Tuesday, April 23, Hour 1

This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez sound Fox Sports fourteen fifteen powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure Your Most Prized Possessions kt z R two SAD at iHeartRadio Station. Hey, good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to Eye on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, still sound like poop alongside my partner Jagan Zawas and the least. We'll be here later. And I'm telling you, Jay, we may never have

another guest after today. You know, as they say in Star Wars, the kod is strong with this one man. I texted Ray right after and said, please don't blame us, and I'm sure he did. Make sure Dorothy did. He laughed, and I said, well, don't blame us, just blame Jay because it's not Mike k If you were here yesterday,

we had Rebecca you knows, the head softball coach a pima On. We had at least I had not wanted to get her on, being a superstitious one that I am, and not wanted to get her on during the winning streak. But it got to twenty six games, you got to talk about it. At some point we had her on yesterday and of course we killed it. They got beat today in the first game of a doubleheader. Was so we killed the uh, the the moment winning streak and it's over and

uh, you know we are who we are. Yeah, well, don't put me in the week category. Oh I am associated with you. You know what you were, you were there for that. On a good note, they will take a shower today, right, they'll take a shower and watch this song. So that's that's a good thing. Yeah, So we'll see what happens. I hope they win today in the second game to kind of get us up the hook or at least maybe start a new streak. And as we speak, and at least as in the building in the house,

welcome, welcome. Uh. We were talking about you know, the kod J. You know, Steve, I mean, if you want, you have some blame on this, because when I said let's get her on, you said we should. Yeah you know you didn't. No, No, you're right, I thought the same thing, because we don't know when we're going to get her on in the first place, because seasons almost over. So no, I thought it was a good idea. We're not just an accessory. Okay, you were a big part of no killing that this

was a crime. I'm going to jail with you with me, right, you know, fell any murder, whatever you want to Officer. I didn't know he was driving the car and going to the bank and stealing the money. I hadn't I was I thought he was an uber driver, even when he got the gun out of it. But I didn't know what he was going to do. I told him to drop me off in the court. He kept kept be going. Anyways. Actually, some people sent a text in the last couple of a good interview with her. Was a lot of

fun until it was how did the surgery go? Uh? The other surgery go? Doctor? Uh? The surgery went well. The patient died. They should die. Yeah. Other than that, it was going well. So let's be bad. I'm looking to see if we can get a part of the score update on the other game going on right now. At least your time is coming, baby. You got two and a half weeks and you better get a job. I know I'm trying and a half. Yes, well not even half. You'd be like the Obama's you get that gap

year. I don't want to go. I want to get right into it. Yeah, I hear you. I'd start in May eleven. Anyone listening looking for someone? Yeah, we'll get two good recommendations from US. I graduate May tenth. Ready May eleven. There you go. That's a Sunday Sunday. Yeah. No, no, that's give yourself till the thirteenth. Are you are you going to do the whole stadium thing and all? Very cool, that's very cool. It's it's you know, I know how much

of it it's for the parents, but it was very cool. You know. When we did it with with my son and my daughter Alana when she graduated, was during COVID, so that we had a zoom uh graduation. Yeah, with just her. I've never had graduation either, because my high school was I graduated twenty twenty, we had graduation. Who's the speaker this year? Oh, it's that he's an actor or he does the voice for he does the voice for like someone. I know that he does the voice

both in The Incredibles or something. Because you're skulking skoking out right now, I get that. For the coach he was he was oh Steve, Yeah, the coach and the coach. He was the coach. He was the coach. Yeah, he was the coach, the old guy. Yeah, Okay, everybody knows who we're talking to. Coach, he's the coach. Yeah yeah, yeah. Oh man, we're gonna get a text her. Yeah, I know. Craig Nelson, Greg Nelson, Greg Nelson. Yeah, also known for Poultergeist. Yeah. See Poulter guys on the scariest movies

ever. Yeah. So that's that'll be fun. That'll be good. A known guy, so uh yeah. But anyways, my son's a place that in Rutgercy with Stevie ray Vaughan. I don't know really it's gonna work with President Robins resigning, Well, he's not. He's still the president. I know, he's still the boss. Yeah. I know he'll be there, he'll get you know, but it's just kind of were I thought the same

thing last week. I went to an event, to the ribbon cutting of the golf tournament Golf up in Veiling, and he was there and people were like, oh, he's still here. And he had just come from U a board meeting, you know, the border regions, and they saw him santerine and he loves this stuff until he can't do it anymore, right, you canna you gotta pull him out of the door. Yeah, you know, so you'll be fine unless what happens in the next two weeks. I

know that a new person, I guess. I don't think it'll happen in the next two weeks. Okay, where are you graduating? Now? How high I think I'm gonna be? Suma. You gotta get a job by the thirteenth, I know. I'm like, I'm so qualified. That's if I get the last three closka pressures are pressures make make your people here proud. Yeah, exactly. We're gonna We're gonna put one out into the world. Yes, okay, Well and her one day a week here for the

last you know, however many weeks it's been. Whatever time you get, it's all because of us. Yeah, thank you, guys. Yes, we'll expect to kick back later. Okay, Okay, I won't forget about you guys, Yeah sure, yeah, you people in Tucson never mind. Okay, Well, come everybody. You guys have a chance to call us anytime. Five two zero four one six seventy four forty. My voice may

sound better, may not. I don't know. We have. You know, it's amazing how much worse you sound on them on through the headphone than you do in person. Okay, it's funny to me. It's because I you know, I can We talked and I can barely Understan right now. Well, that's what relatives is like. You got a mouthful of model balls in your mouth or something. That's a that's a typical any day. That was just worse. But I hope it gets better soon, sometime soon.

Uhday. We got a pretty good show today. Kind of a different one, yeah, I think so, but a needed one in the second hour, Yeah, because go ahead for well Troy Hutchinson in the second hour, because we've got to catch up on football, catch up on football. In the first hour, we have we have Roadrunners. I think, Oh, Adrian Denny, he wants to go book that one because you've forgotten. Yes, I'm the one that was my idea to call him, and I called

him and you forgot it. But and then I forgot about him. Adrian Denny Tucson road Runners that he's their TV uh TV play by play guy as well as the media communications guy. The road Runners start their playoff run tomorrow at home it's a three game series, so all three games will be here if it goes to three games. But they started they start this tomorrow, so we'll get the lowdown on their on their playoffs from from Adrian. We

talked to the coach, Steve Popman last week. They had, you know, a couple more guys or a guy had been called up, uh you know, I think on that day. But so they're still dealing with that kind of stuff. But we'll get a we'll get the loaddown from Adrian on the road Runners hosting a playoff here for the first time since I believe what it was it twenty seventeen or twenty eighteen or something like that, that they

were in the playoffs that they were that they're hosting. Oh yeah, loaf Before this, this whole radio show predated the show, so we'll and and for those of you who don't know, you can you can catch their road Runners Happy Hour after our show on Tuesdays, which that means today, and also their games are on Fox Sports fourteen fifties. You can listen to this

as well. So a whole Fox Sports fourteen fifty family thing going on with the eight and if you're into all that like the like the Coyotes one. It became a popular thing at the end when they knew they were going to leave the support the road Runner size. They probably are going to go. I don't think anything official has been announced right well, they're not like a news release, but their owner, the owner did say we're bringing them up

to Phoenix. Our plan intent is to bring them to Phoenix to play in ASU's arena. Yeah, okay, so they are you know, it looks like they are going. Okay, okay, so those are our guests. I'm looking forward to both of them in the second half because we need to catch up on the football what's going on. Would try the scene before the road before the game on the spring game on Saturday, which we've just requested

our credentials for that, at least I did mine too. Yeah, so we'll be there for that and hopefully be able to come back with some semblance of what we saw out there. If by Monday we can remember what we saw. Are you going to that? I don't. I might go watch, but I'm not covering it. Okay, Yeah, but I might go watch. Yeah, I've gone before. It's never the most exciting to me.

It never is well, you know, well, first of all, first couple were someoning or maybe the first one was someone which was just awful. Then you know Jed, they look they looked like practices with Jed, they weren't games, right, you know, I like a game. I'm like you, I want to see a game, not just another practice where you know, the the you know, okay, we scored a touchdown, let's go put the ball back on the twenty. I want to see it. I want to see a game. Yeah, you know, kick it

off. I think Mike Stoops did a couple of those. I don't remember too much on rich Rod's spring games. But you know, if I want to go see a practice, I'll go see a practice. But I'd like to see more of a more of a game scoring however, they want to score. Yeah, and at least at the Red and Blue for basketball, it's like more of a spectacle. They do the lights, and they have the three point contest and the dune contest, and you know, they bring

out to his mom. The game part of that is the most woring part, but they do. It's cool to see the dunk competition, the three point competition. But at the spring game, they don't do anything. I'm gonna agree. I'm gonna agree with you only because I like you, but I disagree with you totally. It's boring as all. Hell. Yeah you know that. Yeah, I mean, well, I'm to too many. I'm there to do the stats, so I'm twiddling my thumbs until ye yes,

yeah, and then the game is it. You don't like to see the dunk competition, but it's real quick, and they do it real quick, and it's over and it's done. You know, it's it's not as spectacular as you think it would be. It's more of a it's a recruiting tool pretty much. Maybe it's good for me because I'm sitting there trying to get the footage and it's really great footage. And I think I saw some of that footage because you were putting a package together, right yeah, maybe,

yes, yes, I saw some of that. Yeah, right, So that's why you hired me because of the package I showed you from the Red and Blue game. Sure I needed somebody. On Tuesday said yeah, sites of your No, what are your qualifications? I don't need to see the resume. We will take you. That's funny. What are you having one more two more weeks or what happened? Yeah? Maybe two more Wait wait wait wait the important we brought the lead. How did the trip to

Saint Louis go? Oh right, this is the lead of the day. It went well, we got second in our division? Oh okay, yeah, would you lose to Michigan? They're pretty good they honestly we probably could have beat them, but we were so tired. Three days playing in a row. How many games the last day that was our fourth game in a row, no break, So I think we were just it was playoffs the last days. It's just like go go go, and I we had a

game against Boulder before that went to three sets. We barely won. I gave everything I had in that game against Bolder, and we were so tired, so sore, so much rest before the next one, like and then it's like it's even worse because you get you sore up. It was even better if we just kept going, kept playing, you know, if it was right away. But we had like a twenty minute break and then you're kind of sitting. Then your body starts to hurt, and it's like you're

not warm anymore. And again, is this inner murals or is it club. It's a club, okay, club. Okay, So hold, you're like twenty two, we're sixty and sixty. We get that all the time. Get you sit down there, it's hard to get up. Well, I get out of bed and I'm sorry, So we understand you're twenty two. You could come back boom. No, it's hard, guys, I was doing. This is really mentally tough to just push through this pain. But it was fun. Want to be twenty two again? It was really

fun. Yeah, okay, good for you. Cit a place so you get a trophy or whatever. Nothing oh never. But then what it was cool because the teams that make it to the final of like the highest divisions, they play the guys and girls they play in at the T Mobile Arena in Kansas City and the huge arena and everyone goes to watch. So that would have been really cool. So what did you play just in a convention center? But if you make it to the final, they like wait a

few hours and have the big game in the convention center. And it was for the girls. It was U c l A against someone I forget, but U c l A won their club, their club volleyball team. And that's pretty cool. Okay, congrats second place, second place man, pretty good, like a trophy. He doesn't pay attention to my question. I'm reading. I'm okay, not like a coupon for a big mac. Nothing barbecue barbecue? Did barbecue? Joy is good? Yeah? I think Jay

talked about that last Yeah. Okay, we've got to go to Roadrunners though. Oh you remember Roadrunners? Yeah, Adrian Daniel, all right, we'll be back to talk about Roadrunners playoffs. Stick around. The Window Depot has everything you need to create the kitchen or bathroom of your dreams. Frowsy aisles of instock cabinets, available in a variety of sizes and configurations, and instantly elevate your space. Today, visit a showroom and let our experts guy.

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environment. Let Arizona Pest Control get rid of your bad bugs, termites, bees, or rodents serving Tucson and Southern Arizona since nineteen forty seven. Go to azypest dot com to schedule your free evaluation Today. Dreamy Live on the iHeartRadio app. This is Eye on the Ball with Steve Bravera and Jacobsalez on sporteen. Hey, welcome back to I on the Ball here Fox Sports fourteen

fifteen OX team. He's Jay now on the phone. We have a dream Denny of the Arizona road Runners. Well, I don't know what they're called. Now, what are you called? Now? No road Runners? Of course, Yeah, we'll just call you the road Runners for now AGA because you know you know right? Hey, So have things going you guys are ready for the playoffs? Uh? A little two games sweep or do you hope it goes three games for the extra revenue? Uh, we'll take We'll

take the two games to move on it. If that's If that's in the card, we'd love to play Wednesday Friday. Take a couple extra days off for the players to get ready for for round two and have a couple more weeks to get ready. A couple more days, a couple more weeks to get ready for the next round of home games. So fill us in on the schedule. Just keep winning, Yeah you do. Uh well, we're

good on revenue when we're winning, exactly. Fill us in on the schedule, game times, all that kind of stuff, tickets and all that. Yeah, yeah, seven pm Wednesday, seventh game Friday. For Game two, it's a best of three series the Roadrunners in Calgary. It's a wide out. So that's a turning to the TCC. We've got white out rally thousands to giveaway on Wednesday. We also have an offer the TCC just sent our way five dollars is caring the draft years coming up tomorrow sixteen ouncers,

So we've got that coming up tomorrow. And then Friday pregame tailgate party on the plaza and whiteout t shirts is our giveaway. So it's going to be a party. We've brought in a bunch of additional game presentation elements. That's the folks on enjoy a Live DJ and it's gonna be great and it's the team that we think can go a long way. When this season started, I think you guys were ruled off some pretty good wins. I think we talked to the president about that. Did you feel that this was a playoff

team right away? So we were. I felt like all season long, we've overachieved to this point. Right we had nineteen players called up, so just constantly adjusting on the fly, right, But now that we've got everybody back, everybody they got called up is back with us. I think I think we've got a team that can, as I said, really make a long run content for the Calder Cup Championship with just every everything that we've needed

we've got back. So I think during the course of forty fifty to sixty seventy games, we were overachieving because we had so many call ups and we were so young. But now that you look at it six months later, it feels like a season group that does have that maturity, that does have that experience for big games, for playing in the NHL that maybe I thought we go from a first round playoff team that of the division versus finishing second

place. Is the hottest team in the AHL going out of the playoffs, as we were unbeaten in seventh straight games regulation. So what can you tell us about the Calgary Wranglers. You know who are they? Well, you know, what's the expectation. They had the best record in the division last year, the MVP goalie, So the last couple of years they've been pretty pretty hot. This year, they they finished in seventh. They enter the

playoffs win lessen five. I've always felt like, let's finish as high as we can and then take, however a fall the other way, right, don't worry about the matchup. Just finished as high as you can. So you've got us unbeate and seven. They're winlessen five. They got five guys back from their affiliate, the Calgary playing two. It's it's it's it's a it's a good it's a good match up. The game this year have been pretty close. Been goaltending right. Redins have Matt Mwall too, led a

league and and wins. But we played a couple three two games against them and we won and went to overtime against them. So so three of the four games we were within a goal. Renners finished two to one one against against Calgary. Does this this is a dumb question, but obviously a playoff team does the season kind of become more enjoyable as you know, this is gonna happen. You know something. I'm sure you'd done this long enough where it's a grind. Was it a grind this year? I think I've said

this to my staff, you know, just just in the office. Right there are years when you're in the American Hockey League and you can kind of start getting the feeling like this is special. This is going to be a year that you always remember, regardless of how far you go in the NHL, right, like, there are years that you have in the American Hockey League that you're gonna remember, is that was a special team back in Tucson

in twenty three, twenty four. And I started feeling that way about this group maybe November, December, January, and right now still even better with the success that Josh Doone and Johan Gunther and Michael cassorin playing sixty five games the Pieties had up there at the NHL level, and now coming back year with all that they developed on up there against the NHL talent and speed, and now coming back to Tucson with the desire to prove that they can lead

a team to a championship and have that pride of we won a championship in the AHL with the Roadrunners because we were the best players and the best leaders in the AH all that year. And when you're when you're a number two seed in your division, I mean, the expectation is that you should be playing at the very least for your you know, for your division championship in the you know, in the bracket. I mean, is that how the guys look at it, or you know, is it kind of like,

you know, we just got to take care of business here. I think it's been a group so far that SIS works so hard that they can have time to look at the standings. Right, we were we were in first place going into the All Star Break, and that we enjoyed, right it was it was last game before the All Star Break. It was us was Coachella Valley. We beat them in a shootout, so they were in second

place. We were in first place. After that. That might be the only time all year, three days of an All Star break, after that game that our guys really had a tint back of think, wow, we're a first place team. This this could be something that we do have all the pieces. It's not just the belief and the work that we have that's accomplishing everything right man, No question, the coach must have had a pretty good magic formula for the group because of you said, there was a lot

of turnover back and forth. You have to find that right magic spot right and still be good at what you're doing. Steve Potman and his group are absolutely unbelievable. Steve spent here all eight years assistant coach or a head coach. His first year with US in Tucson and twenty sixteen he was a development coach of the Coyotes, who he was here right pretty much every day working

with us while he wasn't on the bench during games. And he's a guy that like he played pro that he moved his family to to Phoenix because that's where they wanted to live post pro hockey. And he started coaching kids with the Ice Dend, including Josh doone, and so he's coaching fourteen year old fifteen year old and then you know, he's a skills coach for the Coyotes and one year after that he's a road Runners assistant coach in the AHL.

And it's just really quite quite the path that he's had. But he's a guy that can communicate with anybody, relate to anybody, get anybody on board because of the message that he has for their personal success, which is going to lead the team success. And there's so many guys in the NHL right now that have come through too soon, that have gone out of their way to say, man, it had a couple of rough days. Steve Popman stuck with me and we just kept rolling and we got things, got things

to a good level. And that's why I'm here. So I every player

is going to say that about him. He's just got an unbelievable ability to communicate and explain and detail of what we're going to do and how we're going to get there, how you're going to be a part of it, how you're going to have access, and how you're going to end up in you know, not not to take the team apart right before I go to the playoffs, but you know, I mean, when these guys are at this level, they're you know, they're a step away from the NHL and some

like, as you said, get up there. Some what about Steve Popmin's future as far as that goes, We're you know, how much longer do you think? You know? Where's he headed? Those kinds of things, because you know, when you guys are doing well and you're again managing him the way we when we talked to him last week, you know, it's evident he's you know, he's probably ready. Yeah, So his first year

as head coach was the bubble season. It's right twenty one, when Jay Verdy went up to the counties to be an assistant, and then Jay came back and Steve became associate head coach again, and then Steve took over last year when Jay became an assistant with the Detroit Red Wings, got us to the playoffs, got us back to the playoffs, and then this year.

So I think you're looking at an incredible Gills, a development coach who's brilliant running a power play, who's now in his third full season as an HL head coach and having you know, the record the Roadrunners had this year. I don't think it's too far before he starts ending up on every single list that comes out when there's a head coaching opening from a young prospect head coach in USA, that might be your next next big guy that you pull from

the AHL. I think we're I think we're really really close and we might even be closer than we think on that now. He would not want to hear any of that focus on my job. That's that's why we didn't ask him last week. So how cool is it to host him. It's been a while. It has been, believe it or not, the pandemic, and we missed the playoffs by a point a year before that, and coming

back and the bubble season, the playoffs were all all off site. Oh and and last year we were the seventh seeds, so all of our games are on the roads. It's been to eighteen since we had the white out two son, and we talked about it. Last year. We were one game away from bringing the playoffs hockey year. We quite do it against Cashella Valley and we've been talking about it every day this season. Number one,

number one goal bring the white out back to two. So and it's and it's here and and tickets are moving moving great, and it's it's gonna be a really awesome Wednesday night for for Game one tomorrow. We still got still got tickets availables dot com. Past fun for the TCC box office to come come be a part of it. But it's it's it's gonna be awesome on the ice. We've we've got some in game elements, so we're we're adding

and uh going to be more excited. So when you when you get to the playoffs like this, and you know my experiences with the Sugar Skulls got to the playoffs a couple of times, you know, when I was working with them, there's just a it's like what this town is waiting for. You know, there's just a certain feel to it. And now you're getting to host, which I think we said the first time since when since twenty

eighteen. There has to be a different field when you have to be hearing from your fans and whatnot about you know, this opportunity for you guys. Oh, they are so excited and you can feel the buzz. And we had a media lunch in yesterday and every station in town was there and the more came back today and it's just a market for us. It's just been so supportive and so welcoming and so you know, anxious to bring the playoffs back here and share on the team. And even you know there's nights.

I mean, we had we had our best home record ever this year, but I mean there's there's nights where you just don't always have your fastball, and even on the rare occasion like that, you just don't feel it. They're always behind the team, no matter what I felt my first game here. It's why, it's it's why it's so special. Yeah, I bet, I bet so. How how good is Calgary coming in? I know they were good last year, but this year, yeah, they're they're they're

good. Like it's it's it's one thing I I don't think there was. That's why I wanted to finish as high as we could, because you just there, you just in no position to start picking anybody, because everybody's got

their positive everybody's got the reason you don't want to face them. And Calgary's got the goaltender of the year coming in the previous two years and in Dust and Wolf, and they've got that that that experience of you know, they went to the conference finals and they were based in Stockton, California two years ago. Last year they had a good run that and then against the Coachella Valley. It's so it's it's you see it with in the NHL playoffs every

every night. Uh, you know, it's it's you got to be on your game. And Steve always says, our keys of the game. We want to be the best version of ourselves every single day, and and that's that's the biggest focus. So what makes you guys good? What's made you guys good all year? I think I think the biggest example, I think is so our last fifteen wins of the year, we had fifteen different players score the game winning goal. So with all of the call up, everybody

just went next man up. You didn't know who was going to be the star. And they're just a very selfless group. And and you know, the game after Josh Stones got called up, he got we got shut out. The first game that he got called up to the comaty. He's leading the league in rookie scoring by you know, by active players, and third overall and led the league and rookie goal. So losing a guy with that a big deal. And our first game that and we got shut out three

nothing. The next game we came out, we got one of the first and then and then we just kept going and we ended up beating San Diego seven to three. Because there's just a plan of just go out there and work. Steve and I joke in our in our conversations, like we've got to lay some bricks, we got to build some engines, We're going to chop down this oak tree. We've got to finish this race. We can't

just stop a final number twenty four. We need all twenty six, and that's kind of been been The message is we need everybody and we need to finish. And the Roadrunners this year twenty three to one goal wins, which is second in the league, and thirty nine wins in regulation, which means they're finishing games off without having to go to overtime. And I think those are some really big deals going into the postseason. All right, Adrian,

Well, good luck starting tomorrow. What tomorrow again? Game time seven o'clock right here on Fox Sports fourteenth fifty am rons blow up start at six forty five. A Rally Cole giveaway that's just added. You just heard it here first. I just got the email. Five five dollars, sixty ounce draft

pears. So game one it's gonna be. It's gonna be a great atmosphere, the white Outs back in Tucson, Arizona's hockey playoff traditions, So couldn't be more excited and so excited and so appreciative to be able to come on and share that with you guys. Thanks a lot for having me, and you still got road under Happy hour after our show today, right, yeah, we're headed over to two Soon Appliance in just a few minutes. We'll be live Kim Cutter rebels to myself from from five to six right after you

guys. All righty tickets tomorrow you have tickets, go to the Roadrunner dot com, YEP, two soun Verners dot com, Fast Fun TCC box office and if you guys ever wanted to give any tickets away, we can do that too, So just let me know. Okay, okay, keep on the playoffs so we'll do right man, Thank you, Adrias. Let's go. Let's keep this rolling. Let's have some hundred degree chapters. Let's not

get carried away. Yeah sounds great, Adrian, best of luck, Thank you, thanks guys, take care of you, okay, success, Yeah, but if it comes out to the expense of D and ten, you know, yeah, yeah, all right, that's great Adrian Danny with the two Sound road Owners. Their playoff run starts tomorrow at the Arena, so'll be sure to you know, head over there starting tomorrow and then Friday. All right, let's take our break. We'll be back. Take your cass

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featuring smash Mouth. Hey now yeah, I'll joined us for an evening of food, fun and music, all while supporting local charities. Proceeds benefit TMC for Children, Courtney's Courage, Candlelighters, Childhood Cancer Foundation, and Assistance League. Get your tickets and sponsorships online at the Centurions dot Com. That's DUS Centurions dot com breaking down all the exes at all. It's Steve Leavera and Jagin Salvaz. This is I on the Ball on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.

Hey, welcome back to one of them all here on Fox Sports Sports and fifteen. I'm Steve, He's Jay. We've got to analyst with us. Oh and we got about fifteen minutes. I think I have a question for you. Okay, have you ever tried playing hockey where? Anywhere? Have you ever tried playing hockey anywhere at all? You mean hockey? Hockey, hockey, like on skates hockey. I heard hooky is hockey hockey? Oh no good on skates hock? God? No, I have you ever I

skated at all? No, I was gonna go there because my mom grew up in a place where you could do that. No way. I like my ankles too much. Skates and skates skates yeah, no, no, no, no, no, I like my ankles too much. Friend of mine did. He was he's kind of funny, but he got his son to play and he was really good at it. He could skate the hell out of it. So he decided, yeh, what the hell you know,

it doesn't look that hard, I'll go play a recreational league. It's funny because you talked about how the only way he could stop was running into the wall. Yeah, I would be that guy, and how exhausting it was to, you know, fall and have to get up just gonna go there. I do not ski, never have because I don't want to ski. I love I don't want to fall run to a tree or flying off the cliff or skating because I know I would break an ankle or something and

none that ain't gonna happen. Yeah, I mean, I mean I've I skated a couple of times, but I wouldn't do it anymore. No, you've done TikTok videos. That's that's that's just as bad. I don't. I'll show you my TikTok video break you love it. It was. It was done during the COVID quarantine. My two daughters and I did a video. So it was just a little one, a little one of those dances that had gone viral. It's pretty funny. And then I posted and then got really upset me. I said, why do we do it if we

weren't going to post. It's like it's like I didn't put on TikTok. I just put it on. We put on face. It's like getting a tattoo. And that COVID everything was acceptable. Yeah, it's still in my it's still in my computer. Does it seem long ago? Because you were one of those students, It does seem long ago. That was crazy, I think about it. Okay, so you graduated in twenty twenty. Okay, so you were in high school when in March when it all happened.

Yeah, but then came in on the freshman year. Yeah, so no prom, no graduation, no senior classes. We did the AP exams online. Yeah, like the AP exam to get college current online. We passed those. So your highlight was, oh, the president came to say hi at the COVID door at the COVID COVID Dorm. Then I got COVID the

first week of school from did you really Yeah? And then they took me and it picked me and my room made up on a golf cart and took us to the COVID dor and we packed up our stuff and they took us on a golf cart, drove us through campus on a golf and then you have to jump out and the ladies in a hazmat suit. Really, you're like, you're kidding me, crying like, oh my god, we're gonna die. And this lady's in a hazmat suit and we don't even know We've

just been here a week. We don't even know what this place is. So they take my roommate and I to the COVID dorm, which was the COVID dorm with its street by the McDonald's. I don't even believe people live there. My son did his freshman year there. You're kidding. That used to be That used to be the athletic dorm. Okay, it was the worst storm. I was just gonna say, tell me describe the dorm. It was the worst worm I've ever seen. You know, you know the

McDonald's on speed Okay, it's behind it. You're looking at the McDonald's looking north. It's kind of behind it. Into the right. It looks like an apartment. There's a pool, and some people still live there. Now, yeah, I think that people live there. It's it's a die. It used to be the best dorm. No, but that was thirty years ago. Not to die. That's where that's where I did manage is with you know, Sean Elliott, that whole basketball team, right, Elliott,

Tom Tolbert, all those guys lived in this and it was nice. Yeah, yeah, it was nice. And then my son lived there his freshman year and it was it was a dive. It it's not very nice. Two weeks, like ten days, and then I actually think we got out kind of early though, because we kind of were like we had symptoms before. Yeah, so I think I was there for eight days, but it

was supposed to be ten days. The lady in the hazmat suit dropped us off and then we were the first ones because this was the first round of mandatory testing in my dorm. They did that like earlier that morning, and so we were waiting for the results. We got them, and so we could see everyone coming in and getting dropped off from the golf carts. So you couldn't leave the room. No, you could walk, you could go anywhere in the dorms, you could do whatever. Everybody else had it.

Yeah, and then people would like drop off stuff for us and we'd you know, go by the pool like I don't know, because everyone had COVID. But then the first day President Robbins came and knock on my window. We were in there like unpacking our stuff, and he knocked on the window and said like hey and waved and said are you guys okay? And we said, I was like, oh, come out here. Well, I liked him ever since. Really sick, I didn't not at all. I

didn't even know. I didn't feel a thing. But then my friend did lose her smell. Wow. Yeah, And we were lucky that they were able to since we said we're already roommates. We you know, they put us in the same room so we didn't have to be alone. So how was life in there for ten day? Oh my god, it's like a fever dream. It doesn't feel real. It was. It was honestly like everyone had it. So it was kind of like I met a lot of people my friends that I still have or because I met them in the COVID

dorm. And I'm not kidding, like it was. That was the thing. It was kind of the place to be. People would like come to the COVID dorm to Yeah, did you know friends for life? Yeah? You know, like you get shipwrecked and then you become friends for life and we'd all sit out there, you know, it was August is warm out. We'd sit out in the courtyard. I went to you, I graduated from UA, and all the guy was this COVID. Yeah, all I got was President Robinson knock on the door. Wow. And so like you

got it the first week you were here. I mean the first week I think it was like September first or something. How much for that sucks? The years sucks because it's not college. It's just not college. But it didn't suck though, because I think it's worse if you were in college at the o A having a great time there's sports, it's this amazing school, and then it's taken away from you. I came into it and it got better every single year. Freshman year, it was still like new and exciting.

I'm in a new state, new people, online classes, but it's still you know, I still was doing u a t V. It was online, but you know, I was still like it was on new And then it got better sophomore year, and then junior year was like fully kind of done here, and then now it's pretty much back normal. But it got better every year. So it wasn't like I feel like if you were

a freshman, then you got it taken away. That's what happened to and then didn't come back until like really senior year for it to be normal, that's like your whole college. But for me it was like a progression. And my senior year of high school got taken away though, which is like those are monumental events. I've never had prom. Yeah, that was my daughter. She had she had gotten, she had gotten you know, a

nice uh scholarship. It was in the Honors Dorm, brand new dorm, first first one in and in March we had to go yanker out of there. Yeah, and you know, as you said, she was having a great time, the time of her life, new friends, new dorm, her roommate was, you know, one of her friends from high school and just and then all sudden and it was a beautiful, beautiful it is and all of a sudden, we're packing up her stuff and bringing her home, you know, and then she had to come home, and then we did

a TikTok. Yeah, and then all you could do was TikTok's is dad? No? And then I knoweople who you know went abroad that year and then they they were like in Barcelona whatever, and they're Yanks back. Yeah, you know, they're like, you got to get out now, yah house, you don't know what's going to happen. Yeah, it was quite a time. Yeah, it was an incredible time. Just wow, you thought, wait a minute, we're in the United States of America. This is a you know, it is twenty twenty. What are we doing?

Right? And it was nuts. It was just nuts. But wow, what an experience did you ever get COVID Steve, No, You've never. You haven't gotten it. I can't talk now, I don't know. Yeah, go find somebody to give it to you. No, No, I got sick, in fact, very bad. When I had the show by myself at the other station ten thirty, I got sick. I got sick for like a week. I couldn't It was like this but but really sick. So I did the show sick like this in my room because they didn't

want me to come into the show. So I took the portal like our portal, yeah, and did the show that way. I think I did the show with you guys right before twenty nineteen whatever that was twenty nineteen to twenty yeah, priest, because you were just starting started in twenty right, and I had I had a guy coach guy come in and made and that's when he was saying, we're gonna hold on. We're gonna We're gonna hold on. Then like a week later it was over, and then I got

the call. Then I got the call what are you doing? I got fired for the first time. Well then I called you the next day or not? What are you doing? What do you want to think? I don't have a job. If that's what you know, why you called me? So what do you know? That is the funniest, one of the funniest things ever, because like, you know, I get this text me and I thought, oh, he found out that I got fired. And that's why you were calling, Oh you want to do the show. Okay,

let's do it. I need a partner, come on exactly. Oh you said, let me talk about you. It's been good. Yeah. Good. But then my parents were happy because they were like, you have antibodies. You know, you're not going to get us sick. So sure they were happy I got it because I wasn't even sick. But you know, but I remember we talked about that all the time because your brother got it, I think in that time, and they were thinking, oh,

yeah, my brother Jean, Yeah he got it. I mean I thought he actually got it, went into the hospital, and I thought, he's going to die and we're not going to see him again. That's the last I mean, that's what the that's what that's what it was like, you know it was. It was in that time when people were getting it and if they went into the hospital, they didn't come out. And four days later he was at what year like month was that in March of twenty twenty

scary. I mean, it was right at the height of yeah, maybe maybe April, but it was at the height of it when people were getting it and when they went in they didn't come out. He got it, and I was like, that's the last time I want to see him. And then he came out and he was fine, and yeah, and he's still fine. My grandparents got it and that was scary. Yeah, that's that's what it is, because reality when you're older and you're not okay, yeah, they're they're all good. So no, it was It's crazy,

you know. I ended up getting it. I got it in twenty twenty one, and I just you know, had it for a week and had to do the show from home. You had something like this before, maybe something I remember I got the something I got the Bell's palsy, can only talk out of the side of my mouth, I remember that was that was, Yeah, did you have a stroke? No, Bell's palsy, my lip is hanging. Yeah. And my mom's actually an epidemiologist, so she

works on you know, these diseases and these viruses. You know, you know, normally she works in Africa and you know, like in the Congo, but she was working really closely with the CDC on COVID, so she would get all like the intel about when stuff was be closing, and I remember she was like, all the nail salans are going to close tomorrow. And I was like, how do you know that, and She's like, I just know. And then the next day all the nail salans were closed.

And so she had all this secret intel and she really liked the way Robin's handled COVID at the u of A. Well, look for all that you want to say about about Robin's and you know what, he always administered the u A particular the last couple of years. He was at the forefront of what was going on with but he was, you know, a university president something well as a doctor who understood and wasn't trying to deny, you know, and who was in charge of a university. His response and what

was going on on campus was was really second to none. And Arizona the JOV and this community was very lucky to have him in that position in this town because one, you know, with nearly forty thousand students on campus dealing with that, and then two as big as the ju A is to have somebody with some credibility running that show. This community can never thank him enough.

I think what he did during COVID hear and I'll just say that he was one of the first presidents come out and really do something about it. And he was personally checking up on his students. Right, we have him on the show. I think he's a friend of the program coming on. One of the things is he's he became polarizing. You have so many people who think he did a great job, and then vice the other side who think just you need to go. Yeah, I mean, honestly, which

is unfortunate. I get it. He's you know, they messed up the financial situation, and you know, and look, we all you know, we've said a million times a job like that take at some point you've you've you've made enough on people and enough people unhappy that they want you to Well, there is a life expectancy in that position that it's about seven years soon.

All right, let's take our break. We're going to come back breaking news at the top, uh and Lisa is all loaded up, and then we've got Troy Hutcherson talk some more U of a spring football after the first break next hour, So let's stick around