This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen powered by Nova Insurance Services. Make sure your most prized possessions kat z R two side at iHeart Radio Station. Yet. Hey, good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. He's Ja Gonzalez. I thought today was Thursday. It feels like Thursday, which was Friday. Hold that good stuff, you know, Steve had. I had lunch with a bunch of old guys today
and that was your highlight. And you know, I know you're with one and now that kind of thing I looked. I felt like I was looking at my future and it's not good. She doesn't look good from here. Let me ask you this because I'm gonna see some old dudes tonight. I was with some tonight last night. Are you the youngest dude of them? Yeah? Except my son was there. But yeah, other than the matter, how he feels? Yeah, So how do you care for the free line? How do you feel? How do you feel? I still feel
semi young because you know, I like all these guys. You know, there's it's my brothers and then some other friends who you know, they're all older than me. I met, you know, one of them when I was still in high school. So we were talking about the fact that they said, dude, I'm sixty four, and he looked at me and said, you're just at the first stage of old. There's two more steaks. How old was? Who was? How old was the guys? Okay,
so I'm dealing with that, like, no, see some tonight. The one thing that gets me and one of them is probably listening because I'll see him to it. They're cranky. They're just cranky. Yeah, it's not a it's a weird cranky. It's like a Karen cranky. It's like they're just tired of the day every day. Yeah, and you could say that, you know, it's just weird the things that set them off. Yeah, it's like you have a great life. You're saying a hundred years old,
you're you're made up to this point. Relax. Well, we're talking about the fact that I understand this is my usual group of football fans, right, the guys that we tailgate with, you you know who they are, right, My brothers and and our friends. Ninety percent of the talk is about health, health issues. Everyone's talking about their health, things going on with their health, and I'm like, at some point, I go,
can we talk about football? It's something I'm talking about. Then we talk about football for about three minutes, and then it leads into something about health health, and and we're finding out there we're we're spending an awful lot of time talking about everybody's health, and we're not spending near enough time talking about the football season. No, it's it's a bunch of yeah, I hear you, and you get you. I hang around that older group,
and it's it's frust to me. It's frustrating. And Steve, you're you're you're under that Mendoza line of you know you're under sixty years old. You know, I'm in my mid sixties. Now at sixty four, I think you can say I'm in my mid sixties and I'm starting to go dang. A friend of mine, a friend of mine, was Intail from Satefe this weekend. He was doing some we got together and blah blah blah, and I was and he has a lot of patience because the situation at home with
his mom and stuff, and I'm thinking I have no patience. I have like zero, I have like a scale one to ten, it's three maybe, And I get really like, you know, really, and I'm thinking, how am I gonna make it? Because I gotta be more patient? You know, I I you know, I hear you. I I've I tend to as my wife has said and my kids have said, I talk aggressively, right, I hear you talk and you always sound like you're mad. Yeah, I'm not mad. I'm just like now, I'm not mad.
I just talk loud and fast and aggressive. Guilty and I can't help it. Guilty is charged. Kids, What are you yelling at? What are you talking about? What are you doing? What? Why are you mad at me? I'm like, I'm not mad. I don't mean him sound mad, but you're not even yelling. Hey, I'm having a hard time convincing them, you know, like my dad would say. He never
yelled. He would saying you'd want to know when I'm met, you know, yeah, yeah, but he would never ye And it's funny because I feel like, until he got pretty old, my dad sounded like that. I always felt like when he talked, he was pissed at something. Yeah. Well, Rick has that same type of presence we all did. It seems like we like very because you get it from yeah, from your dad. You hang out with mis dad kind of relaxed, very impatient too,
but very. You don't come okay, you know whatever. Yeah, it's well, we don't meet, you know, it's just how we talk. I'm you know, I'm rarely pissed at things like that, but I know I catch myself sounding mad or sounding you know, aggressive, and then I just try and you know, relax my shoulders and try and talk. Yeah, I can't tell Can you can tell me? Can you relax a little? What are you talking about? I am? Yeah? Yeah, I thought, you know, I got my Harvard T shirt on today and I
thought it would be smarter to I want to be a little smarter. Maybe if I'm a little smarter, I'm less angry or whatever. So well, let me tell you. You know, one of the things that has happened over the last twenty four hours is and I didn't know. I didn't get this memo? Did you about the Big twelve? We should were talking to all these people in the pectin. I think they just reached out to the major papers. Oh, Okay, they didn't invite everybody, I think.
I think I think Michelle Gardner was on from the from the Republic. Oh it was a one. It was a one, yeah right, Justin Spears, No, no, okay, they did a thing where totally, I think they invited basically the major news. They did invite all the TV stations. They invite you and I totally Michelle Gardner, Justin Spears, uh, somebody from your topic. And that was in Colorado. I think, no
Colorado. Michelle Gardner pointed out, Okay, I saw something. It was justin Uh Jason Shear said, oh, you know, bret Yarmark talked to you know, uh the four News, you know papers in the Four Cities. Michelle Gardner came back and said that, no, they Colorado was not on the call. Okay, it was. It was just it was a Phoenix, Tucson and it was just the three of that. Yeah. I saw some of it. I didn't read it at all. I know, Justin City posted something. You know. It was just you're just talking about
how they're they're done. You know, they're done. Uh, they're done expanding, They're not going after Oregon and Washing I mean Kallen Stanford. Uh, you know they were they were going to be comfortable at fourteen. They're comfortable at sixteen. That's it, and now it's time to start working on what it's gonna look like. Mentioned that, you know, they haven't even set up how teams will be divided up for scheduling purposes and stuff like this.
We're just getting. Of course, it's funny how that happens. You know, something happens the next day. Okay, what about this? No, relax, I'm telling people, relax, relax. In time, it'll come out right, like sure at this time, look but probably by you know, maybe as seasons and you know, maybe early spring or something like that, you'll start because you know, they're gonna have to start putting TV
schedules together and stuff like that. He did say that they're gonna stick to nine football game, nine conference football games, he said at but beyond that didn't say really what that any of that's gonna look like. It's way look, it's way immature, premature, and we have plenty of time for that. It's just the thing that came out though. CBS Sports College Basketball tweeted this out the top five college basketball games to look forward to after conference realignment.
That number one was arizonic question. You know, don't you think don't you think that I don't even if it's close, I mean, like that's the I mean, that's you know, that's Duke North Carolina. Well, I was just don't jump ahead of me, Jake, let me ask you good questions. Come on, don't don't jump ahead of me. How's that sound? Don't you think it's not even a close that the Big twelve basketball uh league is going to be the best in little country? Yeah, it's
not even close. Yeah, because right now, you know, you know, Duke is really good. North Carolina's got a you know, got a championship appearance, you know, a year before last. But to all the rest of the teams are kind of just you know, they're they're good, not great. You know when you think of that, Kansas win the national championship, Baylor's win a national championship, Texas Tech gut in the final four. Uh, you know, they're yeah, it's it's yeah. I can't
wait another show. And I was talking about that. Can we just start it tomorrow because it's gonna be fun. You know, I've been thinking, you know, thinking Steve, because you know, we always talk about how Back twelve basketball conference just hasn't been a great conference. You know, two or three good teams everywhere. Yeah, you know, and they's just been thinking, well, how prepared does that make an Arizona for you know,
making a run in the tournament? Right they run against run up against the TCU or Houston or last year of Princeton, get get hitting the mouth, and they haven't been hitting the mouth like that all year long. You know, they're gonna be playing in this league where every game is gonna be not every game, but a lot more really tough, physical, hard games.
And you know, being the ever you know, ever to miss that I am about stuff, I'd like to think that that will get Arizona be better prepared and be maybe being a better you know, they don't have to win the league every year to prove that they're really good the way you kind of have to do in the Pac twelve. Right if you didn't win the league or the conference tournament, how good were you? Right now? You can finish in fourth in the Big twelve conference and you're still a really freaking good
team. Yeah, yeah, no question, no question. It's gonna benefit them. It's gonna be fun to watch. I think the ones that benefit the most are the fans who have tickets to the games. It's not gonna be a watered down season. It's gonna be a fantastic season. Maybe in addition to the non conference conference, you see Arizona's playing this coming year. No, no, they're saying the first Arizona's first year in the in the
league. They could be playing three top five teens. Yeah, you know, if you if you got Kansas, They've got Kansas, Baylor Duke and yeah, and uh came Michigan Baylor. You know, you know, Holy Kyle, come on, that's that's fantastic. It's fantastic. And you know what, and nothing that happens in November December and we already do this times it matters, but it gets you set for what's right, you know all that. I mean, those games are great and they're good, great TV
games, and you established yourself, you get ranked. All those things. You know, they count when when they're doing uh bracketing and stuff like that. But in the end, you know, just going and being strong in your conference when you're in the Big twelve and again you finished in the top three or four in your conference, and you're a pretty damn good team, and and and and theoretically you should be ready, you know, you should be ready to have to play those games. Let me let me ask you
the tournament. Let me ask you then with this just uh last year Princeton, given what they went through last year, and no, there's no right or wrong answer. Were they ready? Apparently not? Was it was it a one off? Are we don't know? I'd like to think it was. I think so. I like to think it was because I like to think that that that Tommy won't happened. Let that happen. It's gonna happen again. I couldn't tell you when look, Lude had his teams well,
and it happens. It happens, Kansas is lost in the first round. That's my fourteen. That's it will happen. It's unappointed. But let me tell you, I don't think Princeton was given enough credit too. And this is not an elebut they came back and I beat Missouri. I think they beat Missouri. And that was either either Missouri wasn't ready, which of course that was on it was pretty good, or Princeton was pretty good. They were just a bunch of a good, bunch of good, scrappy guys that
matched up. And how many games are they was gonna lose last year without that one? Five? Maybe six? How many times that game happened? The when they lost happened every time? Every time? Every loss. Look like that. Anybody who thinks there should are surprised, shouldn't be every loss. They had the lead then blew it. Except for watching the state of think it was. But they had lead and then let the lead go away. So what was the shock there against the good team? Shouldn't have been,
but it was. It was right. It was more of a disappointment. It was a huge, huge, Yeah. So but I think it's going to be fantastic for everybody. I wonder if the season tickets are going to be jacked up a little bit, Oh price, wife, come on, because it's a better, better, better season, better games. Yeah,
I mean, it's certainly a better schedule. And then people aren't going to be coming, Oh, you don't have any good games, and you know, because you would have to look to the non conference schedule to see if there were, because yeah, you were gonna get UCLA and you were gonna get ore again, and then after that who knows, right, right, and so you really were relying on the non conference games to make the schedule worthwhile. That's not the case anymore. You're gonna have four or five
really good conference games every year. I'm not I'm not sure what we're talking about this, but it sounds is a good conversation. So over the last few years, especially when Sean was here at the end, and they would say it, I may mean not be right. They say, uh, okay, I'll have the season go well, we won the Pac twelve tournament and the title, but we've got to beat wherever it wasn't in the So
is that good? It says, yeah, that's that's good. You mean to tell me that Arizona is okay with within the PAC ten title, PAC twelve title, in the in the tournament, that's been exactly okay with that exactly. Oh we want a lot of No, that's not what this is about. The season's always been determined by your it's either tournament. Yeah, yeah, So you can't tell me that that was okay. I mean even those back to back lead dates when they lost you when they lost to Wisconsin,
right, the first one. Okay, the second one, people are really disappointed. Yeah, and it wasn't even close to second. Yeah. Okay, so we got to talk about what's going on today? Okay, passa callup the news director or sports the anchor at the Channel four is leaving us. A Desert view guy. Uh so he's a local kids went to desert Yeah, local guy moving on going to El Paso to become a news anchor. In our past, what he was a sports guy there. So
he's going back to be uh to get a news anchored. You know, we'll move up. So he's leaving soon, so we're no would get him on and uh you're talking about some of his you know, his uh memory, he's a favorite favorite stories and things like that since he's been here. And then uh so he's coming up here in a couple of minutes at three
fifteen, three twenty and then in the second hour PJ. Brown, we'll just talk about what's going on. What's going on women's sports, says she covers at the UFA big some big news for for the for A. U have a swimmer today and so we'll uh, you know, so we'll just talk to talk to the basketball players got hurt, right, she's out for the Yeah. Yeah, we'll talk for yeah. So so PJ covers all the all the u of a women's sports for the Star, so we'll just
pick her brain about on volleyball is getting ready to start. Soccer starts tomorrow at Iowa State. We had Beckamorrow's not yesterday. We were trying to schedule volleyball coach Urta Stubbs. Uh, it's just not working out. They practice while we're on the on the air, so that it's not working out. We'll try and get her at some point during the season when we catch a break. So in the meantime, let's take our break. We're gonna come
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He's jacking zowsome. Now on the phone, we have Paul Scolof from KVOA Sports Department now soon to leave. How's your energy, poltoc My energy is great and even more energy when I listened to to hometown Tucston legends. Well, Steve Rivera, we've adopted you here in Twosson. This is your hometown and of course they here Jay and all that stuff. Two guys that I looked up to all the time writing for the Tucson Citizen and Arizona Daily start
respectively. It's it's awesome to be here. Thank you for allowing me to be on your show, Socolo Rivera and Nzalaz. Sounds like an expensive Hispanic firm. Yeah, it sound like a border law firm, one that's probably not going to win your mini. Yeah, but we can drink really well. Yeah. So Paul you're leaving us. First of all, congratulations on the new gig. You know, I know Tucson is gonna be, you know, sad to see you go. You're local guys making good, so
we can't get in the way of that. Pataus a little bit about you know, what's going on with your career. No, I appreciate that it's been very tough for me. I got into this broadcasting industry in news, and I kind of just made my way to sports because I've always enjoyed sports. I grew up as an athlete. I grew up enjoying playing and reporting sports as well. But I've got into this business doing news and there's you know, unfortunately sports it's kind of a dying industry as you guys know what
the papers and everything else. And I felt like I had to take advantage of this opportunity while I could. And I'll be working at the number one rated station, the ABC affiliate in the al Pazzo too of al Quadez Las Cruises market as I was fortunate enough to get the job as the main mail anchor for the five, six and ten PM newscasts. Yeah, that sounds like a nice gig. I would assume that recently you've been doing a lot of news here. Uh did that nothing? I already knew you there,
knew who paulsa Calla was. But you've done a few things here. Did that help you? Know what I mean? I'm sure it didn't hurt. But I mean, I don't want to say it in a braggadocious way, but but I when I worked in El Paso, and I worked in that market ten years ago and I was the sports director, but before that, I was also I was the weekend sports anchor and I did news during the week, so I did a lot of news stories when I was in Alpasso.
I really set a name for myself at the time for doing border stories and border issues, especially with the big drug war going on at the time. And see alquad is al Paso's sister city with the Pina Lor cartel and the Huades cartel, and because of that, I I fortunately it was you know, I made a name for myself there where you know, luckily for me, I would hope that, you know, the viewers there still remember me and they respected me as a journalist, and the station has always kept
me on their radar. And even five years ago, when Rick Carbretta, their their main mail anchor, left, they had asked me that they had offered me the job essentially, but I but I was under contract and I didn't even bring it up to my news director at the time, and but I knew that they're on my radar and and you know they're their main news anchor left for you know, something bigger and better and uh, and the opportunity was there and I couldn't pass it up. It's it was hard.
I almost turned it down because this is my hometown and this I bleed red and Blue University of Arizona. I have so much pride to be at Tusona in But everybody else in the industry told me, you know what, man, you are stupid if you do not take advantage of the job opportunity because main anchor jobs and news do not come up that offense way the SECU second. Uh come okay, red and blue, when you Crimson and yellow, Hey, well listen. I was born and raised at Tucson, so so
University of Arizona has always been my team. Man. Yes, I did go to USC. I was lucky enough to to be able to get good financial aid and an outside agency scholarships. I went to USC and that's where I got my undergrad and Spanish linguistics and literature and then journalism. But I but in the end, I mean, I've always and I hate when USC plays Arizona because one of my teams has to lose exactly. Okay, so let's let's run through some stuff because I'm not gonna ask you for your all
time great moment. But there's some stuff that you've covered here in town. Uh, you know, you whether it was you of a or high school, you know, some of the stories that have that have stuck out to you, and then maybe some of the people that that you know will stick with you as you as you head out of town. You know, there's just so many stories, and I'm gonna concentrate more on the stuff that we only find in Tucson because you know, every every market has has the pro
teams, the college teams, the whole nine yards. But I've always just enjoyed telling stories like you guys do the feature stories with the high school athletes. To me, those are the biggest deals or things like the Mexican Baseball Fiesta put together by Mike Fader and many others where pro teams from south of the border play here in Tucson, and you know, those are things that we can only do in our border culture type environment here in the Sonoran Desert.
You know, also working with Jeff Scurrin, who's a legendary high school football coach has has been kind of the one of my highlights. I grew up, you know, reading articles in the Arizona Daily Star, you know, great Hampston talking about this legendary guy you know by the name of Jeff Skurrian winning all these championships, blah blah blah, and then you know a
little do I know. I ended up becoming great friends with with a guy I covered every day, and some of the big, big memories I had with him is thus going to Prieto, Sonoro, Mexico, and you know, he volunteers to help out risk youth and kids out there and donate stuff, and you know, and I would go there as a volunteer as well to help, but I would end up bringing my little camera and do stories
on it. I mean, those are some of the just things that I remember the most of it, more of the stuff that has nothing to do with pro sports, but everything that has to do with amateur and the community. You were there, you lived here, obviously, but you went back there a lot to visit friends, I'm sure, and all that stuff. So I'm assuming you're gonna do the same now You're gonna come back here a lot. Oh yeah, no, no, I mean I you know there
there's Tucson is in my heart and soul. And I every market that I've ever worked in, whether I when I worked in Las Vegas, when I worked in Southern California, when I was in no past, it was I made it to two sound at least once a month. I would drive here. Of course, my daughter and I have my entire families here. I was born and raised on the South Side Sundayside Unified School District. And and and yes, the good thing is it's only a four hour drive. And
here's the good news, guys. I am gonna come back many saturdays for home U of A football games, and it's gonna be such a great feeling to go as a fan, not the under deadline. I'm picking up a camera, jumping, walking back and forth a million times up and down the the field and and really cheering for the U of A like like a true fan. And and I'll watch you guys be stressing under deadline this sun. Well, that's Steve. I go as a fan. That's that was that
was part of the deal on this show. I'm I'm I stayed a fan at least for that part of it. So so Paul, you know, as you mentioned, you've covered a lot of stuff you love doing the high school and they know that. You know, you've established a following and a reputation for you know, for being that guy who you know who brought those you put those kids on TV, which is you know, you know how parents aren't they love that stuff you know is there? And then again you
you're a connection to you know, Sunnyside School district. You went to Desert View. But how have you seen things evolved? I would say, you know, since you've been here, you know, think about the time you were in high school and what it was like to kind of what you're leaving behind from a sports standpoint and coverage and those kinds of things. Yeah, well, I'll tell you when I was in when I was in high school, I would look up and I would see the guys like Dave Silver's and
the and the Dan Ryan's and then the Kevin mccaves. I would see him on TV and say, man, what a great job these guys have and what a dream you get to cover sports for a living, you know, in my case, being able to come back to my hometown and report on the team that I grew up sharing forward with the U of A. I mean, I'm just I'm simply blessed. But as you know, the industry over the years has evolved into a situation where you know, you don't get
a photographer as much anymore. You have to shoot your own stuff. And it is what it is. I mean, we're not saying it in a woes mayor complaining aspect, but it's a lot more physically and mentally demanded. It truly is a blue collar you know, this job when it comes to
coverage of sports and everything else. And and also at the U of A, I mean, I envy you Ja, and I envy you Steve because you guys got to cover U of A during the glory years, the Two Thoughts Citizen and Arizona Daily Star, where you guys got to be sent to the away games. You know, if it was back in the day right now and you guys are still there, you guys would be in Israel right
now and Abu Dhabi. And you know, I always kind of felt like, man, that would be great if I could have worked during your guys' era of sports. But uh, but then you know, but it is what it is. The sports is evolving, and unfortunately in the news industry, Fords a semi going down the hill. I mean, look at Kwald and k Gun. Unfortunately they used to have three people's sports staff, then
it's two. Now they only have one. We're lucky enough to have you a way to have to but it really is changing when it comes to that whole dynamics and in sports, and when it comes to coverage or just being a fan and watching the games. No, you're forward thinking and trying to move your career forward because in fact, you god one of our great friends at Channel four, the anchor there. Uh see, there aren't very many people and I don't want to say your age, but you're over forty five
probably or right there where there. You guys are few and far between. No, no, no, we I agreed. I mean, there's so many people that just leave the industry because they say, all right, I want to nine to five. I mean, there's no secret that that journalism jobs don't pay that well. I mean, we're not living on beans and rice. But but I mean you you, it's not an industry that pays well. So people end up leaving. They go to nine to five.
And that's how I give props to people like Lupita Murdillo, who I grew up watching on TV every day sticking it out, Guys like Sean Mooney as well that are still in it. And and I'll let my I'll limit my age. I'm forty nine years old. And uh, it's funny. I was just talking to my compadre. He is tuning in right now. But
Paul, Hey, what's up? Man? But anyways, you know, we were just talking about how old we were, you know, yesterday, how old we are, and how like we look at somebody else our age and we think they're old and we wait, said up, they're already in the world too. Hey man, I grew up watching Yeah, right, Paul, who's gonna see Lucana? Now, who's gonna see I know? Wow? You know what I am coaching? Uh, Jenna Fink, she's doing a great job. Is our is our weekend sports anger, and she'll
she'll be here and there. You know, they'll eventually hire my replace man, and who knows, maybe you she'll be in that position. But I'm I'm coaching her on how to say Sawarita and the whole nine yards. But but it is what it is, you know what I mean, if we need to learn from anybody, though Jay knows this because he grew up watching her well Lupi Momudio. She was the first one to ever say marijuana on camera when I'm wanna that's the way it said. So, so, you
know, do you have is there a game a moment? Uh? You know something you covered that you know, a number one you know that sticks out to you a person maybe that you remember the most, you know, because there were a lot of things in there, you know when you before, but now just one thing that's going to stick out that that you did hear You're experienced here, you know it is. That is the toughest question
because I feel like there's so many number ones out there. I mean, I can say, you know, being on the sidelines went on New Solomons through that hail Mary. I had just been right there where it was a few feet away from me and seeing that and feeling that energy and then feeling the stress right afterwards, zoning, oh man, I only have a few seconds here to get ready to for my liveshot, or to cover the story you know that, or just covering the University of Arizona women's basketball team making
it all the way to the National Championship game. But to me, that was a thrilled because you know, we grew up as U of A men's basketball fans for the most part, in the U of A women's team has never gotten the props and the dude that they have, and it's just been such a treasure to cover coach of Da Barnes and to be on that run
and see you know, super respected journalists like PJ. Brown there as well, and just to be on that riverwalk even though they lost by one point to Stanford, you know, that was such an awesome And I hate Las Vegas. I worked in that market for two years. I absolutely hate it. But the only time I like it is during the Pac twelve tournament when the University of Arizona and Tucson just takes over that area in red and blue,
in the whole nine yards. And to me, I remember those things also because I feel like in Las Vegas you would see a true representation of what Tucson University of Arizona fans are. Unfortunately, not everybody can afford tickets or get good, good seats to mchael Center, but when you quote to Las Vegas, you see people from the Sunnyside district, you see people from the South Side, and you see the regular two the Rat Mchael Center as
well. But you truly see a true, true variation of what Tucson is and what our Denigrathics are and the pride we have for you of a So I would say, you know, covering that the tournaments as well in Las Vegas. As much as I hate to say it, but I truly despise in Vegas. I'm not a fan of living as well. Let me let me give you another memory. So now the good thing is being behind the desk and be the main news anchors. You don't have to go out and
do those stories. Maybe you will a time or two, but again, you don't have to run from one venue to the other like you did in Vegas. I wasn't going to bring it out striped on live camera. That still goes viral. But but no, you're right. But I'm I'm you know, I'm not going to be like one of those I call him high maintenance anchors. That's not me and I never have been. I'm gonna,
you know, it's I'm looking at it as an opportunity. When you're an anchor and you're doing the five, six, and ten, you you have producers, you have more help. You're you're gonna get quote unquot photographers more. But I'm still gonna pick up the camera and go through stories that I'm passionate about it and I like to do positive stories and and you know, living in that region, you know, I'll pick up a camera and maybe I'll do stories on some of the you know, like just you know you're
over there, will cover new U tap into Mexico State. And I'm still not going to be out of sports. I already told the sports director there that that I'm gonna, you know, help them with there. They have a show called Borderland Blitz, which is like the Friday Football Fever. So I'm gonna concentrate a lot more on doing special reports that I've always wanted to work on, and now I will have the time to do that because you
have producers and others helping you with the show itself. When writing the newscast in the whole nine yards, well, Paul, when you go out there and say hello to Hillary Floren for me, very good friend of mine. Yeah, A very good friend. And then when you pass Las Crusoes Stubb by Enmas, you see if my statue is still there, and see if the birds are still pooping on it. No, I want you know what, I'm looking forward to being there for that, for that wall of shame,
I mean hall of fame. Sorry about that, Steve, but yeah, but hey, I always I always thought it was really cool that you went to New Mexico State and that you grew up in such an historic area in Santa Fe, in the whole nine yards. I appreciate all the history of the south border, southwest, all the way through the Camino Real, all the way to Santa Fe. I know that history, and it goes all the way down to El Paso Norte. And you know, I'm looking
forward to being in that region again. And I'm gonna make a lot of trips to UH to Albuquerque because there's what it's like a three hour drive or something from El Paso when I'm not driving back to Tucson and well, Viva el Pesso, good luck, No, but always Viva Tucson. I'm gonna stay this real quick. A lot of people will say, you know, like I'm more you know there's a saying in Mexico where they say, uh, someone's more Mexicano than the nopal itself in the practice itself. But I
would I change it up a little bit. I say, you'll so I am more tooth sown in than not just the cactus itself, but I am more tooth sown in than the sawaro. And I will continue to be well Paul. It's it's been great knowing you're having you and we expect to see you back here. So don't be a stranger, and we'll catch up with you. So we'k on that ten we'll go up eight mountains, you know, with the shirt off. No he no, no over there. Yeah, I gotta figure out a new One's a train up now, Paul.
Good luck and thanks so much. A lot of fun, a lot of full Paul, full of energy, man, guys, always been full of it. Was like rid man, I know he wears me out. That's you know, great pasta colleague. We're gonna miss it, you know. You know, his enthusiasm is like nobody else had this, you know, matches. So I'll tell you to tell you a quick pall story. So he's played in the ludosen thing a few times and he's the only one to dude, you get thrown out of a get out of a game. You
know who did it because he's he's high energy. Yeah, that's the way he plays. Dude like bull the China shop up and gets you, threw him up and the guy who probably should have been thrown out of himself. Right, that's funny. That's too funny. All right again, Pastakla, congratulations and best of luck. All right, let's take our break. We're gonna come back. We'd love to hear from you five two zero four one, six, seventy four forty or another day closer to football season and some
basketball stuff going on, So give us a call. If you're an Arizone a man's basketball fan. You know it's been successful for nearly forty years. Now take a look back at the lud Olson era in my new book, Lessons from Loot. It was a labor of love to the eye of twenty five former players, coaches, and friends to give insight to the coach and the men who led them, competed against them, and inspired them. Twenty five chapters for his twenty five years as Arizona's beloved coach. Lessons from Loot
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on the iHeart Radio Act. This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Hey, welcome back to I on the Ball, you know on Fox Sportsport teen fifty. I'm Steve. He's gay. At ten minutes if you guys want to give us a quick call five two old four one six seventy four forty good to talk to to Skala. Yeah, you know, we'll see him around. You're one of the good guys, right. I wasn't going to bring up the falling down
in Vegas, but that was that was hilarious. No, he got some good, good publicity. I didn't get on the Today Show because of that, or you know, I think they showed up. It was on ESPN. Don't run in your fancy shoes. That's what it is. That's what you learn now, Hey, real quick, and we talked about it real
earlier earlier on the show. So deon Sanders you saw it now, So you saw the fight, right, It was kind of nothing really, Yeah, two guys or three guys fighting each other and then the whole team or some of the team getting involved, and then a couple of guys who didn't who didn't, And Dion goes there and says, you know, there's gonna be a fight, guys, everybody's got to be involved. And I'm thinking, that's the first thing, you know what, the first thing I thought.
Dick told me and he'd say, what the hell are you guys doing. I remember being at a at the first day in pads the year that I covered them at Camp Co Cheese, and it was probably two plays into it. I can remember Chris Singleton, you know, made a tackle on the guy and they got up and there was some pushing and shoving, and then there was another one, and then another one and another one. He stopped practice and what did he say? Knocked the craft exactly. You're wasting
time. And I do remember a time or two another time says it's not about this. You guys are teammates. This is gonna cost you a penalty. In a crucial moment, it was we're here to work, you're wasting time. Nobody gets anything out of a fight. And as you said, we're all in the same damn team. He was living. He was a coming. Did you that was I saw another time too, here in town. That the when they practiced at the facility where the center is now.
I saw a couple of times he would be pissed, he would be living over and so I saw this today. I'm thinking this is the total opposite. And I don't, I don't know if I agree with it because it's silly. It's his way of doing things, David, it's just amazing to be on Sanders is, you know, as a player and now as a coach, has proven that he's not a regular guy. Well, I don't. I don't know if it's a right or wrong answer. It's just a
different answer. Who knows, you know, who knows what what he thinks is gonna work in his locker room, right, Because that's the thing. He's got a bunch of guys that have not been around each other, they have not played together. What does he got like seventy new guys on the team? You know, somebody something? You know, I don't know what he's trying to establish. He's trying to establish something. Look, it's his team. He gets to do this, and so if he if that's how
he wants to do it, then he gets to do that. I'm you know, I'm on the Dick Tomy side of that, right, like, knock it off, yea, you know, there's no there's no good that comes from it. Yeah, and again it's wasting time now. And if these things go, if things like that, if he thinks his team bond, you know, okay, then maybe that's what his team will bond over
that. But there's an also a chance that there's also a chance that guys will get you know, something like that, and that tension will continue and then it becomes disrupted. And that's what I'm thinking, and that's what I'm thinking. And when there is a fight in a game, because you know there's gonna be that, you have these guys running off the field or whatever you can't run on. Guess what happened? Suspensions, suspensions, And now you just don't get it. Don't kind of weird to me that it makes
no sense to me. It makes no sense to me that that the coach would would encourage guys to get in the fights. I just don't know. And then the coach should be right there too, he says, I've I've been there and done that. We'll see what happens, We'll see what happens. It's just a strange philosophy. It is. But again, Dean Sandres is, I'm not gonna come a strange guy, but he's certainly a different guy, and so he's gonna be a different coach. We're gonna have our
guy, Brian and Brian right is it from Colorado? Who's the guy? Yeah? Bran? How because he got on Brian right here? And that's why I don't know. I don't want to ask him because he probably asked him what's this gonna be like and he said he wasn't sure. He got on him right away. I mean, it says the press commerce last week, and we'll have him on well again. He has some unrealistic expectations about
how the media is gonna treat him. He wants, he wants to be treated a certain way, and he's gonna get a little bit of ana be a little bit of a shock in terms of they're not always gonna say great things about Don and if he's gonna hate that and kick reporters out or yelling at him or whatever, that's not gonna fly for very long. Welcome, well, you're welcome to the real world. Yeah. Well, you know, he thinks, well, he thinks I'm deon, so you gotta put
up with it. Well, maybe they do, maybe they don't. Well, Jay, look at here, it's a it's a lovey dovey. Sure, look at other places like here college town. It's mostly a lovey dovey. I was guilty of it too, except if you have one or two columnists that aren't like that. But most of them are kind of in not in bed with the team, but they would rather see you succeed than not
succeeded. Well, Steve, it's some part of it too. I think it's so much of the competition has been removed from reporting, right boy, because now in the airs one daily start doesn't have to worry about getting beat by on a story. So you can be friendly and you can just cover things at whatever pace you cover. Maybe you don't look as hard for the you know, for the for the underneath. You know, you don't lift the rug you see what's under there because you're not afraid somebody's gonna beat you
one. You know, look in the TV stations and US and the and the and the website. Guys, we're all we're all friendly to them. You know what we know that if we start pissing off all the Arizona fans, people aren't gonna listen to us. And that's not to say that we're not going to call out stuff. If there's a plane like crap, we're
gonna say there's crap. And we have you know, I mean when when we thought Kevin someone needed to be fired, he needed to be you know, we thought he needed to be fired, and we said he needed to be fired. But you know, we're not You and I are not out there every day slugging through all the stuff trying to come up with something that somebody else doesn't have because you don't. First of all, you don't have that access. Yeah, don't have that access. And there's no needs.
What am I gonna get out of it? And just want to read about their team and learn about the players as much as they can and hear us talk about you know, they want for some reason, they want to know our opinions, like you know, we know more than everybody else. I wouldn't know, which we really don't, but we've been around long enough to
be able to have perspective on different things. Sure, sure, no, I think that's one of the reasons I think this is what Bruce said last week when we had him on and he'll be on tomorrow from Abu Dhabi, is that they went to get a feel for the team and to let the readers know who these kids are. Right, they may not get that inside story, but at least they're with them to tell what's happening. They'll get comfortable with him, befortable with them, and then as the season goes on.
I mean, this is sort of a tour for Bruce to be able to do his job. Ben. You know when basketball season rolls, right, and if anybody who doesn't know this, this is Bruce's team. You know, forever he and I competed against each other. I did it with Willner, did it with hobb and all these guys. It was a dual type of competitiveness. Anybody who thinks that they're competing with Bruce, they're not. They're not. He's there, he's going, he's there. They're not.
Yeah, no, you cover the team. That's good, but you're not. You're not there. Exactly no percent agree with you on that. And you know Bruce does good and you know he's that he's the last guy out of the arena every night, but a choice choice. I told him that, we talked about that last time. We gotta get a pizza. That's shut down, Bruce Waite. But you know, but you know, Bruce does a good job and we get you know, we get as much as we can with the access that Bruce has, and we rely on him,
you know, we get him on the show. We read his stuff and that kind of forms what we know about about the program. And some of the other guys too, you know, you know, we know who they are, you know, Troy Hutchinson's and and but here's the thing, here's the problem. And everybody does this more now that it's a group setting. You asked the questions. Everybody has the same stuff. And I've heard this a two or three times now in the last month or so. Everybody
has the same stuff. It's how they right it. It's right. It's how you present how you present it in what way is the difference? Like today? Okay, look, you're going to social media and a bunch of guys who are you're not were not practice, couldn't go to practice? How you know, we got other things that we have to do. Everybody's talking about how uh Scotty Graham. Discussion about Scotty Graham, the running backs coach who made it a point to go to Mike Michael Wiley's graduation ceremonial. What
a big deal that was for both of them. That's sort of the narrative coming out of out of today's practice, that the closeness that Scotty Graham has with his running backs and and this relationship that they have. But everybody I've seen, you know, eight different guys have we did that clip. There's your problem, Jay, when we were covering back with Bruce and back with you, and we all had individual time, right, we all had an individual time our stories a practice would end. Yeah, right, you'd go
get a player, I'd go get a player. Sure, we'd all go talk to Dick, you know, and you talk to Dick about the conversation you just had with a player. And so I mean kind of had an idea. What do you tell the stories were? But they were different. There were different stories. Every day you had something, I had something without questions. And that's not to the fault of the local media. It's Arizona wants it that way. Yeah, no, yeah, they they again controlling,
the controlling the narrative and they do and look again. As a PR consultant, that's how I've advised my clients is the make your own news. You don't need the newspaper anymore. You don't need you know, You've got a Facebook page, you got an Instagram account, you got a Twitter pick. Create your own story out there and let people pick up on that. That's how the news has done. The one thing that people have to realize, it's gonna be mostly one side. It is. It's gonna be one
side. No, that's exactly what it is anymore. All right, uh man, we're top of the hour already, Steve, all right, let's take our break. We got a break in new is coming up here at the top, and then we'll have PJ. PJ. Brown. We'll talk to some women's sports, which are things again started. Soccer starts tomorrow. There was a press conference with Rita Stubbs for Bolli Boss, so I'm sure PJ was there. We'll just see what's going on with the with the ladies
sports over there. So stick around for all that don't believe they just wine, don't believe they just lie, don't believe they just well