Silbert and now we have Henry with breaking news.
This is Eye on the Ball, breaking news on Fox Sports.
Fourteen fifty Suns forward Kevin Durant will be out one week with a left ankle spring.
The thin man continues to get injured. Unbelievable.
You can pretty much count on him being out what quarter of the season usually.
Yeah, they're pretty good when they're together.
Yeah, they've been great. They're in the midst of this what this NBA Cup thing, right, So I don't know, it's disappointing because when they do play, when those three guys play together, are pretty tough to beat.
Yeah.
The college football playoff ring games came out last night. Oregon remains at the number one spot. SMU, if they win the ACC championship game on Saturday, would be the number three. Ohio Satom's moved down to number six and Miami has moved down to number twelve.
So SMU plays Clemson. Yeah, yeah for the tunnle. So if they don't win, they're out. So there were a three year out.
Uh, there's a lot of speculation whether if sm loses, could they still make it, could they still whether they're losing a conference championship game.
Would the committee take that against it and if an issue doesn't win, they're out, right, Yeah, they would be out. The winner of that game goes in and as a twelve losers out and the losers out. So it's it's pretty crazy.
They're really sort of seems like they're trying to get rid of these conference championship games because you're right, I mean, if you lose, you're almost better off not playing in one of those games.
Well you kind of already who hated the conference more than look? Oh yeah, it's more forever, more games, more games, and what do we have to prove we already played eighteen games? Yeah?
Well this is really I mean, you know, up until this year, this is kind of how it worked. But now all of a sudden, it's like, whita, wait a second, what if we what if we don't play? What if we're one of those teams that just is, you know, sit on the sidelines this week. We're still going to get in the top twelve, right, Yeah, what's more important?
Right then the tournament saying talking to you Alabama things like that.
Yeah, Jack's quarterback Trevor Lawrence will go to the i R after suffering the concussion last week.
What did you think about the fine? It's so debatable. What was the fine total?
Three?
It was three three games suspend.
I don't know what to find.
Yeah, he's appealing it now, of course. Yeah, any apologizes, so so I that rule obvious obviously favorites the offensive, and it has for a long time. Right. Have you ever been a car crash, and I use this example, you have been that bad no no kar crash where you're driving and somebody else driving and you see it's happening. You can't and you cannot avoid it. You're gonna get hit or you're gonna hit somebody, Right, That's what this is. Because it's so bang bang, How are you going to
contort your body otherwise? I know he's done this in the past and all that stuff, but you know what I'm saying, it's just like, oh crap, I'm stuck and I have to go hit him, Like I'm I'm gonna hit him. You're talking about the defensive defensive, Yeah, you see it all the time. How do you change your body when you've already the missile's already been launched.
Yeah, well, I mean I guess as part of the training you go through as a defensive player knowing you can't do that, and you got to figure out, you know the best way to slow down stop, Well, turn your body, get away, don't go head first into the game.
Well, i'll give you another example. And you see the games a few times with Patrick Mahomes runs with the ball right and pretends he's gonna get out of the sideline and then he stays in and he gets another ten yards. Yeah, and you can't touch him because well he's right there, Patrick Mahomes, Yeah, you can't do that. Yeah, it was. That was pretty brutal. Oh yeah, no question, very brutal, no question. I feel for the guy, but I guess those are the rules, right. It was like
when was it Umanu who got kicked out? When you yeah, and what are you gonna do? I mean, he was already kind of going that way to hit the guy. Yeah, I'm sure he didn't intend to, but that's what happened. Yeah.
So Oklahoma quarterback Jackson Arnold, the number three recruit last year, has entered the transfer portal today.
Crazy, No one's happy anymore because he wasn't gonna play. I mean what, I don't know. He didn't play right, he sat out.
No, he should played. He did play this year. Yeah, but he was the he was he was a part time showter. He was the starter, but then he got benched and then he like on and off.
There's gonna be so much good talent out there. Maybe if you get benched to play, it's that's well, Caleb, who is the guy he replaced it? He's a New Orleans Saints now up right?
So you know I couldn't keep track of his career. Wasn't he at South Carolina?
Yeah?
I mean he's from Phoenix, Phoenix area.
Ravens wide receiver Deontay Johnson has been suspended one game by the team for refusing to enter the game Sunday versus the Eagles.
What did he do?
I guess he wasn't happy about the snaps and then they told him he could come in and he didn't want to get He.
Was unhappy that he wasn't playing, so that he refused to go play. Yeah, what the hell? Hey, Henry, go write this story. I don't want to why because you don't get me enough signments? What conduct detrimental to the team? They say, no, crad that means almost said, I almost said the n sport refusing to enter our game. That's what GM said. Would you he's the guy? If you were Jay right now, guess what Jay would say, Cut the guy. Cut the guy if he doesn't want to play.
He's making millions and he don't want to play. He played only thirty nine snaps so far this year, being traded from Guess what how many snaps you played next year? He put out, you be traded next year? Well, he's a leading receiver for Carolina's going one catch for Well, he's a wide receiver. Well you diva wide receivers. That's all they are. Diva white receivers. Throw me the ball. And the good news is he's the free agent coming up. Well, he won't be playing for that. No one wants them.
The Pelicans announced that Zion Williamson will be out at least two more weeks to rehab a left.
Gosh, David, what do you think he's on the Kevin Durant train? How many of these gets? I mean? When is he's never had a healthy season? No, No, I don't think so. What a talent? Too too big? Well, I think he's well, I was going to be a joke, A load management but no, he's lost.
Wait, the sec ACC Men's Challenge as well as the Big twelve Big East Challenges continues tonight. We've got number five Marquette versus number six I was state, number one Kansas versus Creighton, and number two Auburn versus number nine Duke.
There's another one. There's another one too. I think the Swisses seven. Who is?
There's Alabama, North Carolina that's it and Baylor Yukon.
Yeah. There's some great games tonight all tonight, right, yeah, fantastic games.
Not only that, we've got Big ten action with Oregon and USC football.
Well, no, that's but that's a Big ten. Isn't that the football game this weekend? Who's playing this weekend? State? Okay, okay, that makes Duke should be good. Aubert, yes, domination. Yeah in Kentucky lost last night. Yeah they lost to Yeah, I saw something that game great, they were Okay. It's a road game though, yeah whereas it that's in Omaha. Yeah, it's gonna be tough. It's a great game to watch basketball.
It's big, like do we know how soon until Arizona is allowed to play in these like the Big twelve biggest things?
No, No, that'll be fun, that's right. Yeah, why that should be happening. I would think there's too many teams.
Right, I probably scheduled it too long.
Yeah, I'm sure.
Yeah, because a big twelve, big East things going Baylor or Yukon tonight.
Yeah, you kind of cold lose again. We do want to get him upset explosion, that's all I got. Okay, we mentioned that speed Lucas decided to leave. Have you checked anything lately? But maybe go go to a speedy deserts no deserts warm anymore else? Jump ship in the last a couple of hours, h Taylor Like this was another guy who left who yesterday? So just you know they're going to be coming and going throughout the throughout this next probably a week or so.
I mean you go to those websites and you see, I mean they've got these like defensive linemen have video, you know, clips of themselves.
So there's no surprises.
Three three three year starter get out of Hawaii six foot four eighty pounds Jvan Goo g oo.
What do you think the you got here in eighty three? I got here in eighty seven, and I'm I know people text me and said, well, you're the pragmatic one, and I'm I can't. People say I'm just the negative one. Blah blah blah. What do you think?
Uh?
And now that you're not selling for Arizona or whatever. Uh. And yesterday we had don calling it that Arizona's not Ohio State, they're not Notre Dame, they're not these schools. So stop thinking that. Uh, Hunley agreed. And you could think maybe you're that good, but you're not, so stop stop acting like you are.
Right, we don't have the resources, we don't have the ni L, we don't have fan support. We're not you know, there's a ways to go, and it's it's kind of tough to just kind of watch. And now you're like, you know, we've talked about them moving into a new conference and trying to compete with some of these schools that do have established traditions and maybe you know, have a head start on on the u of A. But it's it's not the same. We just don't have the cash and.
Don't have the you know, the players and the history and the history, right, you know, one hundred years of football couldn't get to the Rose Bowl, right, Well, there's hey, the Defense Rescue honer right there. But you know there are occasions every certain amount of years that something will happen good and they'll they'll act like they're the number one team in the country, and many times it happens, you know, so randomly, right, and Okay.
There's always going to be like the Indiana's look what Indiana did this year?
Doing it? Yeah, predict exactly exactly.
You know, there's teams have broken through and some teams have stayed. Boise State by you, teams that were nobody or maybe not by you, but Boise State for sure, no one ever heard of them until you know, they kind of broke through years ago and got him on TV on Thursday nights and you know kind of established themselves that well.
Well, looking now, Colorado the Darlings last year and again because of the coach. Otherwise no one would have given damn no. And now he's kind of proved people a lot of people wrong, well and maybe a lot of people right. I don't know.
I don't know, because that sounds like he's getting you know, five star quarterbacks and people like that to replace his son.
I I don't know if I whether believed his situation or not. But I know a lot of people didn't. That was all smoking mirrors and you know, he was being Dione and all these things, and he was just doing it for the cameras. But but he's showing results. Arizona would kill for that. Let's see though.
I mean, that's gonna be interesting because you know he kind of has followed his son and and Travis Hunter around the country.
Well I think they followed him. No, yeah, because they were they were they were going to take chests. That's true, Okay, but big I was just gonna say, once.
They're finished, you know, is Deion gonna feel like he's just stranded? They're in Boulder without the family.
Yeah, no, it's probably not well. And we'll see how long he says. That's right, That's kind of what I was getting. But I think you have to get say that he might be a pretty good coach, or at least a facilitator like Jet. Do you know how good of a coaching Jet is? Yeah? Who knows? Who knows? I don't. But he did a good job, you know, Hey, more power to him. He did a good job. And this is not the bag Jet He's done. He did a good job. Look look how bad they were three years ago.
Well, I mean, I think as we talked about earlier too, is the coaches and the coaching staff you put together. And there was obviously something wrong this year with the football staff. And it didn't take long for him to make a quick change in that offensive coordinator, gig you know, pretty early in the season. So you know that had to kind of jolt in the offense, like, wait a second, who's in charge? Why are we making a change here in game four?
Yeah, well, jolts probably not the right answer, because there was no jolt in that offense. They were never jolted. Did they even realize it? That was like taking the batteries out of the car. What's wrong with this thing? And you kept flipping the batteries and turning it back on, and well, this is not working either. It's probably the car.
Well, meantime, you asked me about the Sionees. They did get this four star wide receiver from Florida, Isaiah Myzelle. I'm sure we could talk to Matt Mourno about Yeah, a number of three stars from all over Texas, cal California, Chandler, a handful from Texas, so kind of the unusual, usual suspects, usual locations for Arizona in the Bay area San Antonio.
Also, did you know that rich Rod was doing pretty well Jacksonville State. I think he has a big game this weekend to get to the playoffs. I think he's eight and four.
Was that not a rumor that rich Rod might want to come back in the offensive?
You read Twitter putting that news out. Everybody they've seen rich Rod around, that's what they're where he was at market. Yeah, a bunch of craps. I hate I hate Twitter, right, all this stuff. Anybody could fill stuff on the wall, you know, But that's funny. That's funny. So someone's around to what then' his kid? His son played at point? Right? So you're talking about someone Yeah, yeah, yeah, but I think he's long gone. I think so. Yeah, because that's
where you did. People would see him watching. I ran into him. We have the same dentist, I know three years ago and and I was was he was doing the mass he was doing COVID and I'm thinking, oh, hello, and we shook hands and I'm thinking, man, he lost a lot of weight, and I'm thinking we're all very massive. That's Kevin. Somebody looks really good. And I say Steve River. He says, yeah, I know who you are. It was like like really, yeah, I know what you wrote about me.
I saw him out at a restaurant once. That's about that's about the old you know. I wasn't in the media those years, and I was saying, that's a coach. He was out, So it was good to see him. But it didn't last long. No, No, I wish that we have like let's go, we'll go, We'll get that one. Now.
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Steve Rivera, He's got his eye on the ball on Tucson's sports stationed Fox Sports Sports Eve Bigay, Hey.
Welcome back to Fox Sports fourteen fifty. All on the ball. I'm Steve Vevera, You're Dave Silver. Now on the phone, we have Matt Mordino of Goasycats dot Com. Matt, you must be busy today.
Very busy, Steeve. It's the busiest day of the year for me.
Thanks for spending ten minutes with me, mister.
Modimo, absolutely anytime.
How did the Arizona Fair?
I think I was expected. I mean it's interesting because you know, I think a lot of people are having this idea or this kind of feeling that you know, are in this business and cover these things kind of regularly, and you have covered them in the past. It feels very uneventful this year as opposed to other years, and I think that's just kind of everything kind of lining up.
Where you have transfer portal. It's obviously a different time of year than you know, when the early signing period it's usually a little bit closer to Christmas, and so you kind of had have had some time to kind of digest the end of the football season. But you're just jumping right into it after you know, the end of the regular season last week, and so for whatever reason, it just feels kind of uneventful in a lot of ways. There wasn't a lot of surprises for many many teams
across the country. There weren't a ton of big names that were you know, moving teams or anything like that. So it was pretty standard for most programs, and I think you could throw Arizona into that one as well. There was there weren't a ton of surprises that everything kind of went as expected, I think for Arizona.
So so do you think that it's going to be the case moving forward given that I think the Christmas time the Christmas time. But this whole thing is the transfer portal, Yeah.
It's it's gonna be really interesting. I'm as it was kind of playing out this week, and it kind of started last week where recruits start to you know, say I'm going to this school or I'm picking this school, and it was funny because I thought, it doesn't matter when you put this date, when you have this early signing period or whatever signing period, everything's going to kind
of just shift with it. And it just felt like, all right, we've done this before, it's just a different time, and so I'll be interested to see kind of what happens. I know a lot of coaches are really in favor of having one in the summer and being able to get a lot of their fruiting done in the summer months and not have to worry about it at all this time of year and then can put their sole focus on either transfer portal stuff or just the season. And so I know there's a lot of coaches who
would rather have that, and so that's one idea. We'll see if that comes to fruition. I know this was kind of thought of a little bit on the fly, and I think coaches were like, we just need to have some kind of change to this schedule because it's
not working. You know, when you're trying to get recruits on campus, and you know a lot of the transfers they want to enroll midyear and so they need to get you know, enrolled in classes and so you're butting up against kind of the start of the winter session or the spring semester in a lot of cases, and so you know, I think for a lot of programs and a lot of coaches, it was about trying to find some kind of balance, some kind of way to make it a little bit easier on them. I think
this does that in some ways. But I think I would still be fully in favor of just having one signing period and do it in February, when all the coaching movement is done, when all the transfer portal stuff is mostly done at that point, and then high school recruits can kind of figure out where they fit in and what it's going to look like. But I don't know that they'll get back to that point. That's kind of what it was originally before there was an early
signing period, and it worked out pretty well then. But with so many schools and and you know a lot of this is coming from coaches. Coaches want these players on campus, these high school prospects on campus as soon as they can get there, and so a lot of them are pushing, you know, enroll at the media point, kind of for go your last semester of high school and then get on campus and get in practice, and
so it's been pushed a lot by coaches. So it's interesting that a lot of coaches are pushing it, but they're also complaining that, hey, we don't like the schedule either, So it'll be interesting to see kind of how it plays out. I know, you know, back when you know Rich Rodriguez, Rich Rodriguez was the coach at Arizona, he talked about not having a signing period at all. That was kind of his grand idea was just to sign whenever you're ready, And so I know a lot of
coaches have talked about that as well. So we'll see what it all kind of how it all pans out. But it's it's definitely something that's that's never perfect. It's never felt perfect, and everyone kind of just has to adapt, you know.
That being said, I would think Brennan and his staff you probably feel like they're kind of in a rhythm right now. They didn't have this this chance last I mean, obviously he wasn't even here until January, So, uh, do you think they feel a little more comfortable now kind of being you know, kind of in a routine.
That's it could lead to a little more stability.
Absolutely. I think that's one of the things is when you step into a job and when you have these coaching changes that take place, especially late, that one was
you know, pretty late in the process. You know, the early signing period was already over, and so you're trying to figure out, you know, are you going to keep some guys and obviously Arizona have some guys that had just you know that we're high school players that were enrolling early and we're just on campus for a few days, and then they have to figure outkay am I going to go into the portal now, like how does this all work? And so I think now there is a
little bit more stability. There is a little bit more of a flow and rhythm, like you mentioned to kind of this whole process. And you know, obviously, you know, Brent Brennan and his staff and these coaches have had a longer opportunity to get to know a lot of these prospects and it's not something that has to happen so quickly. And I think that helps, and it helps you kind of build some continuity, It helps you, you know,
kind of build your team. And so I think that it's definitely helpful for them to have, you know, a year of really trying to get to know these recruits and getting the fill for them. And it's only I think, going to help them build their roster and kind of build it in the way they want to do it. And so I think you're starting to see that a little bit. I think there are some maybe some some things you can pick out like Okay, this fits what they want to do as opposed to kind of what
they were given. And so you know, the portal helps that a lot. And you saw that last year with a lot of different teams. But you know, the portal can remedy things in a lot quicker fashion than what people were accustomed to, you know, before it was so popular. And so I think that helps when you're in a
situation like Brent Brennan was in last year. But I think every coach would want to have an opportunity to kind of build their program through the high school ranks and have players that they develop over time versus just trying to get the quick six every single year.
Yeah, you have no question. Yeah.
I mean, like meantime, you know, they've gone to kind of the usual places Texas, the Bay Area, Southern California, Santa Barbara, Phoenix, Chandler.
It's it's you could you know, I do every year.
It seems like it's kind of the same, the same geography for for you of a football don't you think?
Yeah, And it's really interesting because you know you're playing in the Big twelve. Now you have some maybe some different areas you can get to, and maybe that's where you see someone like Isaiah and Miselle, who's probably their best recruit. Maybe they're well, maybe the top two recruits, best recruits in this class is coming from Orlando, and obviously UCF was one of those schools that was recruiting them and is now a big told member with Arizona, and so maybe it allows you to kind of expand
your footprint a little bit more. I do think that with Brent Brennan and just where his staff is familiar with where their connections are, it kind of lends itself
to being kind of in a familiar place. So I think that's why you see a lot of the Bay Area connections, you see some of those Northern Cali foreigner connections, and even in the Texas you know, obviously, I think that's I think that is maybe one of the clear connections you can make with the Big twelve, where they're a little bit more willingness to dive into Texas, a
little bit more than maybe some previous stabs. And you know, I think the selling point is, hey, we're going to play a lot, you know, close close to your home, and so I think that's something you'll see them continue to do. But I think their bread and butter will always continue to be the Bay area, California and then obviously in state with Arizona players as well.
Uh, you saw a couple of defections before yester or before today, significant ones before.
Signing yes and no. I mean I think there was a few situations where it was like, hey, you know, it's a mutual partying kind of deal, where it's like, yeah, you didn't necessarily play the way we liked, you know, during your senior year, and maybe it's best if you know, you would have a better fit somewhere else. But I think there were some that were you know, difficult and not you want to lose, and so it was kind
of a mixed bag. I think again, holding on to most of the class I think is a big deal. That's kind of what it turned into towards kind of down the stretch. For Brent Brennan and the staff, it was less about hey, can you add more pieces, but it was like, you need to just keep this group together. And I think you saw that in the bye week, the later bye week towards the end of the season.
The focus was, let's go reach out to the players that have been with us, that you know, committed to us, you know in the summer, and make sure that they're still on board and and make sure that you know that they're going to sign with us. And so I think that was the priority for the staff and they did a pretty good job of that for the most part. There's gonna be de commitments if you there's not a program out there that doesn't have de commitments. It's just
how it goes these days. There was a bunch today, a bunch of top programs that lost players. And so if you think that your program is somehow, you know, not doing its job because it's losing recruits, that's just not the case. It's just how it goes. There's so many different things in play you have nil involved.
Now.
I mean, there there are a lot of different things in play that it's just going to happen. But if you're able to replace those players and if you're able to continue to keep guys that you know are getting recruited by other programs. Isaiah Azel being one of those prospects. He had Notre Dame was very high on him and
they wanted They were recruiting pretty heavily. And I mentioned UCF was as well, and j Richardson took a visit out to Vanderbilt, and so there is you know, there are programs that are coming after these players that are on Arizona's recruiting list. And so you know, part of the job is trying to find anybody new that you can bring in, but also just you know, re recruiting, you know the guys that are already on your commitment list. And I think Arizona did a really good job of that.
So they just real quick, where did they Where did they land in the rankings and for for over overall and in the big cop.
For overall it's number forty three. It's kind of you know, it's pretty good. That's solid. I mean, that's that's that's it's better than what it was in years before, you know, not necessarily Jeed Fisher's. But prior to that, you know, those previous two coaching stats that they kind of lived in the fifties, which is not where you want to be.
And I've always kind of if you look at kind of how seasons play out, and maybe we'll have to kind of evaluate this now that you know there's been such a big shake up with conference re alignment and all that. But if you can live kind of in the in the thirty to thirty five range, you know, you can do a lot of good things in terms
of building a successful roster, building a successful team. Utah kind of lived in that range for a long time, that thirty to thirty five range, and there's a lot of three star recruits in that you know, in that level, and I think you know from the outside you ceo three stars that's kind of like an average player. It's like, No, those are some good players and if you coach them up and develop them, they can be a really good team. And so I think you saw that a lot with
you know, a lot of different programs. But if you can live in that thirty to thirty five range, you're you're doing okay. And so Arizona's kind of a little bit outside of that, you know, it's not terrible. It's not terrible, especially when you consider the type of season they had, and you know, if if you're not winning games, it can be difficult to kind of make a climb
up that list. So I think it's not horrible, you know, based on kind of where they're at and what, you know, the season that they had and kind of some other things in play. But in terms of the Big Twelve, I think they're probably middle of the pack. They're number seven, tied with West Virginia. So you know, it's not ideal. It's not where you want to live, but it's not horrible either, and it kind of gives you some place to kind of build from.
And where did they finish in the Big twelve? Seven?
So they're tired with tied with West Virginia for seven, right behind Colorado.
Okay, okay, take take us through the calendar a little bit. What can we expect and when will these things start happening? I guess the portal is is it really open? Or people they haven't done anything yet, right, right?
And so yeah, I think people get confused, and sometimes I even get confused tracking all this all this stuff, but the portal doesn't open until next week. So the portal will actually open next week. But what we have is a lot of players just coming to a decision and saying I'm I'm going to enter the portal. And so that's what you're seeing a lot of right now, is players saying I'm going to enter the portal. I'm announcing it. And then once it opens, all of yourally
go in and submit the paperwork. You know, if there's coaches that get that get fired, that opens immediately. So if your head coach gets fired or he leaves for a new job and you're left without a head coach, that'll open. The portal will open immediately for you for thirty days. And so you're seeing some of that too, because there have been some some coach firings and so
those players can go in right away. If you're a graduate student and you're getting close to so you're going to graduate in December and you know that and you're on pace and on track to do that, you can go in right away as well. So you're seeing right now kind of a mix of everything. And so that will open for a couple of weeks and we'll have
a dead period here pretty soon as well. They're in one right now, and so you can't take visits right now, and then it'll be open for a couple of weeks, and then as it gets closer to the holidays, it'll shut down again, and then it'll pick back up in January and you'll see more recruits, kind of transfer players, recruits,
everyone kind of take visits again. And so it's kind of a kind of an uneven time of the year right now, just because the holidays kind of, you know, right in the middle of it, and so it kind of makes things a little bit more uneven. But it's kind of similar to what it's always been in a lot of ways, where December is going to be a lot about in home visits and taking visits to campuses and trying to get as many players as they can right now on campus and taking visits because the transferportal
process has to happen quickly. It's one of those things that's different than high school recruiting, where you build relationships over a year or two. It's topping over a week or days at times, where it's you have to have, you know, a comfortable aspect of it. You have to have you know, some qualities about your coaching staff that really sell to these players and make them want to play for you. And then obviously the NL component is kind of the overarching thing that is kind of important
to everybody in the portal right now, it seems. And so there's a lot of different things in play, but these decisions are made quickly, and so it's all about how can you get out on those visits and make those things happen quickly.
So what do you make of the non fuffita FAFA news from yesterday. I still think it's gonna play out more. I don't know about you.
Yeah, I mean we'll have to wait and see. I mean, that's that's my approach. You know, well, we'll kind of wait and see how it plays out. I think it's too there's just not enough there right now to say one way or the other. Obviously, there's you know, been a lot of people saying it's not gonna happen or whatever. I just there's too many things, and you seem too
many things play out. I think over time to live in absolutes with the portal and with these decisions, and what can be true one day could not be true. The next day. And so it's just it's difficult to predict. I know, as soon as even before the season's over, a lot of fans are like, well, who's leaving, who's gonna be in the portal. It's like, you just don't
know that. And coaches don't know that either, and so and I think coach people think that coaches are just kind of being fatious, facetious and being like playing koy or whatever, doing the typical kind of coach speak thing. But you know, I think a lot of times they don't know, and it's not until the player comes into the office and says, hey, I'm transferring that they know that.
And so I would kind of live in territory and uh, you know, you never say never, I guess, and and you just you can't be surprised by anything because things that are true one day, it can be not true the next day. And that's kind of how I kind of view that situation.
Probably be an obvious question, but the fact that Brad, that's Brad, Brent Brannan is is still here, what do you think that means overall to the program into recruiting in the future.
Yeah, I mean, it's it's you have to let it play out. I've always been a proponent of you have to let coaches coach for a while and you have to see what it looks like. Because again, if you go back to Jetfish, it didn't it didn't look good that first year, it didn't look good early on, and
then he eventually leads you took ten wins. And so I'm not a fan of firing coaches after one year unless there's something very egregious that you see as a you know, athletic director or administration that really is like, this does not line up with what we want to do. I don't think you know that we've seen that from Brent Brennan, and obviously we're not all in all the meetings and in everything, but you know, I think you
have to give it some time. You have to give a head coach an opportunity to really kind of flesh out his program and figure out exactly what he wants it to be. And then if you decide in a few years, okay, it's not what we wanted, then you move on at that point. But it can be really
dangerous territory. It costs a lot of money that if you're replacing coaches every year, because the thing is is if you replace him or you move on from him, like a lot of fans seem to be calling for what happens if the next guy isn't the right one either, and then you're kind of in a bigger hole. And so I've always been a proponent of just letting coaches kind of play it out a little bit and see what it looks like. And I think the continuity matters
to recruits. I think you know, you saw some recruits join the class towards the end of the process when it was not going well, and so I think clearly they're not impacted by, you know, the way the way the season was playing out, and so I think you have to kind of just let it do its thing and see what you can, you know, build on and see if he can make it better and then kind of go from there.
Okay, Matt, go back to work. I know, the fun time right now with me is over.
Yeah, that's my little break, stee.
I appreciate it, thanks man, Let's always appreciate.
You absolutely any Thanks.
Yeah, Matt Modino, goezycats. Let's take the break here, Henry and come back. If you're an Arizona men'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
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This is I on the Ball with Steve Raviro on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Subscribe now to the podcast on the iHeartRadio WIP just search Ie on the Ball.
Hey, welcome back to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, He's Dave Silver Henry at the board. We got about fifteen minutes if you want to call zero four one six seventy four forty let's hear from you. Uh, let's see what do you think about recruiting? You a hoops? Whatever you want to talk about not to talk about.
Yeah, pretty good day for football. I think Matt kind of laid it out there that, you know, because the Brendon staff has kind of been in place now for a year, they're you know, they're in in a groove if you will.
Yeah, that's funny because the last question I wanted to ask him, but I know he would take five minutes for the answer. Don't tell him. I said that, Uh, it was okay, they get rid of a couple or three. What does that do coaches? Yeah, yeah, I know that that's going to be an issue because you know, the guys come for those guys too, right, They've.
Been the ones in right, they've been the ones that are you know, in the living room with with Sham and Dad. So yeah, you're right if if those coaches start disappearing, it could be trouble for the recruits.
Right right. And see, hey, you didn't tell me he was leaving. Yeah, right, Hey, you're on the air and I on the ball. Who's this?
This is Ken?
Ken? How are you? Sounds like that? Ken? Have you called before yourself like a new face, new voice.
Well, we've known each other really long time, but I haven't got here lately.
Okay, Ken, I want to talk about you a.
Basketball please please, And since we sometimes send messages back and forth, you probably know what my topic is going to be, which is mister love. Okay, and I, I, along with a lot of other people, aren't sure that that it's in our best interest for him to get as much time as a starter, because I don't think we have the faith in him.
Maybe we should, and.
I'd like to hear your side of things.
Yeah, no, that's a great, great question. I agree with you, but I don't agree with you. And I and I say that with hesitation because I understand completely what you're saying. But Tommy needs the guy. He needs him desperately to play well. For whatever reason, he's just not playing well. In fact, I'm not sure that we're going to have a press conference this week, and I was hoping to get to it if he did, and one of the questions I would ask, and it'd be a serious question. He'd
looked at me like, you know, I'm a fool? Is that you know? As this team goes or, as Caleb loves goes, does this team follow, which would be scary as all hellcare you know, because he's inconsistent and so far, guess what, there's almost been inconsistent.
Well, I totally agree with you, and I think and there's a whole lot of us that feel the same story.
It's one thing to just have an off night.
It's another thing.
That continuously throw up bricks and not make the attempts to get the ball underneath, to not pass it as often.
As you could.
And you know, I know good shooters have to find their you know, find their groove or whatever. But basically, you know, last year, he totally let us down at the end of the season and I don't see any improvement at all at all. And I think most people would rather give somebody, maybe they've even a freshman, a little more playing time unless he really picks it up.
Well, you know, it's always easy to be the seismologist after the earthquake, right and when he was when he decided to come back, I said, that's not going to be good. And there were a few people, a few people that I said, telling me, how could you say that? Because he was the pac ten or PAC twelve Player of the Year. He's got credentials. He's good, And I said, yeah, but there's more than that than it's team dynamic. He is who he is. Ken, You know this again? You
know this. He's of the five starters or four, four in the five. He's the last guy for the NBA prospect. How does that happen when you're the PAC twelve Player of the Year. They must see something that I don't see. You don't see her, or we do see and we're just not gonna admit it because he is too consistent.
Either and there and there's that, and you have to have some of that, especially when you get to the pros.
I just I don't know.
I'll tell you who it reminds me of.
And it's the only player in Loot's entire coaching career that I never got.
Wait wait, wait, wait, let me let me let me take this guess.
Uh oh, must Musta would have been one of those guys.
Well, hey, Ken, you better listen because uh listen regularly because Mustava is gonna come on the show. He has agreed to come on the show at some point soon. But you know what I thought you were gonna say, Chris Rogers. Oh no, I.
Didn't have an opinion about him, honestly, Yeah.
Because he wasn't really.
I mean, Caleb is like one of the main reasons they're even on the court, and Chris wasn't really.
No, no, no, but he was. He had he had that inconsistent You didn't know what you're going to extract from him. He was he was thrown off the team, and then he fought back to get back, you know, competitioned the u of a. Uh, but Yo, Mustapha was just inconsistent and he was in a scorer. He was just kind of just you know, Mustafa was not Mustafa ken Okay, I agree with you, but you know, to solve this problem, uh, maybe you do that. But then I think that that coach will lose him. I think
he would lose him if he did that. Well, I think I don't know.
I just kind of feel like he I don't know, I've already said it. I think he forces up shots. I don't ever find him in the flow of the game. And you know, we're going to be soft with our big man as it is, and man, I see it. Really maybe not even the ni t if things don't change cars Peronel. Yeah, honestly, I think it's that bad.
Ken, WHOA, Okay, I'm sorry, Go have a shot at a cardi or whatever. People drink and relax a little. All right, thanks basically call that thanksually call I appreciate it. In defense of Caleb, he is still leading the team in scoring, well he is. What's the efficiency though he's not great, he's shooting you know, thirty. Yeah, here's the issue. Here's the issue I had, And exactly what I told Ken, I didn't like him coming back as good as he is.
They've lost the kid to a issue who's having a pretty good year and you can't compare apples to apples, you know, the kid they they had, and then because he came back. I don't know if he could create chemistry issues or whatever. But he is a bit nonchalant on the court right for sure. And you can see that if you see that. I see that, and people see that. And when he's not on, he's just another dude. It's hard to watch sometimes. I mean it's sad, and.
It's it's kind of interesting how the fans react, Like when he makes a basket, it's almost like, oh, he made a basket.
But celebrate like it's crazy. So let me ask you, and I've said this a couple of times on the show this week, what's your one or two things that you see with this team that you don't like or what's the issue? Wasn't thrilled with the big guys? They're not previous? Is not the player that people think he is right now? Not yet?
And maybe maybe the you know, his injuries have not healed completely.
But I mean I saw that in Duke.
In the Duke game, it was pretty pretty apparent that he was just not you know, the level of the Duke big men.
And then the same thing's kind of happened in the Bahamas.
It was just kind of rough to watch, and you know, the ball goes in there and you're not quite sure if it's going to be in there forever, if he's going to pass it, and you know, that's always been kind of a big man issue around this university's teams.
It seems like, yeah, okay, that's your one two one, what's another one?
Well besides Caleb's shooting woes, yeah, or that could be it. No, I mean I was pleased to see del Orso play well. I thought that was a good he's still a little shaky, but yeah, yeah. I mean actually in the West Virginia game, the last game, he kind of faded at the end of the team missed like three or four shots. But I mean he's pretty consistent throughout most most of the Bahamas after not even barely getting off the bench against Duke, has technical fouls.
And hasn't played really to kj's expectations. Yeah, he's is he isn't he considered like the number one he's of all of them? Yeah, yeah, yeah, and he hasn't lived up to that at all. Okay, here are my two and I've said them before, so sorry, apologies if you guys have listened in the last couple of games. Number two, and I'll go with reverse order, is they're not defending the three point Yeah, and that's obvious, right they How do you not do that? If you know you have
an ailment? Don't you take your medicine for that ailment? Hell I got of that too, But you know what I'm saying, You got a cough take coughs go defend the three point line. Well, they knew that.
That kid from West Virginia, the coach's son, that's Basically all he did was stand out there and he was fired him up from thirty one.
You, Dave, don't let him leave the room. Guess what, You're on top of him wherever he goes. And you know that cliche. If he goes to the restroom, you're going in there with him. Okay, that's number two. Number one is to me is the most obvious thing in my thirty five years of covering the team, twenty five with Lout, someone was shun but he didn't do this. They ran transition easily. They would get in transition and
score fifteen twenty points a game transition. These teams aren't allowing that they're dropping back score in the half court what's been Arizona's Achilles shields forever half court defense. They can't. They don't have a shooter outside of Salem and Steve uh that would break that. They need a shooter if they haven't found one yet, and I don't know if they have one, But if you can't go and transition that Arizona used to do all the time, they haven't
done that. And the thing is, if you're Dave, if I'm Arizona and that's what I do, what are you gonna do to me, not allow it, right, So it's not a me thing, it's not an Arizona thing. It's you, not me, not allowing. And if you're very good at that, I'm screwed. I'm just screwed. Or find two shooters or a shooter that can get us out of that, and so far we haven't been able to find. So far, you haven't game, and who knows if you haven't through seven games? Yeah, well you are. I'll bet you two
to one that they find a guy this weekend. Of course, exactly, someone's gonna exact.
Shine and someone's gonna come off the bench, or someone's gonna do the big guys are going to be dominant.
And I'll bet you in a month you when you come back that they'll they won't against the huge the teams that play defense, right and just say they have that problem again? Here we go. Yeah, it's it's been. It's been a tough watch. It really has been.
Yeah.
I don't know, it's because you're used to seeing.
And like you you mentioned that the runs, I mean, that's always been Arizona's forte you know.
In fact, other teams are having more runs on Arizona right, surprising because they don't expect they don't want to play defense. Henry, you see the same thing.
I think the two main things that I would say, kJ, He's got to play better. That's the biggest thing I think. Obviously Caleb has been struggling, but kJ, he was kind of the second guy that was kind of Bradley's taking over. They expected from kJ, and they needed to learn how to get more defensive. They give them way too many offensive rebounds, sure, which has tried to so many threes.
On the surface, though they have all the pieces. I told one of the assistant coaches two weeks ago, I really liked this team before Duke. I think it was really because the pieces seem to fit. Yeah, they seem to fit. Just you know, a waka can do the things that that that creevous can't. Previous to your point is on the money, he's not to me, he even looks more like it's Stokes. Sorry to say, he's not holding on the ball. There's losing a lot of the
balls thrown inside or maybe more. Caleb, Yeah, used to drive me crazy with his holding the ball. Yeah, so there's that. There's a lot of little things that they're doing that you're not used to seeing in pieces, very strange. Towson hasn't been the guy that shot twelve three pointers that one night in.
The first game. So he's been he's been pretty good. He kind of held the whole team together in the Bahamas basically the way he was playing. But yeah, I mean, there's just it's just something right now, it's just not clicking. I don't know if it's like you said, you know, the leadership of love not there yet.
Who is it ever? I don't think he's I don't think he's a leader though. I just he's a scorer and leave me alone. You'll leave me alone. Trust I think a lot of it is going to ride on Jayden Bradley. I totally agree. So if I were, if I were to do something that he would be the guy. He has the ball in his had a lot, he knows how to score and get to the basket. Not sure when I criticized that just what you need now? You need that?
Yeah, you need that? Yeah, I mean because no one else is doing it. Because what do you want from your point guard? Do you want him just to be, you know, distributing or do you want him shooting a little bit more. Not with these guys, the second leading scorer on the team. Yeah, not with these guys because they're not getting much. I mean Townshend, yes, But after that, I mean the big guys are nowhere to be found on there.
Yeah, you know the other guy that needs to show up. But I thought he would have a good year if creevious doesn't show. It was Henry because you can stretch him out and hit three. They need to start hitting perimeter shots.
And you wonder if it's their lack of defense, lack of mettle like defense and they're having trouble there because he was in and out. I think as the West Virginia gaming, he was he really played hen Henry.
Yeah. Yeah, it's just and that's and that's not that's coachable, but that's desire. That's you hadn't want to do that. It's just they haven't done yet. Yeah, especially from the three point line. Bring on UTAs others. Let's go, let's get better. The feel good game, the feel good game. And then you'll say Dave on Monday or and then next week I say, Steve, I told you so, Yeah, Dave, I told you so too. So we'll see.
So then they get that, when do they they have a break to right, they go there and then they go to the game in.
Phoenix, and the UCLA is another team that makes games look ugly. You know, you're not going to run against me, and we'll see what happens there. That's gonna be fun, I think, just the vibe. Yeah, the whole rivalry thing. Yeah, it's it's going to be no students.
True, you know, those Vegas games can be pretty dead. M So we'll see the Garzona fans will travel for that.
Just the Phoenix. Yeah it was in Phoenix, never mind in Vegas, that's right, of course. Yeah, so they'll be fair. The school will be out, but they'll have fans at tings and this will be their red blue game that they didn't have. Oh yeah, that that the red blue Phoenix Phoenix exactly. If you miss that, you get a chance to see. Now that was always crazy. Where were they going to do that? Weren't they going to do that at the Yeah, at the at the hockey place?
I think, no, the Desert Diamond thing. Okay, the Desert Diamond Arena. We're good ull be time, Yeah, we can go Okay, let's go. Hey Dave, thanks for thanks for joining me today anytime. I don't know. You're not here the rest of the week, right, I gotta'll see you Friday now, but maybe tomorrow, let me see. No, you can't do it tomorrow. Oh you're not in yours? I mean no, okay, well not tomorrow then, Henry, I'll see you Monday. Ye, your final week before you move to
the casino tomorrow. No, no, not till the twentieth or smile, okay whatever. Yeah, thanks guys,