Tuesday, January 28, Hour 2

Streaming live on the Ihearts Radio WAB. This is I on the Ball with Steve Roverra on Fox sportsporteen fifty.

Hey, welcome back to Winning the Ball hero on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.

I'm Steve Roberta.

You're Blake Eager from Southern Areas on the Sports Tourism and Film Authority. God, I'm glad I don't have to say all that or just say SASFA SASPA.

Okay, that's easy. Hey, yeah, do you have any breaking news? I did to ask you you do?

Yeah, I got some stuff here, So do it? Cheat up, baby, I can get the or no breaking news sound today?

Okay?

Cool, there you go, Cody, go ahead kick it on Sunday. The Chiefs defeat of the Bills thirty two twenty.

No, I'm not breaking news for that. Did you guys talk about it yesterday? Did I miss it? No? But you want to go ahead? No? No, No, It's just it's a.

Were you pulling for anybody? I I'm yeah, I pulled for the Bills. I love that one, just from the fans standpoint. I think those fans deserve it. But uh, that was that was a good well played game. I just I bet him not a whole lot. I think that Casey has been on the tight rope, yeah, all all year, but they find a way to win. And it's unbelievable how they stay on that damn typro. It's gonna be the You're gonna I'm gonna get crucified for

And nobody has the secret code. Yeah, the secret code. Find a way? Is it because of one dude? I mean mahomes is Mahomes right, he's Moodini. Yeah.

And then Kelsey finds a way, even at his age at this point to do what he does.

He's the rabbit.

And then you've got Worthy. That's like, if you can get him the ball and you give him any space, he's gone. But I mean their best receivers hurt. He's out for the season. Right, You're you're running backs out for the season. You've got ream Hunt in there. You don't have to check o anymore. It's just it's wild to me.

So let me ask you, guys, because they've been so successful over the years.

Yeah, not just last two, over the years. Uh.

And I'm asking you because you're a coach and formal player, Uh, because you want so much? Is it just because that's just you know, you know, it's programmed to you knowing how to win.

It's second nature. You know.

There's no anxiety factor. I mean you still get butterflies before the game. There's no anxiety factor, right, There's no an oh poop moment, there's no sped up of the game. They're just like, Okay, this happened, Now we're gonna do this.

Yeah.

Motor, it's like just what do you call it? Motor with the repetitive emotions. Muscle memory, muscle memory.

That's it. That's it. That's team Mark.

Dallas Cowboys have named former Bears head coach Matt Eberflus as their new defensive coordinator.

I mean, what do you want me to say here? It's a it's a it's it's a Cowboys. I don't know.

I'm not a Cowboys fan, but it's just it's I don't understand that franchise it's like we talk about I know you don't watch soccer, but it's like, man, you these these groups that have more money than God and the way they spend it and the way they go about their business and how they can't put a productive product on the field.

I'll give you the answer. It's the boss. It's the boss. Yeah.

I used to be a cowboy fan that came from Dallas here a long time ago. I stopped being a cowboy fan a long time ago. Got tired of being miserable. And he's the reason why. I mean, he hired a coach from in house. Yeah, I don't know.

I said this, I don't know. If you've been on the show, it's this a thousand times. You don't hire this.

You do not hire the substitute teacher, because you just move them up. They still treat them the same, and the substitute teacher, they're not going to treat them any different.

Okay, But what's what's better, retread and higher or in house higher?

Good?

Question depends who that retread hire is. Well, McCarthy wasn't the right guy. No, I would have even taken Dion. Yeah, I think just for something different. He knows I mean you know, yeah, anyway, arguably the greatest two sport athletes of all time.

I mean, you Bo Jackson, but the Cowboys get what they get for a reason. Good luck that. Yeah, you're right, You're absolutely right.

Gilbert Arena's son, five star guard Elijah Renas, includes Arizona in his top five.

Yeah, everyone's there was one five star last night. I don't think he was the guy. Did they say who the guy was? Not a co Opete?

Yeah, Brandon Burrows and co O Pete were named All Americans.

Yeah, that was the game last night. The game.

You know, we're trying to figure out who was up the game last night. There was one of them.

I mean, if Tommy pulls out a miracle and gets Copete and Arenas next year, I think you've got a lot returning from.

This this club. Don't don't jinx it.

No no, no, I mean I no, no, I don't mean I'm not talking about transferportal, Take transferporter out of it. I just mean NBA wise, you're gonna lose Love obviously, right, and I think there's still a chance depending on the tournament. How Brian does that you lose Brian? Right, But other than that, in Townsend.

KJR, Brian Cage kJ He hasn't had the year.

No, no, no, to be deserved.

He's a great listen, he's a great tool to have in your two tool belt. But he doesn't have a perimeter shot yet that I think pushes in this really strange. How that's kind of lost? Yeah, got lost.

Arizona softball ranked a unanimous top twenty five team by NFCA preseason polls.

Yeah, they're going to have a pretty good year, no question they should. I mean yeah, yeah.

University of Arizona's alumni Andre Guodala will have his number nine jersey retired by the Warriors February twenty third, twenty twenty five.

He's the first of the group of the recent guys. Yeah. How many?

How many uf A guys have their numbers retired? NBA numbers retired?

Good quit? Do you know the Elliott in San Antoni? Yeah? Okay, does he I don't know if he does, I'm asking this question. I don't know. I think he was pretty confident about that. I think he might. I don't know. I should know this, and I don't know this.

And then Iguadaladal, Yeah, I think that might be two anybody who knows different, let us know.

We can always google it. Yeah. But yeah, yeah, after he had his uh, after he had his operation. Yeah, he wasn't the same. He wasn't the same, but he but they could have honored it later, just sort of respect for him. I don't know.

That's a good question. That's a good question, Damon. Probably not because he was Toronto.

No baby in Sacramento. No, no, no, I don't think so.

Brian Belichick, Bill Belichick's youngest son, is leaving the Patriots after serving as a safety's coach. Reports that he'll likely join Bill at You wouldn't see.

I don't know if that's I mean, that's not crazy, right, there's probably expectation his.

Other son who's with Fish left there to go.

With him to Do you think what's your expectations of belichick first year at n C.

I don't. I don't think it's going to be great. I don't. I don't know what to expect. Yeah, I don't know. I think he's gonna find himself in a situation where it's gonna be tougher than he thought. It's North Carolina, it's like Arizona football. Honestly, Yeah, I'm the same. Yeah, that's that's a good How do you kind of cage it? Yeah, that's it for today's breaking news.

Okay, I'm glad you got Andre because I was gonna put that in there as well.

I'm not sure what else is going on, Oh for him. We have time for any calls and if anybody wants to call, we got about ten minutes. Yeah, what's eight minutes at the fifteen seventeen mark. We're going to have Michael lev get his impression. He sat next to me last night and see what he wrote today, his five observations. He was asking some good questions, so probably towards his column toward today. One of the things that you talked about and we talked about with Kelvin.

This team was I thought it was very admirable in that they didn't wilt. They didn't wilt, and you talked about how defense.

It was funny.

Did you see it was like a football game between the twenties. Yeah, in the first fifteen minutes they didn't go to the basket, didn't It was at the free throw line. It stopped back and forth, handled the ball. It was a basketball game on skates.

We to Love's credit, and I know we talked about it earlier, about the game that he had prior to hitting that half court shot. I mean needed somebody to have basket early on just to kind of break the eyes for us, and he did that. So I mean, because you're playing that defensive, I mean, everybody's confidence, everybody's playing so tight that you just need somebody to say, listen, like we can hit some hard shots.

Yeah.

Well, he talked about the guy who kind of did not make an impact. Two guys maybe Henry, you know nothing, but dil also to.

Him, he's he got pushed around and I don't think he's used to. He also looks like he's I know, the one sequence where he had to bring the ball up, you could see the fear in his eyes trying to handle the ball there. Just because of the defensive pressure and the way they play. It's surprising with Henry, and it was a little surprising to me the way a Waka played that Waka wasn't in the game more in

Last Yeah, it's funny because you saw how well Bryant played, right, And I'm thinking, I don't know if everybody else is thinking this, put him back here, put him in, don't take him out. Yeah, you got to keep him on the floor.

But he did.

He played twenty seven. I don't remember the box scoring on the top of my head, but you're thinking, what the hell is he not playing him for more? Yeah, and he's not. You don't have to start him. You don't have to do all these things because he's got that cemetery going.

But okay, the clock, start, first possession, get out, put Brian in.

Yeah, absolutely, and that I mean, that's a big thing with his team is you know, it's maybe more frustrating from a fan experience because it's not all times you ride that hot hand. It's just confusing because you're like, this guy's hot, like right, write him right? I mean Bryant last night, fine, fine.

Looks for him. He's good. What side of the basket were you on? I was on. I am on visitor side.

The visitors side, Okay, so I'm on that same side. The goaltending was on that side.

I can. Yeah.

That was a pushtable. Yeah I thought so. And then you saw the review of it. It's still to my mind question. Well, yeah, I mean that is another piece of Brian AD's that was up there too. Oh my gosh, rim protection too that was up there. Yeah, yeah, I saw it. It could have gone either way.

Yeah, but it was exciting in the mess.

It was it was it was, oh, you know what I didn't write in the story that I why you know, I'm like a D D H whatever. Just there's so many story about you know what. Uh Love's second bit shot was in my mind that dog Oh yeah, unbelievable. What that And he doesn't have a huge vertical either, but he just comes, he comes in and he goes for it. That was, I mean, the one area of contention that we haven't talked about all today, which is

And I can't even tell you what because there was like just how he just happened?

It was Yeah, I thought a couple of them were Kj's, but they went down as Bradley's. But I mean having kJ and him in that backcourt in the second half was was special.

Know what a what a there's so many things that the sixteen to zero run, the runs in the second half, the fourteen to five, did they outscore in fourteen to six, fourteen six in the second, in the overtime?

Yeah, the threes that he hit back to back, and yeah, that's why I asked him. I says, you haven't listen to press conferences. So I said, uh, Caleb, how does a guy go from miss miss miss or you know, miss missmiss to not miss or you know whatever?

I just should I just shoot. I'm just I believe in myself. It was a silly question.

That's just It's like, once I hit her, you know, how do you not hit three hundred? You hit three hundred and three seventy five, and all of a suden don't hit three seventy five.

I get it. I just had to ask the question.

Now, players love those questions. I'm shaking my head right now.

Yeah. No, we don't love those questions. I know, think about us. We as writers, you've got to ask. We got to ask him because we need to write what happens. You know. We had to get into your mind.

Do you go into those press conferences with like yes? Someone of an optional subscript Oh.

I already in my head. I already know what I'm gonna write. Anything written down, you just go do it.

Just because you got to see the flow last night. Well, I asked this because it's gonna be part of my story. I didn't ask the question, but I'm gonna get the story and get the answer. My next story is going to be on the waka. The dude's a big dude, right, so to me, he's carrying this team in a physical mental kind of way.

Right.

I wonder how big he is, like his broad shoulders and so I want to describe because he's doing a lot. I didn't ask that question in terms of how broad are your shoulders and how much weight can you bench?

Yeah, he reminds me a little bit of Eugene on the floor. Oh we were talking about Yeah, we compared that.

Yeah, but he's got a little bit more of a f you mentality than most a waka right now. Yeah, like get out of my way on rebounding.

The funny thing about it, you look at him, like sitting next he's.

Just a dude. Yeah, but he's just a he's at a little bit right geral giant.

So Steve, I've got to ask you, So, how long did it take you to get to the point where you felt comfortable in these scenarios? Like you go into it because we've talked about this. You don't want to talk about stuff off air. You want to talk about it on here, which I think is genius, right because it's fresh. But when you go into a press conference having those questions, how long did it take you? You get to point where you're like, Okay, I don't need to

Ten to fifteen, ten to fifteen, Probably yeah, because I have notes and I did to transcribe, but I kind of already know how my story is going to construct it and what quotes are going to be put where, and blah blah blah, and I try to come up with funny lines hopefully to clever, you know, move the story along, and that's how we put it together.

But it's it's doesn't come easy. You know.

I mean Today's was a little struggle for me because I wanted to put I said, I'm not going to make this. I can't compete with that game. No, no, no, I can't. I'm not I'm not going to do it justice. Yeah, so I kind of came up with a different type of thing. Did you read my story, Teapa? You did? He scored two four hundred and thirty seven points and those three are the most important in his.

Career or I mean he was enjoyable.

Yeah, and that's how I That's how I set it up because he's played a lot of.

Games and a lot of points and those three are that big to him.

Yeah, And I think we should feel special as a fan base that not only somebody with that caliber of a career has done what he did, but to say it at that time and to be there in that moment, if you were there, like you go back home and you check that off, like as a sporting event alone right there. I was telling my wife this. I've been to obviously, played in a lot of games, coach a lot of games. I've gone to a lot of games. That's in my top five. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, all.

Games I'm with you. I'm with you.

We gotta go, Yeah, we gotta go. Get a hold of Michael lev and come back.

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Breaking down all the utsson os. This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera on Box Sports fourteen fifty.

Welcome back, everybody, do I'm Steve Riverta, your Blake Eager. Now on the phone, we have Michael led from the Arizona Daily Star. Michael, did you get some sleep?

I did?

I got enough?

I was.

It was definitely hard to wind down. Yeah, after last night. I mean that was really uh something else. I'm not sure I've been in the building for something quite like that before.

So yeah, enough to get the job done.

Yeah, did you write after or did you write and you sleep and then write in the morning.

A little bit of both.

Yeah.

I definitely had some thoughts that I had to get out there, but then I started to get pretty tired around one forty five, So yeah, you know, got up right on time this morning and got right back at it and was able to punch something out.

Yeah. No one talks about the job of those hours, right, But but for those those of us who don't have subscriptions and all that, where were your your your five key points or give us a few of them.

Well, I wrote a singular narrative this time for a change. I even name dropped Steve Rivera in there, hoping that maybe that would inspire Steve.

Gone for a sub.

Anyway, I mean, a couple of things stood out to me, and I mentioned them in the piece.

One was that, like we kept hearing about how awesome.

The Big twelve was going to be, and I feel like last night was really the first time that we experienced that awesomeness. I mean, it was incredibly intense, incredibly physical, dramatic back and forth, like classic like heavyweight fight with the two sides just trading haymakers throughout. So that was you know, that was that was one thing that that stood out. It was kind of my main theme. But secondarily that it kind of brought out the best in the Wildcats, you know, I mean, they were up to

Role that Caleb Love ultimately played in that game.

Yeah, no question, In fact, when Tommy was, you know, five minutes into his into his post game, and you know, you know how he talks. He talks fast, he talks funny, talks so serious. He talks in curse words, which is fantastic. I texted Nate, please don't send him to a media coach. We need him like this because he's so brilliant, and I'm sure he gives you enough stuff to kind of be clever with what you're doing.

It's really not There aren't that many coaches that like genuinely can elicit laughter, you know, from the media.

Before this, there's.

Always that kind of like that fake laugh, you know, just because we're trying to be.

Nice, right right.

Can he can really nail some lines after a game.

I think he's he's smart, He's got good perspective on things. He you know, tries not to get too carried away in any given moment that can bother people sometimes, you know, when he's like he appears to be somewhat nonchalant about things, but I also get the feeling that he genuinely cares.

For his players, And I think that.

The most important thing you can be as a coach, especially in college. It's probably true in the pros as well. Is just to be your authentic self, because if you're not, people will see through that. And I feel like he's always how he is, you know, it was it was surprising after that one game, I think it was, I can't remember which game it was, when he was kind of mad.

Yeah, but but he was, you know, he was, he was being honest.

He's had a little bit of a purpose there, putting push some motivational buttons, which is right, which is totally fine and a smart thing to do for a coach.

But yeah, I really like Tommy.

I like the vibe that he has, the energy that he has, and it seems like a lot of really good players like that too.

Hey Michael, it's Blake here. Hi, how are you.

I'm good, Blake good, Hey going on.

I'm just you know, just try and take it all in. This is amazing that we're all here.

And after the game last night was I mean, listen, going to that game, I think I was hung over just from the excitement factor.

My voice was pretty sore this morning.

I'm surprised you guys were really able to get your job done and and stay up that late. I was asking Cody if he went out after the game. But he's like, no, I actually went to bed. I was like, I don't know, man, for you age kid that's at that game to go to bed afterwards, good for you that that definitely was not me, you know.

Michael, I don't know if you you observe these two guys and you you've seen the f bombs from the They've been pretty cordial. They've been pretty behaved. And last night they were there, they were in droves. They looked good and didn't didn't act obnoxious.

Yeah, I would agree with you.

Try about the Zona Zoo.

Yeah, yeah, it was interesting, Like I would, you know, we sit right next to them where where we.

Are in the building. They're in the corner, and they were you know, pretty just kind of calm and chilling and hanging out like before the game.

Now, when I was a canvas earlier this season, they were doing they had stuff going on pre game, you know, like I don't know if they were just like working out their routine.

They did.

Certain songs would play over the you know, over the PA system, Like so I was like, are they really.

Into this big twelve thing? Maybe they're not.

But as soon as we got to the pregame introductions. I mean, they came to life, and I thought they were really into it, enthusiastic, loud, all of the things that you want and need.

I thought the whole crowd was really good.

There was a smattering of Iowa State fans where a lot of them were near us and we could hear them, which is fine that it just adds to the atmosphere that much more.

I thought the whole thing was great, and people also.

Participated in a whiteout, which made the visuals really cool. And then of course, you know, Caleb Love hits a half court shot at the buzzer and it was just complete pandemonium.

Yeah, it was, I mean it was amazing.

I was telling Steve earlier he hit that shot and I grabbed some random guy in front of me to start shaking him around, and it's probably not the best thing you can do in that scenario when I apologize him afterwards, But honestly, I don't remember that kind of excitement in one specific moment at Uvane so long that it was just nice to kind of like emote the season so far.

Michael did the same thing to me, grab me, Mike Live did that.

I mean look, that was one of those moments where you're probably hugging strangers around you.

Yeah, you know, I would.

You know, it's similar I cover you of a baseball as you guys know, and I mean they had I think eight walkoffs last year or so, you know, similar to a degree the feeling.

But you know, none of those games.

Has would have fourteen thousand people independence, you know, and not often does that happen, and really less often does it happen in a situation like this where you're trying to knock off the number three team in the country coaching tom Me and the game wasn't over either, which is you know, it was sort of hard to forget in the moment the way everybody was reacting and how excited everyone.

Was and people were coming out of the court and all that stuff.

But I'm glad they were able to regroup afterward and you realize that, hey, we still have five more minutes to play.

I did think for a second they were going to try to storm the court, because they all the students started going down, and I was like, oh, they're for sure going to storm the court and hopeing nobody gets hurt, which is a good thing. Yeah, you want that kind of excitement, right, You just want to make sure that this is a long season.

Don't hurting plays. There's a fine. I don't know what the find is now, the fine for students.

Oh there are fines. Yeah, I think I saw that there was a five hundred thousand dollars fine issued in the SEC.

It was Nashville court storming or one specific student of NILT for the school for the Kentucky this week. So, Michael, did you see the Houston Kansas game on over the weekend.

I was at the wim the uf A women's game, so I didn't see it, but I certainly heard about it.

It was fantastic. Familiar with what happened, so it was fantastic.

And Houston didn't have a chance to winning in the regulation, they got got into overtip, they didn't have a chance of winning overtime, and they got it into the second overtime and then they ended up winning. I'm thinking, what a fantastic game, there's no way. And then I got to see one in front of me two days later or whatever it was. And that's just the Big twelve. I mean, that's just the Big twelve with the upper upper you know, upper tier of teams. Uh, it's going

Yes, yes, and yes, I mean it absolutely is. They also have to go to Lawrence at the end of the season, so I mean it's good to kind of build up equity at this point in the season. I think, you know, we keep saying this, it hasn't happened yet, but I do think you of a fans need to brace themselves for a few losses yes, down the stretch, which is okay. I mean you're not gonna win every game. I honestly don't think this is even Tommy Wood's best team that he's had.

No.

Maybe at some point we could do like a ranking of those teams. But they're very scrappy. They play really hard. That was another thing that stood out to me last night was just how hard they were playing. I mean, like the way that kJ Lewis and some of those guys were like just attacking their guards. Yeah, it was like, Wow, I don't think these guys really want this.

I don't think I've seen I mean, obviously, I haven't seen a Tommy Lloyd's team give that much effort for that long.

I mean, I don't.

There wasn't a there wasn't a huge reprieve on the floor at any point where you're like, ah, they need a break. Like it was constant, like punch us, we punched you back and forth, back and forth. And the defensive grind and effort that they gave the whole game was to me the most impressive thing about the whole game last night.

Yeah, the only I think the only slight lull might have been maybe like early in the second half, after they had maybe kind of starting late in the very end of the first half and carrying over into the second half, after they had pulled off that sixteen oh run to go up. It was thirty thirty six twenty eight or something like that, or thirty twenty five, I can't remember exactly.

Thirty four to twenty five is what it was.

And then they kind of let down a little bit, and I think Iowa State was nine for eleven to start the second half.

But those things are going to happen.

I mean, act a veteran team, a really good team. You know, there's there's certainly a human nature aspect to all of this. They're not machines and you're not going to get you know, perfect forty minutes out of anyone ever.

But it was enough so to pull that off.

And again, like we're sitting here with them being eight and one in the Big Twelve, and you know they maybe they haven't faced all the of the hardest best teams in the league, but I don't think anybody saw that coming.

Let's go back to a phrase you just used, human element and you've you've covered a lot of games in your career. I've covered a ton of games in my career, and invariably, I would say, you know, forty to fifty percent of this time happens. You come off an emotional win, crazy things happen. You go to class and you're the

What.

Yeah, I could definitely see them losing one of the next two games, those being at s U and at b YU. You know, a SU kind of up and down this year, but very talented, and you know, it's it is the rivalry game. We saw a SU upset Arizona here a couple of years ago on a similar shot to the one that we just saw, so I totally hear what you're saying.

It's definitely possible.

There are always those kind of you know, trap games, let down games over the course of their long season and twenty games in conferences.

It's a long gauntlet of games.

So I could definitely see something like that happening here in the next two.

But again, like I don't expect them to win every.

Game, you know, I mean, they're eight and one in the league. We were talking I think before the season was on this show or just in casual conversations like oh, if they go over five hundred and the Big twelve, it'll be a good year. Well, they're well on their way to obliterating that. If they suffer a couple of stumbles here and there on the road over the latter half of the Big twelve slate, it's almost to be expected.

Yeah, I mean we were talking about it a little bit earlier too. Is that I would tend to agree with you, especially from a player standpoint coaching standpoint, you probably take the next twenty four hours and then you're back on the grind if that game was Thursday. That I think that hangover last is a true effect to lose TOSU. But I honestly think this team has a bigger mindset and goal in mine, especially after that win.

Delorsso has a value on this team because he's probably their best three point shooter and statistically he is the best, but he's also kind of skinny, needs feel like he needs another offseason in the weight room and the most you know, the most physical games.

That they've played. Last night's game and the Duke game earlier. I mean, he just wasn't a factor, Like he was just.

Kind of overwhelmed, couldn't get anything going, So you know, you kind of have to pick your spots with him.

I think Henry is going to be fine.

I'd actually like to see a lineup with Henry and Tobya Walka in at the same time.

I think Henry could play that.

High post position, yeah, on the low post, and you could kind of, you know, reassemble the two bellas ballo combo that was so effective for Tommy earlier.

Earlier in his tenure.

Yeah, I know we got to I know we're up against it, but that is we were have that same conversation last night, and I'm a little surprised that we haven't seen that just for you know, five minutes at a stretch, because you're right, I think Visar can expand that, uh that position before. And you had Waka playing out of his mind last night where you probably don't want him off the.

Court real quick, real quick, Michael, Because I mentioned this to Kelvin. Whence you once you think that a Waka would look good in a in a pro NFL tight end Jersey whoever it beat.

That's a great call he would like.

He is just a strong, solid dude. I compared him to Charles Oakley and I call.

Him today like like the bodyguard, the enforcer, whatever you want to call it, Like you can't move that guy off the block.

And I just spaced his first name, but Gonzales, Gonzales put it col.

Yeah, that's a good that's a good reference. Yeah, Walker, he's built like a brick poop house. Yeah, he's just just a just a man child. There's the ball, get out of there. Like his rebounding last night was like listen, this is mine. I don't care if you're even on my team. I'm taking the spot.

That's so funny when you asked that question last night, Michael, I'm thinking I was thinking the same because it was like it was a bullet of China shop ducking people over.

Give me. Yeah, it was a grand out move.

Thanks Michael. As always, Hey, that's Michael, Michael. We've got to go a little over, so we'll come back. Maybe take a couple of quick calls.

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This is I on the Ball on Fox Sports fourteen fifting. Want to take part in the show?

Call up?

Steve now went five to two oh four one, six, seventy four forty.

Why the ball zero? Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve your who are you Blake? Yeah?

I mean that's what the question I ask myself every time I wake up in the morning.

Who am I? Who've got Kobe?

Person?

Name basis Kobe Blake, Steve Hey. We got about ten twelve minutes.

If you want to call, please do five two zero four, one, six seventy four forty uh five pout.

Five weeks? How many weeks for you before you seah?

Five weeks for the waste World Baseball Classic qualifire five weeks yeap March second to the SI And how are things going? You know, it's there, they're going. It's it's you know, high anxiety for everything. But we've got a great team around us. I mean, Pma County, Kino Sports Snoop Dog, Arizona, Ble, Visit Tucson, Mexican Baseball Fiesta.

Everybody's working together.

So did you you you had a little soiree function last week?

Yeah, Friday we had a kickoff event. Who was there?

We had the president of World Baseball Classic, Jim Small came. He flew into town for it. We had ownership from the Diamondbacks that were in town. We had everybody that would you know, we had a vast array of people from both Pima County, Panal County. Graham County, Coacheese County.

It was great. It was a great turnout.

We had about seventy five to one hundred people at the Monica and then a group of us went over to the Roadrunners game and Bob Hoffman did a great job the president the Roadrunners of making a big deal of everything and taking care and I mean the product they put on the ice is incredible, so very fortunate.

All I thought, we'll get back to it. We got we got a call. Who is this.

You're on the air, Hey, Steve, it's your not so friend.

Oh yeah, yeah, how do you really think lowell of yourself?

The therapy?

Any Anyway, when I was watching that game at the at the Center court, like I told you, I was just thinking to myself, what a slug fest? Oh yeah, yeah, I mean it was just it was a slug fest. That's all you can say.

Yeah it was. It was a fun stunt.

I tweet it looked like the Hegler Herns fight.

Just punch after start in there and I'm not gonna move.

You hit me? You yeah, I mean even before I wanted just to talk about the game, but you guys went off on a The assistant coach of Loot's yesterday pretty much made the date Roseborough. But one really big game that I was at back in the eighties, and every the Washington game, I think we were obviously loot

Cool it was. Oh yeah, there's no other place.

Because I'm like Jay, I was in that place. My dad took me when I was eight or nine years old in the early seventies when it opened.

How was I How was it with Bob and and Uh and those guys.

Oh it was. I don't really remember back back those as far as the crowd, but it was so fun watching the ball the club when you had Coneil Norman and Alf Fleming and of course Elliott and then later Mark money came a little later.

No, I mean, but but.

Yeah, it was little electric some of the big games. And I remember getting and going to the game for free and going to an Illinois game with Kendall Gill that, you know. I don't know how, I don't remember how big the crowd was, but it was a big game because they were just like Iowa, the top five in the country.

I think, yeah, I could be wrong, as you did you end up doing what Blake did here?

U were you with your wife? First of all?

No, I know, I brought a guest. Okay, guy, my my wife would my wife would be sleeping. She was sleeping by the time.

The game started, So so then I was gonna say, did you hug the person next to you?

Maybe it was a woman.

No, No, I just I was just it's just it just it just floored you. Just you're speechless, you know what I mean? Friend, Yeah, yeah, it was just.

That's the thing.

I know.

This couple we built a house for when my my wife was pregnant with our son, and they have season tickets for twenty five years. And I looked down at their spot, I saw they weren't there for overtime.

So I'm just assuming they left.

Early because they've been to so many games, and he didn't see it.

Were you go ahead?

Go ahead?

So were you surprised?

Did you heard all these Iowa state fans because they had to get their tickets from somewhere? Yeah, I mean I asked him the people sitting around me, and they went online and bottom right. But then I started thinking. I was like, oh, it's ames Iowa in January. I would do whatever I possibly can to make it to the two sims. Oh sure, sure, But how much you think those tickets went for?

I don't know.

I used to scalp a lot in my earlier days. That's how I made money in college. I just I can't inflation rate. Yeah, no, it was one hundred and fifty bucks made right, Oh buddy, I was thinking for but four bills for one ticket? How much would your ticket done? Your neighbor's tickets or oh?

Mine?

Yeah?

I had good seats, and there was a few Iowa people around us, because obviously I had one of the big wigs in the the U of A foundation. That's

All right, Howard, thanks for calling Howard. Yeah, we'll see Yeah, Howard's whatever callers. Yeah, your regulars. Yeah. Our demographics are like thirty five and over.

I mean, that's not a bad demographic, arey oil old We need to get gale later? Yeah, I mean it smells like get in here the old man's cologne.

Doctor hurts, What I do this?

Oh my gosh, I grew up with my dad played fast pitched softball growing up, and so like that smell is so nostalgic to me.

Oh yeah yeah yeah. So so next time, so did you WBC? So anything? WBC? Listen come out. It's gonna be great.

We've got China, We've got Germany, Brazil and Columbia are all going to be out there March sixth, March second to the sixth, uh eleven am and six pm game.

So March second, third, and fourth.

Yeah, so Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and then a six pm game on Thursday, which is gonna be our college night. Cody, you should bring all your friends out there, five of them.

Right.

Oh, yeah, there you go, and that's gonna I'll help you on. Get you in, Okay, two dollars, two dollars, beers and one dollar.

Hotey.

Kobe can't do it. I know he's a twenty year old.

Yeah, but he can have a lot of dogs that I can throw down your rockets, right yeah.

Yeah, I'm just saying beers one dollar. Yeah, there's lunch for a week. Yeah, you'll be prices at that. Yeah. No, no you can't. So these guys come, Henry and Kobe, come and see me at the game. Hey, what's going on. It's like time my two kids, take my two kids to work.

Yeah, but you got that's your gift back, right, Yeah, that's your gift back. Like I try to pay it for it as much as I can. Yeah, these guys are great.

Great, it's a popcorn. It was a good game. Yeah, there's actually how many games have you been to?

This had to be my fourth third this year.

Only went to one last year.

Okay, so you had a major season. Yeah, you going back again? Houston game Houston. That's the next game for sure.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's gonna be a crazy got to be on what I'm trying. I'm trying to get Kelvin to come on Kelvin Stimpson. Yeah, so we'll see what day that is. So maybe you be on it. Maybe you drop the lottery. Yeah maybe right. I think we're gonna have to rethink your thought process here after the show.

So it's been fun last so so we got about four minutes, five minutes, three minutes. Yeah, I wanted you do some some some sleuthing or solved solving here with music stuff. But I mean, well, no, I've done for different We'll save it for a different day. I just listened. I mean, I think it's it's human nature to judge, right, and I uh, I used to be your last day here. Yeah, I listen.

I don't want to throw it out there and get black balled at everything I do. But I tend to judge people on their musical taste. That's all I'm saying. Okay, I've been called a snob when it comes to music, so okay, and I don't why, like I don't want to be Yeah, maybe I.

Can mix both of those, right.

Okay, you can. You can sell beers and stuff at the place, right. I just talked about it Steve w B. Steve literally just.

Yeah beers the top dogs. Yeah, but just beers. I guess no, they're gonna so we've got a great concession there there. Uh, his names that's his name is Shane. So he's gonna do a bunch of different drinks to based on the country. So you're gonna have You're gonna have German uh, German beers and then probably sparks from the other ones or sing so that is what they drink.

And I've been to one of these things before. I was in Miami. Yeah, you was out there for a tournament blah blah blah, and we went to the Six Crazy Times. It's the fans are just bunk wild fun. Uh. Did you go to an event to kind of see what they do, or you kind of gonna figure it out out. I kind of got to figure it out.

The event that we based it on was Mexican Baseball Festa, to try to combine as much as we could with that and this and make it kind of a feisty, fun atmosphere. Taiwan Type A has already sold one hundred thousand tickets for their qualifier, so I hope to come somewhat close to that for us so we can be in contention as we move forward.

So is it the same format where you can play music, you can have stuff or.

No, do you have to you can't play music during the game, right, it's going to be majorly you get shut it off. Yeah, but then they after after they throw back the pitch, sure jam it out. We'll have a DJ on site.

Okay, So it'll be kind of like you a basketball where they they can do it, yeah.

Within reason.

I mean, it's similar to going in Major League Baseball, but on the concourse there'll be more of a feisty game.

Yeah. Well that's that.

That's the why I kind of wrote I came to see came to see a basketball game. A football game broke out. I mean it was incredible last year, oh last night. I honestly, it gives me chills just to think about it, because I've been going to games so long, right, and from the times when we could barely afford to go to a game. You're sitting on the concrete concourse to try to sit next to somebody at the very top row to where now that it's just, it's so I'm grateful to be in this position and then to

I can't.

You couldn't have stayed in an extra two minutes, whether you win or lose. In that situation, it's two minutes out of your life. Where do you live on the east Side? No, no, no, Tucson. Yeah, on these sides, it surprises you. I mean no, no, it doesn't. So I'm a west side kid. I'm really I have a hard time saying east side because I grew up on the west Side.

But that's where I live. It does not surprise me. As you got to go, Kobe, Thank you for today.

Kobe, see you later, man, Thank you mister Blake, Thank you Steve for having me it's always an honor.

Thanks for every pleasure,