This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services Insure your most prized possessions.
Good afternoon, everybody, Welcome to Iron the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera and with me today is Dave Silver. Eventually we'll have Kobe in with us later. But we're looking to have a pretty good show today. Interesting story or not story, interesting day, nonetheless, a lot of things going on. Big game tonight, big basketball game. I would venture to guess you are not gonna go. If I'm not gonna go, You're a smart man. But I'll be awake, I hope. Oh yeah, Well that's
the hope. That's the hope of everybody in that arena.
We have not had too many nine o'clock starts, so.
Maybe two or three since I can remember, but I can't remember much now, but yeah, nine o'clock. It's gonna be a late start. You get out of there by midnight until thirty for me at least. Yeah, and a big game too, should be good. I mean, Baylor's coming in.
They're one of the top teams in the conference and in the country as well. Ranked ahead of the U of A. You know, there's Scott Drew. They've they've had, you know, some some good history in the last decade or so.
It's national championship. Yah, not too long ago. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. We're gonna have Bryce Cherry on the show with the fourth seventeen time timeframe today and he's the sports letter of the Wake Coach Tribune, and I think he covers the team directly. I did not make the trip. You know, why would you want a nine o'clock But I'm wondering, and this may be a question for you two, that Baylor, like Arizona at times, lives office its reputation. You know, it's history. This is
all Baylor. We're coming. They're good, well, not not always, you know what I'm saying. And eversone gets that too. It gets a benefit of basketball. Arizona all they're good, but not always.
Yeah, pretty much though, I mean, oh yeah, yeah, right, you're right. I mean there are some teams that death we have reputations, and Baylor is going to be one of those types of teams from this conference that people are gonna think about and maybe worry about a little bit. More and maybe maybe it's not warranted this year, but they're off to a pretty good start. They've had a couple of losses to some great teams. Their record has been tough.
Yeah, and they also takes took a loss, a big loss here and there, I think, a big points. But if I can remember can Zaga until Big twenty five whatever it is. Yeah, yeah, yeah, don't worry about that. Just just sit there for down by. Kobe is here. So we're good. Yeah, So we'll see what happens. They're good. And I'm not going to say the top twenty five is good because Arizona is all giddy for knocking off two top twenty five teams. Yeah, and they're all not
that good. Yeah, you know, they're kind of backed in the top twenty five like Baylor.
Yeah, and Arizona's kind of hoping to get in there. I think maybe I thought with those wins they'd have a chance. But you know, I think people are more concerned about where you are in March than you are right.
Now, right of course, And that's the smart way to look at it, right. A lot of games left, Tommy. I had yesterday one of my guys who who I trust in and listened to sent me a text. I don't know if you did you listen to yesterday, No shame on you. But I he texted me and said that the rant by Tommy was scripted. He knew exactly what he wanted to say. He was scripted. He knew going in that this was his message, and.
He was.
It's kind of like this is I kind of give you grief in a good way, Dave, and I hope you take it this way. You're a good dude, right, You're just a good dude, and there's no bad thing out of that. But it's like you probably yelling at your kids and guys. You know what I'm saying, you be mean. You can't be mean. You're too good of a guy, So you know what I'm saying. That was Tommy the other night saying these guys, you know, pounding the table. Okay, but you're not really mean.
Well, when I heard the comments, I don't know if I heard them actually live it read about on the next morning. My first thought again was to go back to loot and how he used to do that in the media all the time.
He used the media all the time.
He would go post game and he'd go postal on some of the players and you knew it was just a message he was sending. And these guys are like, you know McDonald's all Americans, are all Americans in college and they're hearing their coach.
You know, rip them.
Yeah, they know it's a psychological ploy. And I'm sure Tommy is you know, feel kind of the same way.
Sure, Sean did that a lot. I think Sean did it more with his words and his eyes where he would send messages through us to get to his players, right, all the while saying we don't read you guys, of course, but.
You know the word, Well maybe mom and dad, do you know or somebody somebody in the family does that they can relay the message. And that was to think about how looted that all the time.
And that was social media. Who doesn't who doesn't happen to a bond the story?
Yeah, I mean TV on Twitter and something's on you know, your guys websites or the newspaper website and it's there.
And if you know so, they're.
Not picking up the newspaper, they're just clicking.
On the Sure, yeah, we don't read you, wink wink. And he kind of you could have said that that's you guys. You media guys are the ones that are talking about the blah blah blah well, which means to me that he's actually paid attention. Yeah, you know, why otherwise would he say that? But uh, interesting stuff, especially for Tommy mild manner. Tommy was not so mild matter. But but again, if you're a like you, you're a
nice dude. Dave. I've never seen you mad, not that I hang around with you all the time, but I've seen and you got mad. I'm thinking, Dave, really, come on, you don't get mad? Well, I do sometimes, but you know what I'm saying. But you're right.
They have a reputation for being the way they are, especially the way they are in public. And all of a sudden, you know, Tommy's you know, getting upset publicly, and you know, in front of you guys and in front of you know, players and their families and stuff like that. Who are going to read that. It's it's a little bit disconcerting a little.
But as uh as I was he was, I was in the front row I usually typically am, and he's right there and he was doing this, and I'm thinking in my head, interesting that I'm nodding, and I'm nodding just kind of he's responsible and I'm writing. And then he's anymore and kind of fingering the table, look like puting the table, and I'm kind of that I'm laughing inside, but kind of laughing outside too, like you know, like this is interesting and this is kind of funny. Yeah,
And then I asked him. He says, you haven't done this very often? Can you count the times? And he says that doesn't matter. You know, that doesn't matter because you know I'm telling you now, you know this is about our season. Yeah, yeah, which should makes it even for better stuff. Yeah, you know, because he's ranting with great quotes.
Well, as I was watching it at home too and watching that lead disappear again, I'm thinking, oh, here comes the the November Wildcats again, not the January Wildcats. The way they were giving up those leads, and I could you could tell the frustration he took kle about you know, maybe I don't know, eight or nine minutes left and again when the when when you see I started pressing, Yeah, things kind of started to unravel a little bit.
Well, he was lolly Kegan again he fell back and threw a ball away and then fell back in a ball or whatever. Yeah, and yeah, he just can't. And and directly I would assume that he was talking to him, Yeah, you know, I can't have you. I don't care who who you are, what you think you are. You can't do that. I just can't. Yeah. And the two sons who will follow the Cats say that every day at the TV. Right, what do you do it?
Yeah?
I mean he had you know, he did have a pretty good stretcher in the last month or so, I guess maybe the last couple of weeks. But you're right, there was that there was a moment on that in that game when they basically gave up the lead again. Yeah, and your thought is like, what, you know, how are we gonna how are they going to stop this?
Here's here's the problem I have, Dave. If you show these tendencies now and you have been in the recent past, you know, the last six weeks, whatever, what's the thing that at some point in March that ugly head won't show right? Well, that's that's that's the way that every season is going exactly exactly.
I mean, you go, let's see Bala's missing free throws again last year. Well, that's going to come back to haunt and in March.
Yeah, I remember, you remember Cali party back in two thousand and nine, I think was when he took his team to the finals and the biggest question for Memphis was can you hit free throws? Oh, it's not going to be an issu you We're gonna be fine. Can you hit the issues? As you went through the tournament, white run to the tournament, got to the finals, tight, Kansas, I think it was and it's not gonna be a problem. Guess what happened. Yep, it was a problem. It continued.
It didn't just stop. Calendars push it away. You can't wish it away. Yeah. So so here they are. So we'll see if Arizona can just hold court home home games, win some home games in the in the Big twelve, they'll be okay. What okay means I don't know, but you can't lose him home the Big twelve.
Well, they're gonna definitely have some confidence going into tonight. I would assume, knowing that they played well, they're gonna have you know, they'll have the home crowd. Are the students back out of the students back in school. Yeah, so the students should be you know, returning. There's a little more enthusiasm and michale from before, even if it's a late night start.
Yeah, because tomorrow's your first day, right, Yeah, class to start tomorrow. They'll be there. They're not going. They're gonna steep, get some resk, go to class tomorrow.
Right, right, because they've been waiting for this game. This is one of the marquee games on the schedule for sure, right.
Uh, Kobe looks at me like, shut up, old guy, I'm going you go to the game. I'm so Yeah. It's the late game two yeah, nine pm. Well, you guys would be a Bob Dobbs anyway. Are you twenty one? I'm twenty Oh yeah you're not a Yeah, you're we go to Bob Dobbs after the game. Yeah. Yeah. That's the old group, guys. That's your dirt bags, their dirt bags, the young. So we'll see what happens again today. We're gonna have a little fun show in the first hour.
Uh.
Bert Williams mean you know of him from you know, being a businessman, local businessman, a big Arizona basketball fan, I'm sure you're in University of Arizona athletic fan. Uh. He's a as you described him, and you knew a dave who he is. He's one of the three blind mice that occasionally show up at McHale. I think it's been a while since they've been on the court.
He posted something I want to say on Facebook or someplace recently, thinking hey, they may be returning tonight. So I I forgot. Oh yeah, that was Bert Williams. So there's three guys that have done that for a long time.
Yeah, you know, one of them has a cane, right. I think now they probably actually used knes since that old.
His routine has become real.
That's right, that's right. You're blind. Actually I am your usual kne Actually I do, because they've been around. He sent me some photos up today for today's post. Where from two thousand and six, two thousand and seven, so that's twenty years ago, and they were kind of already old. It's like it's like a corky God bless my friend. He looked eighty when he was sixty, you know, and Lou had his gray hair too. You think God looked great. Well,
he's only fifty five. You know what I'm saying, he's only but he's like my age.
Yeah, Mike co anchor go guy. Actually yeah, yeah, he looked like you know, he had that gray hair when he was in his forties.
Yeah, and you look to say you have been changed, Well I have, but you just don't know. Yeah. Yeah, So he's gonna be on We're going to talk about tonight game. How that whole thing started, why it started. We all know why it started, but uh, you know, just the's fun they have with it, and just his thoughts on the team he was. He's become close with a lot of the ex guys. Let's see how he thinks about Yeah, you know yeah.
I mean, you know, he was kind of in the he was later than the uha man, but you know he's kind of the same, same ilk same. You know, they would both perform right at some point in some of the games when what we're going, well.
What did it take you for you to do something like that?
Man?
No, just to do something like that's not you. That is not mean, that's that's not You're not being mean and you're not doing that. Yeah.
Yeah in front of fourteen thousand people, know, you knew you would do it at home.
Oh, you can do it and no one would know who you are, like like the wildcat, you know, should be like anonymous anonymous.
Yeah.
Yeah, So we'll see what happens with that tonight. So that should be fun. And again I'm going to talk about the the game more in the second hour with Bryce Cherry from the way Go Paper out there last that same Did you like it? I did? J J had the Minnesota sounds good. I don't know.
I mean, I've never been a big Rams fan, not that it matters if you're a fan of but you know, I basically turned that thing off when it was about twenty four to three. I mean, they're not coming back. The fans were pro Vikings. It was it was it was pro Vikings. I thought it was pro LA. No, I think it was the other way.
Oh, Chris said it was more LA than you said. It was a home game for.
LA, but it was a it was a home game, and they set it up as a home game. They had, you know, their logos and their color.
So there's more you're saying, there's more Minnesota?
Did They said it was fifty one percent more vik Vikings.
Oh so it was, you're surprised, and people thought it would be more LA like much.
Yeah.
No, there's a lot of people from that area of the country than La here, although the fires will probably bring a ton of people from yeah, from there to come here and get some houses. Yeah yeah, yeah, So what I mean did it feel it was like fifty five thousand? How many people were in that building? I think it was something like that. They solder like real quick.
Yeah, I mean, you had to sell that thing in what three days basically? And people I saw that the rams bust over, like thirty buses of season ticket holders. Oh you know, they loaded them up that you know, yesterday morning, and I hope they didn't have to go home right after.
The Yeah no, but that's a good bus ride going and coming and going back is gonna be fun?
Or was?
You know?
And they all they flew Then the Cardinals sent out a plane I think to get a lot of the employees and team and everything.
So yeah, it was a good gesture by the by the Bidwells. Yeah, so we'll see they needed some good pub. Yeah.
See what happens next year when everyone says, well, you know, when the Cardinals come to La you know we should honor them somehow, so they they'll probably do.
Something to thank them. Yeah, right, right, Hey, let's take a break down and come back on the other side. We're gonna get ahold of Bert Williams and talk about the three Blind Mice. M Thanks.
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This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
Hey, welcome back to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. In with me today is Dave Silver and now we have a long time you a basketball fan and a sports fan, Bert Williams, Burt how are you.
Excellent? How are you guys?
We're doing well? Are you did you get take a nap? Are you ready for tonight?
Absolutely? I'm ready for tonight. I can't wait. Well, I can't wait, but I'll probably go to sleep because it starts at nine o'clock.
That's why I say, you know, I had to take a nap just to get ready. We're gonna probably get out of here about eleven and eleven thirty. But you, you and your your buddies have something planned.
Well, we really do. And we have a we have a demand that's come up rather uniquely, and it goes back a number of you. It goes back twenty five years. Twenty five years ago we had a situation that that was happening in the Pac twelve pack ten actually, and we responded, and now we can't seem to get out of it.
Did you well, go ahead and explain what it is and then I'll ask him questions.
Yeah, okay. Well, I've had season tickets at basketball and football for fifty two years, and so it's been very evident that the University of Arizona Michale crowd and basketball fans are very knowledgeable in basketball and the referees got really bad in the nineties, in the early nineties, and that was Booker. Turner was one of the headrest and he was great, but then they promoted him to be
in charge of of the referees. And it's a case of the you can reach your point of diminishing returns and you were really great as a referee, but not so good as a supervisor of referees. And the referees went down badly, and all of the fans that mikhale knew it. And there happened to be one game I don't remember which one it was, but it was in nineteen ninety nine that the fans. All three of the refs were really, really bad, and the fans were on them.
They were standing up almost the whole game, yelling at them, and it was so such a crazy situation. They were shouting ugly words at them and everything. And I just sat there in my chair and I looked up and there were people standing all around me like trees. I
couldn't see anything except as the ceiling above me. And I looked up at the ceiling and I said, oh my gosh, those guys looked just like three blind mice and then the vision that I got was of three guys dressed like referees with Rachel's sunglasses, walking hand on shoulder down on the floor, with the lead guy using
a kne It leaped into my mind. But it was the last game of the season, and I thought about it over the summer, and I went out and bought the equipment and when the game when the season started the following year, the year two thousand, I said to Floyd Settlemeyer and Bud and Oreo. There are two guys that sat next to us. We're on the fourth row, right across from the Wildcat bench. And I said, I told the guys what I wanted to do. And I said, if you guys don't want to do it, I'll find
somebody that will. And I said, wait, wait, wait, we want to do it. We want to do it. And so we waded through the preseason and we waited for a big game and lo and behold, it happened. It was either UCLA or Stanford, and we did it. And we were just totally blown away. It was so much noise from the fans and they were taking pictures, they were shouting, clapping, patting us on the back and it was fun, and then we realized that we had kind of struck a chord with all the fans and everything.
And you know, the interesting thing was that we noticed that the fans immediately stopped yelling questionable things at the refs, including all manner of crude things and four letter words, and they started laughing and they were actually laughing and having fun, and the blind refs were getting the point across better than all the screaming and yelling. And so that's kind of where we sit today, and we have sat for twenty five years.
So Bert, when you go to the game, are you in uniform or do you change you know inside McHale somewhere?
How does it your day?
Well, I'll put on the striped shirt and then I'll wear a jacket over the top to tonight's wear Red Night. So I'll wear my red jacket with my striped rough shirt on underneath, and I'll carry a clear translucent bag that would have my my Mickey Mouse ears and my cane and my Rachearl sunglasses in it. And I never have any problems getting that stuff in. So fortunately, I guess.
Do you did you when you first did this, or even now, did you have to ask for permission, Like you know, we talked about the man is the man, God rest his soul, and now you guys who kind of do this?
No, we we just did it, and all of the athletic directors and all of the staff have loved it ever since because it's it's fun, you know. And the interesting thing is that there have been We've had about a dozen true referees that I've talked to, and they remark that they really like the gig. They laugh about it. I've only had one of the referees say anything negative, and he was one of the worst of all the referees.
So I guess the truth can hurt, you know. So we just sort of do it, and we're very cautious to make sure that we follow the rules. Speaking of the rules, we can only go at a four minute time out sixteen minutes twelve eight four in each half, and we can only go if the refs are bad. We're not going to go out and try to be cute. We only go if the rest are bad. We only go.
If the game is close.
And it's going to blow out, even if the refs are bad. We don't go if we're way way ahead, and it's not a closed skiing. We're not going to be bad sports and we only go if a bad call is made against the cats at a four minute time out and the fans are enraged. And so it's it's a little complicated and we try to watch what we do and follow the rules.
Have you have you mentored any of the next generation to take over when the mice when the mice have decided to.
Anyone else going to pick up? Yeah, well we're we're charging a three thousand dollars initiation fee. No, I'm just using no Budden Oreo and Floyd Settlemeyer bless his heart, as he was the chairman of the board for PEMA Savings and he passed away, and we replaced bud Or. We replaced Floyd with with Floyd's grandson, Jordan Emerson. He's
with the Attorney General's Office. Budd and Oreo had to retire because of having some issues with walking, and that's what's coming up with me and UH and so we've we've got some changes going on in that regard. Mike Reiner replaced Richard Berger when Richard passed away, and Mike Reiner is a retired fire captain of the Tucson Fire Department. So and just recently we we brought on Jeff Hamstra.
He's the president of Hamster Heating and Cooling, and he's going to replace me as I retire after twenty five years on this running this puppy.
You're a marketing guy. Have you done this or what?
I have not know? Have you?
Yeah? We did actually, and I made about one hundred T shirts and and we we tossed them out to people just for free. And I'll bring you I'll bring you some T shirts.
Brother, Yeah, that's fine. We can get to Dave and I David, I'm an extra large just so you know, I can't fit at any small same thing. So let me ask you. You're I don't want to. You can divuld your age if you want, but you're talking about all these ages here. You said twenty five years ago. So you were a young man when you decided to do this, and now you're well whatever you are.
Yeah, I'll be eighty in a month. I mean sorry, eighty one in a month. I'm eighty now and I've had some problems walking with hip replacement surgery and things like that. So I've just decided that it's time to bring on more things and more guys. And Jeff Hampshire is a terrific guy, and he's anchored. He has a family business here in town, heating and cooling, and he's just a solid guy. He supports the Wildcats. He is a very strong member of the community, does a lot
of charitable work. And so all of us are here to have good times, support the cats, stand and stand up for them, and do whatever we can to make things work. Support uh, support Tommy, support all the everybody up and down the line.
You've become very popular with a lot of the guys because yeah, you're close to him. I know Miles. Matt Othick just posted something on my Facebook page when I announced that you were coming. So how did that relations should start with most of them?
Well, I'm not sure which which individual are you talking.
About, Miles, Miles Simon, you know, Aja, Matt Athic, those guys.
Oh yeah, well, oh my gosh. We we used to we used to have the Miles and his buddies and their girlfriends. They used to come out to our house and they play a little golf and have some fun. And uh, I just dearly loved Miles and I was his Kevin Flanagan was was mom and dad were friends of hours back in the nineties, and and then mister Flanagan said to me one time, he says, we need to bring somebody else to hang out with us. And I said, well, who's that and he said, well, it's
Miles Simon's dad. So we got the older Simon to start hanging out with us. And I'll never forget one time I got a call from Walt Simon and I was having a bad week. It was really tough. You know, you're in business for yourself and you have good days bad days, and it was a really bad, really bad month actually, and he said, well, I want you to stop what you're doing right now, get in your car and drive over here. And he says, I got a sofa and I want you to spend a couple of
days with me. I'll take you around and babysit you for a while. So I slept on wal Simon's sofa and we became very very close friends. And when Miles's nana passed away, they asked me to be one of the speakers at the funeral, and it was the greatest honor that I had had at that point in time in my life. And I do dearly love Miles and his family and and everybody, and so you know, there's a lot of history that I'm aware of that is under the table that maybe I'll write a book someday.
You can help me.
Okay, I'll definitely do that. Definitely going to do a quick one last question. Do you have an NIL deal yet put together with?
Well, if we could do some figure out some ways that we could pay for it and T shirts, I think that'd be pretty fun.
Well, hey, we can come up with an idea like that, sure, I mean, I'm serious about that too. We'll talk, we'll talk. What you what do you think about the NIL situation?
I think it sucks. I think it's us. It's going to ruin a lot of things, and it's going to sneak up on us and we're gonna wake up someday and we're gonna say, how in the world do we do that? Why did we do that?
Yeah? No question. And you being a local guy with the business, you know, popular business and known business, I'm sure you've gotten a call or two or two or two hundred. Hey can you help us?
Bert?
Can you help us?
Burn. Well, yeah, and I don't see any way that we can justify spending money to in that arena. There are many many more ways that that money can be spent in marketing, Yeah, a much more practically. There are two advertising mediums. There's a shotgun medium and there's a rifle medium. The shotgun medium is where you put somebody's face on a picture, run it on the television screen, or you have an ad in the radio, or you
have a billboard. Now you're not going to be able to determine and control who's going to be seeing that. It's like a shotgun that goes out there and blasts everywhere. But there are direct mail and promotional products. Advertising are like a rifle where you can really key in and nail what it is that is in your target audience and your and that's what we're trying to do. But I'm just happy to help you guys. I'm happy to help the university. My high school sweetheart, Ann and I
we've been married for sixty one years. We grew up in Phoenix Kulleac High School. We came down to the university for our freshman year. We got married after our freshman year and she was a cafeteria girl in the student union, and I worked as a priy cook in Louis's lower levels. Used to cook three thousand hamburgers a day. And you know, I was offered as a scholarship. Actually this is a true story. I was offered a scholarship to be a wrestler in the one hundred and sixty
five pound rate. And I said, well, great, how much does that get? Well, we get you books and I said, well, I've got to work. Oh no, you have to quit work and you have to start working out. And I said I can't do that. If I don't work, I don't go to school. So that was when it was just a club sport back then.
And let me ask myself so every question, as I always like to do, you got a few books? Did you eventually read my book? I know you got some books from some of the guys.
Oh yeah, no, And thank you very much, thank you very much for for signing it. I appreciate it very very much. And I passed the books on. I gave sent one to Miles, and I can't remember Dylan maybe, and Kevin Planning, and I can't remember all the guys. But anyway, it's really a lot of fun. It's a blessing to be living here in Tucson. We are we are just an amazing community. And thank you for everything that you guys do. Yeah, well, thank you, Bert. We'll
see you at the game tonight. Have fun, be safe, don't don't get hurt, all right, all right, then and after it's all over with, I'm gonna go rob a circle. K you want to go with me?
No, no, there's three mice here, but no, I don't want to know. Thanks, Bert, appreciate all right, guys later, all right, Hey, that's good. That's good.
That's why.
Just take a break here, Dave and Kobe and come back on the other side. If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you know it's been successful for newly forty years.
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This is I on the Ball with Steve Ravera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Subscribe now to the podcast on the iHeartRadio app just search I on the Ball.
Hey, welcome back to in the Ball here on pox Sports Fortune fifteen. I'm Steve Rivera, you're Dave Silver and you're Kobe what. Hey. That was a lot of fun. That's good. That's good. We'll see how you know. The funny thing about it, he's talking about all this right, it may not happen because he has all these conditions, right, a four minute every media timeout. It has to be a bad call. Circumciances have to be right. Does he have to clear it? I mean, does he have to clear it?
Though?
Like you know, some of those timeouts are kind of orchestrated with the cheerleaders coming out.
And band playing. Yeah, I don't know.
It always seemed like it was kind of right right as the as the buzzer went off to kind of get everybody off the court to get ready to come back on the court.
Like it's do you remember I can't.
I wondered him walking right by us and we used to be situated, we used to be situated on the floor, on the floor, and.
He would walk right behind us.
Yeah, he'd be coming down from like three or four rows behind us, Right, I do remember that, like turning back behind me, like what.
You're talking twenty years ago? Yeah, that's what we're all on the floor.
Yeah.
I haven't been on the four in sixteen years, probably, but yeah, that and uh, do you remember I can't remember the last time they did this. I can't remember.
Yeah, but they usually would show it, you know, they wouldn't show it live necessarily, but they would show it when they come back from a break in some broadcasts.
Right, but let's see what happens tonight. It's funny because I don't know he named off like six people. I mean, it's it's already like a second generation or whatever. However you say that, Yeah, because he's eighty one. He's eighty one one, he's already passed and they've been doing it.
He said, what twenty five years Yeah, so yeah, so he was a young you.
Were just my history now day with you. It's forty one years. You've been in town forty ishty one years. I've been here at thirty seven, almost thirty eight. God, I'm not sure if time flying, times flying.
I know, but it's great how we can remember some of those things.
I can remember.
I remember the eighty three eighty four season. But I couldn't tell you, like though, that's you know what happened like last week.
No, no, we Jay and I were notorious for that. We just didn't know what the hell would that guy? You know that guy? You know that guy? But we remember, you know, did Bud just from sixty two exactly? This dude?
Yeah, well they had such a big impact as we're kind of growing up and learning on our jobs that I just remember them being just kind of, you know, important to us.
Then who's the who's the day or the or just situations. Yeah, yeah, moments, I mean.
You know, like the other day, I don't know why, I guess when we played Cincinnat whenever I played Cincinnati and they were replaying the shot and then the miles in Phoenix, I mean, you know you you were there, I was there. You know, those are like moments you just don't forget.
It's funny because when they showed that and I was a part of it doing the stories. Obviously, uh my story was after the fact because Luke you know, doesn't really celebrate on the court. He does kind of give us a shrug or whatever. And then remember Huggins just destroying the locker room. He was, you know, really pissed and destroying the locker room. And I think it was his five hundredth victories for Boot. And they partied on thee on the on the trip back, and that's when
you know, when people don't see the stuff. He was having a good time on the way back.
I think they had a cake in the locker room because I that's kind of the end of the story for me.
Sure it's the last time we saw No, you're accurate that one day.
It was funny because our photographer was right underneath the basket and got a great shot of I mean three quarter court because I was sitting, uh, equal to the free throw line at that end, so I'm watching it coming our way and I'm just remember my first thought was, that's got a chance.
That's got chat.
I don't know if it's straight, but it certainly was the right short distance it was. Our photog was Joe Pirates, was right underneath the basket and got a great shot of it.
Yeah, the late great Pirates, right, good photog. Yeah, it was uh, some great times and that's a great moment to five hundred victory for Loot and No one thought they were gonna win. They were underdog in that game. And we said this yesterday and you know this just as well as I do. Arizona when they were an underdog are very They're very good. It's very good. Ye when they're a favorite, you know, they kind of LOLLI
gag or whatever and they kind of let people in. So, you know, for whatever reason, it's just been that case forever.
Sometimes you would, you know, they would get caught in the Pac twelve, you know, with that Oregon State game or Washington State when you go come on, you know where you know Arizona is better, and then something would just not you know there was some reason. Oh yeah, it was too cold, there was nobody in the crowd, there was no life in the arena, and then they just kind of let down. But you're right, when they're when they're favored, they had to be careful.
Oh yeah, yeah, no question, especially on the road. I've saw that too many times. When the Thursday Saturday blah blah blah, they played Oregon State. Like you said, there's three people in the gym, they didn't show up. Because there's three people in the gym, there's no really nothing to play for these show up and they get beat and then they play out of their mind against you know, with Kent or any kids Oregon team and they kill them or whatever.
And then the same thing in Washington, Washington State. Like you said, Stafford, cal there was always one or the other. Yeah, and it was always the bad game that gave them trouble.
And winning road games is special. I mean you can tell even from our media standpoint, when they would win a road game in a place like that, like at a Stanford when Stanford was good or Oregon where they were good, and those were big moments of pride, I think for the team and for the program and for confidence and things like that.
So it was never easy, but it was always a big.
Moment, yeah, the road games. And like you said, Tucson, and you've been here a long time, but it was probably this was very big before we even got here. You know, life didn't just show up in the mid eighties. How Tucson has embraced the Cats and have always done that. It is what it is. That's their only game in town, right and now that they've gotten really good or had gotten really good since then, just love them. Yeah, I mean it's part of the culture. It definitely is.
I mean, why when people think about Tucson and when you see like marketing things like maybe even when Bert was talking about when they see things about Tucson, there's usually a picture of U of a basketball moment in some of that. Besides, it's just Mexican restaurants and right, you know Mount Lemon.
Well, that's that's what Lu did. He I mean, he well, you know, we had Bob Elliott yesterday and I'm gonna ask you this because you were not here, but you knew of it. Yeah, that I don't think that Bob Elliott's time the early seventies with Snowden and that when they went and they played Vegas in the tournament, lost to UCLA and in the seventy six to seventy five time of the tournament to get to the final four. I think it was the du that that era doesn't get.
Enough credit, right what I think a lot of it just has to do with exposure and not Things are much different now. Every game is on TV. My friends who even as the UF was getting pretty good, you know, in the eighties and nineties, a lot of my friends we'd never even heard of Arizona growing up. Oh really, And now all of a sudden they're on national TV. They're getting publicity, and that just didn't happen in the seventies.
Yet it wasn't USA today. There wasn't these national publications, you know, CNN or ESPN doing stories on oh, this sleepy town in the Southwest, they got a pretty good basketball team.
Well that just didn't Well It's funny because yesterday I saw Channel four did the story or a little feature on Saliba, right, and they followed around and they, you know, says, well he and he benched on the podium there. Arizona was the sleeping giant. And I think I haven't heard that in forever, if at all, because guess what, tempe Asu was the sleepy guy. And they even hate saying
that because it's never gonna awake or awaken. But this, this town is like a this town is like a forgotten child, I mean, and they proves itself.
Every week or every year. Yeah, definitely with basketball. I mean, you know, I think you can't say that anymore about basketball sleeping giant. But I like my school San Diego State.
I always have wondered, why is this place not you know, blown up now especially they've got you know, a good arena, brand new football stadium, good baseball stadium, but they just have never they never could kind of get out of that whole whack Mountain West feeling, you know where they couldn't you know, emerge and get some national coverage.
Yeah. So when you we've gone through your history since you've been here. You got here in eighty three ish eighty three. When you got the job, you were like pop screams or somewhere I think San Luis Obispo. Uh, when you got here, what were you thinking? What were you thinking that, Oh, I'll sider a couple of years and get the hell out or what.
Well.
No, it's funny because.
Longtime UFA fans might remember this, but in eighty three they started off, I want to say third in the country.
I mean they were good.
It was Ricky Hunley's senior year and they started off. And as we were moving physically coming to Arizona, they had a weekend game at Cal and they lost or they tied, and that was like, oh my, you know, it was kind of like our welcome. Then we get to Tucson and it's also the weekend of the big monsoon of October of eighty three. Yes, I remember, So we couldn't even get to Tucson to go back to Phoenix and drive out someplace. I think maybe Apache Junction comes to mind.
Yeah, so we got in.
You know, we were supposed to get to Tucson at you know, five in the afternoon, and we got in at midnight. But anyway, that should have been a sign. But I don't know. I don't know really what to expect. I knew they had a pretty good football team. I knew Lout had just been hired, so that was kind of something that was kind of the news. But we didn't know what to expect. I heard they had good baseball.
Well you you, but you knew what you were getting into well as a professional. How old were you? I was twenty five, twenty five, so you're you had your family already kind of maybe no, no, you were coming.
One was coming, okay, So okay, so you were coming, and you think, okay, University of Arizona and which you didn't know much about, right, but it's it's in the packed packed ten ten pack ten, and you think, okay, here's a step up for you professionally, for sure, and here's a chance to you know, kind of make your name exactly.
I mean, and you know, I've told the story to all my friends. Basically, I got super lucky with Lute. I mean, I walked in his first year. I started in October. They played their first game in November. I guess, you know. I was here the entire time, and part of why we decided to stay was just yeah, you know a lot of people around the country wondering if I was gonna make a move or do something, But yeah, it was pretty good, pretty good college town.
In that in that time, in that in your business, that's what it is. They always hope that the guy leaves so someone can replace and move on. That's how you guys do it. Yeah, yeah, I know. It's the reason why I didn't leave them. Why would I leave a good program.
Making you and Bruce, I mean, and Greg and stuff like that have been Yeah, Greg got here I think the same year I did three You're right, So it was one of those It was one of those thoughts that, like, you know, where am I going to go? It's gonna be better? Do I have to want to do? I want to restart completely? I didn't want to really fall into that type of a career.
Right, No, no, and and the rest is history. Right. I got them on the map and you I want to ask you to we got about the three seconds, I hope. Uh, because you did some tape programs, you did some interviews. Didn't you do the pregame show with some of that.
Yeah, you were on a couple of no, no, no. But in the eighties, Oh, I did the Larry Smiths show.
Yeah.
So so those were taped.
Those were taped and taped on Monday morning and then you would have them.
It would air.
I think it aired after Monday Night Football or maybe before Monday, because those are the years k Gun had those games. Yeah, when the time switched, you know, during the middle of the season, so we would either show them before the game or after the game.
Yeah. All times have changed, right yeah. Yeah, Because I remember talking to Uncy Scott. I think he did some stuff early on too, and in those and stuff before those video things, he said, ohyeah, we didn't fly him back on the on the flight plane. Yeah blah blah blah. I'm thinking, wow, Yeah, how long ago was that? We gotta go, we gotta go and come back we'll have Kobe with some breaking news, and then we'll get ahold of mister Bryce Cherry from Baylor