This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services Ensure your most Prized possessionets.
Hey, good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to Iron the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. You're Dave Silver. Welcome back to I am Dave Silver. Good to be back. Yes, good good. And then we have Kobe taking over controls, so wish just luck. I'm the new guy teaching him how to do it, so he'll be fine.
He'll be fine. Hey, welcome David.
Yeah, it's great to be I know that Kobe's gonna have a lot of stuff for breaking news, but the hits continue to happen for Arizona football. I'm not sure you saw another guy or two have decided to leave. I think that total is at least eighteen.
Oh my goodness. Okay, you have the name mister Ukulele or one of those guys. Yes, you fine? You something? You know it's a guy who played Okay, the guy who played Tayata Ugulele. I believe defensive linemen.
Yeah, so there's a couple in the last since yesterday, since we did the show, so I think it could be eighteen or more. I'm anticipating some more as well.
I thought originally it could be about, you know, fifteen sixteen, but it's it's beyond that, which you know, I didn't know this when I said this a few months ago, or maybe just as recently as a month ago, and you probably on the show when we talked about it, that there was some disconnect between the coach and the players and transfers happened right that this situation the portal happens,
but key guys are leaving. So I still believe what I was saying earlier is was it factually correct where there was a disconnect between the players and the coach and they just didn't get him or vice versa.
Yeah, because this doesn't just happen by accident, right, Well, I mean Jacob Monoho was a guy. That's I think I kind of surprise. I mean, I understand the team as gonna leave, and Fafita has not left, Burnett left, so I mean that whole little surf I connection seems to be breaking up a little bit.
Hopefully Noah will stay.
But you're right, you just don't know what these guys are thinking sometimes they're young, they're getting advice from everybody else, and sometimes it doesn't make sense. Sometimes it does. Maybe the coaches are like, okay, just go, We've got other people in mind.
Things like that. So I mean the numbers will be they'll be replaced.
Yeah, they'll be replaced, but with the talent, because we know what the talent was. Yeah, when they had talent. They're paid for the coach, right, And I'm sure you've been well you're in a different spot, and I bring your your work experience and my work experience into this where you you were your boss, you were your boss
kind of you had a news director. But I'm sure there was a time where two, God, I don't want to go to work because I don't want to work for the boss that day, right, right, you know what I'm saying.
You just don't know if the boss understands what you do. And that's probably the same.
Thing in football exactly.
Some of the.
Coaches are you know, they're supposed to be specific to certain positions and things like that, so they should know what each player is doing. But if the players field there's a disconnect, you know, where do you go?
You think elsewhere?
I suppose and how happy are you when you go to work because you when you're not either getting patted on the back, you're not beating couraged. There's a lot of different things. Yeah, and I say that just from my experience of covering teams where you could tell, and I know I could tell because if they had talent, would you.
Say that they had talent? Yeah? How is that.
Talent getting beat by three four touchdowns a game? Yeah, it doesn't happen unless you just don't give.
A crap and then they can win a game like Utah early in the season or Houston later in the season, where you know, just blow a team away and they look great. In the next week they give up, you know, fifty points.
I don't know.
I mean, who knows. We're not close enough to the to the specifics on some of that stuff. But you'd think that there would be some connection.
And that's why Arizona likes it. They want to keep you at a distance so you don't know. Well, they're not going to come out and tell us hey, you know, no, no, but but but if people were there, but like back in the day, you know, and maybe Havier when he covered the team, we were there every day. We knew kind of the ins and outs, and lut allowed it until he probably got uncomfortable with it and started shutting things down. But because we were there all the time,
Oh what happened here? You know, there was a situation here, they got tired of answering it. And since I want to say, Greg, were you around when Greg came.
Yeah, at the very beginning, yes, at the very beginning.
Okay, so he kind of started making it more corporate and it was less less gym live and goodish for you know, a good old boy stuff, and it became more corporate and and shut stuff up, shut stuff out. Sean Miller did the same thing, and he enjoyed it because he didn't really like talking to the locals. And the funny thing about it with Sean is the locals didn't screw him.
It was the Nationals screw exactly right. So you know, you play with the devil, you get by the devil.
So whereas Luke's had a pretty good group of guys like you, I mean, you were pretty positive there was Yeah, there was no no reason to really go after it.
It was it was a very rare that we'd have to it. Very should I'll give you initition. In middle Joseph Blair got academically ineligible, maybe a calid Reefs thing or two, but it was not very at least known, and we had to do the stories. You you were there too, uh And and like you said, one day he called you out of the losers.
Jave, what do you got going exactly? So you know, and you answered it. You answered the call because like, why has Ludelsen calling me at home?
But it did? It did happen once or twice?
Yeah, and with me too, me too, And I call him in early in the morning, and and and Bobby would answer this, this is Steve.
What does you need for me?
You know?
I mean, that's our business, it is, and it's we need to expect that to happen sometimes. And not everybody you write about is going to be happy with what you've written. That happens all the time everywhere.
So invariably for me, David and I would write maybe ninety eight positive stories.
The two that I wrote.
They were negative I heard about, of course, I heard about of course, the same with us. I mean if I would say something very rarely controversial, I would get a phone call from whoever I was talking about and it didn't happen that often, but it you.
Know, it's part of the job. And I'm sure you remember those.
Oh yeah, I just steak thinking about them right now.
Yeah, because it is what it is, right, It's part of the business. Uh, And we're not there. I think more now and more, no more nowadays that the media is not so much in bed, but it's also in like because because they just want them to do well. Hey, and I'll say I'll say the situation up in Phoenix, there's a lot of positivity going on in Phoenix with the with the football team issue football team that hasn't happened in a while. There's some journalists that are raw
raw raw raw ra ra sun devils. Yeah, it's kind of odd because it's a big market. That doesn't usually happen in a big market. The people working up there are pros, they've been there for a while, but certain some are just kind of like.
Hey, yay, well it's been it's been a down time for a issue in a lot of sports. So maybe I don't know. Again, it just depends on how they want to approach their jobs. Sometimes they're gonna, you know, kind of sit back be kind of neutral, and others are like, hey, and I can't believe we got a team that's going to college football playoffs. You know, why don't we celebrate this? And I think the readers want
to hear that. Yeah, and I go to when good things happen, I will go to see what you've written. I mean, rather than oh, gosh, I just lost by forty Do I really care what Steve?
Let me tell you you're noting Rolle because every time they do well and I write, I get a lot of people who likes and likes and likes, and that's kind of how you kind of gauge your story. They lose, no one hell gives a crap what I write.
Yeah, I mean sometimes there were there'd be such devastating games. I just didn't even open the computer. I just didn't even want to see. Let's go do something else today and not you know, read rehashes of a terrible performance.
Well, the funny thing about it is that I'm sure you back in the day when you read when they would lose, you know, and I could give it, I was indifferent. And nowadays, because I'm more of a calumnist than than I'm a observer and I write, that's some of my best stuff because I can read a little starky. Yeah, you know, even when Corky and I were out on the road with the team, some of Quirky's best stuff was he was pissed. When he was he would get
very snarky. And I said, Kirky, that's fantastic because he was a fan. I mean, that's that's well known, and he was kind of pulling for them, and so we know he'd be flowery.
But when they lost, holy crap.
Yeah we were. You know, we were kind of that way too. I think we tended to become a little more.
Flowery.
No, like when things are going bad, Like you know, I just can't believe I sat through that game kind of feeling, and you can you can sort of project that on the air, just how you feel how you felt that game went, without you know, really getting.
Into the specifics.
So sometimes, you know, you'll notice that with some media personalities too.
Yeah.
Sure, of course Saturday, I was snarky in a weird way because they played, uh would they play Southern Utah?
Southern Utah?
And it was like the guys on Press row and and Jay and those guys doing the stats something. Well, we can't get these two hours back because you know, we sat through that game and what did you learn from that over in the first half? Yeah, what do you learn from that? And what does Tommy learn from that game?
I don't know.
I mean, you know, he he's what they said after was what he was, you know, talking about the rotation of players and some of the some of the typical kind of cliches that the coach will will draw from a game like that. But you know, we'll see it with UCLA. It's going to be a little bit different. Noual site you CLA. It's going to be fun.
The rotation will be totally different because it'll it'll you you'll go, He'll go with his top seven or.
Eight and who he trusts.
He might he might trust Martinez a little bit more because Martinez is.
More of the point guard. Now.
I know that Jim Bradley is is a scoring guy. It's like Jason Terry was in ninety nine when he was a senior, but he they need people to be assist guys. Did you notice it?
I mean I kind of was not paying his close attention, but when Martinez came in, was he dishing the ball?
They point guards he can fire it up.
Because he's dish first, shoot later, and he shot a few few shots. But it's more of a I'm gonna run the off fit type of thing, which this team needs, you know, because he have a bunch of scorers, got.
The scores and you know if the big guys need to get the ball to get better, you know, they needed to you know, produce. But he's the kind of guy that can at least start that point, you know, maybe get you.
The wing, get it to the inside and okay, see what happens at who's expense?
I don't know.
That's the neither just neither just Tommy Lloyd. Yeah, because he is he going to take him and Bradley. He's going to take take out Caleb or kJ right right? You know, so that's that's the point.
Of the whole thing. You have talent, oh not? What do I do with it? Yeah?
Well, you know, some guys maybe instead of playing you know, thirty six, will play thirty or something like that.
They'll spread out the differences there and then you have kJ coming off the bench, which seemed to go well. He said, he liked it. He said he wanted it.
I know, I had Corey, We had Corey Williams on yesterday and he says, that's a strange move because if you're a compared and you know you're good, why would you do that? You know, because you want to play and you want to start. You really, why would you do well? Jason Terry did it right, Yeah for a while, and he and he was better than a couple of those people out there. But he was the perfect role player for that position, for that spot.
Yeah, I mean he filled it perfectly. Whether or not this generation of players want to do that and get their instant gratification, yeah, maybe not, but it's nice to see. I know pel Larson kind of went back and forth when he was here. That was paid off for him pretty well. Yeah, that was mentioned.
Here's the issue, and I've said this before, if you're good enough, especially for the next level.
Guess what, David, you're good enough?
Like if you if you if you're good enough to get here in your job, they're hiring you for a reason, right, And if you're not good enough, you probably won't be here.
I think it does and these guys know, I think, so you don't start, so you know, you come off the bench five minutes in and you're still going to play, you know, five to thirty five minutes.
Anyway, it's like Brian, like Brian, you know, the the McDonald's all American blah blah blah. So how do you where do you find minutes for him? For a good player who's kind of still learning the ropes?
You can tell. You can tell he's kind of hesitant. He's going to be you know, he wants to do something, and if he misses that first shot, it's like, now, what's he going to do next?
Right?
You know, is he not gonna be is gonna be out of rhythm a little bit? So he's another guy that's gonna have they're gonna have to kind of baby him along.
I think it's just funny you said that because you didn't notice. I didn't notice it until maybe two three weeks ago. It's very apparent right that he's kind of like gut shy or hesitant blah bla blah. I don't remember, and maybe I haven't thought about it. Another player like that who's at that quality or level five star McDonald's who lacked.
Yeah, because he lacks it.
He's good very good in fact, but he lacks that that confidence or lacks that that that cockiness or whatever the word is.
You know, it's interesting when they when they come off the bench or when they're starting, and sometimes it's that first shot, you know, if it he looks good, he feels good, and there's just something about you know, you know Caleb's struggle.
Well, the crowd's kind of wondering what's happening.
I mean, I'm sure it's kind of in their heads as to how they feel when things don't go well.
Yeah, Okay, I think Kobey ready to hit and play and go go. And then to our first guest, Scott, I didn't even mention who he was. Right, we know Matt mil walk here for the first hour talking about you a basketball. He's seen a few, he's seen a few games already, so we'll get his analysis.
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This is I on the ball on Fox Sports fourteen fidding. I want to take part in the show called Out Steve now went five to two oh four one, six seventy.
Four hero Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. You're Dave Silver Now on the phone. We have Matt milboch former. You have a star legend.
What are you, Matt mlbuck, Dude.
I'm just I'm just a dude, man, I'm like the dude. What was that movie, Big big Lebowski? There you go on the dude.
Yeah, well, I'm going to talk to you about that later after we talk about UA basketball. You've seen a few games, ready, You've done a few, right?
Yeah? I did the first four games. They had the two exhibitions and then the first two games, and you know, and then I saw, of course saw their their games in uh in the Bahamas, and so yeah, I've had a pretty good.
Feel for him so far.
So we had Rhino one last week, and Rhino's great with his analysis because he knows yesterday we had Corey and I had two things. Defending the three point line is a concern, and I think everybody who doesn't see basketball knows that. But my whole thing with the team is and the things I noticed with you guys back in the day with the teams I covered with Lout and Tommy's first years, Sean not so much transition points. Lout would go on eighteen to two runs, twenty four
to five runs and the game was over. Tommy hasn't been able to develop.
That well, you mean, especially with this team, right, haven't correct? It feels like, I mean, because he's done it the first three years, I think he's pretty successful.
Right.
They went on some crazy, some.
Crazy runs those years and were super successful, and I think it's all been a little bit of a surprise, right, And maybe maybe they were rank a little high, you know, for for what they had, and they've they've had to.
Kind of work through some stuff. I think.
You know, when you go on runs like that, you know, we always think of the players right that offensively that you know, you got the Iguadalas and Sean Elliotts and Chris Mills and Michael Dickerson and all the you know guys that finish on the break. But that's all started by defense. And you know, this team hasn't been great defensively.
They haven't been.
Able to get the two, three, four stops in a row so that they can get in.
Transition and finish.
And I think that's been a little bit of the difference between this team and maybe the last few teams. And I think they've they've, they've I think the second thing to me, Steve, is just that you know, it hasn't clicked yet for this team, right, we've and sometimes I always say, it's like your front yard. You know, when your front yard looks great, nobody notices when it doesn't look good. You know, people notice and they say something about it. But so it's not as easy as
it looks. And when it when they've made it look easy the last few years, we just kind of assumed that, oh, that's how every team does it, not the case, and they just it hasn't clicked yet for them. And I think that's that's just one of those things, and you know, lost some players from last year, and there's some different
players playing. You lost like an incredible NBA glue guy in Pella, lost another NBA guy in key Shot, you know, and I think, uh, I think some players are playing a little bit, some new positions, trying to.
Figure some stuff out.
It just like I said, it hadn't clicked and they got to kind of they got.
To figure it out. You know what I got from that, I need a gardener. Get me a gardener from my front yard.
Isn't that going to be what probably a conversation that's happening all over the country with some of these teams.
And he was just losing a couple of games.
This week, and I mean, you got all these new players kind of just filtering in and trying to learn and learn what's going on. And it's gonna to be a challenge for these coaches to you know, kind of be chemists and put together the right pieces.
Well that was the word, you know, Dave I was going to use, was chemistry. And when I when I call games and uh go see a coach for the first time, you know this season, or I typically asked him one of the first questions I asked him, is you know, how's your chemistry number one?
And how do you develop it?
Like?
How do you you know?
And I'll tell you it's like you said, you have to be a chemist and you get into the lab and there's there's a lot of tweaking that goes on. There's a lot of you know, just work in that area. You know, Tommy did a wonderful job of it his first three years, and not that he's not doing a good job this year. It's it's just that we saw it early on, right, We saw the the chemistry really work early on, and he does such a great job of getting his team to share the ball and be unselfish.
And you know, they they they weren't perfect at that in the I think they struggled with that a little bit, struggled with that against Duke and Wisconsin, and but you know, it's it's and it has it's like one game, I thought the Wisconsin game they really struggled on defense. That was to me where they really struggled. I thought they
were fine physical and played pretty good offensively. Caleb didn't play well and then on the flip side, you know, it played pretty well defensively against Duke and then all of a sudden, the offense you know, left them, and uh, you know, I also remember Duke might be the best team in the country when it comes down to it, when they play well, I think they might be the
best team in the country. So you know, look, it's it's not perfect right now, and like I said, there's some development that needs to happen, and they're working on it in a weird way. Like I was super excited to see what would happen, and we're seeing it right now. We've seen one game right when they came back from the Bahamas, and how they would roll their sleeves up, how they would kind of get after it and get back to some of the bay that Tommy teaches so well.
So I'm not panicked about this team or anything bigger picture than that, but certainly certainly not what we thought I think coming.
Out of the gate.
You know with that number what nine or ten ranking?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no question. So what do you think it needs to happen? Just play better defense? Well I asked ryanal this too, and I and I kind of knew his answer, and then probably saying you'll probably give me the same one. This team has struggled a little, so has Caleb. So a simple question as Caleb goes, so go the Cats.
A little bit. I mean, he's definitely the alpha. I mean, he's a he's a he's gonna shoot it right, he's a he's a volume shooter. I think you know, Caleb to some degree might tell you, and I haven't talked to him, but he might say he's been trying to change his game a little bit right, to become a little bit more of a facilitator, a little bit more of a patient offensive player, and that might take some time.
I mean I think you know, in those games, maybe he was a little uncomfortable with Okay, what's a good shot, what's not a good shot? You know, what's a questionable shot. Well, I think in the past, you know, to some degree, everything's been a good shot for him. So you know, he's he's confident, he believes in what he's doing, and when he plays well, you you love it, right, you can you can ride him like Carolina did all the way to the championship game. That's one of the great things about him.
I think.
So it's taken a little bit of time kind of figure that out. I think again back to just the chemistry of the team. You know, I think there's two things. One, you know, we always think of chemistry and like all the players you know, hang out together and like each other and their best buddies and all that. I mean, there's there is something to that. There's something to really enjoying your teammates and having really good guys that get.
Along and that helps your chemistry.
But the other thing is you got the greatest guys in the world, and sometimes they just it doesn't click right or it hasn't clicked. And maybe for this team, to me, you just haven't seen him click yet. You know, you and I remember, and all three of us remember, for whatever reason, Loot had some teams that really clicked early.
Yeah, you know, they always clicked.
Most of them were clicking like November, you know, fifteenth, they were.
Ready to go. And Tommy had this.
Tommy had the same thing his.
First three years.
It was, you know, someone asking I did a radio show recently. Someone asked me because Tommy had a big win, you know, in his three years, and I'm like, well, he beat Duke at Duke last year, the second game of the year. He's got a lot of big wins, and they they were clicking, you know, as well as they probably did all season from from sort.
Of day one.
And sometimes you just don't know. And sometimes you do everything you can and it's not clicking. Maybe, you know, and I use the or you know, just efficient or optimization. They just they haven't optimized what they have. And it is what it is, like, like I said to somebody's sort of excited to me as a fan, you know, to watch that and watch the the the watch them evolve as a team and get better and kind of roll their sleeves up.
Maybe a strange analogy, but think about maybe sometimes you have a movie and you got all these great actors and the movie just isn't very good.
Sometimes that's the way it is in sports.
You've got some individuals that you know are terrific, but together as a group, it just doesn't work. So hopefully, you know, this is a long movie that gets better with time and these guys can get things rolling.
Well, No, it's a good point, and we say it all the time. You know, you don't really want to play your best basketball obviously in November or December even and so you know, yeah, conference is coming up, and it might be the most you know, treacherous conference run they've ever had in a way, right.
But I do think this.
Look, I'll defend this to the day I die. I'm not saying the Pac twelve has been better than the Big twelve the last four or five years.
But look at football. You know, people rip the Pac.
Twelve for so long, and the team that finished what dead last in the conference just won the Big Twelve. The team that couldn't win the Pac twelve the last four years, Oregon, just won the Big Ten. And the other team that was dead last in the football the Pac twelve last year was what second in the Big twelve?
That was Colorado.
And I think, you know, there's a huge element of the of the marketing that goes on throughout the country and West Coast bias and the marketing or lack of marketing is a real thing. And you guys know like when we played with loots teams, you know, I don't you know, we walked through the season. I remember going to play at Duke, or at Illinois or at you know, Pitt or.
Name a school.
We played everywhere, and I would tell you to this day like it wasn't that much tougher than playing at cal or at Stanford or at UCLA. Like the players are the players, And I laugh sometimes I see like guys that say, you know, this league's better than that league, and you look at the roster, and the roster might be you know, five great players from LA. So it's you know, players now.
Come from everywhere, go everywhere.
Yeah, conferences tend to be cyclical and go up and down. The West Coast always had a problem because they have no other conference that that really stuck out of. It's just one conference on the West Coast. You know, there's always one conference, right, and so if it was having a great year, you heard about it. If it wasn't, you really heard about it. So look, I think it'll be a tough league. But you know, going to play at Oregon, going to even going to play at places
like Washington State are are really hard, you know. And and and I think the football to some degree proved that this year. Like football's football, basketball is basketball. And if you're if Arizona's playing well and they're good, they'll they'll be successful in the Big Twelve, just like they were successful in the Pack Pac twelve. Well but if they don't play, well, they won't.
Matt.
I know, you got to go. You're an important dude, You're a dude, You're important. You got to go the dude. Yeah, thanks, Matt.
We'll get We're gonna grab some white Russians like the dude, the dude to buys.
Isn't that the word? The expression?
That's right?
Yeah?
Well, thanks Matt. We'll talk to you again soon when you have more time. I appreciate. We'll see you soon.
Yep.
Thanks.
He had to get somewhere. We have a few more minutes, uh to talk more. There's a big game this weekend. He had some good points. Yeah, didn't even get to the U c l A game.
I didn't get to much.
And then yesterday we were talking about coaches and good dudes. Tough dudes invariably, daved invariably, and I don't know why this is.
Uh.
Who are some of the tougher dudes you think or we've covered in basketball?
Specifically Wayne Womack. I remember back in the day he was he was. I don't think he ever smiled.
Michael Wright.
Yeah, Michael, but Michael had a soft side to him too. Yeah, but he was mean dude.
He was mean. I remember, I remember, give me the ball, Give me the ball.
And the guy's like, okay, I don't know, you know what the toughest dude, because you're talking tough dudes are the physical. Yeah, this guy that we just talked to, they said that he well he never lost here, right, he never lost. One of the very few guys. But the dude was a competitor. And that's that's how I was kind of dividing the tough dude.
I'd like to kind of go back and look at who he was playing against, too, because he was in that, you know, with the post Shawn Elliott years, and there were still some great in those years too. Yeah, you know, I don't know Reggie, Reggie Miller was already gone, but I like Baron Davis and people like that he had to deal with.
Davis was more Jason Terry. But there's still some of those guys.
I need to do that one of these years and just just kind of look back and see who is on those rosters in those same eras and who those games were.
Look at the box scores.
You're right, I mean, no no losses at Mchael, No lost Michael and he was just one of those dudes we were talking yesterday.
Who was with me yesterday? Cody?
Cody, Yeah, Cody, and he knows the history. He was talking about how good this guy would be as a coach, because I said that the question was, mam, and I may have told you the question to ask you the question, how many good guys do you know are good coaches? And I'm talking good guys and you know because you've covered them. But because you have to have a pos person in you or an attitude where don't cross me or else, you know what I'm saying.
Ye, Matt. Matt went the other direction. Is a lawyer, so he a little more job security there too. But he also had if you're not if you're a lawyer, you have to be is a pretty good guy you have? Well, yeah, but.
He's a hell of a competitor, right, so you know when that switch goes on, you know that.
You know he stood up to Michael Jordan, for.
God's sake and said, don't mess to be yep, because you know, you have to have that edge to you. And that's where that the Cody used edge. You have to have that pos guy saying, Dave, don't do it again. Don't do it again, or you'll find out. You know what I'm saying, lout for all intentsive purposes. But he was good guys with his crowd. He was tough to get through because he was didn't allow it. But he had his two you better play well for me or else type of thing.
Yep. And they had enough good talents.
You know that if hey, you know so and so is not playing well, there's somebody on the bench who might be ready to come in.
And he said that not as well as Bobby Knight did the best fixed for any problems the bench, right exactly. Yeah, and lut had And that's why I even even mentioned this to Tommy. The thing that made Arizona good for a long time, the second team would give the first team a pretty good run. In fact, next time we have Matt he I think it's nineteen eighty eight nine, he's he would put the teams together, right, the first team, second team, and the practice wouldn't.
End to the first team beat the second team.
Well, on this day, the second team was kicking the crap out of them. They didn't they didn't practice until he kind of fixed it. The end the practice were the first team finally won.
There were so many good players and some of those teams were so deep in terms of their you know, overall numbers you could put together, you know, at least ten guys. Now Arizona's got what twenty guys on the bench, they could play four games.
Yeah, but they have twenty dudes, but only about nine good ones exactly. Yeah, the rest of them kind of like you get a prettyem what's a pretty Yeah, this is what it is. Okay, Okay, Kobe, let's go to break. Just hit player are good. If you're an Arizona man's basketball fan, you know it's been successful for nearly forty years. Now take a look back at the Ludelsen era in
my new book, Lessons from Loot. It was a labor of love through the eyes of twenty five former players, coaches, and friends to give insight to the coach and the man who led them, competed against them, and inspire them twenty five chapters for his twenty five years as Arizona's loved coach. Lessons from Newton is an insight to how he built the program into a national powerhouse. What one email me at Steve dot rivera ninety five at gmail dot com.
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Steve Rivera, he's got his eye on the ball on Tucson's sports station, Fox Sports fourteen fifty eight.
Oh, here all Fox Sports fourteen fifty I'm Steve Riverta. Do Dave Silver good to talk to Matt as always always?
Yeah, I mean the guy's been around the program for what thirty plus years?
Now, I'm going to try to get him on the show and talk like free lawyer stuff.
Yeah, a fifteen minute consultation.
Yeah, he's good, he's you know, obviously we've all watched him, you know, as a player and then you know as a broadcaster for so many years on all kinds of networks, the PAC twelve, and I know he's getting some play on whatever at ESPN Plus. And you didn't get a chance to ask him where where we'll see him most this year, But it sounds like the ESPN Plus is going to be one place.
Yeah. Well, you know why that the nineteen eighty eight team was pretty good. Eighty nineteen.
Look at the people he had on successful people, right, Kerr obviously one of the all time greats. He's an attorney. Matt Is is sewn has been. You know, he's one of the San Antonio stars on the radio now and TV Tolbert Tolbert. He's no longer at the station that I told you that, ye are you jacking?
Yeah, shocking after twenty eight years.
I have not followed it since he was let go a couple of weeks ago, but I would almost bet he'll be somewhere else in the end.
I got to get ahold of him. He could be. I said, come out here be my co host, sorry, larious, think.
We could do three of us could get Yeah, and he I mean he's a you know, fantastic on cambr went through a number of different co hosts with him, and just you know, his personality and his humor and just honesty was you know, played played so well, but he got caught up in corporate who hasn't who hasn't.
Who hasn't And then you have a you know, Harry Mason, the president of the music American Music.
I think I don't want to screw that up. But he's a big time dude.
Runs the Grammys. He runs the Grammys, right yeah, what really what a collection should be in the Hall of Fame. Hopefully someday I'm going to miss some guys here, you know, but I don't know what what did Anthony Craig McMillan, Anthony Cook is doing, Craig is coaching still Santa Rosa. Yeah, so just you know, you can tell the success of the team, but the people, you know, in a way, they're competitors, you know, their competitors on the on the court.
Look what they did that one year? What were they thirty five and three? And you know, then they go out into the real world and obviously, you know, Steve has had an unbelievable career that's going to put him in the Hall of Fame.
It's some when he's finished.
And you know, Sean Longevity has been in San Antonio again talking about a legend in their community. That's one of the good things about some of these UFA athletes. We think, well, why aren't they, you know, doing much here in town. Well, they go to these cities and they get themselves embedded there and they you know, they start foundations and charities and things like that, and businesses.
There's no time for here and they're they're heroes for the Spurs or Buffalo Bills, like Glenn Parker, my buddy, you know, he's said, you know, I I'll give back into some but I was in Buffalo for like, you know, twelve fifteen years, right, they loved me there.
And he was here for two. Yeah.
Now he's back for a while. But yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right, right, yeah, no question. And and who are we or anybody to criticize what they do for any community?
Yeah?
I mean in a way, I'm just you know, kind of proud to know them and proud to see what you know, Hey, I remember when they were here kind of thing. And they all kind of came through the u A at some point when they were young, and they've gone on and had some great success, most of them.
John Phoenix of the World, Yeah yeah, John Peena Parker, like you talked about some of those guys. Yeah, anybody want to call please? Do I think I think we're ready for a call or too? Right, Senor Kobe, Maybe you're not. You let me know if you get a call, you just give me. I'll give you a call and we'll we'll see we can get somebody on five to zero four one, six seventy four forty. You'll see a flash and just hit the A and they'll be on
and then raise their RaSE, their thing, raise their your voice. Okay, five two oh four one six seventy four forty. We have about thirteen minutes, so we came back early from the break. Anything you guys want to talk about that'd be great. The UCLA game this weekend. UCLA's ranked twenty fourth, I think they are, yeah, and Arizona's unranked, which is you know, a little shocking that both teams aren't ranked. I think you and m is the only losses to
New Mexico about a few weeks ago. UCLA's only lost and the goes okay, they're not thatch God.
Yeah, Wildcats haven't played too many games in that arena too really, I mean they have, but yeah, think if anything.
That memorable last year they played Alabama? Was that there? Yeah? That was there? Okay, Yeah, since I'm going up for that for for this weekend, what do you think ten thousand fans? Uh?
Yeah, yeah, because it's gonna look half full, well yeah, ten thousand.
I mean the place holds like eighteen yeah.
Yeah, and guess what when you're not doing well. In Arizona's case four and four, the luster wears off a little until.
This is not I mean, this is really there.
The Phoenix area's chance to see these guys right right, other than the ASU game, I guess later, but still, you know, it's a pretty good opportunity to get on national TV and play your old rival and keep this thing, you know, alive still Or isn't the next game going to be in Vegas or something? When they play them they don't want to do the home No.
No, I think because they don't want to have like an advantage, a big advantage.
Yeah, it is what it is.
Well, it'd be more of an advantage for it well, and usually gets gets up for the Arizona games. That's the only time they really have a packed house.
Yeah, I need to see the reason.
You know, there's been all this talk about nil is the reason why these games are being played or won't be being played.
Have you seen some of those stories?
No? And maybe I'm doing more research being playing at their homes right because they wouldn't he canct more money somewhere else something like that, because they're getting paid to be there. Yeah, maybe, I mean, come on, that aren't you glad? This is a serious question that you're no longer in this business. Honestly, I mean, my business is easy.
I can talk about how foolish it is, but but I'm not chasing kids making a lot of money and waiting for phone calls and all that crap like for recruiting.
Right, Yeah, I don't miss that, and I don't know how it would go now, I don't.
I don't know how much.
I mean, I honestly don't know how much access anybody gets anymore.
They don't and they you know, they hear, oh you know so what so cyanautograss, let's go do a story.
You know.
It's a good little human interest, right and they're only doing it because they're getting money.
Right No, no, no, no, real rhyme reason right No.
No.
Back in the day when I first got here, it was like the guys doing camps and things like that, Well we're giving back to the community. Not really, you're just because they're gonna pay you to do this.
You know what from TV World in the summertime in June or July, Well you need those doing a camp, we'll turn that into like a four part series.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, No, what's Luke doing in the summer with Richard Jefferson?
And I'm guilty like that, just like you because I was there because there was a story, yep, especially to feel the hole to feel and okay, just answer it real quick.
Those guys would filter in all summer long with their with their camps.
Okay, are you on the we You have somebody calling in you on the air that who is this?
Hey? Hello, who's this?
Oh?
This is Gary.
I'n't called you in a bit now.
I think I called you last around the u of A football season.
But he's calling to I know you guys are the experts. Point to my first UOA basketball game in a while. Uh, who's the big not Grievous, the big European kid they got backing him up.
You know I liked him.
Granted that was a Saturday game, that was aye a woodshed game, but he's.
All right, Henry Vsar. What do you like about him? What do you like about it? I wonder if you agree with what I like?
Well, he seems to have even a little a better touch than Grievous. I mean, I just like I said, the one game he's hitting those free everything was smooth he was doing you know.
Yeah, No, you see what I see when he first came here two three years ago. Uh, A very fantastic shot. He's a stretch five uh seven footer who can shoot the three, and you've seen that he can. He was really on the thin side a couple of years ago. I can handle the ball. He's become more aggressive, so everything you see, he's just much better than he was two three years ago. He's gonna get really really good in another year or so. Last year he had to sit out because he got hurt in a freak accident.
But I like him like you do.
Well.
We were looking up the record. Who think it was Southern Utah And I thought it said they were eight and too. I'm like, well, these guys played anybody good because nothing was over by must be five minutes into the game.
Yeah we're done. Yeah, they haven't played anybody good. They haven't.
They're a smaller school obviously, and you know that. But they're eight and two coming in and Arizonas has feasted on these guys these now, can they beat teams that are going to be in the tournament?
Yes, It's it's funny though, Michaim with the older crowd because you know, I mean the music it's pretty, it's pretty youngsters. But they're playing some stuff. You know, I'm in my late fifties. I'm like, what guys name are they playing? My Dad's like, I mean, what is this stuff?
Man?
Like electronica? I mean, I'm sure to students love it.
But you're funny.
Some old school stuff piped in here?
Please?
You know, actual music.
You're funny because you're spot on because I feel the same way. You know, I'm older now, but even when I was younger. The crowd is the this is out to the students, the players, and the and the UA students. But I would say, sixty forty what would you think is sixty forty seventy thirty?
Maybe old school? Old school? Yeah?
And then this coming what the next few games at students are gone, so you know those that whole student section will be taken up by people like us.
Jerry go by it.
To you are sart like college man because more more, more merging band even football, because I can't with the truth be told, guys, I can't watch Sam Babel the playoffs because.
You hear that pipe didn't go what is this man, You're right, it is. You're right about the music. The NBA is weird. The music.
I mean it literally stops, like right when the ball, you know, is low bounded.
You remember last year when Steve took some heat because I mean, come to Phoenix. God, it's like, al, just go in this the price. Yeah, and I think Steve's showing his age. Yeah, damn, just go turn off that music, get off my lawn.
My wife's like, what do you like watching hockey? But if you notice hockey they actually play now, it's more heavy than actually play.
Rock and roll.
Maybe it's like I said, the crowd the players. NBA is more I did not even I'll take hip hop over the electronica, you know, Denmark nightclub stuff. Man, that's a little too much for me. I just call him to Ben. Gentlemen, I'll touch base with you when you of A starts out. Well, I got a good one.
Saturday, Garry, you're working on my lawn anytime. I won't tell you to get off my lawn. Geary, Okay, doesn't the U of A have like a disco game playing in the in the end zone there?
And well also in football team? He did?
I don't know if he's there now, but he was. He wasn't the exhibition games and stuff. But he's right because if there's seventy thirty, which and that's maybe once you play like Sweet Caroline, I think it's a perfect song for that, you know, blah everybody gets into it stuff that kind of And now I'm really sure on my age, but but I get it. I get the warm up music and all that stuff when they're out there because it's the kids are The kids are the.
Ones that probably take that pick the music too.
The players, like you know with baseball players, they have their walk up music and time like I had no idea what the song some country song or.
The team up some of that music. Yeah, because you know, they say some pretty raunchy stuff.
Yeah, you gotta be careful and I'm sure. Yeah, if they have something does come out that's not good. Yeah, you have able to hear about it.
Oh yeah yeah, Hey, well what did you just say, Beldrid? What does that? What does that mean? I don't know. Uh, you go to the games, don't you? Yeah? I go to a few. I only went to the Duke game so far. Okay, Yeah, you're a front runner. Same with me, both front runners.
You don't have to go to the punishment of the Southern YouTube's coming.
Oh wait, when's that Samford game for what's okay?
We got duke? What duke in Stamford? No? No, no, I'm sorry. Yeah, I mean you still.
A cla Sanford, Central Michigan Christmas and then come back.
To TCUBRA when Central Michigan December twenty first.
Oh so okay, so we got about nick Saturday a week from Saturday.
Yeah, so they can squeeze in guys because school's ending, right, like.
Yes, this week I'm leaving. There'sday finals. Are we in finals week or no?
Yeah?
Technically ends the fifteenth for most people. Oh okay, okay, cool. There was always a good time on campus when we want to clear out. Yeah, around campus so you can drive through it.
Exactly, go to a restaurant, going student union, don't have to stand on line for twenty minutes.
Right, God, I haven't walked in that area for a long time. But it's totally different than when you were when you first got here. You got here in eighty three in what way? Oh just the buildings, Oh, just the buildings when they had what year was the Revenge of the Nerds.
About that time.
It was like eighty four, Yeah, eighty three, dy four, whatever it was, you had just got here. I got here in eighty seven, and that was kind of like the claim the fame on campus.
We were It's a long story, but yeah, you're right, it was. I was around that time. We had some people at Kegun who actually were in the movie. There were a few movies in that stretch. There was Camp, Buy Me Love, Yeah, which a shot of Tucson.
Eighty seven, eighty seven. I got here on that.
And then Nerds, and there was a couple others. People can calling and chime in, well, Major Quick in the Dead. That was the Sharon Stone movie with Gene Hackman with Yeah, Lenny Lenny. Yeah, if you were Toro's fan, you remember Lenny and his cigar. He's got that one cameo. It's perfect with the gun, with the gun. Yeah, that was a great time. They It was a pre you know if you've been to high core. But it doesn't look
like that anymore. The colors were all the old Tucson Toro's colors, so they switched things up when the Rockies kind of took over in ninety three and turned it into like cors Field with the same colors, but back in the day it was kind of that blue and yellow and kind of distinctive colors.
Did you And I had Mike here last Simon and we were talking about covering the team.
I hated going to cover the team, did you really?
Some of the guys were jerks, and when you had to go early do interviews since to the game, which the game was torture, yeah, and then maybe going to Lakametro loss because they lost a lot to it was not fun to go to.
Well, you had a different job too than than what we had. We we would do things a lot of times before the game. We would that's when we would get a chance to talk to them. We do live reports and we'd have a live guest or we'd interview them just before the game and go that route and didn't have to stick around, you know, for you know, three hours of baseball unless it was playoff time or you know, some other reason where we had to talk to them afterwards.
Usually we weren't covering it that way, so it was different for us.
So Sabrina worked for you, right, Was she one of the first female sports people.
We thought so, but there might have been some people before her.
But at the time, and again that was a during the Toros run when they won those two chances.
Did Mike talk about that?
No, no, no, But I just thinking about it now because I remember her doing some of the thinkers she was.
I think she was live at the stadium the night they won. I don't know if it was the first or the second. I'd have to ask her or Mike Fader because they're the ones that were kind of documenting those years.
But she was great.
She was you know, she knew her sports, big big basketball player at Oregon. I didn't know what she loved. You know, she loved basketball, she loved covering. I mean again, she was right with me during the A day of I think she took over in ninety so we passed, you know, that first final four, but I think she was still she was still with me in ninety four. Maybe ninety seven is when she left.
Yeah, So so I only asked because I remember her doing those games and I should have her on our streasure because she's married to a former ULA basketball player.
So how was it was there? How was we gotta go?
We got about a minute, right, what was the reaction a female sports txtes?
She was a good sport I think people really, they were fine even in those years. It wasn't like, oh yeah, I shouldn't know she's talking about.
It right right.
We had she had to convince our bosses that she wanted to do it.
I remember.
So we had Brad Steinkey before him, yeah, before her, you know, and he left kind of kind of left his you know, with a decision to make, and she stepped forward. She you know, she kind of she was there already. She was already there. She and I started. She was there before me.
Oh really. Yeah.
In fact, when I did my she was doing news and then she did health news. Maybe that was after she did sports. But anyway, she had a good run before I would say, maybe six or seven years on k GUN before she stepped into the sports role.
Yeah, we gotta go, we gotta go.
We'll come back, get some breaking news and talk more about all this stuff.
Okay,