Tuesday, February 20, Hour 1

This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jagon Zalaz Sound Fox Sports fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure your most Prized Possessions katz R two SAG and iHeartRadio Station. Yet Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to Eye on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. He's Jagan Zauce. We have I that's your name. Now, that would be in the least to you, Ali, I haven't seen you in the week. I forgot I saw you on Saturday, but I didn't say you're by

miss, Miss Welcome to the show. We were already on the jagged edge here. But you know we didn't have a show Yesterday's lot to get to well God, you know, we take a day off and all helbreaks, but maybe we should take more days off so all hell will because but it was a big day yesterday. I don't know how we're going to get it

all in. Let me let me say this, What was your first impression of today day's uh UH press conference with with desiree h. First of all, I'm upset that she has an accent on the second e in her name because that wreck. That's gonna make it hard to you know, post on social media, because I don't know how to do that on social media. That's the first thing I learned. You can teach you you hold it down and then okay, okay, then that's fixed. And I'm okay with her

being here. You know, as you would expect. She was impressive, very impressive, right, yes, yes, uh, you know she joked a couple of times. I thought, I thought that was really good.

I think very we we don't know her yet, doesn't appear to be full of herself, right, she knows that there's work to do, and and I kinda I kind of watched the press conference with a night toward you know, when when when when her name you know, when she got when her name came out yesterday, you know, people finding out from others who knew her, you know just what yeah, what do you know about her?

And so you know, the thing that I kept hearing is that she's a fixer and and somebody's gonna come here and really grind to get this done. But in doing that, maybe she's not gonna be the touchy feely type person that maybe Dave Hekey was. I don't know if he even live and good was I don't know so much. I'm just saying that that's what I'm told

by people who know. I don't know, just that she's gonna come here and she's gonna fix things and and that's gonna you know, and that's gonna require and it will I mean, anybody who has in the position she's gonna ask to come and they're gonna have to make hard decisions. They're not always going to be popular decisions. And she's gonna, you know, you're gonna have to withstand those things. And that's whoever came in this job is gonna have to do that. It is very gutsy of her to take the job.

It's kind of a well, I don't know if I want to say it's a step down, but at least at the least it's the lateral, very best the lateral. But if you say, you know, you were in the SEC and now you're you know, you're in the Big twelve and at not you're not at the you know, well, I don't know you can argue that, you know, Arizona was one of the better programs in the Big twelve with its basketball team sure the football team is that stands now.

Certainly baseball and softball are up there. So maybe you say, yeah, you know, you're maybe it is a step up in that regard because Missouri is never going to get passed. You know, They're never going to be in the top echelon of the PAC twelve of the SEC. Yes they are, and so Arizona moving to the Big twelve. Maybe it's in a little better spot than what Missouri is in the SEC. So let me just because I told you when you sat down next to me at the press coups,

I had met her eleven months ago. I can said that in the press covers. I was talking to Vahei Grigori and I don't know if you know that name, but he's a colinist for the Saint Louis paper, a good friend of mine, longtime friend of mine, and I was talking to him, and she saunders up, and I'm thinking, who's this woman? Who's this woman? And she started the conversation. He introduced me to her,

and I'm thinking, very impressive, very impressive. And five minutes instance, you know talking, Oh, by the way, this is the Missouri A d And I'm in my mind I'm thinking Missouri a d I'm thinking wow. And then she says to me, uh, well, I'm a I'm an Arizona grad. I's like you are. She says, yeah, I was an in law school and blah blah blah, and I was an intern for gab gab Gabriel said, gave what? So she knows the media, obviously, you could tell that she does. She knows, has a way,

a way of saying things. And she was fantastic and I'm thinking, God, this is what a dynamic. And then she is she's Hispanic. You never kind of guessie, man, she would never guess that she would be the read France wise her last name. So I'm like, okay, okay, there's a there's a Mexican in that woodpile somewhere. We're gonna find out where. At some point we get to talk to her and she said,

you know, I'm I'm an ex skin woman. She grew up in La I guess, well when I when she said that, I mean immediately when she said that, I texted my wife, he said, and she says Spanish, yeah, which I thought was cool very much. So. So then so about about four weeks ago I was with Xavier and I said, do you know this woman? Uh does a France? Will you know, Prince? And I said, he said yeah, because she was in Vegas and he was in Vegas. I said, what do you think of

her? And he said, well, she's very friendly and very good. I think, I bet why wouldn't Arizona not get go after her? And then I said to myself, she's at the SEC she's Asia. Who's coming now? Because to me, she was especially in the in the financial situation a zone exactly, who're the right mind's gonna come here? And voila here?

She is good for Arizona, really good for Arizona. I mean, you want to talk about when Jed Fish left the dark cloud that kind of parked itself over the athletic department, right, I mean it was just it as well as we said when when when? When you know, uh uh, Tommy Lloyd got here and and Fish got here, and think how you felt like and someone was gone and kind of like you said, the clouds have parted for Arizona, Well, this cloud came back. For a few

weeks you thought, how are they gonna get out? What coach is gonna come here? And what athletic director is gonna come here? You know, did you read Anthony's column? No, very good and very good and he wrote about that in a week a week of span of five weeks. All that, you said, Tommy Lloyd, the contract had renew Jed leaves a

new football coach. The ad is gone. You know, the world has come to financial struggles and all that, and then all of a sudden, it seems like it's gonna slow like solving the problems by one at a time. Well, there's like a ray of sunlight, you know, even believe Dr Robbins's thoughts on recovering from this funny yeah, yeah, no, he and he made some nice you know, he said, let me be clear, you know, we're fixing this, and and that was you know,

I thought that was some interesting stuff. So yeah, I mean, you're you're kind of you know, you kind of feel like that again once again, like a new beginning for this problem. Very much, so very much. So let's go to her clip. Okay, we're gonna get to Tommy. Of course, we're gonna get to the basketball program. Well, let's let's talk about our guest today, because okay, we're at the news conference, and obviously we waited for that to kind of see, Okay, who's

going to be the right people to come on our show today? And I think we got two people that I think can tell us a lot about what's going on with the first we got Rocular Rows. She got up to the point of deputy athletic director at JOVE. She went went through a lot of that, you know, being a being a woman in a male dominated area. Well, just get her thoughts on what this day is like for her, you know, she does she kind of feel like a trailblazer for doing

this. She didn't get to the a D spot, but certainly the things that she did probably have helped a whole lot of other women who are now you know, in in in desiree read friends of his position. Well, and she was interim for a bit, yeah, in between probably a couple of times. And then we're gonna have Mike Andrea, who probably has the shortest stint in the job he's ever had in his life. About that, he says, well, that was that's good. It's a good thing.

Yeah, And so Mike andre will come in and you know, well, we've got some questions about the Tommy Lloyd contract and how that came together. And I'm sure you know he had to be involved in that because he was the ad. So we'll see what he can tell us about how all that came together. Looking forward to all that. Okay, so so we were at the pres commins. We had still have a few Yeah, we've got

a number of clips. We'll play him throughout the show, but let's start with this one because Steve, Steve got the answer of the day with your question of why, the question of why she she's she at a great place. Yeah, you know, why would you want to leave a great place? Sec Missouri? They're rolling and I said why come back? Why come? Yeah? And here's where here's what she had to say about that.

It's home. Just quite simply, it's home. I talked about Uh, you know, I got a little bit emotional on at the podium because this is a heart move, This is a move that I know what the University of Arizona can be. I know there are challenges, but I know we have incredible support, we have incredible leadership. And I felt like the University

of Arizona was there for me when I needed them. And now my skill sets I believe meet what the University of Arizona needs at this at this time, at this critically important time, when there are so many challenges throughout college athletics, and not only not only here at the University of Arizona, but throughout the entire enterprise. So I just felt right and it was an opportunity to come home. Yeah, which which of course it's not home. But

she spent three three years in law school law school here from California. Let me make sure that because she said she said it was a heart move, not a hard move. That's on my on my transcribing thing, it came up as hard. It was a heart move. That it was just a feel and and that's what it was going to take to get somebody like her to come to that they would want to be here because it's here. I

don't think so. So you've been around four or five years now, and I've been here a long time, and you the highers that they've had is Tommy Lloyd wouldn't go to any other program but here, Brent Brandon Brennan, the same thing. Now you have a former U of a grad coming home, as she said a number of times, Tucson Tuson. You've never left home. So there's there is something special about Tucson. There is you know, you might leave but eventually want to come back. You know what I'm

saying. Yeah, it's got that, It's got that warm hug feeling. There's a there's a reason that that that people come here and stay. You know, think of all the athletes you know that have played there that have stayed, Coaches who have left and come back. Larry Smith came back, Jim Young came back, rich Rod still has a place here, Jim living

Goood, you know, you know is around. You know, there's all these people who they leave and maybe they you know, they're fine, they get better jobs and do whatever they're going to do, but they come back. I was thinking about that yesterday when I saw that they hired her, and just out of all the people that have been in this you know, like we were talking about the Cloud that have come back, have been like alumni or like have had some connection with us on and I just think that's

interesting. And then another one with herxtres the fixtures because they know the climate, know the situation. Yeah, so you know, obviously a lot of questions on the technical aspects of the job. What do you have I think one was you know, obviously the question comes because remember when when when Dave Hickey part when they parted ways, let's use the words that they use the mean thing you think of. Okay, Brent Brendan just got hired. You

know, Tommy Lloyd's only been here a few years. Caitlin Lowe's only been a head coach a few years. Chip Hale's only been ahead. You know, you got a new boss now, and how does that impact them down the road in terms of Okay, they're not her hires. Yeah, and that was kind of a question of you know, how do you deal with the fact that you've got these hires? And here's what she had to say about that. It's really quite simple plan and a progress and progress and then

we're going to partner together. I'm going to give you the resources and build excellence around your programs so you can be successful. That's what we've got to do. So I look for coaches to have a plan, show progress, and then we and then hey, I always ask our coaches what is it that you need to be successful? How can I best help support you?

And that's what our department's going to do right. We're going to have to provide excellence around all of our programs because we all take a lot of pride and we all have a really important point or part in achieving the excellence that we all expect. But every single person that works in that athletic department, they have an incredibly important role and we all contribute to those When Coach Olsen

down those nets, it wasn't him by himself. I bet you if he was up here, he would tell you in a very much more eloquent way than I'm telling you. I can just picture his voice and he would say it with such dignity, but he would probably tell you that every single person contributed to winning that national championship. You know, I had the good fortune of working at the University of Tennessee and I was on the men's side, but I got to know Coach Summit and she was this incredible, incredible role

model. And I asked her once, I said, Coach, how did you like? What was the key? What were some of the keys to your success? And she said, alignment. You have to have alignment. You have to have your university leadership, so your president, so you asked me about the fact that you asked me a little bit about why I came too, and I talked about the feeling and the home. But I also

know like we have to have alignment for us to win national championships. You got to have an alignment with your president, your athletic director, your coaches, your community, all of our student athletes and staff. We cannot do it by ourselves, so we have to have that. That alignment is critically important, very much so, very very good answer, very good answer.

And you know what, she used the word no ego towards no egos, and to me, that struck me because if you're a good coach and you you're at this level and you're very good, what do you have an ego? So that's gonna we have to be checked at the door or you know, it may be words, but you know what I'm saying. Uh, I thought that was very good at least by words. Yeah, yeah, no, I again, everything she said about, you know, and all of this was you had if you don't want out of the feeling pretty good

about what what they've done. Again, however, it all comes together, you know, it's not comes together. And what I took from that answer was Okay, I'm gonna get you you know what you need. That's my job. But once I do, it's your job to succeed. And it's going to be on the coaches to do that. And and I think that's a you know, a great approach, you know, you know, accountability and all those buzzwords that we use for stuff like that. Okay, let's

go to break Rocky. You're gonna colle for in a couple of minutes, all right, and then we'll talk about just what she thought today she was at the press conference, and you know, how good does she feel about, you know, having been a part of hope, you know, again blazing a trail for people like like Desiree read franceiuse. We'll be right back. Make the right choice for your home when it comes to windows and doors. For more than twenty years, the Window Depot has provided the best price

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with Steve Rivera and jac and Salez on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Hey, welcome back to winning the Ball Here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. He's jacobzas Now on the phone, we have Rocky Lrose, former and retired deputy athletic director at Juve. Rocky. How you doing, Ah, I'm doing great? Thank you really great. You're in the front seat to the front road today. What were you what were your feelings so as you listened to to desiree Wow, Well it was a rush of feelings,

to be honest, with you. I mean, first and foremost proud of the University of Arizona. You know, this is a rare occurrence for a woman to be appointed director of athletics of a combined program at this level. So just overwhelming feelings of pride for the University of Arizona, excitement for Desiree

uh and just you know, looking towards the future. You know, when I saw you at the at the press conference, and for about three seconds, I thought, do we want to go into that about you know, the first female athletic record at Arizona, because you know, at some point you need to stop talking about that, right And Desiree even said that, you know, said I want my daughter to be asked about what it's like to be a CEO, not a female CEO. But you have to take

a certain amount of pride in watching this happen. I mean, you blazed the trail for a lot of people. I mean that had to be something that felt good to you. Oh. Absolutely. You know I think back of my legacy and what I hoped for for the future. And you know, I was director of athletics for a short time there in nine through ten, and you know, my main thing was. I didn't want to screw it up for other women, right, I wanted to do a good job

for them and for our department. And it was, of course a different time back then, but to see that legacy grow and to see this happen, even though it's still very few, it's a different time and a different place, and you know she's going to get so much community sport support and people sport. And she's obviously she's qualified, she's got the expertise, so it's all good. So as you're saying that and then me and looking at you as well, today, I'm thinking what would Mary Roby be thinking?

Oh, I know, well, I know when I became. Of course, you know they refer to this now as a full time ad, which I guess insinuates that I was part time, believe it or not, I actually worked full time in the acting role. But so it's more like this is a permanent position for her, Right, Mary was thrilled when I got named acting ad. I mean she was just over the moon. She was the first phone call I got, and yeah, she was just this is this is it, Rocky, We've arrived. So I know she'd be so

proud. I mean, she started the women's program here and she was the foundation, so she would just be so proud. She fought so hard for that. Well, when when a program like Arizona does does this, you know, response around the there's probably a lot of different response around you know, McHale, But seems to me that this is something that was that it was time one and that as you said, you know, she's qualified. I didn't hear one person say I don't know. I mean you feel like,

you know, she's she earned the job and she's got it. I mean that has to be, you know something that around MacHale they got to feel pretty good about absolutely, and that's all I was hearing was great, was really great comments about that. You know, it's really it's not so much the people inside that at a community, it's outside, Like, you know, I still get referred to as the women's ad, you know, with no understanding that No, I was in a combined program. I oversaw

day to day operations for football, men's basketball. She's getting the as she a token woman. You know, that's the comments you see on the message boards and stuff like that. And it's so annoying this day and age, because no, she's not. She's qualified, she's had experience at a top, top level of elite athletics. You know, she's she's she's there, so that shouldn't even be mentioned. To be honest with you, So you've been out of this for ten years, maybe a little less ten years.

Yeah, ten years, okay, so ten years and it's changed so much. And I've joked with Jim and I've joked with other ads. I'm sure you're I don't know if the glad it's to be out of it given the situation, but you must be okay with it. I am more than okay with Oh my goodness, it is the wild, wild West. And you know, Desiree today said, you know it's changed. The landscape changes week by week. I think she meant to say day by day. I mean, it is crazy. You can't hardly keep up. You know how much

it's changed, and how much I feel bad for the coaches. You know, it's so wonderful to hear her say how much. You know her deal is the alignment you know, between the coaches and herself and the president and the community, and how she asks coaches what do you need to succeed? I mean that was our whole deal all the way through, you know, Dave Strak, Cedric jim Me, John Parrin. I mean that was what we did. We would sit down with them once a year with the coaches

and say what do you need. We're here to facilitate your needs. And she's right on, right on the mark with all of that. So I know our coaches are going to feel supported and you know, can really look to the future. We'll talk to you. Former acting airs On Athletic Director and Deputy Athletic Director Rocular Rose that talking about the hiring of Desiree read France.

Her name is, you know, the name is really we're going to trip over that whole bunch, but we'll let that happ But you know, one of the things we were talking, Steve and I were talking about FW minutes ago, is about people who come back, right because she talked about this place being home. Well, she's not from here, but she came here to go to law school, but yet she considered this place home.

And as somebody who's been here all my life here from Phoenix, but you've been here forever as well, you know, I feel like a certain amount of I don't know, pride in the fact that you know, somebody who's really not from here considered this place home. Would you think about her comments as far as that goes. I love the comment. You know, I always joked I got here as fast as I could come down here to the University of Arizona and get out of Phoenix. So I get it, and

you know, this is just a special place. But I also you know, all of our successes that we had through the nineties in the early two thousands, when I had the honor of being there and working there, was because of the continuity that we had amongst people who came here in state and they stayed because they loved Tucson, and they loved this community. They love the weather, you know, on and on and on, and I know I could tell that was what was inside of Desiree and why she called this

home. I mean, that's what it's all about. Think of all the coaches that came and stayed, you know, from Mike Ken Drea I mean decades and Loudelsen and Frank Bush and Rick Rose and you know, on and on and on. But you know, John, Joan Bombasini and now Adia. I mean, they come and they stay, and that's what a program at our level needs when we don't have the finances to keep up with some of those SEC schools. I know that she wanted to be an attorney and

obviously got the degree. Did did you know her before before all this? I did not. I just met her at you know, being a colleague and NCAA events. I did not know her as a students. I wish we did at that point. I mean, maybe introduce yourself. Maybe one day I can envision myself being or trying to be an ad of some sorts. But no, you know, I don't know if you know this, but she was an intern at one of the radio stations with Gabe Mike Gabers.

I heard that with Gabe. Yeah that's wonderful. Yeah, that's wonderful. She always had an interest in athletics, and I think that's that's really something too, that you see that dream and you pursue it and you do it and you made it. Okay. So now let's to the reality of the job, right both from what's going on in Arizona financially and then just as she talked about the challenges of being an athletic director in the current you know, nc double A environment. I mean, how do you wrap your

head around that? Rocky? I mean, how would you wrap your head around that if you were coming in, you know, landing in her shoes today, it is somewhat overwhelming. You know, we've talked about John Parron, who was our CFO. I was the CEO, as John Eustace say, you know, once that snowball starts rolling, it's really hard to get it back. So I just I think of that, I think, wow.

I mean, we went through some massive cuts ourselves, at least three times that I can remember over my thirty five years, and it's not pleasant. You know, you have to make some hard, hard decisions, you know, whether it's you know, staffing levels or service levels or you know, it's it's tough and I can only you know. But she seemed like she had head wrapped around it, and she seems and not seems. I have no doubt she's strong enough to get in there, dig deep and find

out really where where they need to go. So and the role, the role of the idea has changed so much. Back to then, I think you, you and and Jim did as much as you could with raising trying to raise money, and now it's you've got to do that twenty four to seven in addition to twenty in addition to what you're doing, you know, behind the desk. Well, and now it's even more complicated obviously with NIL. I mean you're not only raising universities for I'm raising funds for your program

and for your institution to keep the athletic department moving forward. But now you've got to you know, there's raising money for NIL, and those donors may choose to give to an NIL and not to the institution. So that's put a huge complication I think in development efforts and fundraising. You know, we talk about it. I just say we've asked. We've asked other coaches like you know, Ca Andrea and Andy Lopez, We've talked David Rubio. They

say, I do not want to be coaching right now. Would you want to be an athletic director right now? No? Absolutely not. I just I you know, I know sport is so embedded in American culture. It's not going anywhere. But what is it going to look like in ten years? We can't keep doing this. And I know we're going to have young people that come up that are going to be enthusiastic to take jobs for coaching,

but they really don't know what they're getting into. But who it's going to hurt worse are the mid level schools, the schools that can't keep up with the you know, the powerful money schools, because I'm just going to be honest, you can't do it. There's too much under the table stuff going on, you know, stealing recruits, giving them more money. And you know, you just oh that coaches have to add that to their docket on the stuff they have to do on day to day is just mind blowing.

Actually, so I knew this. You had gone at least two or three times, like trying to figure out what you're gonna do financially in the athletic department. A lot of people thought there's there was always making money, right, there have tons ofbody just to do what you do with all these sports. Did you foresee something like this happening? I don't know, eight ten years ago, when you were kind of well again. John Parron, every year we would sit down and he would do forecasts five and ten years

out. Every time there was a deficit. Every single time there were huge deficits. So yes, we foresaw this coming. And you know, we were always saved by TV money. That was that was the good news. But you know, at some point you just wonder how long will that last? You know, and obviously it didn't for the PAC twelve conference. Yeah,

you know, it didn't come through, and look what happened. So yeah, we always foresaw, we were always predicting that and you know, working around that and never tried to overgrow the department just because of that reason. So you know, we were fortunate, we were fortunate to stay in the black all those years. Well let's go a little bit towards that. Because the TV money, did you know, Nancy Doublea, what it did? Kill the PAC twelve. Arizona's now in the Big twelve and you got

teams, you know, all over the place for four major conferences. Now, what do you think about What have been your thoughts about all of that? Well, of course I'm heartbroken over the PAC twelve. I mean I was on the management committee for you know, for twenty five years and vice president three times, and you know, we were the Conference of champions and I always felt like we had the best grasp on the welfare of student athletes and the true excellence of sports. So to see that. Go. It

is just it's just absolutely heartbreaking. That said, I think we all all predicted that we would eventually get down to just a few elite conferences, you know they always power five, power six, whatever, big six, that we'd get down to that. And you know, I will not be surprised if we eventually get down to three or even two. You know, I do hope we wise minds come together and we look back to some regional play. But as we say, the train has left the station, and how

are we going to pull this back? It's going to take a huge effort. It's really creative, creative mine. Yeah, no doubt. Did you have you talked to Jim at all? Have you talked to your colleagues about this? Well, not about desiree, No, not at this particular point. But yeah, did we have lunch every once in a while. And I saw him a week ago, I guess so yeah, and he feels

the same way. Trust me. We both high five each other and go, man, we had the best, We had the best, We had a great time, we were winning, we were you know, we had great coaches, this beautiful department. It's just you know, well, now happily retired. I'll ask the question, then maybe Jail continue this question.

So we've always said at least I have to the nineties, that was like the glory days of Arizona Athletics. I'm in this year's Cup of in the top top ten, top fifteen for sure, and then over the last few

months you're black cloud. Yeah. I mean I was saying that, you know, when you know Jed Fish left and then you know Dave was gone, is like all of a sudden, it's like, what's going to happen to this the department and you know, the whole financial thing, And I thought, you know, a cloud kind of came over over the program. But it seems to be I don't know. I can't think you could say for now, at least it looks like it's lifted. Yeah, I mean

we're in great shape. When you look at our coaching staff. Wow, I mean that's that's actually number one. The finances can be fixed finding good coaches. That's the tough thing to do, and that's under control. So you know, there really is nowhere but up at this point, nowhere but up. Rockie is always Thank you very much, appreciate it. You're welcome and thank you, guys. It was good seeing you today. We'll see

you. Thank you, thank you. Okay, bye bye. If you don't, if you do, if for Facebook friends, you already know what I'm gonna say. She's a fantastic photographer. I mean like fantastic. It's not just a hobby, you know, a passion. If you need to go be friends with her. There she posts her photos. Wow, really close. No, thank you, but thank you for you know. She again, she just jumped in. I just you know, kind of walked up. I want to come on the show. After after she gathered herself,

she said, okay, yeah, we come on the show. So you appreciate that. She slaying with me when I reached Yeah, just love getting that perspective of you know, the shoes that that that DESIREE read Francoise in right now. It's gonna be a hard job. It's gonna be a really hard job. And so we'll see, we'll see how that goes. So all right, let's take our break. We'll be back. Love to get your thoughts on what you've seen so far. And then in the next

hour we're gonna have Mike and Andrea. We got breaking news at the top, and we're gonna talk some Tommy Lloyd contract and so stick around for all of that. 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 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 Loot 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. Hi, this is formal Wildcat Leman Huntly with Arizona Health. Imagine how home GM can change your health, your comfort, and your time. Arizona Health is everything you need to transform your personal space and

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Radio Whip Just Surgery, Eye on the Ball. Hey, welcome back to the ball here a Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve, He's Jay and at least with us today we have fifteen minutes. If you'd like to call us, please do Uh, We're gonna play some clips right. Good to have Rocky on. That was great, Rocky, you know, she's so great. She's always She also sounds like she's having fun when he's on with this in spite of who we are. So you know you were getting to

this. I don't know if did you bring it up with her? Oh? The women? Yeah, So we we talked Rocky about the whole idea of you know, at some point you know, being a female lad has to become a regular thing, and we're not making a big deal out of it, but we are making a big deal out of it right now. And she, you know, and she as well talks about about that.

But the question was asked of of Desiree. We're just gonna call her desire Okay, we're just gonna call her desire We're just gonna call her Desiree because that's just a mouthful and we're a trip over it. And so from now on she just does no. I guarantee you, In fact, there's a good chance that we may forget her last name. So I teach you how to do that. I appreciate anyway. She she she was asked the question about, you know, being a female athletic director and being the first female

athletic director at Arizona. Here's what she said. You know, when I was at the university at UNLB, I used to get that question and pos to me, and I quite frankly, I was a little flippant, and I would say, well, I don't know how to be a man, so I'm just going to be a leader. And then maybe I should go

back to that line. I don't know, but then you know, I went to Missouri and there were a lot of first there, right, and I met with our soccer team and there was a young lady that was from California and she was also she was also Mexican like I am, and she's and she saw me and she kind of teared up and I and I said,

you know, where are the tears coming from? And she said, well, I just had never thought of someone that looked like me would be in the chair that you're in. And so I thought, you know what, I need to be a little more thoughtful in that response. My hope is that when my son Jackson, has a grand has a has a daughter, and I have a granddaughter, which will not be for a very very

long time. Let me be very crystal clear. Yeah, but I hope that my future granddaughter, when she is a successful CEO, that she has asked what is it like to be a successful CEO? Not what is it like to be a female CEO? Good good answer, really affable, like I said, not a canned answer, just to kind of from the heart, kind of from her. And she she was like that the whole the whole thing. She choked up a couple of times early on, which I thought was was really cool. All right, Gabe is on is on the

line, Gabe, thanks for calling. What's on your mind? Obviously we got a new a d and obviously we on Saturday, obviously we beat the dumbasses up North, so that was pretty good. And of course we have a tough well we have a game on Thursday against Washington State, so they're pretty good. And then on Washington, let the screw screw Jeff fish chance right on. Because against Washington, Dave, you held a lot of grudges. Is he not your son? He might be a Gonzales And my kids

don't hold drudges. They get mad at me for a whole So, Gabe, what have you? A lot of big news last couple of days. First Tommy Lloyd's contract, he's he's signed up for five years, and then the athletic director. You got to be feeling good about what's happening right now? Yeah, yeah, definitely. There were some bs rumors that Tommy Lloyd will go to Washington. Oh please, Washington doesn't have the money, or Washington is not a men's basketball school. Should they're a football school, but

they're not men's basketball at school. Don't give me that bs. And also I'm pretty happy that we we got a D compared to the dumb asses up north. We're basically taking their sweet time and don't even really care about sports. I'm glad that Arizona's not the stun devils because they're they all the pinnacle as stupid. Okay, Gabe, thanks so much for calling man, appreciate it. Bear down, Arizona, go cap. This is like, this is like stand up Live. I think I think they needs some ice.

Man, he's got to cool off. Another thing. I got another one. We'll see, Okay, what else? All right? Wellbviously, the financial situation is, you know, is a big deal. And I mean we you know, we questioned who's going to come here but with this? But you know again, you know, and I mean I kind of thought, Okay, somebody who's in a position like that, they they run towards the challenge, not away from it. And so it looks like Arizona has

got one of those. So here's what she had to say about, you know, what she plans to do here and huh, how they're going to go about it right in terms of how we're going to turn it around? We are challenges or opportunities. I said that in my opening remarks, and what we're going to do is we're going to fit We're going to dive into

that budget. I talked to the all departments uh the staff yesterday and we talked about priorities that we have for the first couple of months, and one of those priorities is that we've got to dive into that budget and figure out

where we are where there's opportunities for growth. Do some data analytics, look at where do we compare with the rest of our Big twelve comparitors, and then kind of if there's when where there's opportunities for growth, then we're going to fit out how we're going to do it, and let's look at our protocols, look at our best practices. It's the same thing we did at

Missouri as well. I haven't met very many athletic departments that say, hey, we've got so much money, we don't know what to do with it. So this is not a problem that's incredibly unique. But what we have to do is just be very diligent in our approach and very thoughtful. Let's listen, and let's learn, and let's analyze and put together the best plan and move forward. I guess a good simple solution for a big problem. Yeah, well, I mean you have Yeah, you just start crunching the

numbers and see what you can do. But we didn't make a note that I think it was Michael lev asked her if if cutting sports is on the table, why did she say it? She just said no, no,

and that was the answer. That was the answer. But then but then she did follow up after that and say, you know, because I guess an average number of sports among Big twelve schools is seventeen, it's twenty three, and there's twenty two or twenty three in Arizony, and so you know, she said, I'm gonna I think Mike andre had said this at some point, said what we need to do is get the Big twelve to you know, go our way and add more sports. But she just flat said

no on cutting sports. Right. Yeah, so I thought that was a really interesting, interesting deal. Obviously. One of the other challenges is, you know, donors, right. One of the thing big things that she did at at at Missouri was got a lot of money out of the pockets of their I'll make a prediction she's going to do great at that here great. But to Rocky's point, and I've said this, if you your pockets can only go so deep, and eventually some money runs out from you or

or what they won't have somebody. And with Ni l in the mix now and you love your love for the athletic Department and other things that you have to see mortgage and your other things, how much how far can you dig? And well, she's she's done it, so we'll see what she does here. But here's what she had to say about getting the donors on board. How we cultivate How we cultivate donors is one person at a time. We do what we say we're going to do. We live our core values.

We get to know people and find out where their passion lies and align those passions with what the department's needs are and how we can propel us forward into the future. So I love fundraising because you get a chance to be able to meet people where they are, hear their stories, and everybody has

this incredible story and incredible memories. And like I said when I was here in law school in ninety seven, when we won the national championship, I bet there's a lot of people in this room that remember how where they were and how they felt, so aligning memories with passions for philanthropy, it's really special. Very true, Yeah, very true. Have you ever have you ever done much in terms of fundraising? I know you work for eltur,

but you're guy right boards or anything like that. My fundraising is working here, fundraising for yourself. You know, in my in my prior life, uh, pre kids, you know, I was on a million boards and I hated fundraising because and that you were on the board to bring them bringing money. I love doing you know evans and uh, participating in all that stuff, But in terms of picking up the phone and calling people and asking for money, I've never been comfortable them or not even just that I just

don't like this, you know, selling that right. I've never been a sales guy either, which is bad for somebody who needs advertisers for this. But it takes it's hard. It takes a certain type of person, it really does. But she says she loves fundraising, So get your get your wallets out, everybody. Yeah, I think what you meet her too. You know who has that as well, who's done a great job is uh is uh, one of the associate, former softball player Eric br Yes.

Yes, that's where she's made her r her way at uh, you know in the department to get to where she's at is that she's she's she has been an incredible fundraiser over there. Okay, one more, one more. Just the whole idea of being an athletic director in this environment. We've talked about that. We mentioned that to Brocky, who said, I wouldn't want to do this right now, but she was asked about, you know, the challenges of being an athletic director in this environment and how she's going to

deal with that. I think the job of the athletic director is changing almost like every month, right, well, actually not the job, but the landscape of college athletics is changing almost every month. You have Supreme Court decisions, you have conference changes. I mean I grew up in the FACT ten and then it was the PAC twelve and now it's not. So it's ever changing. And when I talked about what I look for to be able to hire, you look for selfless, smart, hard workers, and you have

to be able to pivot, right. You have to be able to be flexible because that our enterprise is constantly evolving. But it also that's what makes it kind of exciting too, right, instead of just looking at it and complaining about, oh gosh, I remember free and I am blah blah blah blah blah, well you know what, like actually sees it as an opportunity because it's a great thing and jump on that and use it as a competitive

advantage. So how has the athletic director role changed? I mean, we're CEOs of one hundred and forty million dollar company, and so we need to treat the enterprise like that. It's highly regulated, it's hot, it's highly scrutinized, but it also has an altruistic purpose of higher education, and we need to make sure that we tether and continue to tether athletics to the academy.

One of the things that she offers as well is she's an attorney or she has that background, which I don't think that Cedric kat or Gym or any of the other ones after Jim. Most attorneys, even bad ones, are still pretty smart. Well you better, but you know they're they're pretty smart because you can't be dumb and get through law school. In most cases, I've met some attorneys. They go, Man, that guy was really dumb. But for the most part there by that, I mean they process

stuff in a way that a lot of other people don't. Sure, no, you know what they don't have and I won't say this and I need an attorney to advertising the show is they're not you were me. They're not normal dudes or women. You know what I'm saying. They're they're smart. There's something different. Yeah, there's something different, and they're very smart. But hello, how are you? And that's and that's that's exactly where I

was gonna go with it. She's affable, she's personable and not so much a lawyer more one of us. Like she seems smart and personable and she can do both. Like she's joking with the media. She was the media. But yeah, yeah no, but I mean I agree with that. Again, being a lawyer, I think gives you ways of doing things that you and me about you analy Steve and I you know, do not think. Sure in a lot of ways that they think and process stuff. It's

different, and it's just you know, strategic approaches to different things. Because lawyers, at least good lawyers, you know, they're they're uh, you know, they grab onto stuff and they deal with it. You know, they they you know, they want to win a case or they want to win a you know, get a settlement where they they're resolving an issue for a business or whatever it is. They sink their teeth into this stuff and

they resolve things. And that's what lawyers do, right, And you know, you and I, for about thirty seconds, I thought about being a lawyer, and I realized, no, I'm gonna do the easy thing. I'm gonna be a journalist. I never ever thought I didn't want to go to school so much and do all that stuff. Okay, so she doesn't officially start till March third. She had to rush back. I think she had to rush back to her son plays on the Missouri BIS. Right,

they were gonna fly back today. He's got a game tonight, game tonight. And she made light of that too. Yeah, so that's cool, and you know, a shout out to her husband, who I don't know who he is rewarded, but to be a husband of a dynamic, powerful woman, Yeah take something. Yeah you got Yeah. You gotta have a lot of confidence in yourself for sure, you know, like I, me and my wife she's so much better than me. It's like, you know, I don't even know. I mean, I don't hold a candle.

Now. I dress myself. I will say that for the most part, although my daughter thinks she should be dressing me. Dad, you're not gonna wear that. Yeah yeah, radio, Yeah exactly, Yeah yeah, I kind of am Dad. Let me help you out. Yeah, okay, cool, all right. Mike Andrea coming up at about twenty after he's the

continuing interim athletic director. Four. That's right, I'm sorry, thirty five after the hour, top of the hour, coming right up and at least with breaking news, and we've got some more stuff, so stick around for all of that. We'll right back