Tuesday, February 27, Hour 2

Steve Bravera and Jay Gonzalez. They have their eye on the ball on tucsum Sports Big yet Fox Sports fourteen fifty streaming live. I mean, iHeart radio. Wam Hey, welcome back to on the Ball on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve, He's Jay. Now we have at least with breaking news. Maybe it's working. It's not working. I don't know why. Okay, oh, you don't have it on the right one got the ball on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Now you got it. They have their eye on

the just a cause you didn't know where you were. Yeah, you might want to hit that other that will turn that one off. Just remind you. So we're gonna start with Jay's on the water right, Yes, the Siguaro Cougar war it's this one doesn't our Soarrow doesn't have a G in it. It's an age worrow. The Swarow in Phoenix has a G. I don't We always had to deal with that. You don't want to confuse that.

The Swaw Cougars basketball are in the state championships against Deer Valley and it's on in two days, right, Phoenix, the State four A championship did you find out. I know it's been a while, they've won a few. You know, they won a few state championships. Dick McConnell, the will time winningst uh high school basketball coach in Arizona State history, was the Swar coach for a thousand years. He was also a driver's head coach,

driver's head teacher. He was one of those guys that would you know, you'd see those those gory movies and h'd scare the hell out of you. But but uh, they're in my my cougars, my mighty Cougars, and soccer just won their four state championship in a row. That's the point that was some point went fourth state championship row. But I'll go back to the Cougars. I want to make a point. I was thinking of this. The Swara High School fight song is the same as Ohio State, so is

it. I remember being in high school and I knew the sware a fight song. Right then I watched an Ohio State game and I see the band, I'm like, they stole our fight song? What the hell is going on? So they haven't won the last one in two thousand and two thousand and one, twenty four and four this year. Yep, and he won four state titles. Has yeah, I'll buy deck McConnell all one. But

yeah, and they beat they beat a LA North North Gilbert. But they were the number one seed s four seats, so it was that was a huge upset. That was like the upset you know the Arizona when they were a four seed beat the one seed to get to the So just for some context there. But yeah, my cougar's in the state championship, looking forward to it. Yeah, we might have him on the show if they pulled off. We'll see, and then somebody we do gotta get on the show

at the South Point Boys coach wolf Gang Weber state championship. He is the godfather of soccer in southern Arizona, probably in the state waitingess he coached my kids and fantastic band from Germany. Wow, a lot of titles. It's a fantastic coach. Are you gonna call Kelly Pierson tell her she can't come on? No, I was gonna wanna text her, though, I'm gonna text her ship. I said, good, we don't have to talk to

those little dudes. But you know, because all she does is win that's all she does the first time she hasn't won in four or five years. Yeah. Yeah, so yeah, no, it's uh Italy. Yeah, I'm I'm looking forward to, uh hopefully getting the Sowar couter's coach on. And of course, yeah, that's awesome. And then, like you said, the soccer was lost in that stagey, but that's what the high school is doing good out here. Well yeah, it's they're known for those at

least soccer basketball first time in a long time. Yeah. And and again we for for our listeners out there wondering why we haven't gotten the Sunnyside wrestling coach on. We're working on it. Yeah, they were out. I guess I was told that Audrey Mann has finished third in I got a bronze medal in that competition. She was down in Mexico, in Mexico and not Poco. Yeah, so she's working working her way towards the qualifying for the

Olympics. And that's where they were last week. Yeah. And then Reagan Shockley is packed twelve Freshman of the Week. I think it was the second week in a row. Yeah, yeah, back to back. She's a center fielder. If they you know, remember all those great teams that Arizona had always had a great up the middle. They were very strong middle, you know, really strong, uh Caitlin Lowe, right, Uh, a whole bunch of them, Yeah, just one after the other. Sure.

They all look the same too. If I recall just Fast could hit, could hit, Yeah, just you know, they were lead off hitters and just man right messed up the other teams badly. Sure, and they're having a strong season so far, sixteen and one, sixteen and one, sixteen to one. Let's temper that by realizing it's not the Pact. Well, yeah, but I mean still sixteen of course could beat alternative, right,

yeah, it does beat the alternative. And baseball yesterday rallied from six to zero against San Diego in in the from the first inning they were down sixty zero, and they beat San Diego ten to nine. Yeah, to avoid a sweep. I think it was. Yeah, so we've had come back. Yeah, you know, again, they've got stuff, but they're both of the conference seasons for both of those teams start really quickly. They don't get a bunch of yeah, a bunch of bunch of games in the tournaments

and stuff. And softball you can play like two and three games in the day, but their conference seasons get started pretty soon. Guess what, it's March at the end of the month, the end of the week. We're busy. It's it's and it's it's Mark, and then it's March April, and then you're pretty much done with school. Let's go to the show at

High Corbett. I could do that. That would be cool. I'll set up a table up in the seats up there and you know, loaded up on the Yeah, hang out, maybe call the game a little bit. That'll work. I mean I'm in for that, all right. Hit the ball game. Yeah we haven't done that. All right, man, let's get on that. We've never done that, so we already know. He accepted the award, but no went and got the Football Writers twenty twenty three

Offensive Freshman Player of the Year award yesterday. I think for him, I think, uh, is the criteria different in football than it is for basketball for retiring jerseys, because that came up last week in terms of Facebook and Twitter and blah blah blah. Why there's a difference. I think if you're a player of the year, so you get what you get, the ring of Honor. Yeah, that's no doubt, no doubt. But uh so

the ones like Ricky who has there's only a handful of retired jersey. Okay, so that's a different that's different, right, and I don't know what that's That's what I was asking there. That's it. Yeah, that's a different deal. But no, but wait, basketball is totally different. Yeah, you have to have player of the Year like this, uh in national at the nash no level, or did something significant like Steve Kerr was the comeback Player of the Year or honorable he knows, Steve Kerr won the most

courageous that one, something like that, So that was it. So you have to be something like that national Player of the Year. So Noah might. I don't know what the criteria is for that, but he will be on the on the the Ring of Honor for that, because Christian CaCO just got the Ring of Honor, right, ring of Honor, right, Yeah, he's not as not as yeah, because he was he was a defensive Player of the Year in the Pac twelve, which they've kind of watered it

down. There's a lot of people on that ring of one the Pack twelve though. Yeah, yeah, Okay, yeah, that well that yeah, we without a doubt that you know, he's in the Ring of Honor. Now it says I'm looking at the criteria for Ring of Honor for football Conference Player of the Air, Freshman of the Year, and Defensive Player of the Year. Uh and for football only packed uh packed a major national player of distinction. Uh for example, Heisman National Championship most Valuable not the same player.

Yeah, so he's but if he's got if Conference Freshman of the Year gets you in the Ring of Honor, then National Freshman of the Year gets you in the Ring of honor? What else? Uh? That's it except for you got You guys were wondering the four Arizona players in the combine. So there's Yeah, it is only four of them. It's Jacob Cowing, Jordan Morgan, Taylor McLaughlin, and Michael Wiley. Okay, so more than they've had in a long time. So give me the name slowly because I

don't pay attention. Jacob Cowen, Jordan Morgan, Tanner McLachlan and Michael Wiley. Who's going to go first to the draft Morgan first round? And then give me the order. Give me the order. I think of the of the remaining three. Michael Wiley's got the best chance to be a really good NFL player, But because he's a running back, you'll get drafted later. I think Tanne mcglockall get drafted. I love the way tight ends are hard to come by. He's a Don't you think he was an unsung guy this

year? How valuable he was? I don't think he was unsung. He got a lot of I think you media guys gave him a lot of attention. I thought, I don't know, certainly in the in the uh you know, the games, you know, he got like he got a lot of play. I thought, see, and I didn't because of Tim mac and some of the others, because just because of that. But he had a fantastic year, uh in a in a at a program where tight ends were relatively ignored for years. Yeah, I know, But but tight ends

now becomes such a big part of the game. When you think guys like you know, Travis Kelcey, uh, George Kittle, guys that came before them, what's his name, the homie from cal he's in the Hall of Fame, played with the Conzults. Yeah, Downy Gonzales can think of his name. He has your last name. He spells it with a Z. He doesn't really have my life, is that? Yeah? You Hispanics, he always did, are always criticizing names and stuff. Okay, here are

the requirements for jersey retirements college football. Receive a National Player of the Year award, does that? You know, foot Freshman of the Year. Receive a major National Athlete of the Year honor, have been inducted in the National Football Foundation College Football Hall of Fame. So, and then be most outstanding player in you know, in the in the sport. Okay, so there

you go. And he's still got some time. So yeah. And so the jersey the numbers that are retired jerseys not numbers, right, because there's a difference, because you can't you can't not have numbers. Art Lapino, Ricky Hunley, Chuck c. Sildaryll Lewis, Rob Waldrip, Steve McLoughlin, Teddy Bruskie, Chris McCallister, Antoine Cason. That's a good list, and I can't I can even give you why that's a good list. You know,

three of those guys, uh, Hall of Fame. Uh, four of those guys College Hall of Fame, Right, Honley, Cecil Waldrop Bruski, Darryl Lewis, and Antoine Cason for the Jim Thorpe Award, McAllister for the Mostly to Two Special Teams Award, UH Steve McLoughlin for lou Grose. A Placekicker award. Maybe a Freshman of the Year doesn't get you that you got to be like the best player. Well this is national I know, I know. But does it have anything to do with what you do after

you leave? No? No, not not for jersey retirement. Ring of Honor does if you're in if you're in a major league Like Kenny Lofton got his basketball jersey retired because he played ten years in Major League Baseball. Yeah, and who's about and list guys, BJ BG, t J McConnell. He's going to get his jersey retired once he gets not his jersey retired. His he'sn't getting the Ring of Honor because he's been in. He's gonna have been in the league ten years, right, And that's how a lot of

them have gotten in LUTs times. Yeah, they've been there fronto. Okay, they seem ten years for t jerready, I know, seems like five kissing the court doesn't seem that long. Well, okay, look at look at basketball. Okay, they got I guess a different criteria. But Steve Kurz is because he got the Crery Just Athlete of America, Sean Freshman Player of the Year for Bibby and Jason Gardner, Miles Simon for final Foremost Outstanding

Jason Cherry, and Shawn Elliot Financial Player of the Year. So Steve Curz doesn't have anything to do with his nine championships all about Arizona that he would have been in because of the NBA. But he's Yeah, but his jersey's retired. That's a step above ring. Yeah, all right, but he let wear twenty five personally. Well, again, the jerseys are retired, right, but not the number number on the back. Just look, the U of A has got two numbers that they're not gonna let anybody elsewhere.

Elliott's thirty two in Curage twenty five. Yeah, I think I think Baby's ten. They'll let somebody wear that probably. I think somebody has. Gardner has twenty two, that's probably been out there. Jason Terry's thirty one, Miles Simons thirty four. I think all those numbers are are in play, but I think thirty two and twenty five they're probably You're probably not going to see anybody wearing those numbers. That Hey, let's take the break. It's

four thirteen right now. Fourth thirteen can get to about four to seventeen. Ish. I told them to call in at four seventeen. Okay, so we got a minute. Let's let's take this. Let's take a minute so that we don't we're not taking because we also got to make because they're gonna be We're gonna have two people on this on this call, which we've never done before. We might go a little longer if we have to have anything else on your on your list it okay, So we own the show.

We can do whatever we cap except for the except for the top of the hour. Right up. People continue to ask me what's up with that blank spot? I know to tell them what can't be help you here? The blank spot at the top of the first hour, that's where that's that belongs to iHeart National. So if they don't fill that up with ads, we don't have any ads, right so, and then uh, podcast real quick, and then you can always follow us on the podcast. Now we cut

that stuff out. We cut We cut all the iHeart ads out of our podcast. We just leave our ads on this. We appreciate if you don't fast forward to those because we like people to know our sponsors to to get the benefit of that. But we are you're gonna go out. You can go to uh Apple Podcasts, you can go to Spotify or the iHeart iHeart website, iHeart app and catch our podcast. We'll post it every single day. So we have a lot of people who go to A lot of people

go to that. Thousands of people go to that. Yet to the numbers, that's what the numbers say. That's the numbers. Tell us. All right, Okay, now we're gonna take our break a Da Barnes and Jada Williams Arizona women's basketball. We'll be joining us at the same time. This will be an adventure. We'll see how that goes. So let's stick around. The Window Depot is more than a windows store. The Window Depot is a one soft warehouse with everything you need for your complete Homer model shop.

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Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Hey, welcome back to my I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. He's Jacobsauce. Now on the phone. We have Idea the fashionista Barnes and Jada the banker Williams. Thanks right, Yeah, that's a good one. You know, she playing those banks. She's been working on the hall week she's been calling the shot way. Well, it certainly was last Friday night. Let's start there, do you, because you know, I mean, come on, you

guys, go up and beat Stanford seven players. They will keep talking about that, but they just kind of going into that what the hell happened that night? Well, I don't know, I think just well, so it's funny we went there. We knew it's gonna be a really tough weekend, Like no one wins that Stamford. We just knew, but there was zero pressure for us. You know, they have the pressure. They're trying to

win the conference. A little fis very tight race, so they had pressure, and I think we just played and put ourselves in a good situation. Made they made some huge plays down the stress, and then Data decided to go off, but she said, decided to wait the fourth quarter to make it interesting, and then things just fell our way. But you know, honestly a lot of people are like, oh, Cama Bring didn't play.

But to me, it's worse than a great player doesn't play. The reason why is because when you have such a deep team, people really step up. Players are in different situations. Someone gets to start that hasn't been starting, and people rally and that people want to prove they can win without a great player. So sometimes I think it's more dangerous, no question. I think you hit on a great point. No pressure. When you have that with you, you can play free wheeling and you play more relaxed. We

see it on the men's side. How do you use that to your advantage? Well, you can play free and I think we started off the game pretty well. We just made some plays and usually Stanford the type they really hit shots and pull away. Hannah jump was hitting stopped in the first half, and I think that we made some adjustments and overplayed some situations and she didn't give them any shots, and we did a good job on the boards.

I just think we just found a way, and I think that's what this team is all about, finding a way, playing together, just playing hard for forty plus minutes, and that's what they did and it helps us on the game. So, Jada, you know, tell us about that fourth quarter. You know it was it was nuts. Uh, you know, you guys were trailing the whole game pretty much, But tell us what you know what kicked in uh, you know, going towards the end of

that game. Honestly, I just think we all walked in there believing we wanted to win. So when it came to crunch time, it wasn't just me, Like everyone was denying pass we were getting stills, we're getting deflections. I think everyone just really stepped up in those big moments. So I think it kind of gave us a lot of confidence and it kind of showed us what we can where we can be in the posted. Yeah, that's

the word I wanted to use. You guys must have felt confidence. But for you, had you been in a zone like that at any point in your career or maybe so, I mean when you play the big teams, you step up, you feel a different type of I don't know confidence that I just feel like you just feel more prepared and stuff. I think when you played the ranked teams and the rank players, it just I don't know,

you kind of go into a differ. So I would say I've been there before, but I just think I was prepared and my teammates were prepared. So for mere side Jada, and let's let's get into this just a little bit because it has been such a big issue. You look down the bench. There aren't a lot of players over there. How are the players deal staff and players? The bench there's like two players and there's like seven

stats. But you don't have any more eligib I know you wouldn't want to well, and you can't throw Salvo out there, so we know that too. No, I can't, he can't play. I can just sell them for tickets. But you know, you guys, look down the bench. You know somebody, you know somebody in the middle of the game, you

know, turns an ankle or whatever. What's going through the player's minds with all of that stuff going on, and and what how do you guys take that and how are you dealing with all that on a you know, game by game basis. Honestly, I think we take it personal when somebody gets hurt. Like for instance, when we played cal we had like three people get hurt in the first half. So I think everyone just stepped up big

and I think we took it personal to win game for that person. But I think we have small numbers, so we know we have to be careful to be smart. But at the same time, we're all united, and I think that just goes a long way. So did how do you condition them? Or it's already to the point where they're already conditioned because you can't overwork them in practice and you can't you got to putty monitor your minutes during the game. Yeah, well, okay, I can't monitor monitor during the

games because we can't win if people don't play a lot of minutes. So that's like out the door. But what we have to do, like today, I'll give you an example. Today, we need to work on some stuff. You know, it's a Tuesday we play on Thursday. I guess so many people we had live for practice today five two to what you do people, it was like, well, we can't practice today. So honestly, we've been doing a good job of resting. If you look at us, we look like a fresh the fresh are team in a lot of these

games. So credit to Chris Allen and Bar for keeping us healthy, Chris for giving us a good shape, and we don't look worn out in games. I mean, we are tired, but I think they have such a tough mentality and there their troopers, their dogs, so you know, like ocal warriors. I think that they just have a will. And what's funny is when we were kind of dropping like flies against Cal they were like rallying more like as Mary got elbowed. The game was one of the most physical

games I've ever been a part of. It was it was good, it was fun, but like someone got elbowed in the face, someone got elbowed off the ball, like there were intentional fouls, and like they rallied more. They're like, all right, you want to play like this, let's go. So I love to see that because that's how I am. And that was fun. They were like they they bucked up. They womaned up,

not man when things were hard. I love to see that. So I mean, in your lifetime as a player, either as a player or a coach, have you been a part of anything like this, you know, where you know everybody's just got to hang on and and you know we don't have you know, just start the number of players that you need for something like this. Yeah, I've never been a part of something like this as a player or a coach, But I think that's what makes it challenge

me. I think you have to love the hard stuff, and it's a challenge, it's festal, and I think it's an amazing story. And like when I look back, I talked about this at this event I did today, Like hindsight's always twenty twenty. I thought we'd be a little bit deeper this year. Remember we started the season with twelve players, right, and but someone quit and then someone got removed, and someone got hurt, you

know whatever, So just various factors. Then now we have seven and eight in the walk on she's no our sets and stuff, but she can't really play it, so it's really seven. But like I didn't anticipate this, so I scheduled a really hard non conference. Looking back, I wouldn't have done that, but I didn't know the situation would be like this. I scheduled way too hard because if we would have won the three or four or more games in a non conference, going to the tournament wouldn't even be a

question and we'd be a top ten team the whole year. So, like, that's kind of an unfortunate thing for this year, right right. You're you were great on social media two days ago. You posted something with the celebration after cal You said something that struck me. They fight, they love each other, and they had my back when I had to make tough decisions

in the best interest of the team. Can you elaborate, Yeah, well, anything any big infidense to have that we know about internally that obviously the public doesn't know about. They've always rallied and a lot of stuff. They really wanted this, Like they wanted me to make these decisions, and they rally behind them, and like, and it's hard making a decision to the part ways of someone during the year. That's a very hard decision for a

lot multiple reasons. And they've always believed in it and they backed me on those tough decisions and I respect that a lot, and people don't and what do they say, like you know, you're moving over twelve inches? Is really hard being a head coach. It's very easy to say I'll get rid of this person, do this, do that part ways, but like you have to explain to parents, there's so many layers of stuff. But they supported all that and they said, hey, whatever you decide, we're going

to we go for and we have your back. And I think that's just a true team and a team you want to coach in go to war with. So do we absolutely have to ask you and you can answer as much this as you want. But Kaylen Gilbert, she was here, she wasn't. She was here, she wasn't. How much can you tell us about about the situation with her and how it came to, you know, a final realization that you said yesterday on a radio search show that she's not coming

back. What what can you tell us? Well, I think there's just a lot of there's various things that happened throughout the year, and there's decisions you have to make as a coach whatever is the best interest of your team, and those are hard decisions to make that they're necessary, and that's what

that's leadership, and that's why leaders Leadership is hard. And I think that when you have a team, you have to you have to simulate to a team, and you have to sometimes, you know, you have to sacrifice yourself sometimes. So I think that this team is a true team, is the cohesive unit of seven. They were moving in the right direction and you're either on the bus or you're off. And if you're off the bus, I'm way into you from the backland though, And if you're one of us,

we're going together doing the right thing. So I wanted certain people on the bus, and I have the right people and the right culture and a great team and a great group of people that love each other and want to do the right thing. So that's what I'm rolling with. So I don't know if you knew know this, but we had Candre on last week and you know, he had his time as an intro a d and he says

to us I wanted to say. He says, Adia, I think this is the best coaching job she's done there, and I looked at Jane. I think that's a pretty strong statement given what's going on and then you pull off the win, and I'm thinking, Okay, I agree. How would you how would you respond to his assessment of you this year? Well, I think that so before I made some decisions, like he was one of the people I talked to yesterday and who I because he's been through so many

situations are similar. But sometimes it's good to get input, you know. But I think that you always wrong, Like culture is everything any business, any team. If you don't have the right culture, you're not going to win. So I think that you have to do what's right sometimes in it's hard, and I think coaching has been harder this year because we don't have depth like we're good at, like developing through the year and making adjustments and

getting better throughout the year. That's been a challenge because we can't practice the way I want to. Whether it's because no practice players, there is a ten people to go, so there's been so many times we haven't been able to practice stuff, and we're better when we do that. So I get credit to the players being able to apply stuff from watching it, being able to focus mentally. And remember three starters are freshmen, right, so freshmen

are freshmen. Freshmen don't have the experience. They've never played this, they don't know these pressure games in college, so like it's not easy. So I give credit to them that just going out and not being afraid of anybody, not being afraid of making mistakes, and going out and putting their hearts into it and like stepping up when we're down. Think about it, losing

five players this year and losing half of our scoring. If you look at the players leaving Maya Solly and you look at Kalen, that is half of our sevenths, like we were average almost seventy fours. Yeah, that's half of our scores. That means other people have to step up in typical situations and I don't think that's easy for a freshman. So this is really going

to pay dividends in the next couple of years. So you have something well real quick, Jada, So you know you're in here as a freshman, what were your expectations in terms of how much you were going to be asked to do right? And how much of that is you know, are you comfortable with right? Because you're playing a huge role. We're talking about you because you you know, you had that game you had against Stanford. You've won a couple of awards because of that, but what were your expectations?

And then as the season developed, how are you taking all the things that were going on? If I could ask you that real quick, everybody, including freshman want to come in and play right right play now, you guys are playing, not just a little, a lot. Honestly, I feel like I've been on many different teams where my role was different, So I feel like my expectation to come to college was to work as hard as I

can and to earn whatever. I didn't want anything given to me or nothing, but I knew that I wanted to come in and definitely take the leadership role because I knew that's just who I am, and so being that leader regardless if they needed me to score or be a leader, or have assist or play defense, whatever it was, I knew I was going to do it because that's the type of person I am and I'm competitive. So throughout the season at the beginning, people say I struggled, but it wasn't about

scoring for me. It was about what can I do to help my team win? So honestly, I would just say I step up to the plate in whatever role I needed to take on. I'm going to do that for my teammates. So the DA said the word culture a couple of times. You know, as as we were talking about this, and you know, you've got seven players. Now you know who you are. I know you brought in another. You've got a high school a player who's coming into it

to help you remember the player. The player that came in played with Data in the eighth grade. Oh you know, they played high school backball. She just happened to be attending Arizona as like a four point zero student, and we just secruited her, like, hey, you haven't played a couple years, you want to come out. They're just familiarity there. Well he's only he's not but she's actually good and she's not in basketball. Stay,

but I think he's a player that will play here. Okay, well we want to get back to that in a second, but let's talk about the culture Jada, that that the coach is talking about in terms of the players you've got left. You know, Idea said, they're together, everybody's on you know, everybody's on the same page. Which do you kind of feel like the air has cleared a little bit for you guys now with with you know, as we head into the last stages of the season, then okay,

let's just play some basketball. Yeah. I think we're at the point in the season where we can't have any distractions because that does affect the game and THEFX how we play with each other and how we interact with each other. So we're at to the point of the season where we would just rather play with less people and play with people that want to play together and that want to win and all have the same end goal, which is to make

it as far as you can. So, Coach, dumb question. I don't know if you remember this, but maybe three or four years ago you were on the show we talked about and I stupidly said, oh, you ve you're right now, how does it feeling? You laughed at me, and he said, what a dumb question, which which, of course it was right before you went to the championship game. How difficult is it? And I've said this before, it's tough to get there to the top, but it's even tougher to stay there. How has that been? Oh,

I think it's really hard. I think just nowadays with the climate of women's basketball and basketball in general, with so many transfers and different various factors. I think it's just hard to sustain success and keep your core just because of money and just different things. But I think that there's no doubt in my mind that we'll get back there. And I said, we're gonna win it.

I don't know when, but it'll happen. I think that. But it starts from having a core group that staying together longer and building off that. So I think this is the start of something special and it's really going to pay off down the thrust. And you know, we're playing in the toughest conference in the country starting three freshmen, which no one else is doing, and I think that's overlooked a lot. But I think it's really going to pay off next year in the year after. I mean, look at

UCLA a great example. They took some lumps and took some punches last year. But now those freshmen that are sophomores now they play like seniors, and so I think we're going to see the same thing and I'm excited for the future. Now I just have to get some great pieces, not to replace them, to like compliment them and just help our strengths, and we have a good group of young kids that are great kids that other people are going to want to play with, and I think are just the foundation for a

great culture and a winning plow and a winning team. Yeah, all right, So you got some games coming up this week, big ones, and after you're going, I mean again in your situation right now, you're going Thursday Saturday instead of Friday Sunday. But tell us a little bit about your expectations this week and what you're trying. Obviously trying to win, but you

know, how are you going to win? Well, we've won the last six Satay were I think we're hot right now, and we've slept the last two weekends, so I really feel like that we have a chance to win at home. And I think this is we play very good at home. We're very confident at home, and I think that we can upset some teams at home this weekend. I think that we would have a chance to have success this weekend, and I think that having success this weekend will solidify our

face in the tournament. No doubt. They're two top ten teams that are really good, but we're also playing really good and we're not scared of it. Here right now, we have momentum, and at this time of the year, the most important thing is you have a momentum, a little bit of luck, you're playing at home, you win games, and then you continue your momentum to the packs off tournament NCAA tournament, And I think we're at that spot right now. Go well, okay, okay, see I'm

a guy who doesn't believe in momentum. Well, to me, I'm not guarantee at sweep, but we have a good chance to win some games. I know we're almost at the end of this. Let me ask you something, another dumb question for me, coach, Coach, I see Juju plays for USC and she's a very good player. But let me tell you something. To me, you you she plays like you. I don't know if you see the same similarities. But it's very methodical, very good, smart

decisions. Do you see some of you and her? Well, I would side and I would say that you haven't seen my highlight video have been that good? But no, I think you're saying she plays like our team style. No, no, no, you you personally? Yeah, I was okay, that's a compliment. No, I was not near that good, but no, she's she's just she's a really good player with good size as a perimeter player and a fearless score. So reminds me of some of a

keelthy plument. Sounds like high volume, but can make suce you know, so hard to guard because she's always on that tack mode. But I think that there's pros and cons, Like just think about us a couple of years ago. We were very air eycentric, right, so if you can like slow her down a little bit, like the other players aren't used to having thirty fours, so I think you can like win and you can lose games

by that, and that's kind of how we were. So to me, that more dangerous teams are the teams like Stanford where it's like four people average fifteen and like, you know, I think it's but I think she's young and still get to that. I think still learn is to get older, to involve her teammates a little bit more because it'll help her win, Like she'll win a championship that way. But I think right now it's like she tries to do it a lot herself, which she's really good and she's making

them win. But I think that I think her game will evolve because she's a really good player and she's special. Okay, well then we're going to see you here this week. So coach, thank you, Jada, thank you so much for coming on the National Player of the Year to play National Player of the Week. That's regrets that, Yeah, we should have been Okay, you need you need to talk about this. There is no way we should not have been the ESPN team in the league. But do you

look at all that we were the game the win of the league. There's no way we should have been a team of week for sleep in thaty welee lept against two really good teams, one number three in the country. That was kind of be us. Now. The other thing is we want to pass the house Thursday and Sunday. It's a doubleheader. We want ten thousand

plus people. We need, we need help. We know Tucson has the best sixth man in the country, the right people to show up and show out there you go, they'll listen to you, they'll be will they will Okay, I'm happ to get on Twitter has more followers than be Safe. When you're on Twitter, Twitter is I just got to start out to talk crap because everybody's talking crap about my roster. All right, thanks again to the both of you. Good luck this week, I thank you, thank

you. She's right, she's gotta be careful with that Twitter thing. I know, I know. All right, we got to get out of here real fast. We're gonna have a short segment coming back. But would love to hear your thoughts on all of that, So stick around. If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you know it's been successful for nearly forty years.

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down all the excess at alls. It's Steve Rivera and Agan Salves. This is an Eye on the ball on Fox Sports fourteenth. Hey, welcome back to whying the ball here on Fox Sports torteen fifty. I'm Steve, He's Jay at the least with us, got ten minutes. I you guys want to call, you can yell at us for the interview or Mike's for the interview with the deal, got a text saying that they agree with saying to

agree with and Andrea that this is the best coaching job she's done. And it's got to be the most difficult, certainly has to be the most challenging. Yeah, because of you know all the things. But you know what somebody like like a d and we all know that Ada lacks no confidence,

right. I Mean she's got all the confidence, but you know the things that she's accomplished and those kinds of things, and she's assured of herself and she she's making the decisions as she said that she thinks are best for the team in the program, and you know, and that's the way they are and those decisions have led to where they are. But she's willing to, you know, to go with it, right, And it's in spite of what's it's at the detriment of the team as a whole. She got rid

of well, I don't know the phrases, Gilbert no longer there. Whether it's mutual or or whatever. It's obviously you're thinking, well, she's pretty a good player. Yeah, it's gonna hurt think about how often? And that was that was the question I was asking, you know, when you clear all of that out and now it's just okay. Now it's you know, more like their road ahead. So Hi, you're on the air and eye on the ball. Hey Jay, Hey Steve, how's it going good?

Done? Done right? Yeah? So's I could here, I could hear I could hear the steam coming out of Steve though after the four times Ida said, you talked about that they're on a good run. They don't have Mom they're on a good run. No, they're on a good run and they make good adjustments. It's not like they're steam rolling or they're doing the same thing over and over right, exactly because go ahead, Because well

Sunday they had to deal with the injuries. Elena turned an ankle, and then and then as Mary got smacked in the mouth, and they just kept coming and they were up by twenty ath a half. You know, I think something that I noticed too, and I think it either a Deer or Jada mentioned it that you watch them at the end of the game, they don't look tired. They don't look like they're out of gas. You know, you think they have to be, but they don't. They certainly don't

look it. You know, you don't see anybody dragging, you know what. They seem to still be playing hard. They're playing hard, and they're playing hard during the game too. It's not like they're saving it for the end of the game. It seems like there's a lot of fight in this team. Yeah, you have to like that, And I think that's why it looks this is probably Ida's best job at coaching job is because of that. I mean, these there's there's no letdown. Have you seen them play?

How often have you seen them play? I I try to catch them on the on the on the PEC twelve network. I haven't seen them live this year. And I was hoping I could score some tickets for Thursday. Well you better, you better get them back. They're hoping for ten thousand on Thursday. Oh man, that that thing is going to be jumping. And hey, how eloquent is the freshman Jada Williams. Yeah, I noticed

that very good, very very well. I mean they interviewed her after the game, after the Stanford game, and I was like, holy moly, this little girl's talking like a machine gun, because he was. I could hardly hear her, she was talking so fast. But she said she said a lot of words in a short amount of time, and it seemed like

they were all very well thought out. And I was like, wow, this, you know, No wonder she's playing so well is that she's she's got that, she's got the intelligence behind that, and she's very impressive. Well done, Thanks for the momentum and the call. Get some tickets done, and and and and show up on on Thursday. It's not it's not Thursday. Then on the weekend. All right, man, thanks for colling, Thank you. Yeah, got about five minutes for you can take another

call or two, that'd be great. Down said it four times. I'm gonna tweet, you know, tweet Now, who's the coach who's not right? Just because you said it doesn't mean it's true. She said, that's all they need right now. Okay, you don't buy it if they're on a good run, which is great, I'm not. It's not a criticism. I just don't believe in the word. It's just this is what it is. Every when it was a nice run before they played Washington, nice

run and momentum right, what what the hell did that mean? Not a damn thing. Well, I didn't. Nobody ever said momentum guarantees that you're gonna win the next game. No one ever said that, right. Nobody's ever said that all you're seeing is that you have. It's not you're on this role, you feel good about yourself, you're on this roll. Another word, and that is that is momentum. And sometimes momentum always has to end. Right, Nobody's not. Yes, it is. Even those undefeated

U c l A teams of the seventies, they didn't have. They didn't have momentum through the whole year. There were some games that they probably didn't play so well. But you can have. Momentum is a thing. It's like a flame for a little bit and it eventually will die. But if you have it at the right time. You see, you've probably never gotten like on a on a heater. No, no, like on the golf course. No no, I played poker. You go on heaters or not

on heaters, no difference. But that's that's the luck of the cards. But when you're doing something physical like playing golf, I understand what you're saying. You know, I just want to go on a roll. You you could use your momentum word all you want. Whoever you believe in ghosts. What's the difference between going on a roll and moments? That's my word, my road. You're going on a roll. You can use momentum because it doesn't exist. Google the word and see what it means. It's Google the

word and tell me what's the definition. It's more about inertia than it is about But people don't know what other word to use besides roll or moving forward. No, but not, it's it's a word that people use just because they use it. They have no other word to use. They're on a nice roll, everybody. I was on a nice role, golf, same poker, same when you you go on a heater. Perfect word. I don't like this word definition exactly. That's not what I mean exactly. You

kind of understand what I'm saying. No, well, this it's more about it's physics. Like correct, that's what it's correct. I mean, I guess it's physics. So now you understand a little bit more what I'm talking about. Well, no, okay, Well, momentum in the sense that we're talking about it isn't a physical physical no, get inertia. Momentum is a feeling. Yeah, I don't disagree with what you're saying because you believe in that. It's like believing in ghosts. Either you do or you don't.

I believe in ghosts, and this is not a ghost. You use the word. I get it. I understand why people use it. I like it. I just don't believe it because you like it. I No, I like the word role. They're on a nice role. They have some nice momentium. I've seen Arizona basketball who had a great momentum and then they lose in the first round, so their momentum wasn't real. It wasn't real. I like this what they said. And an object or a thing

with momentum is going to be hard to stop exactly. And guess what happens. It stops sometimes sometimes sometimes it does sometimes there's something more powerful to stop. It can't be kind of pregnant, either you were or you aren't. But you can't kind of have momentum. Yeah, that's true. You can either you do or you don't. That's that's my argument. I hope I get that. But you understand by the definition of the word, by the definition of the word like in physics, but that there's a lot of words

that we say that we don't use the dictionary definition of it. That's my point. People use this word because there's no other word for it except for role. They're on a nice run, the nice run heater in a different Sportum is almost like you can't describe it likes just so they use the word momentum exactly. Okay, I don't know, people, shut up. You know, I'm just happy that you're on my side on this one, because yeah, because you know, what you know why it's the right. We've

been on our side, so you know that doesn't do it anyway. If I convinced her she could use the word role, we're on a nice role right now, but we didn't have time to do that. Maybe at the next Right now, she's on Twitter now, Hey, good job. This was fun, and thank you Adia Barnes for joining us today. Hey, Gregorian talking about the a D. I can't wait for it to get here. Get her on the show. I don't know what we think and we'll have a lot of fun with that. So great. All right, thank

you everybody for being here. We'll be back tomorrow. Patrick Finley joining us talk about Caleb Williams and uh uh and the NFL and Hold Rabino getting ready for the game, so we'll be sure to be here. Thanks for thanks for being here, and talk to you tomorrow.