Streaming live on the iHeartRadio Whip. This is I on the Ball with Steve Ravera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
Hey, welcome back to my I on the Ball hero, Fox Sports fourteen fifty I'm Steve, He's Jay. Now we have Ryan with breaking news.
This is On the Ball Breaking News on Fox Sports fourteen fifty eight.
All right, we're gonna start with a little bit of news from University of Arizona football ja Corey cross Merritt was named to the dok Walker Award watch list today.
Yeah, that's the running back on in New Mexico. So, you know, Steve, I mean, look at this team, right, they've met guys on all the awards lists. When has that ever been?
No, No, you're right right, and people who have NFL potential.
Right, even though the really good teams that they had, you know, the ten win teams that they've had in the past, they had defensive players on those lists, but never a bunch of offensive guys like like Arizona's got. Now. I know we had, know we went through the Club Tate thing, but think back, you know, they just haven't haven't haven't never had this kind of attention and recognition, right know, they haven't. They have to be good, don't they.
Yeah, but Jay, this is goes back to your picking teams.
They have to be.
Good, but other teams are good too, I know that. So that's kind of like they're going into a league that's gonna be a lot like that. Yeah, you know, Pac twelve they had better teams. We know this, We talk about this all time. They were sixth, seventh, eighth, right seventh day. Arizona's now three four five maybe two three four five. That's what makes it so special because they have a chance. They have a chance. I mean, what was the lessaid they had a chance?
Yeah, well that's the thing. And I you know, I was at my breakfast club this morning and then I manch I some you know, this doctor who had never met before, and everybody's asking me that how good is Arizona going to be? And I'm like, I think they're going to be good. But as you say, there's probably you know, in the Big twelve, there's probably eight teams that are sort of in the same you know range that Arizona is.
We're we're here in Tuson. This show is here in Tucson, Arizona. You get a show like this every place in their in their spot, and they're talking about the same stuff. How good are how good are they right?
State of saying it? Kansas? Kansas state? And how many Texas Tech Arizona that's a way. Yeah, they got beat seventy to seven a couple of years ago.
They saw right, right, and that's kind of maybe what the reputations do. Yeah, how good can they be?
Somebody asks me if I can do something about the seventy to seven billboard? Is it still up?
No?
I don't think sits down. No, I think it's got to be down.
Who do they lose to?
You don't know that. No, you ain't see you dude.
Oh god, where you been?
Where you been?
Worn rock? Yeah?
Yes, so you didn't do the work too hard?
A big rock? Okay, all right?
Speaking of former Arizona running backs, former Arizona running back Gery Brightwell signs with the Jaguars today.
Oh he did sign he did. Oh, good for him, because I saw that there that there was discussion he might be signing with the with the Jags. But good, glad he glad he's still hanging around. He was one of the good guys. He actually came into a studio for his show if you remember.
Yeah, he's not not too bad. I guess going on to the numbers, this is what.
This would be his third year maybe I think so year in the league. If he stays, that's hanging around a little bit, especially if you're running back, and what are running backs app five to seven years he launch speaking of because somebody I was listening. I was listening to this conversation on the on the radio today that Harrison Butler the the kicker, the loser kicker for Kansas City. He got a seventy million dollar contract. He's no, no, it's no. I take back some but it is talking
about the Butler signing. But Jason Tucker, the Ravens kicker. He's gonna make as much money as Derrick Henry. I mean, think about who Dereck Henry is the running back.
You say Jason, huh, you say Jason Justin? Oh, Jeff said Jason Justin Tucker.
I might have said Jason, but it is Justin Tucker that he's a kicker. It's gonna make as much money as a guy who was at one point the best running back in the league. Is that crazy?
Yeah, well that kind of tasured the value of the running back exactly if your name is not McCaffrey. And is that a transition for you? No, No, didn't you say?
Yeah?
Go ahead say that's your transition.
So McCaffrey, he's gonna probably miss the preseason with a cap string.
And I would venture to guess he's got to be one of the top five players in the league.
He depends on whether or not. Where where you rank all the quarterbacks? Right right?
Right?
I mean, but he's I mean San Francisco is really good because they have him, because they have a running back who can catch up on do all those things that there's only a couple of those around the league, right as as well as he does it. But he you know, he's had some injury issues over the years. I mean, I you know, I had him on my on my fantasy team one year that he missed like half the season.
I'm shocked.
I'm shocked.
They should put it in a stipulation, Jay rule.
Do not draft. They're they're watching it like, Okay, which players are he getting?
Okay that I know. My sister gets pissed when I take any forty nine er.
I don't blame you.
I don't blame you.
That's tell me who that's so.
I forgot.
I don't know, Elaine, Elaine, I don't know what to do with him. You've had him longer than I have, So I'm sorry for you.
Okay, Well, speaking of the Niners, I guess the stove would be I guess a good way to put this heating up, uh for Brandon Ayuk right today, I was listening to show earlier that Patriots Browns their teams that are now invol I guess they've been involved with. They are names that are going to top the list now for Brandon Nyuk. But they're saying that maybe he'll stay with with the forty nine ers after all and then maybe test free agency next year.
It presents an interesting question because what it is that the forty nine ers don't have the money because to pay him what he wants to get paid, because they're about to have to give a brock Pride a fifty million dollar contract, right, so they don't have the money. You know, they don't have the money that he wants. And it's that simple. So he says he wants to
be traded. But the question is do you want to go make the money he's gonna if he were signs with the Niners, He's gonna make millions of dollars right whatever they give him, but he wants to make many more millions of dollars. Do you force them to trade you so you can go make that many more millions of dollars to play for a team that sucks the Browns or the Patriots who aren't very good right now? Or do you stay with the forty nine ers maybe when they have a chance to win a championship, play
on a really good team. Maybe you're what the third receiver you know on their team and then get your money later. What's what do you do?
I'm curious and maybe somebody would tell me, and maybe it happened a long time ago, and just a question when did it become vogue for players like that to get into the league, get drafted and all that stuff. Whatever you need me to do, mister Gonzalz, I'm going to do for you. Work my ass out. Do you won't disappoint me. I won't disappoint you. And there comes a point where now give you owe me, yeah, give me mind? Yeah, what point did that happen because it's
the players controlling the league. I want to make this, Well, we don't have the money.
Yeah, we can't.
We can't do it. Well, I want to go somewhere else. What I was good to you for five ten years? Now you want to leave because you want to make a few more dollars. When did that happen?
I think A long time.
Yeah, a long time ago. What was the free agent the guy what's a free agent?
Gume?
No, no, no, he was the original guy. Who's the baseball yeah? Or football or baseball?
Oh no, no, no, no, not Lou Brock.
That guy.
That guy, the guy he was like, he was a base stealing kind of guy.
The Kurt Flood, Kurt Flood with all this stuff. And I get it. I get it. If you're going to give me more money somewhere else, I'll go. But I, well, I should be able to appreciate where I'm at too.
Well, that's you, and I think, right, I mean, if I can make five million dollars on the winner or ten million dollars and just suck just to the points where you might get killed on the field, I'm taking the fine.
Well, look at Antonio Brown is Antonio Brown. How good did he have it? And then all of a sudden he pooped himself because he wanted more. Yeah, honestly, and how many guys have done And another reason, Jade, that's why I'm not a big sports fan. And I know there's very few there's there's there's more not like that than like that. But that's when you leave the last n impression.
No, and there are a lot of people who get tired of seeing that. They still watch the game right, right, but they're tired of that because we grew up at a time where you played being a Major League Baseball player or being an NFL player or being an NBA player was the end all and it meant something. Yeah, and whatever came with that was good enough.
Yeah.
No, I hear you, that's not it anymore, Steve where the dinosaurs.
And it's well, and it's it's three or four years because I'm happy to be here, Jay, I'm want to work my butt off for you, blah blah blah, and when it comes comes time three four years, I don't really care anymore.
But which gets back to the point. See, why are quarterbacks making fifty million dollars getting fifty million dollar contracts. I don't get that.
Yeah, me too.
I don't mean too.
Let's majority of one later, kids don't listen to us.
I listened. I'm not a kid, but that a kid.
You're a wiser kid, exactly.
I'm an old kid. You are, all right.
Let's majority of the Olympics news. Out of the US men's Kevin Durant, He's now passed Lisa Leslie total points. He's now has four hundred and eighty nine, coming the all time leading Olympic point score. He's only eleven way for five hundred. Can you reach that? Well, he get even more than five hundred. They got a couple more.
Shit, They've got probably two more games to play, and this is probably his last Olympics. He has been he has been unbelievable. He's been unbelievable in the in the Olympics. I mean from that first game where he just couldn't miss, to you know, to now, so okay, you know, give it up for him for doing what he's what he's done in the Olympics.
A little bit of sad news out of MLB. Billy Bean died today.
Sixty.
Not that Billy Bean, though, sixty. Who's Billy Bean, not not the moneyball Billy being another Billy Bean.
He was that only a year long flight ofmia.
So what Billy Bean is a different Billy being. I don't know, but somebody's been around. I saw that. I thought, oh, no, moneyball. And then the first response to the Twitter post that I saw it said not moneyball Billy Be. So this is a different but still not okay. It's not okay, and it's still sad, but it's not the moneyball Billy being that we saw. It's a different one. And I do recall it. I recall their being yea and there it was confusing, okay around at the same time, I think.
He was drafted like in eighty six by the Giants, played for the Dodgers for a year.
But yeah, yeah, news.
I guess there's some other sad news. If you're a White Sox fan and they continue to coue to lose and they're not if the twenty one losses in a row, how.
Bad do you have to be?
That the historically bad? I think, you know, it's like whatever, Yeah, well, well they you know, they they you know, they let all out of their players go. You know, they traded amount and stuff like that. But they're historically bad. This is the they're tied for the second worst losing streak ever in Major League Baseball. I think the worst. They're only three two games away from that to twenty three is the record.
Twenty three by the sixty one Philadelphia.
Field was a fulfilling. Even the sixty sixty two Mets were considered widely considered the worst team in the history of baseball, didn't have a losing streak like that, So that's crazy. They're so bad.
I think I think they'll beat that record on wouldn't you.
How many people are out there putting money on them every day? Oh, just think they're going to break their record.
There's your thing because we talk about tom Oh they're due. There's no such thing as they're due. They're just bad.
I mean.
Or what if you started betting on their opponent twenty one games ago? How much money have you won, especially if you let it roll over each time.
Who's crazy enough to do that? Not me.
Let's stick with baseball. Let's go back to University of Arizona. A couple of former Wildcats, Jackson Can't left handed pitcher and right hander Clark Candiatti. They were assigned to their respective rookie league teams yesterday.
Okay, I can't.
Will start his pro career at National's Florida Complex League, see Candyaty will begin here at San Diego Padres Arizona Complex League.
Okay, let's just start. And who's the other kid?
Who's the other kid?
There's two kids, ken Yatti And there was a guy from who he was here and then he went to Oregon State or kill.
Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, and then now he is up his name yeah okay, yeah, community college right started there?
That?
Yeah, did you talk to your doctor about our problem?
No?
I forgot.
Jayden talked to you about her memories. You forgot that he's perfect. I forgot. I can't here to ask you Christian Africa, I forgot.
That's all I got for today.
Okay, that one. Got one more. Cal Stevenson late in Arizona twenty seventeen twenty eighteen, was named the International League
July Player of the Month. So there's that sort of you know, one of those things that comes across it probably more confusing to us than anything, but the Division, the Division one board of Directors put out a proposal to distribute women's basketball Championship money similar to what they do for the men's basketball Championship, where the longer your team stays in the tournament, the more money you get.
They're going to start out with in the twenty twenty five twenty six fiscal year, which is next season, start out with fifteen million dollars, increasing to twenty then twenty five. Then after that they'll increase it by a certain percentage, say two point nine percent each year, so that schools look the tournament started. Maybe, I guess is a sign that the women's basketball tournament starting to make some money that we do contract you can again one more thing
that you can probably thank Caitlin Clark for. And so they're going to be distributing money similar to the way they do for the men's basketball tournament. Yeah, that's been rolled out today.
Okay, let's go with that. We'll take a break and get ahold of Brett Right.
Yep, Brett Fair will be joining us a sports center at theaters a daily start. We'll ask them how the Star is going to be covering the Big twelve and the challenges and differences that they face. The stick around for that, the window.
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This is High on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez soun Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Subscribe now to the podcast on the iHeartRadio while just surgery I on the book.
Hey, welcome back to the ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Riverta. He's jaging sauce now on the phone him but Fay, sports editor at the Arizona doing the Star Brett.
Howay, I'm good, guys. How are you doing?
We're doing? Thanks for taking some time for us. We're your busy schedule. We joke kind of and not joke about the schedule. How busy are you?
It's pretty nuts, but it's in a good way, you know, the I don't want to jump on a question before you get to ask it, but you know, this, this Big Twelve evolution for Arizona has been did a lot this summer, but in a fun way, getting to learn a lot about the other fifteen. I know three of them are pretty well known to Arizona, but the other fifteen Big twelve cities outside of Tucson learning fun things like Other than Tempe, the closest geographical rival to Tucson
is Lubbock, Texas. That's a far cry from Los Angele in the past years. I mean, I was been thinking it was going to be Salt Lake City or Provo and nope, loub it. And so that just shows the expanse of how this goes. And then you know, diving into things like Arizona's playing in the space game at UCF.
They're just they're right off the coast, being in Orlando, right off the coast of what they call the Space Coast by Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, and they take it very seriously there and Tucson being one of the astronomy capitals of the world. That's going to be kind of a fun event out in Orlando. So there's just a lot of cool stuff going on that we've been able to sort of dive into this summer and learn a little bit about and some fun quirky things too.
That has been great, But it's kept me busy, that's for sure, in our whole staff.
So as I hear you talk, and I was just gonna ask both of you guys, because it just came to me, do you feel that they're going to the Big twelve Now? It's more of a more of a football league. You know, they're going to LA to play UCLA or or Washington State. You know what I'm saying, It's more football.
Kay, what do you think?
Yes? Yeah, Look, I mean again, no half empty stadiums, right is what we're going to see.
Well, there's a couple things, you know. The Rose Bowl. I've said this for a long time. The Rose Bowl is the greatest setting in college football and it's the worst regular season stadium in college football because of seventy eighty thousand seats. I don't even if I remember it was ninety five thousand but it's less than that the difference in the Big Twelve. I think BYU is the largest Big twelve stadium at like sixty seven thousand right of the sixteen Big twelve schools. So it's kind of an
interesting dynamic where you're going to see. We have this thing going on right now in print and it's sort of kicking off this week digitally on Tucson dot Com called Big twelve Blitz, where we're doing multiple pages of content on every Big twelve school city, fan based mascots, colors, all the different things that go into it, and diving into our photo archives for the last time Arizona sports, not just football and basketball, but all sports have played
these schools, and Baylor's won. We spent a lot of time on this week, and you know, talk about a cool situation. A brand new football facility. I know Arizona's not going to be the year, but a brand new football was a stadium that's well ten years old, a brand new basketball arena that opened, you know, five months ago, eight months ago. I bring that up because their new football stadium is forty five thousand, the basketball arena is
seventy five hundred. You know, so the idea of a packed house is meant to be intimate in the Big Twelve, I think, compared to what we've seen in the past. And to answer your original question, Eve about football versus basketball, Baylor's a good example. I mean, Arizona fans like to think, you know, high and mighty, and rightfully so about men's and women's basketball. Baylor's got a national championship in both in the last five years, so there is more than
just football in this conference. I think that Arizona fans can aspire for their teams to live up to and I think that's going to be kind of a neat part of it, despite what I will always feel like we're losing with losing the pack ball.
But I'm not sure how often you listen to the show. But good perspective is not allowed on the show.
Well, I'm not gonna lie. I'm very sad about the demise of the pass. Well, so I think the travel is easy, but I think it's I think it's a few years of interesting, you know, fun ways of seeing new parts, even us on TV. The odds of me traveling to a lot of these places my staff guests, but me traveling is pretty slim, but but getting to see see new stadiums, new new locales, and you know,
it's funny. We've been doing a lot of interviews with local media, some former players of Big twelve schools for this series and and this is this is football in the South. My friend like, it's it's interesting hearing them talk because as soon as we bring up you know, hey, let's talk about softball, let's talk about baseball, they're like, well,
let's talk about football more. Yeah, you know, so it's it's definitely to to Jay's point, it's it's it's football at football football and then everything.
Else, Well, it's gonna be and and I think that, you know, I mean, fans here are going to have to understand and get used to the fact that, you know, they take it serious over there. You know, there aren't going to be any you know, lazy games, either in basketball or football or any other sports where they're just kind of like people show up and you know, and
you play and it's not loud or whatever. Every game is going to is a big deal in every one of those cities because you know, we've made the point the number of times that these are all college towns, right, uh, you know what. Uh, you know, the PAC twelve was all big cities, with the exception of you know, Washington State, Oregon State. Uh, you know, they're there. Even Tucson was like, you know, not it's not Phoenix. Two. Son's not Phoenix. Two Son's not La two sounds not you know, San Francis.
On the thirty fifth largest city in the country. People forget that. Yeah, Tucson's not tiny.
Yeah, you know right, So this stuff is a big deal to those fans and get you know, Arizona fans who go to those places better get ready for all that.
What I'm excited about, again, not trying to have too positive a perspective, but is there is some existing history with some of these schools that I think is kind of neat. There's obviously an opportunity for a budding rivalry with BYU for a ton of reasons for both a SU and you of a the religious component in terms of Arizona and the LDS faction in the state of Arizona. Notwithstanding, there's a lot of opportunity there. I think Utah has always kind of been a good growth opportunity from a
rivalry standpoint, and so coming with Arizona obviously ASU. I mean, I'm not even saying that, but you know another one we just did in the series recently, TCU. Kind of fascinating it. It didn't dawn on me until I looked at it that, you know, TCU. The last time Arizona played PCU in football was September of two thousand and three. Do you guys remember that game?
Yeah, John macavit got fired right after.
John sixth last game they won, third they were ranked. Came into Tucson after Arizona had lost like three hundred to ten to LSU, Oregon and Purdue the three weeks prior. Came into Tucson and barely squeaked out a thirteen to ten overtime win that Arizona was winning with two minutes to go in the fourth and he would have been gone anyway, but it might have prolonged him for a
few more weeks. Yeah, and then even before that. The time before that was in ninety nine, the week after Arizona got by Penn State, when as the number four team in the country, they go into to Fort Worth and need a touchdown, a thirty yard touchdown from Keith Smith to Dennis Thurths Cutt with two minutes to go to win that one, to stave off being oh and two. So there's there's a lot of weird history that exist amongst some of these schools. It's just it's just not
in the last five years necessarily. Do you remember, I think that part is kind of fun.
Do you remember who was on that TCU team.
Which won the ninety nineteen Yeah, Ladanian Thomlinson.
Danian Tomlinson was on that team. And it's like he was really he was really good. He was really good. And I haven't seen have you guys done Texas Tech yet? I haven't noticed.
We just did the interview for that yesterday and that was the trip too, because even talking about, you know, Texas Tech putting up seven figures to take to get the best softball player in the country, when we know Arizona softball has been pretty good the last few years,
even in the year they missed the tournament. The one thing they've been missing is a dominant starting pitcher, obviously, And and to see the best pitcher in the country end up at Texas Tech, a team they'll play quite a few times in the next couple of years, it just shows how how interesting. It's going to be across all sports.
Yeah, well, I brought that up because Arizona, when Arizona was in the whack, Texas Tech was the big non conference game that they would play. It's like, oh man, we're playing Texas Tech. Was kind of like Texas Tech was, you know, Alabama to to to Jay.
Don't act like you're dad old you don't remember when they were.
In the whack one hundred percent, dude, Dude, I one hundred.
He doesn't remember yesterday, but he does remember that.
I look up, look up the game. I think it was seventy five, maybe seventy four to seventy five, seventy Jim in the Jim Young years. Arizona was down twenty eight to three at halftime and came back and won the game. Look that one up big rally in the second half. But that that was like to me, that still stands as one of the greatest games ever at Arizona Stadium because it was Texas Tech. Arizona was getting its butt beat and they came back and and won.
I think they won thirty twenty eight or something like that. Is that the score?
That's it?
There?
You go at home at home yeah, it was here. It was here and Texas Tech. It's funny at that time, Brett Texas Tech and San Diego State where Arizona's huge non conference rivals that they never be.
So who's the first guy you think? Okay, Texas Tech, who's the first guy you think of?
I have mine?
Me.
I mean, I know it's recency biased. I'm gonna say Mahomes.
Okay, yeah, yeah, I wouldn't. I think of Mike Leech and I think Billy Joe Tulliver. Okay, well, I think I.
Would think Mike Leach's number two. Yeah, I mean that whole string of quarterbacks from Kingsbury to all the way through. You know, obviously to Mahomes that that that whole air raid offense that they just were turning out dunk dink and dug passers was was something.
But but that the history behind that Texas Tech game again, back to those days, it was a big deal.
Oh yeah, basketball because back in the day when I was doing some of the books, they had to take the train to get to level. It was very difficult, very cold.
So if the last time Texas Tech has been to Tucson for basketball was that Bobby Night No. Five would go into sixteen and Michale in the tournament. I don't know if you played.
The Arizona Arizona.
I think in Zaga and Utah they played I'm not mistaken, but.
They played Texas Tech in the Festival Classic Festible Classic tournament in the eighty six eighty seven season because I covered that, and uh and you know, you know Arizona, I think they only ever lost one game in that tournament.
They did, only lost one and they also played them in the utip U tip in some tournaments out there.
Yeah, but that was but yeah, it's been it's been a while.
So the other the other thing, if if we got a second I hope. I'm not much the other thing that's kind of about the big twelve schools, and I don't know if it's neither if it's just interesting to me, but seeing the disparity between and this has been talked about, and I'm not suggesting Arizona ASU should cut sports, but ASU with twenty seven in Arizona with twenty two. For the most part, ASU buy and large, but Arizona slightly above a couple of others, but both have more sports
than any other schools. In the Big twelve. The closest I think are TCU and BYU have twenty one and then the rest are all in the teams. And I think that's gonna be an interesting thing too over the first couple of years to see how this shapes out. But seeing some of these sports at other schools. TCU is the defending rifle champion in SCA sports, the only
school to have an all women's team. It's a co ed sport, but they filed an all women's team and they've won it four times in the last fourteen years and they're still the only school with an all women's team to win it. And so there's some fun stuff like that that I think it's kind of neat seeing what sports exist in these that aren't in Tucson for sure.
Yeah, no, it look it's going to be fun, and it starts with football, so much other other stuff too.
For a lot of fun, a lot of work for you guys, a lot of fun for you guys. I'm sure you've met and talked to uh Desiree. Do you do you honestly think that uh? Oh no, your opinion on on her not cutting any sports.
I mean, I think it's I think it's her opinion and her truth right now. But I think they're gonna have to continue to monitor it over time, you know. I mean, there's you know, I have ideas. I'm not gonna throw them out here on the radio because I think it would cause uproar if the if, if if anyone is listening to me ramble on about these things. But there's there's some ways they could make that work.
But it's gonna hurt. It's gonna hurt anyone who's participated in the past, currently participating, or has an affinity for some of these. But they have to continue to look at it. I like I said, I don't I don't think she's lying. I mean, I think that's the plan for the time being. But unless they can figure out years on a sports property situation and stuff like that,
they're gonna have to keep addressing it. And if but if they can figure that out and figure out to bring in more revenue than they were making through lear Field and other avenues, than then maybe it allows them to keep that and it makes Arizona more of a destination than it already has them. But I don't, I don't, you know, I believe her but I believe, I believe it's also fluid. If that makes sense.
It does make sense because you think about you, you know, you brought up the you brought up a million dollar you know, softball pitcher Texas Tech. Where's that money coming from? Right? And and how sustainable is it to you know, to get that kind of money coming in to give to give to the athletes who are going to be getting paid,
you know, through revenue sharing anyways. But there's gotta be more, you know, there's got to be places that they're gonna they're gonna get some money, and then how do they dole it out? I I don't understand how that's all gonna work.
Yeah, I don't either. I mean Texas Tech. The interesting case that we had heard through this was that it's one of the people that's sort of the large, hefty donor for a lot of their stuff and in their anil system. His his wife actually was a softball player at Texas Tech. So when this became a thing, they both jumped on the possibility, knowing that one one million dollar investment could actually be get a great season, which
then creates a bigger day to day recruiting pipeline. Outside of nil, and so I think they're they're trying to, you know, not hit a hole in one, but they're trying to go for the green in two, if that makes sense. You know, much more logical opportunity to to burdye to to mix sports metaphors. But so, I you know, they're in a similar boat to Texas Tech.
Two.
There's a top five women's basketball player, PJ Brown and I were on the call with them yesterday and PJ was talking about it, and there's a top five women's basketball recruit who's from Lobbock. So they're trying to figure out how to keep her there rather than have her go off to one of the bigger programs in the
country to try and build that up too. And when you only have sixteen seventeen sports compared to twenty two or twenty seven, your investment of resources, time, personnel, everything becomes significantly easier.
Yeah, we were talking Brett earlier about the how people get their in their news right and newspapers. We've both been in the business, you know, jail it's tough. So by these things that you're doing, just being different, I'm sure helps it does.
I mean, part of it is like, I appreciate you saying that. I mean, part of it is that, like with this series we're doing again, it's called Big twelve, but it's been primarily in print so far. But that's by design. You know, our print readers, I'm not going to sugarcoat it. They spend a good chunk of money to get that print newspaper. We sometimes need to give them a little bit of an advance on certain things, and it'll all run before football starts, so it's not
going to be late by any stretch. But but yeah, having different mediums to put this stuff out there is definitely part of it. You know, we're rebuilding our mobile app right now and one of the interesting things in YouTube are at the forefront of this. You know, you guys and some of the other you know specifically radio shows in town are at the forefront of this, justin obviously from our staff who's on one of the other
stations in the same boat. People like to connect with people like they know them, and we've surveyed our audience and they've told us this too, that they want to feel like they know Michael lev and Bruce Pasco of PJ. Brown and Justin Spears and so part of our development of our mobile app that we hope people download and participate in is you're going to be able to create
a feed by author, not just by sport. You know, if you like everything that Bruce has to say or that PJ has to say, you can just read what PJ has to say. And I think that's a big deal that we start acknowledging the that the individual connection is a big deal. It's not just a publication or a name on the top of the paper. The bylines matter, and who the resources are and the intelligent cakes and
positions that they're able to put into it. From a reporting standpoint, I don't just mean opinionated takes, but I think all matters to what we're talking about.
Totally agree.
Very cool, Yeah, No, that's what I mean. That's what we're talking about Earlier. It's like we're starting to follow writers and media people and getting our news that way, as opposed to I read everything in the New York Times, I read everything in the Washington Post or in the areson the Daily Star. It's like, Okay, we follow Justin, we follow Michael, we follow you know, Bruce, we follow PJ, we follow you know, national writers and we write what they we read what they write.
Yeah, I totally agree. I mean, obviously I still want people to see the Star and twoson dot com as a primary resource. But I'm also the first person to say too. And I mean, this was no ego that we're not going to be able to cover the city alone. And we've talked about this before, and we've talked about other outlets. I give all Sports two so on a lot of credit. I give pH and X a lot of credit. I mean there's I give what you guys do from a this particular medium a ton of credit
that I think. It's a collective ecosystem where we were all more alike than we are different in terms of trying to serve an audience that just wants to eat more and more and more and wants us to refill their plate. It's the sweet tomatoes version of sports where they just want to go back to the buffet twenty seven more times, and we got to make sure there's enough, you know, mac and cheese and blueberry muffins out there, right.
Well, Jennie sol some weight, so no seconds.
I got to stay away from bad I do I do.
By the way, thanks a bunch as always read.
Thank you guys, appreciate you having me.
Yeah, take care of I will do it again, Thank you very much.
All right. I like the analogy though, the you know, you go back and you meet people. You know what I've taken. We can need to get an app. We need to get an app. Yeah, buying the ball, that'd be kind of cool. We can, you know, people can find us easier. I missed first cafeteria, so we talked about that too. I used to get the halibit just for the hellib it.
Yeah, bag, yeah, yeh. I love the hell every time. Okay, all right, let's take a break, our last break. We're gonna come back. We're going to take your cost five two zero four, one sixty.
If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you know it's been successful for nearly forty years. Now take a look back at the Ludolsen era in my new book, Lessons from Loot. It was a labor of love through the eyes of twenty five former players, coaches, and friends to give insight to the coach and the man who led them, competed against them, and inspired them. Twenty five chapters for his twenty five years as Arizona's beloved coach. Lessons from Luton is an insight to how he built the program
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Steve and Jacin Salaz they have their eye on the ball on Tucson Sports Stage Chef Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
Hey, welcome back to Ryan the ball Hero Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve, He's Jay.
Now.
We got Ryan with us for thirteen more minutes. If you guys want to call, please do five too. Oho four one six seventy four forty. You know, I got a lot of got some feedback from the Mount Rushmore streth that we talked about. They threw out a guy that I thought we talked about him that Jason Terry had that much of an impacted you know, Bibby Okay, Miles, okay, but Jason Terry was crucial in that game in that year or two, right, and then he had a fantastic senior.
Year in your year.
Yeah. I didn't want to. I couldn't argue with him because he's right. But I still think Bibby had that impact, you know.
Right, he's in he's a second level guy, right, yeah, right after then I don't put him on Mount Rushmore, but I put him in the players to be named later or whatever you want to call it, you know, the next tier of guys. That's right, Yeah, I mean he belongs there. He was a National Player of the Year and Sports Illustrated. He's up in the Ring of
honor and deserves to be up there. I know he had the little thing with the with the n C double A. But you know, when you talk about a player and the type of player he was, yeah, you know he's in the conversation. I don't think he passes Mike Bibbie. I don't think he passes Steve Kerr, and then I and I and I and I don't think he passes David Start Shawn Elliott. Yeah, so I think but again, if somebody wants to put him on there, Okay, which of those four guys you're taking off?
Right?
Yeah, And I'm going to debate you on all of those those four guys. To me, they're obvious, right, I really think they're obvious. I really think that there shouldn't be a debate on those four guys.
In fact, I think that if you wanted to know that, you talk more about it. And I have done the list of thousand times. Uh, there's Sean, there's Damon, Jason Terry, and I said, maybe there's not even a close third. Jason Terry might be my third guy. The best players, yeah yeah, best players.
Best players when I'm talking about Mount Rushmore. Yeah, in terms of talent be yeah players yeah yeah yeah. And he might be two. But Damon, Damon has a special thing. Jamon was good. He's four from five to ten. You could do a whole lot of his leadership ability and all that stuff. You know, that team, that team was that team, the ninety four team because of him.
I know you have a question to ask me, but who's the best player? And this is no right answer, Who's the best player in Sean's time? Who would you take?
I know that in terms of just talent or just who Mount Rushmore type player?
Who you taking? Who is the best player in that in that time? I know what I'm taking.
You might say, Nick Johnson, really yeah, I think he would be in the conversation TJ.
McConnell, Well, uh, there's only one guy in my mind.
I mean, from just flat out talent, regardless of anything else, just flat out talent, it was DeAndre. I mean he was just an unbelievable player, dominating player. If you erase the fact that he crapped himself in the you know, in the in the n C Double A Tournament and all that stuff, but you know, just a flat out talent and physical specimen. DeAndre was an incredible talent. And it's unfortunate the way that thing ended. I'm missing somebody,
you know, were you gonna throw out? Yeah, you know he's got to be in there.
He's versatility again.
The way his thing ended though, kind of tarnishes what we think of him. No fault of.
Him, so him, and then you're forgetting another guy, Aeron Gordon, who was very good, but he's again didn't play here long enough. And even though marketing it didn't either, right.
And and and and Aaron Gordon he was frustrating to because he couldn't make a free good could make, you know, so to me, I mean, to me, he's a guy that was so gifted, but you were frustrated because of what he what he did lack sure, So it's hard for me to put Aaron Gordon way the heck up there, even though I know he's we're gonna at to number one and all that. Let's take this, Hi, you're on the Aaron on the ball.
Hey, guys, how you doing how what's the word I just pulled? Pulled over a couple of things. I loved you saying that, Steve, it was funny that guy had such good viewpoints that your guest though, Brett. Yeah, and you say there's not the viewpoint. Good viewpoints aren't lost in the show, he was spot on the statement he said about Tech Baylor with the stadiums and they won each basketball and football.
Yeah, no, I think that's what Arizona is gonna be up against.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's like the Indiana think when they played Indiana in Vegas and oh we're this, were this and in Indiana because of their long list of stuff. The wait, wait, we better sit down, you better sit down.
You guys are just about to say that the best player from Texas Tech. But then the uh, the tep weather thing came on.
Okay, if you didn't know that came on, we don't hear who is it?
Pat Mahomes went there right right?
Yeah? No, No, My point was who who do you think of? Who do you think of when you think of Texas Tech?
Yeah, and I can't.
I came up with Mike Leach and then Steve came up with Bill J. Tolliver, which was a great Texas football player name back then.
And then, but we saw this guy James Gray, right, we saw him run over Arizona for like five hundred yards and then and then Steve Smith, Steve Smith went there. Steve he went, he was with Ruben Berry. He was going to come here and didn't come here. He went to Texas.
Know p of the Washington. But it wasn't Steve though.
Steve Smith.
Wait a basketball football player, football player.
He played for the Redskins.
I know you're talking about. It wasn't Steve.
It's not Steve. It had to be Steve Smith. I'm pretty sure Steve Smith.
No, Steve Smith is a wide receiver.
Oh Timmy Smith, Timmy Smith, Timmy Smith, right, that guy. Yeah, yeah, So those guys. That's that's pretty much all I know. Yeah, what else, Howard? How have you been? Okay?
Yeah, we're fine, you know, busy. I finally got my garage pretty well done and I'm excited. But now we got to work on the daughter's house buying it.
So okay, okay, appreciate you'll be coming to my place.
That's exactly Steve. Steve wants you to fill in his pool.
We talk you and take our care guys.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. Who's your question you wanted to ask me?
Okay, when you were fourteen years old? Oh god, what are the Olympics on your radar?
Fourteen? What years?
This?
Fourteen? When you were seventy eight ish? Seventy eightish? Probably not no, probably not.
A fourteen year old Australia one Olympic gold medal. But listen to this. The silver and bronze medal winners were fifteen and fourteen. Yeah, yeah, skateboard.
I saw that and I was thinking about the same thing. You were, What the world? What's the world coming to? Like? You know, these young kids doing it, but they're all like just like the in Tahiti they have the skateboarding, surfing. And the woman was like twenty two or whatever it was, and come on, we're where the world is for the young man.
When I was fourteen years old, I was ringing doorbells and running, okay, things like that.
I was a paper boy. This is a paper boy at forty. It's a different age. I mean, kids are growing up fast and do it all.
He's too fast, right. Probably the thing is if she you know, if she wants to be in the next Olympics. She's gonna be an old lady. At eighteen, were like, get out of here, you old lady.
Here, Well, look at gymnastics the same counting how old's bios? She's twenty fourish a bios?
I think she's twenty six? Remember the old Corbett? Well, was she thirteen? Wasn't Ogle Corbett thirteen? That year in the in the in the I don't remember in the what year was it the eighty No? Nothing, seventy the seventy two Olympics.
Twenty seventh, So old she was bus I think, And that's that's kind of old because.
I remember Olga Corbett. You think, wait a minute, this this.
How old was was the Tucson since.
A Carrie Strug Yeah, she was not twenty. I don't think when she was in there, you know when that that year Olympic year that she's she's most famous for it. Let me see oga Corbett is she was born in fifty five, So in seventy two, wow, seventeen, Yeah, she was seventeen. That's summer. I thought she was like thirteen or something like that.
Well, they had a couple of girls. I think that age last night on the Gymnastics.
Show, Oga Corbett retired from gymnastics at twenty two. That's crazy, but you know it's but those are different people.
Fourteen, No, No, I was different. I was just worried about playing baseball and having fun and being a fourteen year old.
Yeah. But you know some of these Olympians who were the swimmers and stuff like that, right, I mean Amanda Beard, we had her, she was sixteen in her.
First holding the Teddy Bear. Remember that, Remember in her first.
She was fun, she was old, sixteen years old. Yeah, I was just happy to have a driver's license right at a car.
That's the whole thing. And I wanted to ask her this, but I didn't, And I think, we're you nervous? And she said she was always nervous. But when you're sixteen and you're facing these people that you kind of grew up watching, right, how much? How how intimidating is that? But even then you're probably sixteen, you don't give a crap.
You don't know better, You don't you don't know better exactly, you don't know any better. You don't know any better to be nervous or whatever. It's like, I'm sixteen, I'm here with you.
I'm competing.
Yeah, I'm you know, yeah, I mean I'm a I'm a competitor, and I'm here because I deserve to be here. So I don't care how old you are.
I'll give you this. So you're you're your age right now. You know you know, not Twilight, but you're getting older when you're playing golf. No, No, I'm trying to make a point here, trying to make a point, especially when I like play poker or whatever, because it's all the competitive I am. No, you're playing golf against Do you play golf against older people?
No, I'm the oldest person.
Okay, So so do you have a do you have a special special and something special inside you that makes you want to beat the beat the ass of the younger kids, or you just.
Play I compete against myself. I want to be that's the score that I normally so no, I have a score that I want to shoot so much every time.
My point is if you're you don't make my point because you don't play against If you're playing against older people and you're thinking these guys are pretty good or not good, I still want to don't want to.
Lose, well, I want to, Like I want to. I want to beat my son at golf, okay, but he plays a different game than I play. You know, for me to beat him is different. But he's not gonna happen. It's not gonna happen much, very very rare. I've beaten him like three times since he was a junior in high school. Right we GoF Saturday at Fredank, went out to Freddank and golf. I shot a thirty nine on the front nine, and I'm like, I haven't shot in the thirty really good. I haven't broken forty on a
nine in years. And he shot at thirty eight, all right, and I'm like, I got a shot at it, okay. And then then I shot fifty on the back and he and he shot thirty seven. He shot a seventy five. I shot. I had to make a twelve foot putt on the eighteenth hole to break ninety, which to me, that's my goal. I want to go out and break ninety every time.
So my point is, you know, when you play against older people or whatever, young people, you have something in you that you don't want to you don't want to lose.
Like like when I golf with my brother who's older than him, my brother Jean. He's a different golfer. He's always We've always been about to say he's a little better than I. I think golf's more than I do. But I don't. I don't feel like when we golf against each other that I try and compete against him.
I just go out and shoot my round. Does he does he compete against you?
He might, He probably doesn't want me to beat it. I don't care if he beats me because I think he's better than me. He probably doesn't want me to beat that. But we don't sit there and pay attention to each other scores. He doesn't ask me, what are you shooting?
No, but you do at the end of the day.
At the end, he'll yeah, I'll always tell you, we'll do you shoot a eyeshot ninety two, shot in eighty seven, shot you know, fifty four or whatever? You shoot?
You know?
No, we you know, we we do. Yeah. We talked about our scores at the end. But if I shoot a ninety and he shoots shot in eighty five, I don't go, oh crap. You know, if I shoot ninety, I'm pissed it. I didn't shoot eighty nine. Yeah, which again, when I shot the thirty nine on Saturday, I thought, I got I'm gonna break ninety by a lot. And then I had to make a putt on the last hold to break it, and I did the fist pump and everything. It wasn't a Tiger Woods fist pump because
that would have hurt my shoulder, but it was. It was a I was very happy that it made that butt. It was the best after shooting thirty nine. Ben gave a shoulder exactly. Okay, hey, a good shoot today.
It's fun.
It was fun. Thank you, Damian Alomita, Thank you, Brett Ferroll.
Tomorrow, Kevin Leman, we'll try to get back into the minds of people and see how he helps and let somebody no, that's impossible.
That's a bad place. Yes, it's a dark place. All right. Hey, thanks for being here. We'll see tomorrow.