This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services in sure your most prized possessions.
Hey, good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera in today with me is Blake Eager from.
The Southern Arizona Sports Tourament film authority is thank you. And then we got Juan from.
Two Sun Arizona sitting in at five ten whatever, wait, five ten too much?
Too much like that? That's me?
Hey everybody, everybody, Okay, you're your heart rate? Okay, last night you're fine. You're not gonna jump over any cliffs or something. No, I think you know.
I mean, there's no good loss, and I don't want to use that that slogan, but I after our first half last night and see the composure that we had. We just couldn't hit any shots, but I thought it still played pretty good defense for the most part, and we were we battled. There was grit there. So if you listened to the show yesterday, I kind of said this would happen. You came in today one and what'd you say, wasn't surprised.
By the outcome. No, not at all, because, uh, credit to Kansas State. They're on a hot streak and they're playing they're pretty good, pretty well, right, yeah good.
Their record does not dictate how good they and they're probably the best, one of the best games in the country right now playing in their lists to the general public. And you guys are in general public because you guys seen it a lot. You know the game. They think that they're what twelve and ten and how good can they be? And they didn't win very many games? No, no, they're good. Yeah, you reman. They start off one and six right right in conference place, so to see what
they're doing right now. And we had to go to their house. I'm not saying that's a storied program by any means, but you know, any house that you have to go to in the big twelve on the road is a difficult place to play. Yeah, no question, no question.
Oh, I tweeted, oh on the first half, did you what did you notice thinking about the game? Maybe Kansas State or Arizona just anything just struck out. It's funny what struck out to me? Like just in general?
Yeah, just when you saw the game you're thinking, oh, okay, I mean, just for me, it was it was a sloppiness of the first half. Huge, Like I just I mean, Aaron Passes can't control the ball, just making you know, mistakes at this level that shouldn't be made at this in this at this point in the season.
I noticed two things. One, Kansas State is very twitchy. They're very quick to the ball. They're very locked in on the defensive set. I had a pretty good starting five. Oh yeah, that McDaniel's kid is gonna be I think he'll be a legend come March for the Cats or those Cats. And uh, the other thing I noticed is Tred Townsend is huge to Arizona. You may not show it on the stat line in what way he eats up minutes and really, in my opinion, doesn't do a lot of damage for Arizona.
Really in my opinion, wow, because let me tell you something, majority of the city doesn't like him for that reason that they what does he add to the table, what does he bring to the table, what can he do? I mean, honestly, you know I've.
Heard it all season long, not to you, not to me, because I think Carter Bryant is going to be an even bigger factor down the stretch, and with Trey Townsen eating up some of those minutes, that's less minutes for Carter Bryant to go and commit four fouls like.
He usually does.
Well.
He is an autorium, but he's a pretty good player. Yeah, yeah, So this is not Arizona related, but it is what K State related. They had a halftime lead pretty good. I said, if that Hawkins kids just stop shooting, they'd have a fifteen point lead.
But he's one of the better players. The dude couldn't stop shooting. I'm thinking, in spite of themselves, that dude is.
Killing him absolutely, and he's supposed to be pretty one the he could hit the rim. I thinking I had never seen him before. I said, god, I can't remember in Arizona player like him, and then I then I saw Caleb. Yeah, that's that's funny. I mean it's one of those games that and we've had these games in the past where we had these conversations and you look up and you go, we got to be up by fifteen points right now, and you're going, we're up by two.
Last night, I would have said we were down the way that I thought we would be down twenty points, right, And I look up and I go, Okay, it's not as bad as it looks.
If there's a consolation to fans who watch the game and are kind of a stoote to it, they played horribly, shot horribly, through the ball away horribly, and you know that's by three.
But I have eight first half turnovers, right at least anyway seventeen total? No, no, no, But that's that's the whole thing.
So if this is a horse race and you're thinking, oh, this horse who's pretty good, got in trouble. He couldn't get through the lane, couldn't get past these horses. But he's the best horse in the league, in the race. But all these things happened, and that's what was there Arizona. Yeah, and they shut themselves on the foot seventeen times.
Yeah, they definitely did. Yeah. Where we hit two from two for twenty two? Yeah, yeah, they hit one for nineteen. It was the worst three point shooting game I've ever I think maybe i've ever seen in my life have been the three point live Yeah, three for forty one, three for forty one. Look at me doing math? Wow, I had to pull my calculator. You were ready for that? I was, Yeah, I already written down. I got notes on my hand. No, it was it was bad basketball. I
thought it was like the wreck. You go to the wreck, right, you work at the wreck. You've seen the shot better than that was. To make that clear, I shot Vic who calls me? You know, Vic calls in and he texts me like, oh, Jill barber Cliffe. He says, I went to the I went to the park today. I shot twenty two threes. Twenty two threes and I hit three. I should be on the team. Yeah, you didn't have a six seven guard on you though, or bumping bodies.
But yeah, true, it's a it's just one of those nights. And I thought, you know, I thought at some point that cold streak would end from an offensive standpoint, but it was they really had to grind to get any points.
Yeah, yeah, it's it's funny up. So yesterday I said I thought they would lose, and only because of this. And I've seen thousands of games already, in almost two thousand games of you they what do they do and what are they notorious for? Getting up for the Houston's, the Texas Tech, the Iowa States getting and then playing out of their minds and playing really well. Tell them they're not as good as Kentucky. They beat Kentucky by five.
Tell them they're not going to be blah blah blah, the who's in town Oregon State. They'll lose who they played, and not that Kansas State was that team. But people in people's perception, maybe even theirs, look at us, look at us. I mean there's two Sorry, go ahead, I was gonna say, there's two videos. If you're opposing team when it comes to march that you watch for u A, it's Texas Tech, It's Case State at their place, because they were able to disrupt the tempo on offense exactly exactly,
even if even with open looks. I mean, Texas Tech I thought was much better defensively at home than Kansas State. But you disrupted the offense and our offense couldn't figure it out. Welcome to November December. Yeah, you know, what are you gonna say? Uh, Blake, Blake loves to run in transition. What am I to do? I'm gonna hold the ball for twenty five Yeah. If you can't do it, Blake, I don't care how if you're beating me by ten.
Guess what you're still not gonna do. You're not gonna go in transition because I'm not gonna let you.
Now.
I noticed the body language in Arizona last night. It looked like they expected to win that game. Yeah, and because they're Arizona, because they're eleven and one of the conference.
How many have you seen that before?
Yeah, they're eleven and one in the PAC twelve and then they go to loose to Oregon State.
That's the same story. I covered the team every day for twenty five years. That was the thing.
They go to Washington State, some white dude, six seven dude you've never heard about, scores twenty four points and beat someone. You're thinking, well, he wasn't on the scout. Yeah, yeah, you're absolutely right, and not that McDaniel was not on the scout. Some dude ends up with twenty four points and as a the.
Day of his life.
That's how it goes in the tournament too, exactly. Princeton, Oh, these dudes, we got this and we'll just look at the second round already.
Nope.
Yeah, and you never want to look past the opponent, right, But I mean, when you play a team, and to Princeton's credit, they're fundamentally sound. Right, they're fundamentally sound. Sure, they're not going to make mistakes. That's the whole thing.
And don't you tell the guys that said, look, they're good. Yeah, and they're smart and they're clever, and they get back door. They'll back the door the hell out of you. They'll do these things and you'll say, what the hell just happened By that time, thirty nine and a half minutes have gone by and we're looking for a three pointer.
Yeah, and you're trying to chuck something up at the end of the game hoping it goes in when you haven't been able to make anything at all during the game.
Okay, so you guys have been pretty pragmatic after last night's game. I wanted to say this for a comment that was on a story on our website. Okay, so this is last night. Okay, I won't say his name. Lloyd really needs to get these guys mentally ready to go. Frustrating watching these guys achieve at this point in this season. Losing to a team doing well is one thing. Losing to a sputtering k State team who shot just as
poorly as we did. Is another putting this weak product out there is why we were consistently sent home in early March. We have to we have no consistency in anything we do, from shooting to passing.
It's on and on and on and off.
If you told me a team who reinbounded the or opponented by thirteen had lost, I would not believe you.
This just happened. So that's kind of extreme. Kansas State's better than sputtering Kansas State team. If you've wachd in the last six games they played, you would make that argument that they're much better than Oh, they beat Iowa State, they beat Kansas Y.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean they're racking up what they're three and four against squad one teams right now. I mean, that's nothing. You know, if you didn't know, if you didn't know the record and you said they've done this, you think, damn, who are you talking about? I know once at March, but they might not even play in March. You know, they might not be im I mean, they may be in it, but they might not make the tourney. And that's that's crazy thing. Yeah, listen, I'm going to say
this and We've had this conversation. You have a basketball fans and where for me, I am one right a long time, You're not just yeah, I'm not a fair weather fan.
Right.
It's really difficult to live in peaks and valleys, right, and I feel like our basketball fans are so peak and valley driven, like great win. Oh my god, I was wrong about Tommy Lloyd to where they lose next game, they need to fire Tommy. It's Tommy Lloyd's again. I will say this. Coaches coach players play right, so there's
an execution of a game plan. Some doesn't. Sometimes it doesn't go that way, and you cannot coach guys when they shoot one or two for twenty two from the three point lane and some not all of them were great looks, great looks. Some of them were wide open looks they just banged out. It wasn't case Stage's defense. They were just missing this and vice versa. Yeah, it was one who didn't play greed defense on Kansasy.
No.
I thought last night was our and you said this earlier, Steve. It was us playing down to an opponent and our mental state opposed to the way we came out against Baylor. Iowa state that defense is shut down. And I didn't think they played terrible defense by yell right any means last night just I think there was a lot of turnovers. That also goes in your mindset. I mean, there were so many errant passes last night. Yeah, you're like, what what are we doing? Who's runing to Yeah?
There is a play where Basar how to rebound and took it right, tipped it back.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, thinking over there and nobody was and you saw I think it was Love went up to him and said, just grab the ball, you know. I mean there was three plays down the strets that you look at and you go, if we don't make those plays, there's a good chance that you're either winning that game or going to overtime.
We're going to talk to Brian Peterson after we go to break in about a minute, but and he'll talk about And I thought you thought your observation is perfect because I hadn't really heard it.
It's a peak and valley place.
It's almost to the point of eleven one and Arizona fans and probably some of the athletes can't handle prosperity because eleven and one.
I'm booking my flight to the Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah.
And before this started, it's like, you know, the world is ending, wasn't it in December?
Oh yeah yeah? I mean I thought I think we talked about this when I went on the message boards. But this is like the worst thing. I oh what, I thought you were a smart man. I'm not. I'm not. It's just it's all a persona at this point. It's reading those comments going, you know, like we are so fortunate, and people are like, we gotta get rid of this coach and have like what are you talking about? Like, I get it. You don't love losing in March. Nobody does.
The greatest team has to win the last game. Sure, I understand that, but like you can't argue with his regular season and pre season body of work. It's funny because last night Michigan State with Izzo, which which you know, you could talk he's a good coach or a great coach whatever, lost to Indiana, right, and they had and.
Indiana had lost like seven straight horrible game. MSU was ranked highly, thought of, highly, done very well, and now they've lost three or four and you're thinking what I'm sure those fans are feeling the same way everybody in this town's feeling get rid of the guy.
Yeah, blah blah. And this is just casual dudes who are making burgers, flipping burgers, and that's no disrespect. But you know what I'm saying, they have no idea what it takes to become. Yeah, but you're every That's the whole point of a fan, right you. You're not supposed to know what it takes to become, but we're supposed to be supportive when we know we have something good to an extent where we're not calling for the world to end after a loss, after we've played our butts
off in conference play. That's all I'm asking. Good luck. Oh, I know I'm not gonna get.
Hey, let's go come back and talk to Brian Peterson because he's on those he's part of those message boards and sees them, and obviously the world's gonna end. Yeah now, yeah until Saturday night when they win the game, and then it's completely there.
Sorry, right, yeah, your.
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This is I on the Ball on Fox Sports fourteen. Finding want to take part in the show, Call up steam now at five two oh four, one, six, seventy four forty.
Come back to why about your own fock Sports sporteen fifteen. I'm Steve Rivert. You're Blake Eager from the Southern Arizona Sports Tourism and Film Authority. Yeah, that place. And now we have Brian Peterson from Azy dentis Warm. Brian, how are you?
I'm great?
Thanks for having me back.
How how let's say that ben to say the ben Wagen is about thirty?
You can feel thirty. How were you're on that today?
Ah?
You know, I'm I'm somewhat surprised that the doom and gloom wasn't as pronounced as I expected from this game. I think once you get past the people who only look at teams records and think it's a bad loss, I think there was a realization for people who actually pay attention that Kansas State has been playing really well, and also that Arizona very easily could have won that game,
and just it's easily fixable stuff. If they just stopped throwing the ball to the other team with the same nickname, they win that game without any sort of problem. I think the more concern is that they have a game like that right ahead of playing Houston, which just had twenty eight points off turnovers against Taylor and is really really good at forcing turnovers and taking advantage, whereas Kansas.
State really wasn't. That would probably be the biggest concern that I've heard.
Yeah, that's what I mean, Brian, this is Blake. That's what we were talking about earlier, is that you're not playing to the ability that you're capable of. But the turnovers are so bad at times last night and you're rolling into Houston game where they're really making their money on turnovers at this point.
Yeah, it's a lot of the passes.
I don't want to use the word lazy, but it feels like they were just assuming people were going to be in spots or just didn't put.
The same kind of touch.
And the last handful of games, Arizona's opponents have been getting a lot of deflections and knocking a lot.
Of passes off and poking balls out. So the ball security has gotten a little looser these last few games, and maybe in some ways having this game right before Houston helps drive home the importance of taking care of the ball.
But it wasn't even just that.
I mean late in the game there was one where it was a long rebound.
And Vsar it came to him and instead of like catching it and passing someone he just tried to slap it back to somebody assuming they would be there, and it goes out of bounds. It's just little things like that that were kind of getting in the way. And yet I mean, they still had opportunities to win that game, So this wasn't I mean, same with the Texas Tech game.
It's not like teams are dominating them or anything. There was just a few plays away from being twelve and one instead of eleven and too.
I'm allowing you to be a professor O'Brien this afternoon. With Caleb Love's homework and his work to this point in the semester for the season, how would you grade him?
I think he's been really good on defense.
And he's been really good with every thing other than shooting, and like a lot of that are the things that he needs to get better at to make it to.
The next level, particularly the defensive thing. And even in this game, I mean, he was he was playing very well on.
The defensive side.
He wasn't the guy that was.
Getting beat on a lot of that stuff. The shots, I mean, I didn't see any difference in the most of those attempts compared to games where he made four out of nine from three or five out of nine from three.
Sometimes when he goes to the basket he.
Maybe tries to go into a crowd rather than kick it out. Some of his best plays last night were when he passed the ball off to somebody for a dump off or a dunk or.
Whatever by drawing all that attention.
But sometimes I think in.
Games where collectively as a team no one is doing well offensively, he feels like he has to keep doing a lot. But even in that game, he didn't take a shot for like the first I don't know, eight minutes of the second half, focusing on other things. So I don't think his year has been as bad as some people would describe it, but it certainly hasn't been a good year.
So so what's the grade. What's the grade?
A S?
Yeah, I mean you can still pass with that.
Yeah, see degrees right, so we'll seah, we'll give it. I think so C plus maybe for the same reasons. I mean, we've seen offensive you know, if you come in as an offensive, dude, there's no offense to be found. Mostly, but he's right, he's played defensely a lot better over the last month or so. He's played very well. Arizona doesn't need him as much as we thought they would need him because they're playing well. Last night was just one of those games you'd throw away. It's a throwaway, you say.
What the hell yeah?
And actually something else to consider. So Arizona had seventeen turnovers, Cala Bluff had zero, so he wasn't he was missing shots, but he wasn't giving.
The ball away.
He was and there were times where he was passing to someone who would then give it away. His shots just didn't go in. I mean, the iOS State game is just such a perfect example from a couple of weeks ago, where like he had all these open looks and just nothing would go in. And then he hits a sixty footer and then makes every shot in regularly in overtime, and then has two games after that where he's hitting pretty much everything.
It comes in waves for him.
But I also think he is somebody that even if he's going to have a game like this, he needs to keep shooting. He can't be one for nine. I'd rather see him, frankly one for eighteen than one for eight, because if he loses the confidence and stops doing that, and then no one has to bother guarding him. Then it's five on four and they don't always have five offensive players on the court to begin with.
Yeah, and I would just to chime in real quick. I mean, to your point, Brian, the defense that we're playing against is going to base their game plan not solely around Kaylen by any by any means, but he's their primary point of contact, right, So, like you said, if he's if he's one for eight and he can't hit anything, they're starting to now ease up on that
tension and putting in on other guys. So and I think the Iowa State games a perfect a perfect game to point to when you know, he gets a shot to go and it was a half court shot, but it was like he could have hit any shot he wanted to after.
That, mm hmm. Yeah.
And if it's going to continue to ebb and flow, they just kind of have to hope that the wave is going on the way up when.
They get into the postseason, then being.
On the way down last year. It was on the way down when they were in the postseason. But yeah, did you I don't know. I mean, I think that is a good problem to have because they've still been winning for the most part.
With that, with that uncertainty, well, this is so so Arizona. Did you have them winning alusion? Yesterday?
I thought I.
Predicted they would win in when I did a Q and A with.
With our sister site for Kansas State.
But on Saturday night, me and Jason Sheer from Wild Cap Authority, we're talking about this and we could have definitely seen them losing month Tuesday to Kansas.
State, but then winning Houston on Saturday, just because of the whole bounce back and that the more important game. I don't think in any way they looked past or overlooked Kansas State. I don't think it was any of that. It was just it was a bad night against a team.
That was hot and very easily could finish.
Fifth place now in the league after starting one and six, And that.
Would have been my point to you, says, Okay, isn't that Arizona basketball in a nutshell? Lose this game and then come back and play your mind against Houston. Win that game, because to Tommy hasn't lost too in a row, has he.
He did lose two in a row twice earlier this year.
I forgot those in the non conference but he hasn't.
Lost too in a row in the conference.
In fact, Arizona I believe is up.
To now seventy seven consecutive conference.
Games dating back even to like the end of.
The Sean Miller era without consecutive conference losses, which is longest active streak in the country.
This is the stretch right here.
Even if they beat Kansas State, there was that opportunity with Houston and then going to Baylor two nights later where they.
Could lose two in a row.
This does set up the possibility, a very real possibility of a three game losing streak with the next two games, and that's when you're going to start seeing like the haters and the doubters really start to get emboldened.
Even though I mean.
From the beginning this was going to be a tough conference season and a backloaded season. And Arizona, even if they know they struggle down the stretch and finish at you know, at worse fourteen and six in the conference, considering where they were at the beginning of the year, I think that's still a major accomplishment and they would go into the Ncblee Tournament with a fairly decent two.
Well to my point because you and I said together at the games and we talked about this, and I think you've done a story or two about this, and I talked about it in public because they asked me, how good is this team?
I says, I will find.
Out in game twelve, because the back end is when you get tested and you're going to go and not tomorrow, it's tomorrow, Tuesday, and Thursday.
It's it's every day. Almost all set of maybe ASSU and Utah maybe, but you yeah, the remaining Yeah. Of the remaining seven games, four of them are against the teams that were picked to finish ahead of Arizona in the conference. Iowa State's the only one they played, and they needed overtime and a miracle shot to beat them, and I was State. I would say it's.
Stumbled a little bit after that, but they are still very good. But they haven't played Kansas. They have to go that they they haven't played excuse me, they haven't played uh Houston that yeah, they played Baylor ones, but they have they have to go on the road.
To play them.
So they they've played. The toughest opponents they've played so far have been at home. And I would say West Virginia and Kansas State have been the toughest they've played on the road, buy U a little bit as well, but they still have their toughest games left on the schedule, which or lose is probably good for just the overall leading into the conference, Whereas if in the Pac twelve, you might have only had two or three or four really tough games, and depending on how.
It lays out, you could be going into the postseason.
Not having been tested much lately.
Yeah, it's great, it's crazy, but it's realistic. I mean, they beat who they should have beaten as we lay out the schedule now. But you're right, the back end's gonna be tough. I still believe it was one of basketball they lose to yesterday, they'll win Saturday. It's gonna be a heck of a good game, you know.
Yeah, it's tough. The it's gonna be weird to see how slow the game is, considering that Houston averages like sixty possessions a game and the only time they run is off of turnovers.
So whereas Arizona tries to get quick shots and will try they play, they may force you to take a while on defense, so that's might say the same. But is Arizona going to try to run and get ahead or are they going to be very methodical so that they don't give the ball away. The teams that have tried to run against Houston have had a little bit of success but still haven't won the game or have barely won. Like Alabama went fast but that game went
all the way to overtime. Texas Tech did not, but Texas Tech still scored in the seventies in regulation and then won in overtime. And so maybe this team has not run as much as previous ones, and not just because they haven't been able to get out in transition, but they seem to be taking a little bit more time on offense and the overall tempo is lower. So maybe they try to just match it slow for slow.
Yeah, and that's not good. I still believe they can't play well. Another. I have this guy named Juan here. I want you to ask or ask a question. You talked about Townsend and the Bryant thing to see if he can understand what you're saying.
Yeah, basically I said that trade Towns is going to be very important for Arizona down the stretch.
He needs to remain healthy.
Do you agree with that and that he's going to be an important factor for Arizona because Brian needs to remain off of the foul line.
Yeah yeah, Oh no, I mean Arizona is a much better team with eight guys than they are with seven. And say what you want about who should be starting, who shouldn't and Townshend's overall value, but he is valuable in the respect that it takes pressure off of Carter Bryant.
Carter Brian has made five starts this year, and I believe he's scored like twenty points in those games, and he's had foul trouble in all of them and sometimes is playing fewer minutes when he starts than in all the games on average when.
He is off the bench, and he could just play as a different person, and if he gets in a little foul trouble.
It's fine because there's somebody else. But these past two games, when they're down to seven people, even though there have been some good parts to playing with both Awaka and vs are out there together for a size aspect, losing that that ability to shift things around and have one step in for the other has really it's it's had an impact on things overall, especially this.
Uh, this last game.
And I mean if if Townsend is not available for Houston, it's going to be very troublesome. And I mean if if they have to hold him out just to make sure he's better for the long run, then that's fine. But the sooner they can get him.
Back, the better, no doubt.
Okay, can you make a prediction today because I'm not sure. We'll talk to you before then for Saturday.
I've seen this movie before and.
They see Arizona being able to win this game.
I think just the way everything has been set up, especially with the loss beforehand, if this team continues to be the kind that responds like they have like previous teams when when they come off all off, this should be one of the better efforts early in the season. I kind of discount those that were tournaments and things like that where you're playing consecutive games and all that. I think that, Yeah, I do think they respond and I do think that Arizona wins this game.
Yeah, I don't disagree with you.
I have to look at it a little bit further, but I don't disagree with you because it always happens that way. Okay, thanks Brian, appreciate it. Yeah, thanks Ed bid impression, easy deserts form. Let's go and take a break and maybe take some calls talk more about the game.
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Streaming live on the Ihearts Radio. While this is High on the Ball with Steve Rivera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
Hey, welcome back to Winning the Ball here on Fox Sports sporteen fifty and Steve, You're blake.
You're one solving the world's problems off the air, of course. Yeah. One conversation at the time. Yeah, yes, yes, another Tuesday, Yeah, another Tuesday. It's Wednesday. That's my point. Yeah, I say, it must be nice to have that kind of life for you. Wedday? Is it one you're getting funny at this job? I know, try ironic.
I think it's someone I'm actually sick funny. It all just kind of blends in together.
Mask.
No one knows who you are.
One.
When'd you get that fresh cut man today?
Actually?
Happy hairst day man? That blak he knows. I try to right, it's good man, You're We're one of a few, so I appreciate Yeah him, Mommy didn't. Mom probably baked him my cake there. She was like, congratulations, he told you no.
Yeah, you know Spanish.
You have to yeah, oh yeah, because you grew up here and you probably played ball somewhere. I played ball in a lot of places, and Parbaty called a lot of weddows a few times.
Yeah when I was growing up.
Yeah, yeah, okay, anybody want to call five to zero four one, six, seventy four forty give us your observation done.
A lot of people liked.
Our conversation yesterday done, and I got into it just a little dad everyone, and then I told him this was going to happen. You know, he was talking about them beating Baylor, you know, or I was. I was state he might be able to call and clarify. But because they beat him here by fifteen or whatever, they're going to beat them by different circumstances, totally different circumstances.
And I was talking about the home court adventits itself is about a six point you're going to overcome that, you know, maybe back calls or whatever, even they took away two points from Yeah, listen, we actually had calls go are away last night. You had that, and you had the yeah, the goldending off of Bryant's plate, where I was like, I don't yeah, that was definitely golden.
We got a call to see who's on the Oh we don't. Okay, what did you do? You give me a signal?
Oh?
You were like, oh you're bad at.
Yeah.
Yeah. But to your point the goaltending, what was the other one? There was a few. There was a few and now I can't remember. Yeah, well, you know what when one call that was probably not good and they needed a ball, not that they would have made a
difference in the win. Was the over bat Oh? I thought for sure we were going to get that call to tourist, right, that wasn't over and back it was and at that point where they could go, oh, they couldn't review that call, right, I guess that was not reviewable. I guess, but they said that's not reviewable. I thought that was a little strange. Well, I thought it was below two minutes, right, I thought everything was. But they
said that call is not reviewable. Yeah, that's strange. That was definitely always confused with.
Most of those are mostly to the monitor looking at something, and what are you looking at?
They went to the Montreal a lot. Yeah, you know, uh no, we got a call. Okay, you're on the AAR and on the ball. Who's this he with?
Outher is vic vic?
What's the word? How's your workout this morning?
Oh?
My guy was better than than Arizona till.
My boys excited said what you did?
Well?
Honestly, I wanted to ask all three of your guys opinions and what scares me? And you know, my background is baseball, and when my short stops booting balls and stuff, I'm worried.
And the turnovers are.
Are are such lazy passes that have been going on since the beginning of the season, and they're just pick six turnovers.
You throw it right in the guy.
And the second thing is.
Is like kJ lewis following two three pointers, then he follows the guy on the breakaway dunk, so that that's six seven points right there, that he gave up seven points wins of that game. If that doesn't alarm tom me, he's flipping out of his gorge. And then I've never and once again, you know my background, Steve, I was with do Mingus High School at their height with Tyson and Tayshaun and all those guys, and to let guys like Conrad and h Carter Bryant, and they.
Just don't move their feet.
And that's just a defense.
I mean, if that happened, that Dominga's coach Otis would flip out of his mind and they'd be running for days. They just don't the lord, so he can't guard my fat. But I mean, and those things are alarming to me, and nobody brings them up. Your guy that you just interviewed, he didn't bring none of that up. I mean, for kJ to foul two three pointers, that's just unsatisfactory. Yeah, I want to hear what you guys got to say about it?
Well, for me, Vic, let's talk about the Baseball reference, because you're right. I mean, if you if you roll in a major league game and one of the opponent opponents commits four errors in that game, it's highly likely that they're not going to win that game. Right, So you've got eight turnovers in the first half last night it was a battle, and then we end up committing what we had seventeen total game. That's a lot, twenty three points, I think. Yeah, and you know they were
lethargic and they were things that could have been avoided. Yeah, that's that's the one concern for me. That second piece. I think you look at KG. I think the one three was him trying to be help defense that he came across maybe. Yeah, so that's concerning too.
Yeah, it's just and I'm telling you in the beginning of the season, and just like last night, I laugh and I challenged. See, they're picked six turnovers. They're just like at the top of the key, pass it to the next guy lazily, and then they take it to the length of the court. Yes, it wasn't like, hey, I turned it over driving to the basket and fumbled it or something.
Well, this is this is my concern because I've seen it, Like, like Brian said, I've seen this movie before. We've seen this team's the Princeton Yere. They've given up leads a number of times. Right, what happened in the Princeton game. They were up by twelve and they gave up a lead.
So this is what you are?
Who you are eventually, and there was one, what eleven and two? They've played really well against teams that they should have beaten, blah blah blah. Because the schedule is backloaded. So come March, what's gonna happen. They're gonna start Come March. They're gonna play in the second round, either the thirty two or the sixteen game, and you're gonna have fifteen turnovers for twenty points.
And you're gonna say that's the team we didn't want to see. Well pretty much, that's who they are. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. You are who you are. I don't disagree with you. Here's the only here's the only change in mind that I have compared to years in the past with this team. Like you're talking about the Oregon State loss. Right, we got our doors blown off. You're talking about Stanford lost, got our doors blown off.
You're trying in regular season. In regular season, I think this team has a little bit more grit to it now. The is no question you're not losing those kind of battles right their last You're you're losing the game. Still have a chance in the last minute. The Texas tack was a little bit different, but you're still in that
game almost the whole time. The question to me is problem solving, Right, do we have the attention to detail to problem solve because you're looking at us find ways to score points last night and at least stayed in the game. We didn't shoot well at all, but you found ways of score points. But you didn't find ways to keep the turnovers down, and that's what killed us. Well, let me tell you too, Kansas State almost gave the
game away. They couldn't hit free throws or threes. Yeah, at the end of the game, you had well.
Okay, so like like the guy's not moving their feet like Carter, I mean, we lost a little bit of our grit last night.
Don't tell me we did.
Henry fumbling the ball, couldn't secure the reading and he's been doing that. He's been grabbing those fuckers with two hands, fighting his own teammates off. And last night there he would get a hand on the ball and they knock it out of his hand, and I'm like, are we losing our toughness?
What happened here?
Vic?
You remember that one time you went to Hula Hans and you went in casually and women just loved Vic. You pulled out a hot looking girl. So you went again the next week and you thought you could do it again, and no one liked you. That's what happened.
But I ran out of ni olt money that you spent it all on the.
First night, right, Yeah, that's what happened.
You thought you were poop, didn't steak, and you went back again and nothing worked.
To Vix point, though Visar looked a little soft last night. That's the first time in a while, Yeah, in a while that I've seen him not play, with a little chip on his shoulder and looked like he wasn't playing. And maybe it's at a walk of Vsar when they're on the court together, because you've got an alpha male and a walker from a rebounding standpoint, Uh, where But yeah, you're right. I fig you're right on that. That was that was a waka was out? Yeah a lot? Okay, Vic, thanks man.
But I'm telling you will see you guys. But this, uh, they've got to go back.
Every day and start rolling the ball to them and and and uh and making good throws the first because this yesterday scared me.
See you Saturday to Bobby McGee's. Steve, you're gonna.
Rine all right with you guy?
All right, man? Thanks see Vic. Yeah, I'll talk talk to Tom and say, hey, get this stuff stake, Hey, send me your practice plan. Let me let me take a look at it, Tommy. Yeah, stuff like this happens.
How I asked this one of the interns, I think maybe a couple of days ago or not. You want so three hundred and sixty five days out of the year year you work forty two hundred and fifty those days you work because you know, five days a week.
How many bad days you have with those? How many bad days? It's probably the wrong time of year to ask me that question. Last night was one of those days where you had a bad day. I mean it happens to be. How many times you go and get you ask once out of once out of every five starts, was was probably you're gonna go get like, you're gonna have to grind, grind, and then maybe. I mean there was times you just had to figure out a way you were. You were starter of I started. So how
many times did you last past three? I mean there was a didn't last Yeah, it was a rarity that I didn't make it past three. Uh, but yeah, there were times. I mean I can tell you, I can tell you a couple of starts. It's still like my neck still hurts from watching balls. Either go out of the yard or go Did you have anything last? Did you have thing more?
You know you by the same stuff. Yeah, it was just one of those days. It was not your day. Yeah, unexplainably.
I mean here's the perfect point, right, we watched that game last night, and I'll put it into my perspective. We couldn't hit a three to save our lives. Whether we're wide open. I mean, when I was pitching, if there were days that I would throw a curveball or slider that was just like just we called some mixers that would just stay up there and get crossed right, and then the next start it's just wipe out, like it's it's one of those You're right, you just have
to find a way. You've got to use this all the time. You've got to look at your toolbox and your tool belt and see what's going to work in that short and and you're doing it in real time, real time time. It's not that easy.
I'm not trying to give them an alibi. No, it happens like this happens Michigan State It last night there were seven you know, one point favorites lost in Indiana, team playing horribly. Every day you can find something this show. I know, as good as this is, we suck sometimes.
I'll tell you that. Sometimes we can't figure out the phone calls. Even there's just dead air. I've gotta make fart noises and everybody's confused, right, you know, yeah, it's no, You're absolutely right. And but like that's that's the beauty of the whole thing. Right, you want consistency, but you've you've got to have some loads human humans humans don't do that. I mean, humans just don't play how many times.
That's why the glory of the tournament is you don't even know who Florida Atlantic is yeah, and all of a sudden during the final four, how.
These things because you didn't pay attention to who they were Gulf Coast right Dunk City, and then you go get a job at USC after that. I mean, that's how wild is this. Let's say you you you work your tail off all season, you barely make the tournament, right, you're mid level, low level D one coach. You make a run of two great games, and you're a hot ticket. Next you're getting hired at a at a premium top five program, like top five conference program. That's wild. That's
wild to me. I mean it's great, but it's wild. What was your point? You just I don't know. I'm just talking at this point. There's no points. I mean your as game that was more interested in your curve ball and you see, but stuff like that happens.
I mean, this is Arizona basketball played to the Arizona didn't won their title in ninety seven by surviving the first round, which they survived at South Alabama. They probably won the tournament that game because they won that game. They struggled in game two when they should have beaten that team pretty bad. They beat Canadas. No one ever thought that possible, but why Arizona was challenged against a better team?
They showed up the.
Next game they struggled against College Charleston. I think it was Providence once overtime. They should have beat them. They went in overtime, and then the rest was gravy against North Carolina and Kentucky. Not gravy, gravy, But you know what I'm saying, because they had they had a challenge in front of him. You're not gonna tell my baby that those dudes are better than him. You're not gonna tell Miles that they're better. But South Alabama we got this, we got this.
Yeah, and I know you know those athletes, Yeah, plays with those that you maybe one of those athletes I got, I got, I got your cell point, I got green bed greenfields. Oh did you just tell me? Oh yeah, okay, no problem. Do you know what I'm saying? You go up thinking I got this, Yeah, and you don't got this. Yeah, you run into one you said it earlier. You wanted a guy that you never prepped for that lays twenty four points on you, and you're like, what just happened?
What just happened? Yeah, Like that guy wasn't even our video review, we weren't even like, Okay, he's gonna be off to the side, but give him some room and then he drops twenty four. Didn't that dude know that I'm in All America?
Yeah?
Yeah, exactly. Didn't get the memo, nor did he care. I'm making sure if I'm Caleb lev says that I'm an All American, just just to make sure everybody knows my n I L Yeah. Yeah, well it's we have time. How much time? Here's the perfect example. So Shaq Shack it was going to place L s U in L s U whatever.
I think it was.
The first game. L s U kicks the crap out of Arizona. They come back for the returning game, and Rooks is going against him, right, and Rooks played out of his mind, I'll play Shack here and and uh they talked to talk to Shack and they said he told Rooks, I'm still gonna be the number one pick. I don't care what you do. Okay, if you were talking about this, because it kind of lines into the trash talk, have you heard and this is going way off base here? Have you heard people talk about Tim
Duncan and his trash talk. And then because he never said a word, no, he was all encouraging. So there's I can't remember wh they're talking about, but they dropped. He dropped like sixteen straight points on this guy, right, and he goes back to the bench after every time he's like, hey, it's okay, you're gonna get better, You're fine.
He the guy was like, that's word. That's the worst trash talk because like you're not talking, you know, to me, You're you're trying to encourage me while you're doing we get in real time to be I think that's glorious. Don't worry, you'll get it. You'll be okay to worry about it. Yeah, okay, let's take a break. Okay, we'll come back with breaking news a little bit, okay, cool,