Tuesday, May 21, Hour 2

Streaming live. I mean I on radio. Wow. This is High on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jake and Salez on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Hey, welcome back to my I on the Ball hero Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. I'm Steve, He's Jake. Now we have Ryan with breaking news again. It's still not working, you know. I think we had this issue yesterday. I think we need to reboot that computer. So, okay, all right, we's it's Tigh on the Ball, breaking news, breaking news,

all right. So we're gonna start with the University of Arizona baseball tomorrow. They start their tactical tournament taken on Washington down in Scottsdale. Should be a good match. It should be good. I know, did we I know we mentioned Chip Hail, but we didn't bring up all the other guys who made the outpack. Yeah. So Chip Hill was named the Year, and then six guys were named to the PAC twelve All Conference Clark Candiati, Brandon Summer Hill, cam Walty, Mason White, Jackson Kent, and Yaron

Caufield. And then two other guys were named to the All Conference Honorable Mentioned, Amelio Corona and Casey Hens. That's a pretty good group. It's pretty good. And if you're looking for a reason why Arizona is the league champion, you gotta look at the fact that all three of their starting pitchers were named to the All Conference team. I mean, that's you know, that's what made them who they were. That's why it was kind of surprising when

when Oregon State just abused them those first two games. Wouldn't your year or two before there is a pitching coach the first year, first year or two years now, because remember the previous coach was very thought of, highly thought, but it wasn't working. It wasn't working. I think I think,

I think this is his second second year. Okay, so even then, because remember they had some pretty good they had it was the guy from Oregon State, yeah right, and it just it just it didn't materialize for whatever reason. But you know, I mean, the you've got to give, you know, the pitching staff a lot of credit for what this team was able to do. With Candatti, cam Walty and uh and Jackson Kent all

making First Team. I'll packed, I'll pack twelve. They were you know, and again cam Walty, who went you know, into the ninth inning, on in the Do or Die game on Saturday night, you know, is the reason they won that game. So and and these guys are why they won the Pack twelve championships. So, you know, good for those guys. And then again Mason White, I just he's not a big dude and just hits the ball really far. You know, Brandon summer Hill who

had that game winner on Saturday night, and then Garreon Callfield. Those guys are all really good, so good for them. Yeah, Mason, Mason White finished with sixty and seventeen homers on the season. So yeah, hopefully they you know, the pitching shows up during this PAC twelve tournament and then you know, yeah get that get off rolling. Well, we'll see what happens. You know, I almost don't even care about the Packed off tournament. It's just, you know, as we're talking to Ed Vosper, He's

like, what's what's the purpose right right? Other than you have some TV programming? I guess when are we going to find out if they get the host the regional? Next week on Sunday or Sunday and Monday. I know when they announced it, How long is it? It's a two week? How long is that tournament. This tournament yea, lasts all week until Sunday or beyond. I'll look it up right now, beyond, because I would assume that they would pick them right after the tournament. Yeah, if it

is Sunday, I think single tomorrow and it goes through Saturday. Yeah, so then they'll probably pick on Sunday for the rest of the week because summer for these guys goes into June. If they do really well and related to June, school year doesn't end. Yeah. The champion chip game is on Saturday at seven o'clock. So there's this pool play and then on Friday they

have the semi finals. So there's four teams that come out of pool play and then and then the championship is not and it's just a four team single elimination bracket. So the two winners from Friday plan Saturday for the league championship, for the tournament championship. Good luck to them. Let's stay with University

of Arizona. Switch over to men's singles tennis. Yeah, Number twenty two Colton Smith defeat number eight Oliver Tart Tarbette Tarbett and well you say his name, that was today he actually defeated him, and he's moving on to the next round. Do you face number sixteen already? Yeah? That guy? Because you want today he becomes an All American I think, didn't I say

that that he becomes an All American in the sport. Yep, he has the first All American singles or doubles from the Arizona program since Roger about of Longa. You're in the honors back in two thousand and six, so a long time. You can just tell you how far this program has come. Real quick, going back to the Pac twelve a baseball tournament, ASU who came in really hot. I think they'd won like twelve or fifteen of their last nine or some thing. And then they were the five seed and they

got beat. They got beat by Stanford, the eight seed in the first day of a pool. Stanford was eighth. Yes, wow yeah wow. And then right now a game going on right now, USC is the four seed, Utah is the seventh seed, and in the bottom of the fifth Utah is up five to one. Well upset Cities. Yeah, so a couple of upsets, one upset and another one brewing right now. Hema College is Chemic College softball is currently in action. Right now in the elimination round

against Trinidad State College. Right now, they're trolling to nothing in top of the six Oh that was that was zero zero going to the sixth. So so Trinidad's hit for a couple of that. This that's a double elimination. And and and Peman is already in the losers bracket. If they lose their they lost earlier day sevens. If they got beat up a little bit so they got to their final. God, it's three nothing that they just scored another run. It's three zip. You didn't talk to them, did you?

On the side. I nothing, nothing. I didn't even think about him, Steve, Okay, you know this is really hard for me to try and not put the kiss of death on teams, all right. You know, like my daughter's going to go to the baseball game. Theirs on a baseball game up in Phoenix. They're gonna go to the game, and I'm like, I can't even think about you being there because I'm you know, because it will kill it bad karma juju. So switching over to the

NBA today, we have the East Conference Finals going on. You got the Pacers and Celtics going head to head. I looked up some numbers. I was just curious about the playoff history for these two teams. Boston has been to excuse me, Boston has been to the conference finals twenty four times. Industry Pacers have been to the conference finals nine times. They have zero championships, only one appearance back in two thousand when the Lakers won. So yeah,

they get I'm ruining for the Pacers. I want to see them. I'd love to see TJ. McConnell get there, right, Yeah, I'm always routing. But the Celtics are like the far and away favorite, you know, Yeah, of the four teams left all the money, not all the money, but the you know, the odds are are all everybody's saying it's the Celtics, but especially with the teams that are left, because they're

all lower seed. Sure right through the West too, of Minnesota. I mean the Pacers were a six seed that right quick, I think so, I think the Pacers were six seed and then the Western Conference finals the three verses four. You know, so people are all over the all over the Celtics. I think the Mavericks fifth or is it three five or four five? Right now? But it's yeah, three five, that's the Wolves and

Mavicks Mavericks, Mavericks, and then one six. Yeah, I mean it's kind of like this thing is lined up for the Celtics to win a championship. There's there to lose, exactly exactly. That's really all I had today. Okay, we'll still got some time some time. Actually, I wanted to bring on something last week. Didn't get a chance. About the NFL schedule. What do you guys think about the NFL possibly going to an eighteen

game schedule in the future. Well, they have If they're going to do that, they have to get rid of some of these exhibition games, right. I mean, look, if they're going to play those games, they're making real games, you know. I mean, it's more more, more, more games to bead on. I guess there's the there's the I don't know, uh, not being a player. I don't, I don't know. I mean, God, where does it stop? I mean, and

and the and the the physical toll of this is. I mean already you know you had running backs who they play two years and then they're they're used up and they can't play anymore. I don't know, I don't, I don't I don't think it's necessary. I mean, to me, it would be a money grab again, you know. But on the other hand, they're still they're playing game Like I get it. In those games, it's not the guy, you know, Aaron Rodgers isn't playing in those exhibition games.

To a tongue, Bailo is not playing in those games. You know, it's guys trying to earn jobs. But but I don't know, eighteen games seems like too many. I mean they I guess they're talking about the possibility of having like two by weeks for for all the teams, or like an all Star break and then and then if you if you're if you don't get a first round, by what do you gotta win four games to to win the to win the championship? Or is it three four if you don't

get a buy Vision Championship. Yeah, it's crazy. What do you go to ESPN dot com? Jay read the top story, the top story about the Big Twelve settling the Big Big twelve first to agree to Subtle House versus n C Double A case. What do you deep down? And it talks about more money coming in from the n C Double A. I have no idea where they're getting this money, because because it doesn't seem like anybody has any money about the kids that you cheer, the kids that you cheer,

and the kids that you don't cheer. Making five hundred thousand dollars a year, Well, the the sort of the the innocence or of the of the amateur athlete is it's gone. It's overwhet. You know, we talked about some of you know, what the salary ranges are. We talked about that

yesterday. These kids are not making you know, five hundred thousand dollars, two hundred thousand dollars, six figures, six figures to play you know, college sports, and you go it, you know, as a purist, right, it's distasteful to me. Do I think they should be getting money and more than they have been getting short, you know, they shouldn't have to be scrapping to take their girlfriends to a movie. They're bringing in big money for the NCAA and they should have been sharing it a long time ago.

But on the flip side of that again, you know, going back to Okay, if your quarterback is going to be making two million dollars, that's not right for the defensive back who's out there and he's going to make you know, two thousand dollars, five thousand dollars or twelve thousand dollars, And again the imbalance of that again is kind of the thing that bothers me about all of it. I know who it is that down They always calls me the participation trophy you know, Vic, you know, I'm not a

participation trophy guy. I think, you know, if the quarterback he's got to take all the pressure and stuff like that, he should make more. But when he's making you got college quarterbacks who are making eight million dollars a year and this other guy over here is making might get ten thousand dollars. I do have a problem with that, And I feel like that belongs in the NFL, that belongs in the NBA, that belongs in Major League Baseball.

I don't feel like that belongs at the college level. But that's where we are. So once you read that story, maybe talk about it more tomorrow. But it's a pretty big deal obviously, revenue sharing into the millions and the back pay back pay and all that, and a lot more money in the future with the Big Five a Big four. Now it's just kind of crazy, just crazy, you know, the kids making Am I jealous? Probably not. I was never an athlete to that level, but I'm

thinking, wow, wow. The thing that concerns me the most is how much it's changing college sports. Right, you know a guy like well, let me tell you, let me tell you. She so Desi Rae, who just comes in, she's the new ad. She's making one million a year. You have the president of the university making under a hundred million a year. You have quarterbacks, and you have running backs making half a mill close to that. Yeah, and now they're making just as much as the

president's of the ads. Yeah. No, how crazy is that? Or as much as some of the assistant coaches. Some of its right, some of the systems, most of these is I mean assistant coaches get paid, you know, I mean not outside the coordinators. You can pay a couple of hundred thousand, three hundred thousand dollars. What about now these players are making that the players making more than the people giving them the money. Yeah. And here's the thing about that, Steven in the NFL. Yeah,

some of these players make so much more than the coaches. But there are professionals they'll understand their lot and I'll understand where they are and it could end right there, you know there Most of them, I would say, not all, Most of are pretty mature about about what that means and how to handle that. Now you're talking about eighteen, nineteen twenty year olds with six figure incomes dealing with the coaches. Maybe they're making more money than them.

How does that affect that relationship. Well, let's talk. We'll talk to Jim about that as well, just the difficulties. And we talked about jokes with him, and he's lucky to be out of the profession, so he's admitted that. But now it's just kind of a it's a landline, yeah, you know, not a landmine. It's like a nuclear bomb. Do the whole thing. Well, it's something we gotta go here. We'll get

back with Jim, all right in a second. Yeah, So we'll be back Jim Living Good, former Arizona ad un l VA D Tucson guy. We'll talk to him about some of this stuff and go down again, go down memory lane again about the old pack ten packed off. So stick around. The Windows Depot is more than a windows store. The Windows Depot is a one soft warehouse with everything you need for your complete Homer model. Shop the aisles of pre built cabinets in a variety of colors, granite and quartz,

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which means it's time for the coolest charity run in town. Randy A seta here inviting you to join us for the TMCE Meet Me Downtown five k Night Run and Walk coming up on Saturday night, June first, and featuring the free Raising Caines High School Mile, a free Kids mile, and rock and roll on the main stage. This is Tucson's biggest running party. See run Tucson dot net for all the details, breaking down on all the excess at all. It's Steve Rivera and Jagen Salviaz. This is I on the Ball

on Fox Sports fourteenth diff. Hey, welcome back to Winning the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Roberta. He's Jickensaus. Now on the phone, we have former UAA D Jim Live and good Jim. How the heck you doing, Steve and Jay? I'm living life. I'm loving it, spending a lot of time with kids, grandkids and my bride and I'm loving it. So I hope you guys are doing well too. I know you are. I'm sure you're loving it because you're no longer the ad

to and Jay. You guys, and I mean this, You have no idea how happy I am to be doing exactly what I'm doing right now and the upcoming I've spent so much time on the phone the last month on just these items and knowing that we're right around the corner a couple of days from a pretty big decision being made. A bunch more so, Hey, it's

a great time to be retired, guys, not tired. Oh. We were just talking like, I would you like to be the a the ad for a program where the quarterback on the football team might be making twice the salary of say, his quarterbacks coach and that kind of stuff. I mean, that would just scare the crap out of me. I just I can't

even fathom that. And I you know, and I know we've talked about this before, but when you think back so many years ago when this was all about the backs of jerseys and bookstores right right, and not being kids, not being compensated, which I've been absolutely wish them all the good fortune for that, But this thing is so far out of control now. Using that oldest analogy in the world, I don't know if the toothpaste ever goes

back into tube. No, you're exactly right. I'm curious, Jim, have you I know that Desiree did not follow you at UNLV, correct,

you had someone in between. See, I've known her a long time and actually have known her fairly well, and we stayed in contact and that and so from the un LV days, and actually before that, she worked for a really factor, really good friend of mine who he and his wife are just here two weeks ago for a week with us with Linda and Iron Tucson Dave Hart, who was at that time the AD at Tennessee, and Desrael worked for him and so and then worked for with Babcock at Technitive so anyway,

yeah, at Virginia Tech. But I've known her a long time both Missouri unlv in here. Have you guys spoken since she's taken the job here, Yes, I have several times. And you know, she is a really good, talented person who is at the right place at the right time. And I think the Wildcats. I'm not trying to get over positive on this, but I want to make sure she is exactly what we need right

now. And I'd love Dave Ikey to death, but it's it is a different time and there's some decisions that are going to have to be made that she knows this and you guys know this. And in this world of intercles athletics, somebody is going to be upset all the time. And the amount of kind of controversy that can go going forward because we're you know, we're talking about the twenty first of May. There are so many things are going to happen in the next month, two months, six months, year and

so on that I just don't know. The house case is just one of many attending kind of things, and guys, I don't know how somebody gets their arms around that. Yeah, it makes it makes my head spen. Yeah, it makes my head spin to to try and figure out what's going on. So I'm just kind of letting it happen and reading stuff. Let's

go back, let's go back aways. Because you came into you came into the u of a following a guy who had done an incredible job here to put you know, Arizona on the map athletically, you know, moving into having moved into the Pac ten, said Dempsey goes off to be president of the n C Double A. So there was a I mean, there was a lot in place for you to deal with. But also you're following a

guy who had done an incredible job and was loved here. Was that What were some of the I guess the challenges of that and how did you embrace all of that? Jay, It's a great question, and said and June are still very dear friends, and I know they're going to some health issues right now and I pray for them for that. But I was very fortunate,

very lucky to come be Arizona when he did. Remember, I've been there at Washington State right in the Pac ten for a number of years, so we'd known each other through meetings and certainly coaches, but was said as well, and so the timing of everything, and that was Linda and I had always talked to you know, at some point in time, you know, the Arizona schools, whether it's Arizona or Arizona State, and I hate

to even say that second school, but I am. Anyway, those are places that we just looked like they were going to be places where lots of good things could happen. And we were extremely lucky, you know. I was hired in December of ninety three and we went on a sixteen year run with great coaches, great student athletes, great university administration, and so we were very fortunate. But it was a very different time, Jay, than it is right now in terms of the decisions that have to be made with

regards to whether it's programmatic. Certainly the fiscal part, the financial part unbelievable. And yet during those days I was very fortunate to follow said yet we had to make some tough decisions in those early years here as well with regards to whether it's personnel or finances, and the budget had to be budget balanced. There was no question about that that was going to be a director from the board and from the president. So we were here at a really good

time. And I just I really want everything to be great, not good for the Wildcats, and just I want people to know that, guys, they are going to have to be some tough decisions made and there are there are people in place administratively with the university and athletics to make those tough decisions. Jim, we've talked to you a few times in the past when you've been on the show about this year here at you of a doing very well athletically, at least in the programs. We think it's one of the better

times. In fact, we almost give it a eight point five overall, it's done some well football, basketball, baseball. When you were going back like in the mid nineties seven, I compare it to back then the glory days of the Arizona programs. When you were in that time. Did you have time to say these are very good times, because as we look back, those were very good times. Stay again and not trying to relocate you

and Jay, but again, great question. You know, the hard thing about athletics and particularly administration athletics, I don't know that you ever enjoy as much as you should the exact moment you're in, because you're always thinking about what's next, whether it's and those were great times that we were very fortunate with great coaches to win a lot of of the conference championships and win a

lot of national championships. But the nineteen ninety seven at which you've written about a number of times, Steve and done a very good job of that part right there. The focus immediately after the Indianapolis win was that team coming back and all those players coming back and could repeat. So I think, and not a negative, but I think we don't allow ourselves to enjoy the moment we're in. We're always thinking about what's next, what's the next thing that's

going to happen, And that's the unfortunate thing. And once you do that, it's a little bit too late. It's and I know, StEB, you and I've talked about this for it's about grandkids. We're so lucky to be able to spend time with our grandkids, much more time when when when I was working as an ad whether it's Washington State or here, and that

what we do with our kids, we're able to enjoy it. So that's a great question and I don't know that anybody, I think any ad right now would answer that probably the same way as they wish they could enjoy that moment of success. And this is I couldn't agree with you more. This is a fantastic year for the Wildcats, and it's turning in to be a fantastic spring for the Cats too. Okay, let's go back to another moment for you. You're the guy, You're the guy that's got to hire a

basketball coach to replace a legend. How you know, how were you saying, Luke, please keep coaching so I don't have to do this, or you know how stressful was that for you? And then tell us a little bit about how you wound up with Sean Miller. Jay, Again, I had a little bit of a heads up because you know, during that time period and certainly Luton and Bobby first used to sit with us in our box for the back for football games, and so there was another relationship besides just

athletics. So in the last two or three years, you know, I knew that things just weren't as good as they could be in terms of health wise, that part of it. So there was no search committee involved. In fact, the person that I leaned on as much as anybody was Sam Newton, who had just finished as the Kentucky A d uh that, and

so Sam was a great resource in terms around it. The hardest thing about that whole thing there is is talking with a great number of people across the country about who would be a fit, because we're talking about not just one of the greatest coaches of all time, but we're talking about an absolute as

they should be, a legend in Tucson and a legend in Arizona. That part of it, the lucky part of it for me, guys and Jay in this context is I had been on the basketball committee, was going on the basketball committee, or was on the basketball and so I had a chance to visit with a lot of coaches around the country, watch practices, watch what they're doing, and Sean just seemed like an absolute natural fit, not just because of what he'd done Exavier, but because of his playing career at

Pitt and the people that he was in contact with. So no coaching hire is ever perfect. Sometimes it can be a great fit one place and a horrible fit in another. We all know that. But that's where when you go from that time to present day. That's where I'd give Dave Kiki a tremendous amount of credit with the coaches that he currently hired there on staff right

now. How long coach? You know, coaching, everybody has an idea who would be the perfect coaching higher until it does and work out until you lose. That's like a Mike Tyson. Then you can't find anybody who's going to let them say, you know, I thought that'd be a good hire. You can find all kinds of people when that when that coaching hire works out. And again I've been involved in a number of them. I had a great coach at Washington State in Kelvin who's still doing a great job at

Houston. So it's a it's an inexact sid it's best and the I just think it's it's a blessing right now that Arizona has the coaching staff in all sports that they have and the job they're doing. Yeah, no question. We were talking about the mid nineties where you know, Director's Cups and all that, your standouts and all that top fifteen, top ten throughout the years.

Any favorite moment in those times that you probably have a ton of them, Steve There are all kinds of and I hate to pick out favorite because that part of you you always tend to leave something out. I think the biggest part of those my sixteen years here was absolutely the relationship with staff and

the relationship with student athletes and the kinds of things and enjoy. I mean, we were blessed across the board to be having a lot of great teams, but we also had a lot of great coaches and we had a lot of things going on. One of the advantages I think we had at that time, and again today's world is different than that world in that we had

McHale. We had everybody house in McHale, So I had a regular schedule thing that was called a walking around period of just walking around McHale, visiting with our coaches, visiting with staff, visiting with our custodians, just visiting

with people. So those are my favorite moments. That there's championships and all those things, and those are great, but the favorite moments I used to love the kickoff at the start of the year, the all student athlete meeting with all of our student athletes, and you know, we did so many different kinds of things during the course of the year, we had a malfunction day where we had games with the whole staff, took part in the we had a barbecue, and you know, in this day and age, there'd

be all kinds of criticism for getting out of the apartment and doing something that wasn't absolutely connected with, you know, allowing sports to get better or allowing teams to win. But those those days were that was important. Staff relationship was really important. But do you have like a best day that sticks out to you in your time? You know, I mean, just one best day? Come on, you got to have one, you know what, Jay, It's such a great question, and I won't do it the honor

of answering there. There are so many. I mean, when you're when you're blessed to be the athletic director at University of Arizona and Tucson Arizona, there are many days, many many more good days than are bad, but many days that stick out as favorites because that's it. I mean, you live in a great place, You're at a great school, You're in a community that cares about the wildcats. So all of those and I'm sorry I

can't pick out something. I just I've always I've been asked that question so many times, and quite honestly, and you guys, probably both Steve, you and Jay both know this. I've been asked by a number of people to do kind of a couple of inside stories, if you will, of what really went on during those sixteen years, because nothing is ever the same as it is perceived by the outside world. That's just the way it is.

There are so many things that people would be shocked at, both good and bad, of how decisions were made, why decisions were made, and what they were made on based on what perception and what rumors are. And that was a different world. But Lynda and I and our whole family, we are blessed to have been here at the u of A for those years and have a bunch of friendships are still there as we do it all three we still have the same relationships in the in Las Vegas. And then Pulman

and Washington. Well, you bring up a point I was going to get back to you on all those memories. Yeah, yeah, come on, Jim, that's for another day. Just give us give us the inside of one coaching higher that's all we want, just one coaching. Don't do it, don't do it. You know what, You're going to laugh when I say this, But I had a chance to hire Mike Price here and was told that that would not be good because of what had gone on previously the

year before at Alabama and so on. I still think maybe one of the best hires ever uh is Mike at Washington State when I hired him from Weaver State. I mean, think about this, guys, this The Cougars from Pulman Washington have been to two pro two ghost Bulls under Mike Price. That just just the complexity of that. And he would have been a great, great fit here. He's just he's a great coach, but he's been a great person. And so I I just I don't know that I have any

there's no sexy stories of of this thing or that thing. My memories are just so great in terms of this wonderful school and this wonderful these wonderful programs and and you guys. And I'm not again blowing smoke. I don't need to, because I don't need anything from either one of you, but Steve, you and Jay have been part of those memories. YEA, well, thank you so many different ways, and the appreciation of what you've done for

this community and and quite candidly what you've done for me. So that's a memory right there. Well, thank you, thank you so much for that, Jem. In fact, our previous guests, mister Pete Williams said, make sure to say hello to Jim. You helped him with his daughter in Vegas. He really remembers it and appreciate, appreciated all you did for him. He is awesome, just an incredible not just a great player, but

a great human being his daughter. But again, guys, those are memories because now we're getting into at this stage in life where uh daughters and sons and and candidly in some cases I hate to even say this because it does date me quite a bit, but granddaughters and grandsons. So it's it's been a blessing and UH and I hope we get a chance to talk many more times about the Cats and the great championships that are that are going to be

one going forward. We will, we will, especially in the Big twelve coming. So Big twelve, you guys, I know you're excited to go to UH to West Virginia, ips of Manhattan. You're about all those places, you know, you guys, are you do have a sense of humor. You've got to have that. I mean, hey, if you ever been to down and you will been to downtown Cincinnati, you need to be there. We will be there. Jim, I've been to love It. Okay, look I have been to love too. And I'll tell you what

not a lot of people can say that, Ja. Those are memories that you will put on that shelf and you'll say, you know what, I've been there exactly exactly. Thank you, Jim, Thanks you well any time, guys for what you do. Yeah, thank you, Jim. Jim loving good. Trying to put a little dig into us. Yeah, exactly. The by Jackets. If we're going to West Virginia, I'm not going to West Virginia. I can tell I ain't tie right now. I'm not going to West Virginia. My son played soccer there. It was cold.

It was cold. I hope it's a different world, he said, yeah, totally differently. Okay, we got to go. All right, let's hit the road for a little break. We'll be back and we'll wrap this up five two zero four one six seventy four forty If you want to give us a call, So We're right back. If you're an Arizona Man's basketball fan, you know it's been successful for nearly forty years. Now take a look back at the Ludelsen era in my new book, Lessons from Loot.

It was a labor of love through the eyes of twenty five former players, coaches and friends to give insight to the coach and the man who led them, competed against them, and inspired them. Twenty five chapters for his twenty five years as Arizona's beloved coach. Lessons from newt is an insight to how he built the program into a national powerhouse. What one email me at Steve

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Hey, welcome back to wying the ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. I'm Steve, He's Jay got our guy Ryan in with us for the next eleven minutes as we close out today's show. Fun show Today, Good

show Today. That's been fun. You know, Jim had has always you know, very uh diplomatic, diplomatic stuff that you know, kind of grabs your emotions a little bit, you know, because he's he's so h appreciative of the time that he's had, with the jobs that he's had, and uh and and really you know a lot of people, you know, he would come around and you know, have a great wildcat day and those kinds of things, and there were probably some people thought, come on, how

real is he? That was him? Well, let's also say we got a call. I'll bring conduct to this. Okay, let's take this call. Hi, you're on the air and I on the ball. Hi, it's Lynn, sweet daughter. Yeah, we mentioned you earlier. That's why she's calling that you mentioned me. I said to Jim, Oh, I'm gonna calm, Oh you're famous. Now what do you have for us? How? Thanks for colling, Thank you both for making me famous in my

house only sure, that's fine. We're not even famous and our I was going to say, yeah, yeah, we're not, so you know, it's just such wonderful memories and it's it's devastating to think it's really over. Yeah, what are some of your friends? I was gonna say, going back to you know all this time, you know, since nineteen seventy eight, when Arizona got into the pack, what were some of your favorite times that you can think of? Moments, games, events, whatever. Oh

I can, I can tell you right off the bat. I mean, we all went to the Final four in Kansas City and I will never ever forget that. I mean, it was unreal and I am to this day still as Sean Elliott groupie. And you know, in those days where you all talk about you get to know the players, they were out at everything. Yeah, you got your picture taken, you went and talked to him,

and it was just very amazing. And my dad by then was working for course and they gave Steve, Steve Kerr the award, the Inspirational Award, and we were in the room and it was so emotional because you know, we'd lost and he was very emotional. I'll never forget that. I'll never forget we I had moved to the Bay Area by then and went down in nineteen ninety in the Rose Bowl and we played UCLA and d Lou intercepted that and ran it in the end zone and we beat Ucla in the Rose

Bowl game, went nuts and then the Washington game. How can you not forget that, you know in ninety two when they came in here and we did it? Sure, yes, those weren't care time football, baseball you named swimming, I mean golf. You look at Haley in twenty eighteen. I can remember I'd never watched Arizon a woman's golf like that. You know, no, right, yeah, right, no, great memories. Well, how do you mind asking? How how old were you when they moved

into the Pac ten? I had. I graduated in nineteen seventy six, so I've been out of college two years, okay twenty three And when we went into the pack. What were you thinking at that time that, oh my god, what are we up? Are we nuts? Or what? I Actually, this is bizarre to say. I've always I worked for a law firm there, and a lot of them were Stanford and Cal and they were big football guys and well later on, but not right, and they

I thought I always loved the challenge. I thought it was going to be incredibly exciting. And I thought people would be shocked by what Arizona could do, and I think they still are. Yeah. No, I think that's a perfect example because they did. They did at times, many times you think there's no way possible, and here they were like lookaball god, yeah no, you're right, you're right. Well, thanks for calling, thanks for still listening. Well, thank you. Beare down and I guess I'll

have to get used to the big twelve. It's going to be fun. It's still be fun. It's gonna be a lot of fun new T shirts. All right, thank you so much, thank you, thank you. We'll remember that name. Lynda, who saw we met her just a few couple of years ago, came to our tail game and yeah, yeah, no. I think she's consistent with everybody else thinking, well, you know, what are we getting into? But not really, We're gonna be okay,

yeah, you know. And I regardless of whether I thought Arizona could compete, I thought I thought it was gonna be fun because all of a sudden, instead of playing Colorado State eight in Wyoming and utap and at that time in Utah and New Mexico, it's like we're playing Ucla, We're playing usc playing Washington, we're playing Stanford. Remember John Alway was a quarterback in the mid eighties there, and you know John always coming to town. Uh,

you know those kinds of things. You know, Arizona had in after the seventy nine season they played in the Festival and Dan Marino with the quarterback. You thought, Arizona, we're kind of in a big time thing now, regardless of whether we can compete. You feel like you're sort of on the radar now you're on TV. You know, you know again, you know they all of a sudden you get a game with Notre Dame. You know, all that kind of stuff is kind of like, I don't care

how good or bad we're gonna be. We're gonna have fun doing it whatever it is. If you could let me go back to the gym, loving good thing what you're talking about, have a great wildcat day and all that, the cozier year warming, plenty of time and people work maybe sometimes you know, Okay, you know, but let me tell you something. I miss those days because we don't see those days anymore gone. And then in

fact brought up a point where we were closer to the players. Maybe not too close, but we told our stories and we won't see that again unless somebody opens the door and says, okay, guys, here it is. Well, well here's the deal. And this is sort of them. We can't go walk around mchall and just pop into offices anymore. You know, they don't even know who the hell is used to be able to do that.

I mean, you know, I mean, just walk into Kevin O'Neil's office when he was an assistant coach, just walked over to the basketball office, went in and you know, sat down with Kevin O'Neil and Ricky Burt's like, hey, what are you guys up to? Yeah, you know,

you can't. You got to go through channels to have access to not just players but coaches and administrators and sure, and so we don't know the athletic department like we used to know it, right, Like there's a name that everybody mentioned from back in the day, John Parrot, Right, he

was basically the CFO. He was the chief finance guy. He was in charge, he was the bookkeeper basically for the you know, and you could walk into McHale and go to his office and start asking for stuff, you know, and he'd give you stuff, he'd help you out, and you know, he wanted to help you out with stuff. And you don't have

that connection anymore. And I think in a lot of ways, I thing it's worked against you know, because now things like this happened, Like when things like this financial situation happened, nobody knows why it happened, and nobody explaining why it happened. It's all you know, you know, kind of you know, kept under wraps, and you don't look if you came out and told us, this is why it happened because we spent too much money on this, this, this, this, and this, But we think

spending that money was good for because we don't get that. It's just like you've got this financial situation. Nobody understands how it could happen. I don't know if you remember reading my Goodbye Calumn to Sean Miller and all the things I wrote. But one of the things is one of his issues was he didn't get close to anybody here in the media, to just who he wanted to. He wasn't a close guy. He got He's friendly with a lot

of the national guys. At the end of the day the national guys who the guys screwed him, right, and he had no one here to kind of buffer or anything or make it sound less crazy for him. And that's neither here nor there. But what didn't help him. It didn't help him

because he didn't allow anybody to get close. Well, I've said and I believe that, I you know, I believe that if you're a coach or any if you're a job anywhere really and people don't know you and don't know whether to like you or not like you or whatever, or maybe they don't like you because they don't know you, and if you start having some trouble, you don't have the support you know, to keep your job. And that's exactly what I was talking, right, you know. Look, it

was easy to fire John mcavic because everybody hated the guy. You know after after a couple of years he was a warm and fuzzy guys. He made no friends. He made no friends from the day he got here. Kevin someone was the same way. Even Mike Stoops never got to know the community, right, So had a couple of tough seasons gone right, you know, And and again Sean Miller might have weathered the storm if he had more

community supporting, more people who were behind him. He did have the big booster money behind him to keep him, keep him until that it was it was pretty much over. Uh No, But people don't know you and don't like you, right, the voices get louder and louder and louder, and and you know, it's it feels just like, you know, an example all uses the coach of Ben, the coach from u C l A.

Ben Holland right, nobody could stand the guy he went. He went to three straight final fours and ye had a few years later he was fired because people didn't like him. He was gruffy, was was gruff and and all that. And it's like, you know, it's just like you gotta build up, you know, alliances, I guess, I know if that's the right word. Well, you gotta have people behind you who are willing to fight for you, and you have to have it's such a long time ago

now because it's not the same. It hasn't been the same since Greg Burn showed up, you know, uh, and it kind of changed into a corporate world in that office. I rarely go down there, and I really know anybody anymore. And I was there every day, every day. Uh you know who they are. Who's the finance person today? Don't know, don't know, But everybody knew John parent. In fact, a d's come, have come and gone since the last time, I mean ads under under

the eighties. I didn't know my name, didn't care to know my name, which is fine. It is what it is. We gotta go, all right, gotta hit the road. We're gonna come. We'll be back tomorrow, hopefully I have some more great guests lined up for you. Keep going down memory lane like we have been. This has been a lot of fun, so you sure have been here tomorrow