This is I on the Ball on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I want to take part in the show. Call up Steve now went five to two oh four one, six seventy four.
Hey, welcome back to YE on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, You're Dave Silvert. Now we have Kobe with breaking news.
This is I on the Ball, breaking news on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
Arizona target Brandon Berry's to announce decision Wednesday. The five star Commo guard will announce a decision on Sports Center. Burr's is a siding between Arizona, Oregon, Tennessee, Alabama, and USC.
There's a lot of optimism that he's gonna pick here. I mean, the people on the interweb, what are they saying, there's news, good news is looming. I don't trust anybody until you hear it.
Yeah, well, you know he's a Sam Bernardino guy. Carter Bryant's from the same general area.
Let's say Carter Bryant, he stays, would stay with.
These four or three or four pretty highly regarded recruits.
That could be kind of fun. That's all that speculation that's out there right. It's you know, Hey, this is back in nineteen seventy two. Hey, give little Susie, I have a note for her. Check the box. Have her checked the box?
Yeah? But I mean you got CoA Pete five star player out of the Phoenix area, and got Dwayne Aristode. Is that how you Proounce's last name, five star forward? You know? And Bronni's or Lebron's kid Bryce, and now maybe maybe Bury's who's ranked number eleven in the country overall prospect in twenty twenty five class. So he still has not made his decision. He numbered, he's a he's a combo guard. Who knows. I'm sure, Tommy, I'm sure
everybody's kind of waiting to see how that plays out tomorrow. Good.
Yes, because you as you know back in the day, and I absolutely hated it. Hated recruiting me too. Everyone hopes for the future. Yeah, you know, you can never have today. You have tomorrow's. Oh we get this guy and blah blah blah. They got James, the James kid, and then they get the Peak kid. And now if they get this kid, the prosperity, YadA YadA, they still have to play the game.
Yeah, it was I think we used to just kind of look at this is good for these guys websites. Yeah, basically they really weren't running around the cut. You know, we just can't do that.
Yeah.
I don't know if the newspapers even had the resources to devote someone just to recruiting, like.
No, but we did because I spent time doing it and I hated it.
Yeah, you have to call their we call.
Yes. Yeah. One of the most famous ones. The one one of the most famous ones I did was that early morning on a on a Wednesday, Tuesday whatever it was, was the twins from Stanford who went to Stanford the I want to see call the Collins twins and they decided to go It was here or there right here, right and decided to go to Stanford. And I ended up talking to them mo hob like at seven in
the morning because they made a decision that morning. And she got on the phone and I said, you know, could you tell me real quick, I need to quote about you know why they decided. He said, Steve, if you had a couple of kids and they chose, they chose between Arizona and Stanford, wouldn't you want them going to Stanford? I said, good questions, good answer, very good answer, Thank you very for much of your time. And I guess we'll see him down the road. Yep, come on, I mean the same thing.
But I mean this guy's decisions are where between Arizona and USC Oregon, Tennessee. It's not like Harvard is in mister Stanford even but you know, and he's another one and done. So now your window of opportunity, right, is a year. I guess everybody's who you opportunity is one year, right, you have that one year window. And so when let's assume for a second, Arizona does get him, you know, everyone thinks I'm the grim Reaper and poop poo and everything blah blah blah.
Okay, so they get him. So now they have and and and Brian stays, okay, so they're gonna be pretty good, right, you'd assume that. Sure, you mean to tell me the other schools are not gonna be any good? You just saw too early top twenty five, right, don't say whom, but you said what was Arizona on it?
Yeah?
Twenty four twenty four, So that means they have to leap frog, right, twenty three other teams.
That's true, but a lot of that is just based on who they can get on the roster of this coming season. You know, these new guys, there's three for sure, I guess, at least at this point, and maybe a fourth Houston, I guess, and whatever else they can come up with and transfer port.
Houston has come up with one of the better recruiting classes in the country already already, So you don't know what I'm saying. You might have a lot of money in your pocket, Dave, but your neighbors probably have a lot of money in both pockets.
Well.
Getting on TV like Houston did for the last month basically is Arizona used to talk about that all the time. The longer you go in that tournament, the more exposure you get.
And they've been doing it for a while now, right last few years, so you.
Know, yeah, I mean, Arizona milk that forever. I mean, I think it helped. Rocky was talking about it yesterday just about you know, people interested in the school. Enrollment went up when when Arizona basketball, you know, got hot, and that just is carried over forever. People want to be part of that. Okay, Kebby here turned Okay, we talked.
More about Arizona men's and women's tennis got big wins on Senior Day, each closing out their home schedule with a victory. The number eleven men swept BYU four nothing, while the women defeated Colorado five to two.
Okay, we got to get the coach on. The coach is on because they've had another The men's had another great season.
Yep.
Arizona men's basketball finishes fifteenth and final Associated Press poll.
Okay, that's about right. Yeah, you know, sweet sixteen. Who's sixteen? I'm not sure sixteen would have been whom in the in the it doesn't matter, doesn't will find it later.
Former Arizona guard Brandon Williams signs two year deal with Mavericks.
Okay, yeah, he was one of the Shawn's guys. It's pretty good that him. I mean he never played here.
He got hurt, right, so he never really had a chance, and he's managed to parlay it into the NBA.
So this is already seven years maybe, Yeah, it's for him. Yeah, he was a chance. He was the guy that decided to come, come and stay, and other people followed because he was that good, right, and then he got hurt.
Yeah, he never never was healthy. Yes, he kind of came in he was injured, had to sit out for a year if I remember, and then sort of came back and never.
Yeah, red shirted or something transferred. Yeah.
The Denver Nuggets shocked the NBA by firing head coach Michael Malone and announcing they would not extend general manager Calvin boost contract. Lead assistant David Edelman will serve as head coach for the remainder of the season.
But you're a Denver guy because you have some family there.
Yeah.
But yeah, that was that was a stunner. I mean, he's been really successful. I want a championship just a couple of years ago.
What have you done for me lately? Yeah? Oh, they're in a little losing What are they like, thirteen and sixteen or something, thirteen but last four in a row.
Yeah, in the playoffs are just around the corner. It's very odd timing, very odd timing there.
Yeah, and I think they have a good chance to still will be pretty good to have some pretty good I guess Murray's out for with injury.
Yeah, he's been out.
He'll be ready for the playoffs.
Well, really be ready.
How can you do that with with one of your best players in the league and then you say good bye your coach because you're you lost a couple of guys.
I don't I don't understand. There's got to be I don't know. There must be something else going there.
I know you're a good TV guy, but you don't have a camera. How are you going to manage?
Is that? I'm gonna think Adelman is probably Rick Adelman's son, Yes, ok, yeah, so Denver. Oh, I don't know, just a few years removed from their championship and still two years Yeah, he's you know, m v P again.
Possibly. I think it's a Westbrook factor. He's with the team right now.
Former MLB pitcher Octovio Dotel was killed in the tragic nightclub roof collapse.
In the Dominican replay, Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's a lot of people who passed. I think fifty eight ish, Yeah, forty four lives. Okay, yeah, I remember him. He was a hard thrower.
Yeah, fifty one years old too.
Oh he was that old thing? Was that old me too? Know that you should say that?
Yeah?
Yeah.
Florida is the only national champion over the last twenty years to overcome a deficit of nine plus points in the Elite National semi final and National championship.
Yeah. Do you remember how I can't remember this. Do you remember how down Arizona was against North Carolina or Kentucky in their games? I know the Kentucky game was close, but they were down. Yeah, and I've seen that game a thousand times because they've played all the time. But they had to come back and you know a few times.
I don't know, but it would be good to look at the play by play. I think I might have the play by play sheets at home, at least for the championship game.
Let me ask you, did you watch last night? You watched that?
Oh?
Yeah? Did you watch the post games? I watched like the CBS coverage Yeah, yeah, when they're cutting down the nets.
Yeah, I saw that.
Did you You were there right?
Yeah?
See, so I was there obviously doing some stuff, some stuff covering the team. But I don't remember all those people on the floor in ninety seven. No, it was kind of restricted to a certain amount of people or the families or something. Yeah, but there was a massive lot of people. Yeah.
I mean even the ladder has got like a sponsor name or something.
Yeah, in fact, that's kind of funny. I texted Haayer after the thing that says, I can't remember seeing so many people on the court when we were there and interviewing real quickly after the game, and he says, no, this is new.
I guess, you know, I'm trying to remember if I was on the floor. I remember going racing back to the back rooms of the media room. Yeah, so I'm not sure if I did see it in person other than just maybe just watching it from there. From there, I don't remember, but you know, it's always a big deal. I don't I don't know if we had, you know, thousands of people on the court like that in those years.
Yeah, well, I got. I got to yelled at indirectly because I was covering the team obviously for the newspaper and a Gannet paper, and I was doing some quick interviews on the floor and one of the guys from another Gannet paper, do you have a quote for me to use my home work? Man? I got? I got, I want to stop, I can't stop, and yeah, help you. You know, because like we were.
Restricted in that we could not have our cameras at the court during the games as soon as they went off the air copyright, So now then we could come out with our cameras. So I think maybe that's where I was what I was doing at that moment, and we had two crews, so somebody else was back in the back still recording the postgame things and whatnot. But we would sometimes at that moment then we would come out and shoot our was your colleague one of them, the guy who passed two years ago, Joe.
Joe, because it's the two year anniversary of today. Yeah, maybe, no, that's reason I asked just to bring him up. Joe Joe Pirates.
Ye, Joe is my buddy, and yeah, we lost him two years ago today, which is shocking. Yeah, but he's a great guy.
I liked him because I saw him one time on the free win and his charger Challenger whatever it was that hot is what the hell are you driving? Because he wasn't a Challenger guy to me.
No, No, he was a big, huge baseball fan. He and his wife, we used to joke like they'd go on vacation, you know, they go to like Hawaii and to Florida and all these kind of nice places.
And they go to minor league baseball games. He was just he was just that kind of a guy. It was so much fun.
Anyway, Florida States guard tenayat lights in, the nation's leading scorer, announced she will transfer to South Carolina. Lateson will reunite with former high school teammate Raven Johnson, joining the game Cocks powerhouse team.
Did you uh god? I hate the Internet? I hate Twitter. I hate a lot of this.
Look at something.
No, well, did you see after South Carolina loss and they got humbled pretty badly? Right, So then the fan base just comes in, Oh, she needs to be tired, she's seen better days. She just won her third title not too long ago, and oh she needs to go and YadA, YadA, you wonder Yeah, I.
Mean you wonder though too. I mean, what what more does she have to prove?
You know?
She going to be in that position now, like, gosh, do I need to go through this again. She's winning Olympic gold medals, she's you know, winning national championship, She's had all his success and she, you know, probably in an age where she'd like to kind of into the SI.
Well, Joe talked about that today's coaches now just kind of want to coach as much as they can get as much money as they can and just call it on their own terms, which Arianma would be the would be the perfect example.
Yeah, both of those two, Yeah, those coaches.
Former Notre Dame guard Olivia Millis has decided to transfer to TCU.
Yeah, we talked about that during that conversation. Oh yeah, because she's had a million or two dollars, a million or two to start paying those kids.
And when she's coming from where again.
Uh, where's she going? She's going from She's coming from Notre Dame.
Notre Dame. That's right.
There was a chempce that she was going to go pro and then she decided just to stay. Yeah, I'll take the million dollars. It's more than the exactly Dave exactly.
Mariners outfielder Victor Roblists will miss at least twelve weeks due to a small fracture in his left shoulder, potentially rolling him out for the entire season. The team believes Roblest is not required surgery at this time.
Did you see that injury? He was running down to catch a foul ball right field corner, like I'm not sure if it was the bullpen, just right to the fence. It might have been on Sunday. He went flying into the fence like at one hundred miles an hour and flipped over the fence. He was not a not a pretty sight. But you know he made the catch too, which was even more incredible. But he went right into the wall.
Texas freshman Trey Johnson announced he was entering the NBA Draft, where he's projected as a top five pick.
Yeah. I saw his announcement on NBA today. Didn't see him play, Nope. Yeah, he's a good player. I'm sure Sean wanted him to stay.
That is there for today's breaking news.
Sean did bring one of his guys to the team, one of his savior and guys. Yeah, one of the guards.
So how much time do we have?
I think we have. Oh, we got to go. It's already four or thirteen. What do you got We'll do it later. Okay, cool, let's go come back with mister Aaron Torres.
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This is I on the Ball with Steve Ravera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Subscribe now to the podcast on the iHeartRadio app just search I on the Ball.
Hey, welcome back to Lying on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. You do now, We're just going to try to get ahold of mister Torres. I haven't called us actually, uh so carry me for a second their day.
Looking forward to talking to him. He was in San Antonio, looks like the whole weekend and has been covering the end of the basketball season. He looked like he was pretty busy, and I'm sure he's glad to be done and finished, as many of the college basketball riders are. It's kind of a whirlwind month yeah, and you you've been through it a million times and it was always kind of fun.
Went to I just went to nineteen of the last year was the final fourth in Phoenix. So it's just a long day. You get to see your colleagues, you know, for you know, for a long time, the Dick Weiss of the world. Who's yeah, the crusty old Dick Wise and the guys the pet the forties. Yeah, mister Aaron Torris.
Is his shoe.
This is me, sir. How you doing fine? How are you? Did you get some sleep last night?
No, hold on to textive, I'm good whenever you are.
Just I'm in the middle of something.
But I got about two hours of sleep, okay, and then I came back.
But we're we're on the air. We're on the end right now. Okay, So sorry, how are you good? Good? Let me my naked eye from the TV. A good game, fun game to watch, not a well played game. What did you think?
You know?
What I thought really quick was that I thought, you know, listen, I thought Houston was in a situation, you know, see something popped up.
I really hate to do this to you.
I'll give you a make good later in the week.
I gotta I gotta love no problem Aeron Taurus. Anybody wants to call it and fill in the spot, we can answer that question. Yeah, so no, no, that's what I saw. You saw the same thing. I sent a note to you, I think during the game, did I It was the same problem that I thought I had the ball. The ball was too active, and it is. It's been active for the last three years. In fact, Tommy talked about it last week, the ball being still a little bouncy and slippery or whatever.
Right out of the factory. Maybe who knows what the deal is. If it's just they just don't replate the dam. Yeah, Yeah, the game was was pretty sloppy, but I think the shooting was not all that great for most of the contest.
And it's kind of what we expected from Houston.
They just kind of win ugly and play with that great defense and see what they can do on the offensive boards. But Florida didn't really put up much of a fight in the first half until they really got things kind of rolling in the second half.
Yeah, of a sudden, it's Anthony, Anthony, like you had picked Florida. I picked Florida, obviously, and they were down whatever they were down, and then they closed it within four or three whatever it was, And I said, they got them where they want them. I said, they played a very poor first half, and I probably said just played badly and they were only down by two or three, you know, three or four. Yeah, abstuely, it's a perfect
situation for Florida. They liked this spot. But then I said, so does Houston because that's what they're known for.
Yeah. Well, I mean having four number one seeds too, was kind of an attraction in itself in the final four. I think people wanted to see kind of the best of the best play, which we got. I mean, we really got almost every game, and this weekend was really good, you know, translated over to television viewers. That was the most watched since twenty nineteen. Yeah, they had eighteen point one million on CBS last night, so that's a pretty
strong number for men's basketball. The women's game also had some good numbers too, but Florida Houston peaked with twenty one point one million for the game's conclusions, so people were watching that game not much else on last night.
I don't know if you remember this, but nineteen ninety nine. I think it was Wisconsin was in the finals, Michigan State, whatever it was. It was before two thousand or maybe two thousand. Arizona was the number one. It was two thousand because everyzone was the number one team overall. Right, they lost to Wisconsin in a team that's very good but ugly. They played ugly and they got to the
final four. I think it was under under Bennett, Dick Bennett, and it was ugly basketball because he just slowed it down in the fifties and yeda yedda, and people said, God, this is not fun to watch, just not fun to watch. Last night was different because it was it was fun to watch in as much as it was like a hockey. Yeah, is this skating back and forth? The ball wasn't going in. It was like I said, two piranhas going at it, uh and just kind of like a and only four fowls called.
Yeah. I mean it was amazing that they just know, the refereess kind of just swallowed their whistles.
And didn't do anything, and then just what they found their whistles in the second half.
Yeah, I mean it was it was kind of a shame to watch, kind of you know, Houston. Not that they're the Cinderella story, but you know they're coming out of you know, of the Four Conferences or whatever five conferences. You know, they were from the Big twelve, and they, you know, they didn't get the kind of publicity that the SEC schools got as far as television and things like that through the course of the year. So maybe people didn't know too much about them even though we did,
and they just kind of, you know, faded away. Yeah, you could just see it. I think I was even texting my kids. I'm like, oh God, they're falling apart. You know, they had that twelve point lead and just couldn't hang on.
Yeah. Yeah, and you you had a dog, you had both dogs in the fight.
Yeah, I mean, you know, got a had some good wagers going for the for the evening. Yeah, but it was still it was still that wasn't really kind of That's usually not how I watched the games.
I don't know about you. Maybe you you and Jay. I did no, no, only because because I had a dinner wager with Jay from back last week and then I had the pick I had in January on Florida. But I enjoyed it. I still thought that even though he didn't have a great game and he was throwing some bombs up there with Clayton, that he was probably the second best player I saw all year outside of the flag.
Yeah. Yeah, I don't know what. You know, what's the duke situation going to look like? I guess we'll have those guys are probably all gonna go.
Don't worry about Duke, Dave, don't worry about.
I'm sure they've got three you know McDonald's all Americans lined up anyway.
Yeah, don't cry for Argentina. Man, they're gonna be good. As you saw, I mean what, they're in the top three and a few top twenty five's.
Yeah.
Here, So you know, Houston, Duke, Yukon, you know, all the usual, all the usual, Kansas.
You know, Kentucky got this guy, Jayden Quaint Hants who went.
To his issue. Yeah, very good play, a good player.
He had a c L surgery, so they're not sure if he's gonna.
Be really okay. I thought he'd be a great fit for Averzona, And we didn't talk about this yesterday with Emanuel Stephan going to Josh at Vegas.
Yeah, I don't know, I haven't have you been following Josh's recruitings.
Yes, we had him on, We had him on Friday.
He does he get anybody?
He had zero people on Friday. He got one. Now, Yeah, he's gonna have his work cut out for him. Yeah, but you know, never never doubt Josh.
Now you know this.
He works his ass off. He wouldn't even say the word ass, doesn't drink, doesn't smoke. So he's in Vegas. What else you have to do but go work?
Yeah?
Really, how's he gonna fit into that lifestyle in Las Vegas?
Yeah, he's And he's the dude that's gonna go on, kiss, kiss hands and shake baby. You know, he's gonna get him.
He's gonna you know, he's a good he's a good TV guy. So he's gonna get some publicity. It's a un l V.
You know.
We we've been kind of joking about this, but that market compared to when we were covering un l V and their heyday. Basically they were the pro team in those years. And I'll look what they've got.
I said yesterday their nil before nil was in a right.
But they're going to probably get an NBA team. I would think one of the cities. If they ever, if they expand again on top of having you know, football hockey and now un LV bringing a new coach is going to get some publicity. They're not in the greatest conference in the world.
No, but no, you know, but there's so much potential there because you've seen it happen before. Right. In fact, like Arizona went of the reasons why Lout came here and was so successful and came here initially what Bob Elliott said, and he said it a few times and then he did it in his book. Had it not had the success with Snowden that he may not have come.
Yeah. Well, certainly un LV has had, you know, an amazing history, especially in the you know, the late eighties early nineties with Tark and all that did a nice job. Yeah, they were they were always you know, amongst the conference leaders whatever conference they were in Mountain West, I guess, but I just look at the landscape of Las Vegas and every time I go there, it's like, you know, it's just growing, growing, growing. Where does you and l
be fitt into anything? You know, for football, it's always been way down, but you know that with the Raiders and now the you know the hockey team and baseball is coming in a few years. You know, where's anybody gonna be able to pay attention to that program? Will fans you know, have extra money to go see? You want to be a basketball game anymore? Not like it used to be.
Yeah, again, there's an easy solution for all that win, right, just win baby, and they'll come. It's like the women's basketball program here. If they'll find somebody, right, they'll find somebody who will do a good job, get them back to maybe not the level that it was, because that's going to be very difficult.
If the fans will carry over next year, I would think no matter what, Yeah, you know, they're going to give her or him, you know, a chance to do something.
And if they're good, if they're good and competitive, I think they'll they'll show up and then and do Okay. And we talked about this yesterday gently the fan base is a pretty strong, different group, right uh, and kind of how the men's group should be loud, uh just kind of bunkers crazy.
Yeah, well, I mean, you know, it's kind of still a novelty a little bit, and that you know, they've they've been good for what five or six years pretty strong once they kind of got the W N I T and then started making runs in a tournament. So you know, the core audience is here and the new coach is going to inherit that and it's their job to keep it going.
Yeah, yeah, I guess there's just I just got a tweet from no our listener's idea has landed in Dallas, and I guess you probably have a press coming sometimes so with.
Her husband and whole family. Yeah.
Yeah, this that's an old puddle. But I just got it about an hour ago. Okay, anybody want to call? We have time to take a call. Aaron Taurus couldn't stay on with us. Something came up. That's just the world that we live in with the journalism and spotty news. So we'll take the take a call or to Kobe's here ready, and then we'll take more calls here after the break as well. Thanks for hanging with us yesterday. We had a little glitch. If you didn't listen to
our interview with Rocky the Rose. That was funny, but she said she was an Italian guy called who is this Rocky person? And she was in the first hour and then we had mister Rhino, Ryan Hanson in the second hour, who who had some great stuff with us too, talking about this year's team and just the the world of college basketball that we live in. Did you see? Did you see? And I wanted to tell him the story.
Did you see after Houston one in the semi finals and A Lajoen was there and he tried to get on the court and they didn't allow him on the court because they didn't he didn't have any idea, they didn't know who he was. The people there, right, and then even an administrator for Houston said came in and to kind of intervene, and the guy still wouldn't let him on. And I don't know if they eventually led him on, but that's what the clip was. Lut had
that same experience in Boise. Would you get to poison? But you don't know this one because I've said Rhinos talking about it a few times. So Boise, Yeah, when I think it's maybe first round, maybe the second round. We all needed ideas to get it was you know, posts and all that stuff, and we all needed ideas to get in. Well, Luke forgot as well at the hotel, so so he was going in and they wouldn't allow him in. They wouldn't allow him in without at least
not on the court, right. So he let him in and then he had to watch the practice on the sidelines and the sidelines until he got his his idea. Yeah. So I used to tease him, like remember the YAO commercial, the Yao he looked at his idea. Yeah, yeah, that's lude. Also, for God's sake, you know who he is. Yeah, it was great. I didn't see, uh, I saw a key in the dream. I didn't see like Drexler or anybody
that group. He must have been there. The only two people I saw was it was it was a dream and Carlos.
Okay and Jim nance Jim Broadcaster was there getting ready to go to the Masters this week. But going back to my other passion these days is the Tucson Festival of Books. We had Maren Fader, who we talked to on the show, who wrote the book about Hakeem. So I've read a chance, got a chance go take a look at that book because she did a great job on that. She was really proud of which the work she did in the years it took to get information about him and he didn't talk. He didn't. He barely
talked to her. But you know, she's she managed to write a you know, like a four hundred page book about him. He's had he's had quite an influence on a lot of players, current players who've gone to him for advice. Johannis, especially some of the African players and Asian players who've come over that just kind of wanted to know, how do you how do I navigate through all this with a different culture and different style of
play and things like that. And that's forty years ago, Yeah, nineteen eighty three.
He's just got to be what sixty something, sixty two is short at least?
Yeah, I mean he was there, right, he was in the game, the North Carolina State game, the Valvano game eighty three.
I didn't realize it now that they said that Holden was thirty nine, that Valdana was thirty seven. Yeah, I didn't realize it was that young either.
Yeah, but yeah, Golden, you know Tucson kid, excuse me, Phoenix, Phoenix kid went to Sunny Slope High School. They want a state championship. I think I was covering those games like in two thousand and two ish. I think it was so Yeah. Then he worked at what University of San Francisco. It's funny if you look at his like Wikipedia, it's kind of interesting. He kind of followed when some
coach around. He was an assistant, and then he broke away, and then he goes to us F and then he goes to Florida and national champion.
Yeah yeah, well, okay, let's take a break down and come back and we'll take as many calls as we can. I just want to give us a quick call. Five Z four seventy four, forty I. 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 Loudolsen era.
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Streaming live on the iHeartRadio WI This is Eye on the Ball with Steve Rivera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
Hey, welcome back to IM about here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Roverta, You're Dave Silver. We've got Aaron Torre's back on the line, Aeron, how are you.
I'm great. I apologize, Fellas. It was the funniest thing. I had my dog at the dog parks. She was having a great time. I said, you know what, I can take this call. We're gonna be good.
Next thing, I know, the dog was chasing a frisbee and read or over and she was scared.
So I wanted to make sure she was okay.
But she was.
She was. She's fine, you know, much like the much like the Florida Gators.
She rallied and finished strong.
But you know, I just had to make sure she was it. Literally, guys, we were there for well over an hour. She's having the time of her life, not a care in the world. And of course the second that I got on Live with you guys, we had a little chaos. But everything's great. She's she had a good time. She's sleeping now, and uh, just a pleasure to speak with you guys and talk about last night's game and everything else going on.
She just wanted you, I think, so Steve so real quick than any surprises last night. And hey, you saw this game twice on Saturday. You saw another game yesterday where the trailer pull it off.
Yeah, you know my take, and I've said this now a.
Few times anybody that's asked me, I really like Saturday night it was more Houston won the game rather than Duke lost the game. You know, Houston played the way that Houston does and final ten minutes Duke made mistakes, but it was it was about Houston forcing turnovers, executing whatever. Last night to me was about really just Houston melting down.
I mean, you know, whatever you think of whatever, and you want to give Florida credit, and we're not trying not to give Florida credit, but I mean we're talking about a situation where you know, Houston didn't get a shot in its final four possessions. You know, we know the stats. They didn't get a you know, final minute twenty eight zero shot attempts for turnovers, and so you
know the way it went down. I thought also the second to last possession, or excuse me, the last possession where you know, you get the ball back with it. I think it was about twenty six seconds and you're really you're in about seven or eight and you haven't even gone yet. It's like, I thought, you guys got a chance to see Kelvin Sampson in person this year. He is a stud he's he's Hall of Famer. But I thought the final two minutes I didn't think they
were very well coached. I really didn't, which is shocking given that I thought they you know, I thought Sampson put on kind of a coaching clinic on Saturday night against Duke.
Seems like just just closing out games has become harder and harder these days, you know, between just you know, constantly fouling and constantly you know, it's kind of shifting your your focus on, you know, how do we get how do we just kind of get this game over with? That seemed to kind of been, you know, a theme really throughout the tournament.
It was amazing to me in hindsight.
I feel like I did the same segment about five different times this tournament where you think about you Kon'd had Florida on the ropes, Florida.
Rallies, Arkansas had Texas Tech on the ropes.
Texas Tech overcomes I think an eight point lead with about three minutes to go, a point definisode about three minutes ago. Then two days later, Texas Tech has a nine point lead with I remember it was nine minutes, nine points with two fifty three to go, Florida rallies and wins, you know, obviously Saturday night with Duke Duke
Duke in Houston, and then of course last night. So no, when I think it speaks to guys, and I know it's been a talking point this tournament, I really think the top of college basketball is so strong right now. You know, It's like people always say, like in the NBA, out of these you know, team has a twenty point lead and the other team ends up come back to win because the other team has really good players too. You let your foot off the gas for half a second.
These things happen, And so yeah, I thought it was a very entertaining tournament. I think that, you know, I know there's a lot of talk about the future with Lessonderella is that the best players transferring up, But I think the top of the sport is really Listen. I'll even defer to Steve. You know, you've been covering it longer than I have, But I think the top of the sport now, because of the transfers and because of Nil,
I actually think is now stronger than it's been. Maybe in twenty five, thirty years, as far as back to the days when guys used to stay for three or four years.
So I know, if you're you know, a fan of a.
Certain school or a certain brand, it gets frustrating as to some of the current state of the game things. But I think if you're following a Power Conference team, I think times are good because the teams are just now better across the board than I think they were even three or four years ago.
Yeah, yeah, no question, Aaron. One of the things I'm skeptical about, and that's not the right word, but like teams like Arizona, a team that you cover pretty uh on top of your on top of with your website, that they're they're here, I think they're not at the top top. They're at the at the bottom top, you know what I'm saying. And they probably don't have the nil money the others do. How are they going to compete with those others to stay or get to the near top.
Well, what I'll say is, you guys, aren't you guys aren't the only ones dealing with it. I mean North Carolina, I think you know, no, no, no, no, I'm being serious.
Northern Carolina just hired.
A quote unquote GM, and I think really until about six eight months ago, they thought, Hey, the Carolina Jersey is gonna be all we need. And it's no that it's a changing world. But what I would also say to you guys is I truly still believe at the end of the day, yes, money and we know what's now a more money driven sport.
I know a lot of people hate even acknowledging that.
But it's the truth. But I do still think to a degree it is about the right fit, the right coaching staff, and you know, the relationship you have with the coaching staff and can they get you where you want to go. And so if you're Arizona, you know Tommy Lloyd now has a track record. He's got guys in the NBA, He's gotten guys into the first round.
You know, he's taking a guy like Keishaw.
Johnson who wasn't on anybody's radar and has put him in a position to play in the league. And so you know, there's always gonna be kids that you lose over money. But listen, in the old days, there were kids you lost too. But I think that kids still at the end of the day, they want to be a place where they know they can trust the coaching staff, they can can be developed properly, and they can get
to where they want to go. I mean, I just I literally talked to a kid, a dad, excuse me, whose son is in the portal, a guy that'd be deemed to be one of the quote unquote top portal players available. And the dad said, point blank, like, you know, we quote unquote took less money because we trusted this coaching staff to get my son to where he wants to go. And so it's not the perfect answer, Steve,
And there's gonna be frustrating Knights. There's gonna be frustrating situations where maybe a kid wants to stay or you lose a kid because of whatever. But I also think Arizona still has a ton to offer a lot of kids, and it not only Arizona, but Arizona with Tommy Lloyd specifically. I think he's a great coach, and I think that they still have a ton to offer the guys that they're gonna go after.
Just kind of wondering, you guys have been reporters for a long time. What's it like being a reporter now? The season is over. I mean, is we have no idea what to expect, do we. I mean Arizona again, they've got a couple of players that they've signed. As far as freshman coming in, there's still gonna be some transfers I assume coming in. What is it like now as a reporter compared to say, five years ago?
For me, Uh, it's a completely different world. I mean, you know, I always say it is that, you know, I love college basketball, but the season went that on a Monday, you talk about it on Tuesday, and then it really it kind of there were really you just kind of put it on the back burner until you know, September October.
You know, every once in a.
While there'd be a five star that got up that.
Was uncommitted or whatever, but it basically was.
A sport that really ended when the season ended. And and now I'll tell you guys, I mean, you know, last April was a little bit different because cal Perry left Kentucky right around this time, which then led to Kentucky needing to make a higher et cetera, et cetera.
But I only bring it up because you know, the news cycle in college basketball and the in I think it really goes really into May, and then you've always got those couple guys that are testing the NBA draft waters and so now you really have news going on really until pretty much end of May early June.
Now is it day to day, minute to.
Minute, No, But it used to be nothing. And so I don't know that it's quite a twelve month a year sport, but I think it's a lot closer to that than it was even three or four years. But I think it's a great question. I think it's changed. And frankly, I just think if you're not covering the portal, and if you think you know that your job ends the day that the season ends, you're missing out on a lot of content that I think a lot of fans really want and have interest in.
Yeah, maybe let's go somewhere else real quick. To one of your guys that I know you followed very heavily when he was here as Sean Shan Miller now at Texas, what do you think his prospects are?
You know who I saw last night, Fellas and it was just a quick handshake Hello, Greg Byrne, who of course hired Sean at at at Arizona. So listen, I think Sean's gonna be great. And and Steve, I'll say this is I do think that unfortunately, this is the new what you referenced earlier is the new reality. Is that I think Sean. You know, Sean took the Xavier
job around three years ago. He there was an offer on the table from an SEC school, and I think he felt like Xavier was the better opportunity for him. And then I think he saw pretty quickly the money that it was going to take to compete at the highest levels.
He maybe lost the guy or two.
He should he didn't want to, and all of a sudden you look up and you know he's leaving a place at Xavier where I think if you had asked him the day he took the Xavier job, I think he would have thought that he was going to retire there. That's the back burner. The front burner is he is at Texas now, and I think he's gonna crush man. I mean, listen, it is an NIO world.
But he's been a.
Relentless recruiter forever. And I think, you know, Texas is a talent rich state, a very populous state, and I think there's I just think he's gonna.
Do very well there.
The sec is tough. I mean, you're never gonna go you know, I'd say you're never gonna go eighteen and one night.
You know, whatever it is. But Houston just did in the Big twelve. But you know, I think he's gonna win big there. And I just think that that was a school that always had the talent, but they maybe haven't always.
Had the coaching.
I think they now have the coaching with a guy that is gonna bring in talent. I think it's actually a sort of perfect match and I'm kind of excited to see how.
It all works out. Okay, Erin, thanks for coming back. We gotta go, We gotta go. Thanks. I will talk to you soon. Enjoy the portal. Enjoy It's never a dull day.
Right, it never ends.
Man, Thank you guys, and thank you for your patience. And I apologize about that before.
What's your dog's name? What's the dog's name?
It's a girl. Her name is Charlie. She's sitting in the car with.
Me right now.
A girl named suit Okay, boy, a girl name you know. Okay, thank you man, take care of Charlie. Yeah, thank you. We got about five minutes stufft about cool. Okay, so that was good to get ahold of him. I know he's a big Sean fan, Sewn Miller. I agree with him. If Sean doesn't do well, you know, it'll be a surprise to me.
Yeah.
I mean he's he's When he was here, he recruited, he recruited wonderfully.
Here's the reason I say that because I used to ask him every year. It was, without a doubt, question of mine, when are you going to start running? And he would look at me like, you know, stop asking me these dumb questions. Yeah, And eventually, guess what he eventually did. He left here, took the year off and decided to change, and some of his teams at Xavier the last couple of years have been very good in transition.
Yeah, okay, you mean as far as changing up the offensive style and stuff.
Correct.
So yeah, I mean he's going to go into a wild conference. The SEC is filled with national champions. Now, uh, you know he's going to have to adapt. He cannot play the slowdown style. I don't think I have any success there. I mean Alabama, I don't know. They're all athletic and running and Texas is going to want that too.
Yeah. Well, Houston tried to do it right and they're very good at it. But it's a different You talked about bully ball yesterday. I've written about it a couple of times, but it's a bullyball was style. They had Crier who should have probably taken the last shot at some point. Of course, sharp they had shooters too. They could play a little fast, but they still were dominant with the defense. Yeah.
Well, it's a good showing for the Big twelve too. I think, you know the team is what Texas Tech made it into the lead eight, Arizona. Arizona got to the sweet sixteen.
So I mean it was a good big Why you did a nice nice they're in the top ten I think.
For next year. Yeah good. You know it's going to make it more fun for us next year to just kind of follow along and see these games week to week and how Arizona's going to change things up, and well, what's the nucleus of this team going to look like next year?
For guys like me who followed the college basketball scene and you who enjoy watching it and now we're talking about it, I think, and I'll say this all the time. The best thing that happened at Arizona basketball was it went into the Big Twelve. Whether they win, it doesn't really matter, although it's a nice thing, but this gets you ready for the most important thing, and that's March. Yeah.
I mean they played, they played great in the in the Big Twelve tournament. I think a lot of people thought that would help and it did. Uh, you know, they got some momentum going into the n C Double as, which was nice. We never knew.
You don't use that word, but they played. They played well at the end and they moved on their own.
Yeah.
And they played. They played well even to even to the end against Duke.
Had a chance. You know who was it was it Ryan last yesterday talking about you know, if you a couple of possessions, a couple possessions and you know they they could be the team in the Elite eight or moving on.
Yeah. So and and who knows. Like I say, every time Arizona was told you can't, they do. It's the it's the lower level teams that you had wondered you wondered about, you know, because would they get up enough for the game.
Yeah, but the quality of play was definitely much higher in the Big twelve. I think there's no doubt about that. And every game was kind of you know a question, Thank you Mark. Is this going to be a game where you know someone's gonna sneak up on him and beat him. That shouldn't be, but you know they were right near the top of the standings.
Almost from the get go. Okay, we got about a minute, are we good? A minute? Yeah? Okay, Dave, thanks for coming in again today. I'm gonna be in tomorrow with the other guys. Thank you Kobe for coming in today and leaning the board. We have no flaws today. I'm in tomorrow and then I'm off Thursday and Friday on assignment for another job that I have up in Scottsdale for a few days. So thanks everybody. A good game last night. We'll see what we get tomorrow for guests,
and hope to hear from you. Thanks.