This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure Your Most Prized Possessions kt z R two, SAG and iHeartRadio Stave yet.
Thy Good afternoon, everybody.
Welcome to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, dere Jiggins, Alas, got our guy Ryan with us. Hey, you also knows, Kevin, I don't know. Thursday. Today's Thursday, right, it is Thursday. One more day with you, Jay?
Yeah? Well, kay, well too, Conny Today, Today, tomorrow. Hey, when you edit me, well, I have to edit you four times a year, dude, you I'm okay with that. Yeah. Well, it's the checks cash, the kid, the checks cash. Yeah. Yeah.
Welcome to Thursday Show. We're gonna see what we talk about today. We have a couple of good people coming on. U College has chimed in there. They have their volleyball.
Coach, right, Dan Bethel Bethel, Okay, I think it's Bethel, right, Okay.
He's gonna be at the early hour, the three seventeen hour, and then at the four to seventeen hour.
We're gonna have our buddy TJ. Jesskowitz. Did you already I haven't signed up any What have you publicly said to him that you're gonna do?
Yeah?
I told h last time he was the last time he was on it months ago. Well, last time he was on, I committed to it.
Okay, So we have a big event here on Saturday, Loop to loop cyclist know what it is. It's just a big party on the loop at the racetrack. So he'll come on and talk about that as the temperature starts to dip into the nineties.
Yeah, I've been waiting for that so I could get on my horse. Yeah, okay, that's what it is.
Yes, that's exactly what it is actually, And actually one of the things it is, Steve, is that the show gets in the way of everything.
So yeah, yeah, Yeah, it's funny because it takes the afternoon, but you have to kind of get ready for it all day, you know, all day.
But you know, I always doing and then you know, and then there's stuff after the show and stuff like that. So yeah, you know, once I, once I kick you to the curb, I'll be able to start getting ready for a tour.
Yeah, that's what I'm telling myself. I know, legit, that's gonna be My daughter says, she's gonna do it with me.
Oh yeah, yeah, she's what she No, she's twenty no no, no, no, no miles.
Yes, yeah, we need the thirty two miles run.
So but she she's a she's a she's a cycling instructor. Uh, you know, at one of those fitness places. So she's in shape. I'm not talk to your cardiologists.
Yeah, yep.
So we'll see I got it. Okay, cool, you got it. We got it.
We'll start the show now. Anything else.
I know that they had a they had a basketball interview today. Uh, men's basketball basketball season already.
It's getting there, Steve.
You know, I'm talking to somebody in the athletic department, and probably by the end of next week the full basketball schedule will be out with game times and whatnot. So you know, hopefully, well you know't get all that all that done so we can get our schedule set. You know, I got to know when these games are. I'm a busy guy now, Steve. I'm a busy guy work because work, work is starting to get in the way of things.
So work is afoord out a word that you can actually say in public.
I stopped still having trouble saying those words in the morning to my wife.
We got to go to work, Go to work.
I got a job. Yeah, thanks, thanks dear. And she says, yeah, get you as to work. You've had it made.
Yeah, you've had it too easy for too long, and you're lucky I'm still here.
She kind of yeah, sort of says that I know she does.
Probably she does, but h yeah, so uh but yeah, you know, we're we're getting towards that. Well again, it gets you know, basketball season starts earlier and earlier every year.
You know.
The reason I say is because they had an interview with one of the transfer of the transfer from Tennessee who probably helped near the basket with previous and uh, you know power forward right, uh.
And I just lost his name as usual, but that should be good.
We start here pursuing red, blue and less and two what October fourth, ninth?
I want to say four I want to say. I want to say October nine, the first one, the home one, Oh, you're right, October four, and then a week later, and then a week later October eleven, in Glendale. So we're just talking a couple, you know, two weeks from tomorrow, right, so yeah, you know, so that and that kind of starts at.
Two weeks from tomorrow. So that's going to be the weekend of the Texas Tech game, right the night before the Texas Tech game.
So and then the I was I was thinking of something because I was listening to his press conference coming in and one of the questions at the end was, you know, what are your expectations blah blah blah. What's the one you're gonna say. You're going to say, you know, final four, possible test so championship.
Blah blah blah.
So what in the last No, I won't even give you tim When was the last time Arizona basketball overachieved overachieved? Because we know when the other achieved. When's the lost and they overachieved. I came up with one, and we'll see I uh, twenty eleven, duke, Yeah, that's what I picked it. Twenty eleven, Yeah, thirteen years ago.
Waysa uh, because expectations are always high, right, expectations are elem Put it this way, if you don't get to the final four at Arizona's under it, it's just disappointed. Well, there's gonna be maybe I don't know if you call it underachieved, but it's kind of like that's sort of the goal.
Of the goal.
Yeah, that's the sometimes unrealistic goal for some of the teams that Sean had. That Sean had at the end of the end of his career, they didn't have Final four.
There were a number of those teams they didn't have final They were not Final four when you got to the end a couple of years. That was never a Final four team, correct, right now, those two teams that got to the lead eight, Yeah, both of those were Final four twenty four teams and they just ran into the wrong team in the eight.
Impossible maybe a national championship, right, but no, you're right. So I was when I was thinking, it's been since twenty eleven the Duke.
Did you get to the lead eight?
Yeah, I mean we sat I remember sitting down to watch that Duke game and I'm like, Okay, we're gonna watch this, but this is gonna suck because you know, if you're an Arizona fan, you don't like Duke. I'm not gonna use the word hate, but you don't like Duke their arrival. You're kind of wanting to be what they are or what they've been with the national championships and whatnot. But it was kind of like, well, you got to watch it. It's a sweet sixteen game. You're
not not going to watch it. And then all of a sudden, and then they were getting beat early. Remember that they were down like ten twelve points early and then came back towards the end of the second half, and then blew him out in the end of the first half, then blew him out in the second half.
It's like, what just happened. That's when Williams made his name for himself.
Right, That's when he made He made so much money in that one game, a ton of money in that one game.
You talked about Duke being arrival. Just Duke feel that way? Yeah? Do you think so?
I do I think Arizona considers Duke arrival. I think Arizona fans considered Duke arrival.
Yeah, no, But I don't think it's the other way around, That's what I'm asking.
Yeah, the other I think at one point they might have during the Loot years, but certainly not afterlut left, you know, because those great, great games they had in the nineties. You know, I think it was a nice East West rivalry. They played each other a bunch of times, and I agree that it also had coach k versus right, yeah, exactly, you know, two of the great coaches in college basketball. I don't think Duke any longer considers Arizona arrival because
they haven't been arrival now. Did it sting to them when Arizona beat them last year at Duke? Sure, because they're thinking, wait a minute, we forgot about these guys a long time ago. They show up at our place and they kick our asses. We're at home right right, So maybe maybe it's might come back a little bit. You know, Let's say Arizona beats Duke again this year. Now it becomes a rivalrygain, and they're pissed outcause the right, right, let's do it again. Let's do it again, right, because
that's time. And last time they played each other was in the tournament. I think, well two thousand and one they played each other, but that twenty eleven is the last time. I agree with you, that was the only game I could come up with the last time they overachieved. Yeah, because there is there is a lot of or there are a lot of expectations on this team. Did you think because I know you considered the two thousand and one team the best team, but I didn't see that coming.
I don't feel like they were a national championship team during that year, did you.
Well remember the circumstances they started the year number one or two?
Duke, Well, what were the circumstances?
Bobby also, Bobby died and she had been ill most of that time.
And then Luke took time off in the little bit right, they lost.
They lost it in the festival classroom for the work for the only time that they ever.
Knew Rosboro was the coach at the time. Rosboro took over for the next three weeks. Luke took his time off two weeks and he surprised and he showed up and coach them and they didn't really but one game after that, two games in one game in the regular season another one at the end, UH, your question was did you see it?
Did I?
I don't know that I saw that as a national championship team, and maybe it was because of what they.
Were going through.
Well, there's some point you probably thought that for me, having covered it.
I thought every every.
Chance Gilbert Jason, Luke, Richard, Laura and all these guys, you think, yeah, they're gonna be pretty good. And then they then they had didn't have lout. They struggled and and let me tell you, I think I consider this because it's been in a book or two maybe guys off the record and on the record. They were having troubles internally because five good dudes and was at job one ball right, and where do you go with it?
So there were some things and then all of a sudden, Luke came back, got it fixed, and they win and then went on this role because you're playing for not just Luke, you're playing for Bobby, you're playing for the legacy, you're playing for all these things. And and I know this, the people who are listening are big fans. They had every reason to win that game the championship because he did. And I don't say this something they kind of got homered a bit, a bit, Yeah, don't cut a bit.
Yeah I'm gonna do the Kamala Harris thing and like bite my tongue right.
A bit they got they could never say that, but yeah, time is so bad.
Even if they wouldn't have won after being the homeward, but there was a clear homer. Yeah, you know, it could have been a few points here and there, talk about.
Yeah, but you know, I guess, I guess. And this goes back to being an Arizona fan. Right, Every Final four, including the eighty eight Final four, was a surprise to.
Me, even that team that was a jergernaut eighty eight.
I know, Steve, but it was hard to believe that Arizona had gotten to that point. Well, you didn't know where they could be, where they were a final fourty they had lost two games. Okay, look, my skepticism came from the fact that the Pac twelve or the Pac ten really sucked, that they were really bad.
But they lost their Stanford, right, the first they lost.
The only lost they only lost. The one conference game they lost was to Stanford at Stanford and then New Mexico and then they lost to New Mexico and that was it. But you know, it was kind of like you you thought they should have gone undefeated in the league.
Yeah, but it targets the gods. Yeah yeah, but but but but my point being that.
Each game that they won in the in the in you know, I thought they were not the first two. I thought the first two they were going to be in the tournament. Okay, sorry, I thought they were gonna be. But then they played Iowa again I thought. My thinking was, you know, I was pissed about the December loss, and then they beat the hell out of Iowa, and I thought, well, there's no way they beat North Carolina. And then they
did that. So that was a surprise to me. The ninety four they were coming off that awful loss to ninety two Santa Clair. The so ninety three, the ninety four final four team was a surprise. Obviously ninety seven was a surprise. That was a shot shot.
And then again they underachieved in ninety.
Eight, right, so they right, So then two thousand and one, it's kind of like, Wow, you sit here as a fan, you think they can or should get to the final four.
I've always thought I didn't really see this coming on. They get there.
I understand what you're saying, because I was close to the team optually come and cover them.
You saw that that was a possibility.
After the death and and what happened subsequently, you kind of think, we'll see. But when he came back you could see that they were gonna bond right, and just happened.
There was a definitive bounce in their step when he got back.
There was a jolt of momentum, energy and energy and motion in the way they played after that, No doubt. I saw that from the floor, you know, watching those games from the floor, no doubt. But still you get into the tournament and we sit there and think they should get to the final four. But then on the other hand, it's like, when they do, you go, dang, that was really hard. But they got there.
Yeah, well, and they had great players at the time. I you know, if you ask me who they played outside of the one game in the final four, I couldn't tell you because I don't remember, and I should.
But I think they lost. And this is the honest truth for me. I thought they lost the national championship at the semi final level, not from their end, because they beat Michigan pretty Michigan State pretty badly. But Duke, if you remember, played Maryland and Maryland had them by double digits, and you think, if they could just get Maryland,
they're gonna kick the craft out of them. And then Duke came back and won that, and you're thinking that's when they that's when they lost the championship, because Duke was fantastic. They were really good. They were just equally
as as talented as as Arizona. And then and then Gilbert gets hurt, Luke gets hurt, and they were kind of playing one handed, one behind, one hand behind their back, and then they get a little job or two, you know, a couple of bad calls, and you know, loose legacy would have been totally.
Different, even though we're two championships, two championships, though, it's the legacy is pretty solid, pretty solid and incredible.
Yes, if he gets a second one, it's even.
Yeah, and then he gets the second one, you know what, you don't think of Chicago?
Yeah, right, And and that's the lasting taste for fairs.
And that's kind of exactly because they were right there. Okay, cool, let's talk about Pima, all right, volleyball here on the other side, and then we'll talk more open lines and all that stuff.
Okay.
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Steve Ravera and Jacin sALS they have their eye on the ball on Tucson Sports Station Chat Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
Today, welcome back to you here on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. I'm Steve Roberta. He's Jaginsauce.
Now on the phone.
We have coach Dan Dipple from Pima Pima, the volleyball coach there.
How are you get Dan? You there? Oh? You got to put him on? Dan? Are you there?
Hello?
How are you You're on there? Ryan? Forgot to pitch on So you're gonna throw him under the bus. You know where you are? We don't know where the hell.
We are? All good?
I'm doing good, guys.
How are you guys?
Great.
Right, you're coming off a pretty solid weekend. What went on with you guys?
Yeah, it was a pretty terrific week for us last week, winning all three of our matches, and we just, uh, you know, really found a good groove and certainly executed a lot of our game plan and the things that we've been trying to do consistently. We we were able to do that at a at a pretty high level and pretty consistently. And certainly we hope that when we do a lot of the right things, we points go our way and and that's the way it works out.
And and uh, fortunately that that happened for us last week.
When something like that happens, when you get on a little bit of a roll like that, can you sense what caused that? Uh, you know, something happened in a practice or or in a huddle or you know, in a in a talking to the team or whatever.
Yeah, do you see do you see it?
Yeah?
I mean you can definitely sense it as it's happening and as it's kind of growing and building. But I don't know that, at least this week or for us, it wasn't like a specific moment that kind of sparked that Honestly, we came in on Monday, and we didn't have a great practice on Monday, which you know, normally, you uh, you want to start the week off right, and having a match right away on Tuesday is a
little bit out of the ordinary for us. Normally we go Wednesdays and Fridays, and so we did have an extra match that week, but you know, it wasn't we didn't have a terrible practice, is but we certainly felt like, I hope we can be a little bit better tomorrow.
And then you know, even kind of getting going against Chandler Gilbert on the road, it was a little bit of we were a little floppy, I guess is the way to say it in the beginning, but we were playing hard and we were pretty determined, and then kind of as we built through the match, we just started to realize that, you know, we were we were being we were playing hard and being pretty connected and just a few things kind of went our way and started
feeling a lot more confident, and certainly I was able to take care of business at at the very end.
So you hope that continues. Obviously.
Yeah, let me ask you, are you a coach where every game is a season, and I mean that by every game has its own individual thing, and then the next one is the season. Then you move on from that to the next one because you have three great wins, but you have another season.
Yeah, I think you know, one thing that we talked about with the kids this week is we have to continue to grow and learn. And obviously we should feel really confident about the way we're playing and the way we're working with each other as a team, but we need to keep getting better. And we're going to play all of those opponents at least one more, maybe even two or three more times depending on how playoffs go,
and everybody's going to get better. And if if we're not one of the teams that's at the forefront of that improvement, then we could find ourselves in a spot where, you know, we aren't able to be a team that we've beaten previously. And so it's certainly a process. And yeah, like getting better through the through the match, or getting better through the practice, or getting better through the week is certainly something that we pay attention to.
So coach, let me give you this background on my partner here and his next question, whatever that is. So we were talking do the softball coach here, I don't know, four or five months they had one twenty six straet something like that, and my guy here Jay, you know, he's his nickname here is kod and then I'll let him take the story over from here.
Well coach well a coach Ketos. They had won twenty six in a row.
And I right about a week before they got to that point, I said, we need to get her on the show. And it was of like, no, let's not, let's not jinx it or anything. And then finally, you know, they get to twenty six, we got to get her on the show. We get her on the show, and they lost the next two.
Yeah, gotcha.
I don't know, you know, I know.
What to tell you. I hope you don't take that wrong or hang up on us or something like that.
Well, but to me, that is that's kind of that mentality, right in terms of just keep grinding and you know, let's let's celebrate when we have a trophy sort of thing, right, right, you know, and we certainly appreciate the coverage and the exposure and that's all part of the game these days. And but yeah, there is a little bit of don't jinx it and let's uh, let's let to keep riding sort of thing, right.
Let me let me suggest going to taking your team and a bus to the send out of your mission and get the anxiousism from Jay over with.
You'll be funny, well, definitely.
So so as you you know, as you kind of you've gone through the stretch to do it, you're doing really well. You know, what, what do you have to do to keep their focus on that, you know, to keep their focus on the things that have started working for you.
Yeah, that's certainly a constant challenge, and you know, part of it is really paying attention to to being present and being in the moment. You know, we have student athletes, we have so many responsibilities and distractions and things like that. You know, we don't expect them to, you know, dedicate an amazing amount of time. You know, it's a couple hours for a practice, and obviously if you're on a
bus or something, it's a little bit longer. But you know, hopefully we do a good job of being able to take care of our business away from the court so that when we are together we can be really present and really focus on the things that we are trying to get better at and the things we are good at. And that's a constant challenge, and I think it gets harder the farther you go into the semester. Your classes get harder, you get more workload. You know, those expectations
change a little bit, especially when you are winning. Now it's like, oh, maybe we should win this game instead of let's just keep about our process and keep chipping away and trying to to you know, achieve the small victories that we're we're looking to get every day. But it is a challenge and it's something that we talk about and we try to pay attention to and certainly give the kids tools that maybe help them focus and help them, you know, be present and be ready to get everything to have.
So so we know that that team, it competes in the league that's highly competitive nationally in a lot of their sports, softball, you know, comes to mind. You know you've got you know, men's and women's basketball, soccer, all those all those you know teams. Uh, you know, what how is your league as a league nationally in volleyball?
Well, right now, so this if I'm if I'm not mistaken, it's been a really long time, but all of our fall sports teams are ranked right now, and volleyball were ranked number twenty two, and I know soccer is you know, the men are at number four, I want to say, and the women are number ten and are across country team is ranked nationally as well. Additionally, for volleyball right now, five out of our seven division opponents are all ranked
in the top twenty five. Wow, okay with with Scottsdale, the team that we beat on Friday was the highest at number six. And so our conference top to bottom is as good, if not better than any conference in the country and Division two and it's it's just a grind, like you there are no no nights off, and uh, you know it's it's great in terms of knowing that you have to prepare for that, and you know, it's
like being in the Pac twelve. I know that's not a thing anymore, but you know, like the Pac twelve was in terms of basketball and volleyball, and you know, every night was a battle. And so there are obviously some tough things about that, because you're going to be hard to win a lot of games, but certainly there's some good things and that you you know, you have to rise for the Rise to the Challenge.
So you haven't mentioned any of your players yet, but let me do that, Hayley, and I don't want to say your last name in correctly, so that you and then Jasmine Gillin and then Jasmine Joseph. So you had the top defensive and top defensive players of of the week.
Yes, yes, we did. Those guys obviously UH kind of led us uh in those categories last week, and especially playing three matches, it's really difficult to have somebody play that consistently, you know, to be honored by the conference. And that's the coaches that do vote on that. It's not just uh, you know, it's not a popularity contest or something like that. But those guys certainly carried a huge load for us on both sides of the ball, and uh and well well deserved honors for both of them.
So as you as you go along, then you're you know, you're trying to keep your focus on all this stuff.
How do the players you know approach this?
You know, have you seen a change in how they're approaching every you know, practices and games and and you know a point right, a little more bouncing their step, a little you know feeling, you know, more confident.
What do they look like, Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. You know, things that that we struggled to do a month ago now are kind of you know in the bag in terms of whether it's running a play or kind of understanding you know, making a decision or something like that. We're definitely you know, we've definitely come a long way as a group, and like you said, there is there's confidence about what we're doing.
You know, we have high standards in terms of what we expect our kids to do, how hard they need to work, and what they have to pay attention to, and so they're still, uh, you know, they're still trying. It's not like they're coming in and it's casual and lazy,
and you know that's sort of a feeling. But certainly, yeah, there's a little bit of a confident air about how we're doing our things and that allows us to hopefully level up and kind of you know, be even better as we Like I said, we kind of get good at one thing, we move on to the next thing.
We taught you head coach and head VOI ball coach at Pima, Dan Bethel, I was wondering they're pretty good and they're ranked. Now, how long you've been at PEMA one and is this one of your better teams or where would you put it?
Yeah, so this is my twenty fifth year at People. Man, I've been here, Yeah, quite a long time, and we've we've seen a lot of a lot of teams come through, and you know, maybe even more so than a four year school. You know, every team is so different because you're kind of turning over about half a your roster. And I will say this is one of the better
teams that we've had in quite a while. And not that it's you know, we're talented, there's no question, but I think, you know, our our superpower, excuse me, our superpower is not our talent level. I think our superpower is our determination and our grit. And it's certainly enjoyable to coach teams that don't quit and don't question kind of oh I hope this is going to work out, or gee, what's going to happen?
Now?
They just kind of put their head down and they and they bust their butts a little bit. And so I think that that is definitely a cornerstone of this group and they've really bought into that as well. It's not by accident that they want to be that way. And so I think, I think we have the talent to get where we want to go, to get to the national tournament. But really what's what's keeping us going is kind of that determination, which is which is a ton of fun.
I'm hoping this is not not too much of a downer of a question. But you know, with the changing landscape at the you know, at the four year level, with you know, Chansfer portal and yeah, the way recruiting has become and it's focused on you know, there's they're just players moving around at the four year level as opposed to there's less high school kids getting scholarships.
And how is that affecting you? Where? Where are these girls who.
Are playing here now? Where are there opportunities going forward? And are there fewer of them? Are they just different?
A little bit of both. It's it's definitely different. But I believe if you were to kind of measure it out a little bit, I think the opportunities are shrinking for the college transfers, you know, and volleyball, uh is a little bit different than you know, the big sports like football, and certainly men's basketball because luckily, unless you know, you have to throw out the Texas and the Nebraska's and the you know, the absolute pinnacle of the financial
kind of world in college athletics. But for the even the good Division I schools, money is still not a real pushing factor for for women's volleyball. Yet it's it's getting that way more and more, But ultimately, I think the opportunities are getting a little bit smaller and a little bit harder for you know, kids to find exactly what they want. And really for us, that just means that we've got to we've got to work harder, and
we've got to do a little bit more work. And I think that you know, there's always value and kids that have experience, and that's really are our big cell is. Like you guys mentioned earlier, our conference is so tough. Kids that do well in our conference come out with a lot of experience, and so hopefully we can we can keep generating those opportunities for our kids.
So we've had coaches like you and the Division one level obviously for you A and other places, a lot of them have gone out, you know, Ca Andreas and the Lopuses and all these guys. You've been around the A D you know, Dave Rubio, Rubio another guy. So they don't they don't want to deal with this crap that's going on in IL.
I'm curious.
I don't think it's reached the the j C level, but I could be wrong there.
Correct, there are murmurs. There is nothing really that has taken over in terms of you know, a group of schools or an individual school. That's that's kind of you know, said hey, we have we we have all this financial
opportunity for these kids, and so it's still there. There are some regulations, there are some companies out there that are doing some marketing type stuff like hey, if your kid signs up with our program, will help them with n I L you know, things like that, but definitely not at the level that most of the Division I schools are having to manage right now, which, to be honest, is uh, you know, is a real positive for us.
That's that's a layer that is reality now unfortunately. But you know, in the I guess the pure sense of college athletics, it's it's a little bit of a convolution, right, a little bit.
Hey coach, thanks so much for joining us. Good luck the rest of the way.
Yeah, thank you guys. I appreciate it.
Great.
Dan Biffel, Yep, you know, I mean they turned it around because they didn't get off to a great start. They're eighty six now, Yeah, they've turned it around. They're they're five and two in the league, which is which is what's important. And again, you know, Steve, you just wonder why are the Arizona junior colleges so good at everything? Yeah, but they're good at baseball for years, soccer obviously, basketball, basketball, you know, I mean, they're all all these teams from Arizona.
You actually ran, you would know this better than me. You haven't grown up here.
They're just like you said, they're gritty two sons, one of those gritty I'll prove you wrong type of town.
Yeah.
And the players that you know, and I'll say this, a lot of them are Hispanic. They don't get the college scholarships to go D one yet whatever. And they're tough, they're they're gritty, they're they're determined, and not just Hispanics, obviously, everybody in town. Determined is a great word because because they've been slighted. I think I could be wrong, It might be it might be so, you know, hell with the other people who're gonna kick your ass.
Yeah yeah, coming plays, Yeah.
Come plass, We'll show you yea yeah, so's I could be wrong. Yeah, okay, Hey, let's take a break. Come on the other side, maybe take some calls. 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 Ludelsen era. In my new book, Lessons from Loot. It was a labor of love through the eyes of twenty five former players, coaches, and friends to give insight to the coach and the man who led them, competed
against them, and inspired them. Twenty five chapters for his twenty five years as Arizona's loved coach. Lessons from lut is an insight to how he built the program into a national powerhouse. What one email me at Steve dot RIVERA ninety five at gmail dot com.
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Steve Rivera and Jake and Salez they have their eye on the ball on Tucson Sports State Chet Fox Sports fourteen fifty streaming live.
I mean I heard radio wap.
Hey, welcome back to whining the ball hero Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, He's Jacin Zalaz. You've got our guy Ryan in with us. Forget about twenty I got about fifteen minute stuff here in the second in the first hour. So if you want to call in, please do five two zero four one six seventy four forty.
That was That was fun.
We I don't think we have we ever talked to to coach Beth.
Yeah, we had him on once before. Okay, again, I had his head shot in our file. That's how I know.
I didn't realize he had been there twenty five years. God, that I didn't know.
And you look at his piggy it doesn't look like a guy who's been coaching twenty five years, right.
That's why they asked. I wasn't sure if he was a young dude or an old.
Not one of those grizzly old, gray haired, gray bearded guys like you.
Like me.
This is my character. I know, it's like you're all grey.
Great, you know, not that I could grow facial hair, but if I could, it would be great.
And my wife says no because of me or because of the spotty, because you can't grow beard. Yeah, both. I did it once. I know you tried well. I know you're better with the five o'clock the two day things. Did I tell you the story?
So I did it back when, around the time Rachel was born, my daughter who's now twenty three yea and twenty two twenty three, and I had a picture of her and I on my desk and an employee at the place I was working walked in and said, oh, is that your granddaughter.
I shaved the next day. That was it.
It was, it was all gone. It was all gone, Papa, Papa Jay. Okay, you can't hear I can't hear you. We're trying to get a callar in here? Yeah, okay, so cool cool, all right, all right, well let's take this caller.
Hi, you're on the air and I on the ball.
Hey, guys, how you been?
We're good? How are you? Who's this?
It's oh my god? Well, you don't talk to me. You talk to Steve. You're just like you.
You know, you forgot about me.
I just forget about you. You're the one that took me out of the group chat man.
Good.
Well, because we've got a bunch of degenerate interns anymore, and I just didn't want you to be subject to that.
So how are you doing?
I'm good. A little Bertie told me that you're you're leaving the show.
I am.
I'm breaking up with Steve. I've I've had it, you know, he's always talking bad about ex wives and things, and I've just decided I can't see this.
So d before you go on, when do you quit your job? And when are you coming back to be my.
I mean today's Thursday, Friday?
Yep, yep, yes, so monday. You can be here by Monday?
Yeah?
Probably They already have a house here, no kidding, How are you. What's that?
How's the work going over it? Are you're still with fan Duel and all that stuff.
I am still with Sandal. Work is good. I've been kept busy and given new projects. I'm going out to lost Al for the next couple days for the last few days a day or two week meet before we go back to stand Anita, and I'm doing some reporting. So all exciting stuff there.
Very cool. We're very happy for you. We see I see your Twitter every now and again flirting with the jockeys.
That very well might be happening.
Yeah, no kidding, And I you know, honestly, I mean, you know, I love that stuff because you know they dabble a little bit and you know, on on fan Duel and and stuff, and uh, you know, once in a while, if I'm sitting around on a Saturday afternoon, I'm just kicking my heels up.
You know, they might throw something down on a race or two. It's been fun, so.
Racing to be had seven days a week, so lots of good things, bought good opportunities.
Yeah, did you go to send you? Were you at del Mar for a while? You had to be?
I did? I went down for three select weekends. I was down there for their opening weekend week two, and I was down there for the Pacific Classic weekend. So I got to see gold Phoenix have a three peak in the Delmar Handicap, which guarantees him a spot in the Breeders' Cup turf nice. And I got to see Mixo upset in the Pacific Classic big time. He went off at like a like either fifteen to one or twenty to one. He went off at a massive price.
Yeah, I remember that. It was huge. Yeah, you know you're going to.
Go ahead, Well, you're you're at los Olemids. Obviously it's September. Now are you going to be going to the Breeders It.
Looks like I will be at Breeders' Cup in some capacity, so that'll be really exciting to be back down at Delmar the first week end of November. I'll probably actually be down there about ten days leading up to doing our Breakfast show, working in the truck and working in production, so all exciting things. I've been told it gets very cold there in the morning, so that makes me a little less excited. But to be around those kind of horses, in that level of horsemanship is just unreal.
Well, I was going to say, look at you. I mean we're talking. You know, you're talking Breeders Cup. That's that's big stuff. That's like Super Bowl kind of stuff that you're there.
The super Bowl of horse racing. Except what makes this so much better, you guys, is there's individual teams and you can have twelve teams competing against each other in twelve different events. There are so many different events that
you can wager on. There's huge fields. These horses are top of the top of the class all across the world, from Europe and Japan and South America and of course all over North America, whether it's from Canada and they're coming from Woodbine or Kentucky or Florida or New York wherever, everybody's going to be there.
At del Mar.
Well, I'm not I'm not gonna lie that. You know, my daughter's moved.
My daughter's living in San Diego now, she's working at San Diego State. But we had to make the drive a couple of times up to LA when we were moving her in and doing some stuff over there, and every time I went by Delmar, I seriously, I literally thought, there's d she's over there doing doing whatever she's doing, because it's I love looking over there and seeing the track from the freeway and it's like I.
Want to be there. I want to get over there and do some stuff.
Picturesque it is. It's definitely the place to be for the summer. I have enjoyed the week that I have been able to go specific Classic weekend. I was getting a trail of corn Nakatani Hall of Famer around as he was doing some stuff with us and just getting to pick his brain about racing and where he kind of sits these days. And it's it's been a lot of fun.
Yeah, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome.
Well it's well, d I gotta tell you, I appreciate you calling because you were one of the best over here.
You're pre shaped the studio we're in now. You know that little dive bar that we were in over there on an.
Oracle moved into new place. I'm like, oh, this is the place they kept telling me about.
It's a beautiful place. It's a beautiful studio. It's clean.
It's it's so clean they won't even let us bring food into the studio.
I think that's a Steve Rull I think that's a step.
Man, that that place got Steve's corner over there. You saw what that used to look like it got it got to be the worst it was. It was pretty bad over there.
So if you can't make it down here to be my partner here, I think your dad wants to.
Oh, I'm sure he would give collar Doug some time and.
He will make time.
We will.
We will all be down there for sure in December for my brother's graduation. So we're all excited to be convened together.
Into Okay, maybe we'll see you the very cool let us know absolutely.
Okay, thanks, Hey, thanks about appreciate your calling.
Of course, it was good to talk to you guys.
Thanks a bunch of That was one of the good ones, man, one of the good ones, you know what I got. I gotta say we saw it coming right when we brought her in and she started doing the show, and it was like, I'm the reaction we got from people listening.
To the show because she had a voice, She.
Had a voice, she was knowledgeable about the things she was talking about. She would challenge the two of us all the time, and and very much appreciated. In fact, I just gotta I just got a text saying, uh uh that.
You'd hit a home run if you could get her to join you. Yeah, it would be fun too, because she'd give me grief. She give me grief, we give it back.
And well we were like her sur good dads, and she was like, you should pound on us. And it was fun in a nice way.
Right, So that's how you get better this, see, right, you just gotta give us grief, Ryan, And but not to a certain extent, you know.
Yeah, but you know, she's she's she's you know, she's on camera a lot, uh and then in the whole horse racing on the horse racing broadcast with Fan Duel, and so you can look for her, look for her there and.
Look.
And she grew up you know, as a as a you know, a horse, a competitor in in in hot with horses. So it's part of her life, you know, since she was very young. And so the fact that she's working with horse racing is sort of right up her alley. But yeah, so she's she's been great. So no knock on you, Ryan, but he was pretty damn good.
He was pretty good. Yeah, we've had a love You guys are all good. You guys all done, great job, because by.
The end, you guys know what you're doing and can be prepared to get a job in the world.
World exactly exactly, that's why you're here. Yep, exactly good, very well good. It was good here last night. We're going back to all cold. Okay, cool, yeah, very cool. Letting ever, let me let people know the show. Hay's gone yard today.
So he's at forty nine homers and fifty one steals and he went big fly again way in the upper deck, one of those that you just stand there and watch that. The Dodgers are killing the Marlins again. But he he's four for four.
With a.
Single, two doubles and a homer, and on one of those doubles, he got thrown out at third, so he would have had a cycle already if he doesn't get thrown out. But he's a four for four five RBIs, two doubles and a homer, trying to hit number fifty.
I don't know what their schedule is.
I'd like to see when when they head back home, to see if he would do it at home. I think this is the start of a road trips. I think they'd be on the road over the weekend as well. But he uh uh heuh, you know he's there.
He's going to get that.
He's got ten games left, I think, to get the one to the one home run. He know, he's going to get it. So it's very cool something to watch, man, it is really special to watch this.
Yeah, okay, there, they're headed home to Colorado this weekend and then Padres are coming to town.
I'll take Colorado. They're at Colorado this week you know, Colorado at home. Oh so if he doesn't do it today, he should hit it at home then because yeah, they've got uh, he's on deck right now though, Yeah, he's he's about to he's well, he's in the batter's box right now. I've got it on. So but you know, I think, you know, when things like this come along, I think there's a lot of times people don't have
an appreciation for it until it's done. I mean, you know, next year or in ten years, they're going to talk, you know, talk about the year that show he went fifty to fifty, and you're gonna go because I remember when jose Canseeko went did he go forty forty? I don't remember, but you know you just go. Man, that was something. Yeah, that was really so.
How much time do we have? I don't have my not get a call. We've only got about a minute.
Okay, you might have to put that call to rest. Okay, we've got a minute just missing. Yeah, how much time we have? We got two men's Okay, let's take the call real quick. Hi are on the air and I on the ball.
Hi. Ja, how you guys just gave?
We're doing game?
Hey, gab, we only got about a minute, so you got you gotta make it quick.
Okay, how are you doing? Jay?
I hope you're doing okay from Arizona's lost on.
Good Well, I got I got it.
I got a kind of stomach bug over the weekend and people thought it was because of the football game, but no, I'm doing fine. You know they're fine. There's there's nine games left on the schedule that they'll be all right. Yeah.
Hopefully, hopefully they will correct everything that needs to be correct. The one thing, the one thing that I'm furious.
In regards to Arizona football is in the n C a role that the New Mexico running back can play. And then all of a sudden, now he can't play. I don't understand this. This is this is ridiculo.
Yeah, yeah, no, I yeah, I don't know.
I don't know what's Uh, the situation is there, there's something going on.
But uh and I don't think if he hasn't played to this point. Yeah, I don't feel come, I don't see him coming back. So Gabe, give us no word.
Kind of smells like it's kind of smells like that team on Nor Problem to do done something can dealing him Tom Devils definitely smell like conspiracy.
Okay, we gotta go, Gabe. We gotta go, Gabe. We're thank you. We're out of here. Thank you, thank you, Gabs. We gotta go.
How much we know and show he just hit his fiftieth Oh wow, he's got fifty fifty one.
Bro, you just messed up his leading the run news.
All right, bring it up again because we say people will talk more about the back. Right.
We got to get out of here. We'll be right back