Tommy going to Cameron maybe for his first time, now Skrzyzewski's not on the other side over there, so maybe that impacts how he approached. But you know, do you think he even really sees Cameron as a play said he needs to worry about No, I don't think so. I don't think.
So he's a he's a dude. He's a really goofid crap about that. And I think I tell you that in a different with different words. Uh uh No, I don't think. I don't think. To me, he's doing this because this is gonna be fun. He's gonna, he's gonna, he's gonna. You know, wouldn't you if you're the head coach and you had a good team, like a really good team, would you want to
go play other good teams in great places? Right? Because that's that's part of the fun of it, right, And if he was going to be intimidated by a game like this, then he wouldn't have He wouldn't have scheduled it, right, I mean that's he wouldn't. In fact, he would not have been scheduled all the other ones either. Yeah. Yeah, so I think that, you know, I think things is gonna be really fun.
I remember when they announced it and we talked about it, and it's kind of like it was so far away, right, That's exactly what I thought. I remembered we were talking about this game, and I was like, wait, this is the game that all the all those years ago. I was like I'm excited of talking about this last year and this is you know, it's finally here, so you expect a close game. Yeah,
I do. There was almost like getting five five and a half. I would take the points in fact that I'm on the internet now people, I think it's fine five and a half. I can't make any bets because I don't think you can do it out here. But uh, but I think it's going to be closer than five. And hey, I wouldn't be surprised if there was gonna wins. Remember the polls, the post. No one knows anything about most of these teams, right, they're just kind of went
off reputation and what they know from last year. And it was as could be better than the twelve and then probably are and Duke could possibly better worse than a two. We just don't know. And Josh Shires a new coach too, right, he's a new coach and as she stepping in has tough, if not a tougher situation than than Tommy Lloyd stepped into. Yeah, no, no questions. Do you want to follow the guy that follows the guy you know you don't want to follow? You want to follow coach k
it's like, do you want to follow? Uh? Uh Luke? Yeah, no, I seriously, I mean I just think that, uh, there's a lot of things in play here that kind of have changed over the last you know, since it was loot Herzewski, you know, at Duke in Arizona. So did you okay, let's let's let's take away the two thousand and one game, which was for the national championship. Did you have a favorite Do you have a favorite Duke Arizona game? Oh? Wow,
take take away the championship game? Right? Well, well you you were around. I didn't cover the team directly. I was going to help me out as a sidecar guy back in the late eighties. Uh the one in Tucson turn Yeah, fantastic game with Leightoner and Sean and although heavyweights, it was two heavyweights. Man, I just remember it be crazy. Yeah,
that was I was at the NOWICH Championship. Arizona's the defending national title champions, Miles saying we want to go undefeated for the season and Duke to beat him in the in the championship game. So and come on, if you go to the rosters of each one monsters, Monsters of college basketball, right
right. Well, you know you talk about that that the eighty seven eighty eight season and the Duke game that was here to me, even though you know they won the they won the Great Alaska Shootout, they beat Syracuse in Michigan in that, I think it wasn't until they beat Duke that you went, holy hell, what do you got over here? And that when you think about all the years after that, you kind of feel like that's where
it started. Okay, So let me ask you this because you've been around this time, and I talk about this with a lot of the X guys. Uh, everyone one in Arizona. Once that you peak, there's a rivalry and there's a Duke of the West and they talk about that. Do you think Duke stays up at night worrying about Arizona. Absolutely not. They worried about just because you know, they've got guys within their own conference that they've got to deal with near North North Carolina right down the dang street.
Uh, you know n C State as well, all the you know, all the ACC teams, and then I think, you know, if you're talking about who do they think of in terms of the as a rivalry like that, I think Michigan State and Kansas come in ahead of that, ahead of Arizona on that as well. So now I don't I think Arizona fancy Duke more as a as a you know that rival out there that they want then Duke does Farzoni. I agree with you on that. Yeah, yeah, they kind of want they want to be the Duke of the West.
Yeah, maybe they return to that, Maybe they return to that. Yeah yeah, but this is uh, this is gonna be fun. All right. See, we're gonna let you go, let you uh finish out the rest of your lay over over there, grass seven. Don't screw up my picks, man. You gave me the pick, all right. So if they don't go through, we're we're not gonna live. Steve, have have fun, safe travels and let everybody know you to read your stuff in all sports too, son, So we'll be hearing from you. Thanks to see
later and my buddy Steve Rivera on the on the road. But you know, look, Steve's been around a long time. That's some pretty good analysis of this game. You know, we would have had that conversation in here, and I think, uh, this is gonna be fun. It's gonna be really fun. I'm looking forward to that game. I'm gonna be watching it in Vegas, which is even gonna be more fun. That's gonna be
too much fun. Yeah, it could be too much fun. But uh, you know, we've got a whole group of people are gonna be watching this game together and having a blast. And uh, you know, these games haven't been coming around Arizona for some time. I mean, they played some great games in some of the tournaments. They've played a few, you know they have. They've had Michigan State and Tennis See and and and stuff like that, and some of these uh neutral side games and stuff like that.
But this is a true home and home. They're going to Cameron Indoor. They got to come back here next year. You know, this is this has the makings of everything that Arizona fans want to see, you know, every year here and that we used to see all the time. And as we said, you know, John Shire, Tommy Lloyd, two of the young guys in the you know, in the in the coaching industry who are saying we're gonna play these games. And I hope that people see this
as an example and we see more of these down the road. Yeah, and it should be a great time. I know. Mean and some of my friends are getting together and watching it this weekend. It should be a good time. Yeah. You play, you play this game, you watch this game, and then you get ready for the It could be a great week It could be a really fun weekend. All right, stick around, we're gonna be back. Kevin's got breaking news and then we've got Justin Spears in the next hour, So stick around. Down