This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services Ensure your most prized possessions.
But good have to do it.
Everybody.
Welcome to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Babera. You're blake. You You're from to so on Arizona SO then Arizona Sports Tourism and Film Authority. Thanks for coming back.
And we got a guy Juan at the control, so we should have no problem today.
He knows what we're doing or he's doing good.
Good.
I tried. I try to know. Did you get from sleep last night? One?
Oh, very little. I had to go on my morning run early this morning.
We had too. You didn't have to do that.
I had to because school's back in session and I need need a break when I can get it.
So we were solving the world's problems, like at twelve walking from the Matchale Center to our car and what the hell was going on with this team? And nothing bad's happening with this team. It's all good right now, right But but I think is one of the things that we disc and I was just on the show in FEEDIX. They asked me, what's going on, what's the difference now, Well, they're playing better, we're also not playing anybody. Granted they've and in fact, I didn't even put this
in my story. This was the third top twenty five team they beat. We talked about this, right, we did top twenty five team. But it's not like a twenty five, top twenty five team, you know what I'm saying.
It's not even top fifteen. I think, yeah, so yeah, I mean, let me, you ain't talking about Arizona, who's not top fifteen. The teams we've been playing, oh yeah, yeah, sixteen, Cincinnati, twenty one, West Virginia in twenty five.
Right right, right, right, So not to be because people think I'm like the poo pooor of the world that you know, my but realistically, and in fact, your boss at the Acy Deserts Form had a pretty good pregame thing pregame story saying that Arizona had the weakest conference schedule to this point in the season.
It's the weakest it'll.
Be twelve CONFU season to this point. I said it twice now, because the teams they played haven't are near the bottom, right, not at the top. So you're a ballplayer, you know, if you're if your cell point, I'm using a local analogy, if your sell point and you go beat Greenfield twelve times, aren't you supposed to?
I mean yeah, when you use that kind of analogy, I think you're looking at the David and Goliath perspective, right, the analogy there that every now and again David will be Goliath, but for the most part, Glass should always be and if they don't, you wonder what the hell just happened?
Yeah.
Absolutely, But I mean I take what you're saying in stride a little bit, but I think you're looking at that big too twelve schedule, especially preseason, going this is a monster, sure, and then now you're going into going Okay, we had three out of our top four game or three out of the first four games against ranked opponents. But I do understand where you're where you're getting from realistically.
I mean, they're ranked, which is great, and they won because a beat sal alternative, right, you can lost, but but you should beat them. And last night was a it was a good show. Regardless of the late game fall apart or whatever you want to say. They had that game on all the way and they played out of their They played out of their mind, which is great.
Yeah, and I thought it was the best team basketball we've played so far this year. Unselfish, you know, for Love to have the kind of game he did and everybody around him to kind of pick up. There wasn't a player on the court that didn't make an impact, and I think that's what's really impressive.
Good observation. I totally agree with you, because everybody had had a hand in it. Yeah, and I think the biggest hand is The guy I really like is Henry and I've liked him for a long time, you know, because he and I'm trying to think, and you followed this one very very closely for the last few years big Man, and you both of you gets because you following big Man. Everyone hasn't had a big man.
Like him.
And I'm going to be totally wrong, I know, because I can't remember, but Louren Woods a guy who could run and defend the basket and could score. Not a great scorer, but a scorer. I was actually thinking about this last night during the game. He very much reminds me of Christian Coloco.
Yeah, yeah, he just has a little bit more ranked than Coloco did.
Range.
Yeah, range, yeah, yeah, no question, And I forget Coloco in a sense, same kind. He was a pretty good big man. He was a real good defender, especially the perimeter. Yeah, and that's what he mostly was a defender, right, Yeah, because he wasn't a scorer. Henry has it more than that. Doesn't he a little bit more more game to him?
Yeah? Yeah, offensive game. Yeah, and you're talking about perimeter offense as well, which you can expand the defense and it allows our guards to be the more mobile and the FDA kind of play where he wants. It's it's impressive. Coloco is kind of the same path, right, It took him three years to really develop into the player he was, and Vsar is kind of in that same boat. Yeah.
And he's he's he could run the court. He's got great feet. You know, usually when you have like you have the you have the creator's feet, you're kind of slow, kind of plotting.
He's not slow or plotting. And he can shoot range.
Uh, he was the g He's Grant Jerry Better two point zero, who can stretch the floor things. Do you want him to stretch the floor because Ucla, I mean you're thinking what you're doing shooting the three, but he can shoot the three. He hits that shot, that game's over.
Yeah yeah, I think there was a couple of them.
He hits one of those, Arizona has it, But the fact of the matter is he didn't.
He didn't.
But he's hitting them now right. I don't know if I want him.
To shoot that, but if you're, if you're, I'll take I'll take one to two shots from.
Him, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, because it keeps the other team honest Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I mean, I think when you're looking at that overall perspective of the game yesterday, he was the most consistent piece throughout the game by far, But I thought a Waka gave you some quality minutes. I think his evolution, not honestly, the last four games is substantial. Yeah, yeah, I agree with you. Vis Visa is a different when he's on the court, He's a different beast. Yeah.
No, And well it's twitty because I talked to about this on the show previous kJ He's not the non starter, he's a starter. The stars a starter, and who is the third guy? Uh Bryant Carter Apple's apples. He's probably a starter too, right, But Henry, but Tommy's not gonna change anything. Why would you? That was another thing we talked about, right, I wouldn't change it? Yeah, yeah, why right? Why sitting broke? Don't don't fix it?
Well?
Yeah, right, exactly. Yeah. I mean I think you're looking at you know, it feels like a deeper team than eight players, because the lineups are starting to gel and I think they're starting. I mean you're looking at Delorso in that first half yesterday, their defensive effort in the first half yesterday, the energy that they put forth. I mean, even if, however you think about Baylor, to keep them under twenty points for a whole half is pretty impressive.
Right.
It's funny that that There's two things that I wanted to and I didn't write about this, but I asked the question about Delorso. If you if he gets you nine ten points and the way he did it, that's gravy. I mean, you're gonna take that all day because that's what he's there for. The spot, the shooter, the catch and shoot shooter, get him into a rhythm, bloom, And if he's doing that, that's like, where did.
This come from? Because at the beginning of the year, you're thinking, what are you here for? Yeah, yeah, you're absolute right, And we didn't know what we're getting. We talked about the last time it's another mid major transfer that it's kind of a flip of coin. Now, like you're either going to get one of the best players in the conference we've seen in another conference, or you might get a guy that was a start and Townshend's kind
of finding his way a little bit too. I think Townsend Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's not he had a pretty good game. I thought he had a pretty good game the first basket.
Still can't necessarily take care of the ball sometimes, Yeah, but he's he's improving.
Yeah, well, we have two more months left. And that was kind of one of the questions I asked. He says, I don't prognosticate, or I don't I'll live in the world of hypothetical hypotheticals. Yeah, yeah, because you're two months in now, you have two months left.
Where are you going to go with this? So we'll see. Yeah, And I think Tommy, not this, not this presser, but the presser before. And I know I heard what you taught to ask him. Yeah, but he's being honest, right, And we talked about a lot of it. From my standpoint, from a coaching standpoint, I'm not going to say anything to the media that I'm not going to say to
my players. Yeah, and sometimes that media effect allows a little bit more cohesiveness and that in the locker room because we know where we're going, we know where we want to be.
It also helps I think the crowd, the fandom be realistic about what he has right, kind of sets their tone of oh, maybe maybe he understands what they're missing. You know what I'm saying, Because everyone thinks that Tommy either can or can act coach. He's either got it or don't. Next time they lose, guess, guess what's going to happen.
Oh, it's the same thing. I try to stay off the message boards as much as I can't because it's like, yeah,
it's I'm so over it. But I mean to Tommy's credit with what And we talked about this last time I was on the show, with what he was given this year, and we were saying, this is the deepest team for him to evolve and pivot the way he has to get this team playing the way they are, I think is a heck of a job coaching, and if you stand back, you cannot argue the fact that he's one of the best college coaches in basketball.
Yeah, well, they wouldn't be calling him for the America's Team America Team US I stuff like that. They like playing the style. I think too that the teams that they've played haven't done what other teams have done.
Try to slow them down. If you're a coach and you are you, how would you try to slo How would you defend Arizona? I mean, that's a great question, because now you have you're almost going outside in, inside out, any way you want. We've got four bigs that are all finding a way. I mean, you perimeter, but we're starting to shoot the three better. I honestly, it's a tough Who do you put? Who do you spend your time on? You spend your time on Love because Bradley
can hurt you. Now, yeah, actually I would. I would probably let Love screw himself because he hasn't done much right. But but you know, you're a pitcher, so a picture kind of controls the game, right. Of course, you were a crafty pitcher. Were you a dominated picture what kind of picture were you? Yeah, I was like eighty eight ninety two guy that, but I threw four pitches that I can do whatever I.
Want it with.
Well, there you go, there you go, perfect example. So you have a arsenal if you can go if this isn't working, this is working. Yeah, And if if you got a guy who can hit fastball, what are you gonna throw?
Not fast balls?
Yeah, this team loves the run. Let's go in transition? What am I going to try to do? Make you slow this damn game play in the fifties because you can't do it, And that's what teams have done to this point.
And I think we're starting to see that a lot more, obviously, but I think our slow offense and our half court offense is starting to get better. The back door cuts has been working great. That kJ Lewis feed to Bradley last night that backdoor cut was perfect. Finding Visa under the hoop, the four to the five, the fight of the four has been great passing because we haven't had that kind of passing since Tubellas. So it is you're right, you've got to slow us down. You got if you're
get to win. And guess what happens in the tournament. Yeah, teams slow you down.
They want to make play in the sixties and they want to control the temple and blah blah blah. And that's what has been Arizona's demise for years. You know, Princeton was that team. So let me ask you.
Guys both this. So you I mean, obviously we're all following these teams for years and years and we understand this. There's two questions that I want to ask you. The first question is does this team stand a better chance in the tournament? Because for me, it's it's a more encompassing team than we've had in the past. Question, is that go ahead? That's the first question I'll ask you.
The second one, I think we've been able to see that they can keep it close when a team slows them down.
It's a matter of winning those games.
So I think this is I'm gonna use the word complete because they can stick with any game. It's just well they pull it out in the end. That's where I think this team is at right now. See here's here's my dilemma in your question. So let's as super second day you are in the fifties or sixties. There's only one guy that's really gonna pull him out of
this game, and his name is Caleb Love. So you're gonna be dependent on him because he can score, and you're gonna get the good Caleb Love, or you're gonna get them.
That's a good Caleb Love. And that's a hell of a way to live. You know what I'm saying. Should I go in this neighborhood there's a chance I could get beat up? Or do I go around the around the long way and take a long time and may not make it on time?
Does that make sense?
Yeah?
It's say National Lampoons when they go to eas St. Louis. It's that that kind of verbage.
Right.
You're gonna get off of the wrong stop at some point, right, and then how do you survive it? Right? Yeah? Yeah, so so are they what was a question?
How? I don't know. It depends. It depends on a lot of things. And I talked about it a lot when Luke was around. You gotta be lucky, you gotta be good, you got to be healthy, uh, and things just have to fall right, just just the right opponent, because if you have a team that's slowing down and methodical and has one of those days where you can't do anything right. Last night, Florida, who I think is a fantastic team, they can't beat at home by Missouri.
I know what?
How?
How?
What is it?
How they just packed the crap out of Tennessee in an emotional game? You but you know we're okay with them. What are the things that I've said a number of times? And you witnessed this because you're an athlete and a coach. The one thing that I've noticed the most probably is the emotions of kids playing the game. Either you think your poop doesn't stink and you just show up and play.
I want to kick the crap out of you, and it doesn't work that way because the other team wants to beat you too, and you're not emotionally ready to play that game, and that's happens. How else would you use explain upsets, especially at the big level.
I'm sure you would agree. Yeah, And they're talking about the difference between confidence and continents right.
Perfect, yes, yes, and that Arizona has lost a lot of games because of that. You know people wouldn't believe it. Oh, there were much talented. So how did you lose. Why did you lose? We didn't show up? Well, the other team had something to do with it.
Yeah, everybody's got the plan too. So when you've got more time to plan for a team, it's you don't know what you're gonna get all no, no, And you're saying, do you have a second question? Yeah, my second question. But if we're gonna go to break, I don't want we got we got to good? Okay. Second question, So this has to do with culture. So you know sports is about momentum. Have you seen a difference in the culture with this team because you're behind the scenes, you're
you're getting to see Tommy as you seen. Have you seen their their mindset and the way they communicate, the way they're around each other. Have you seen it evolve and change a little bit over the start of the start of the season.
Good question. You lost me a momentum earlier because I don't believe in it. Yeah, but we're not. We're not as close as you would think. Okay, we're not. We go to games, we see them, we see them.
I don't know.
Okay, to be fair, I don't know.
For me, it seems like they're in a let's do our job type of mindset and a not satisfied mindset. They came out of the locker room. You know, they're up forty two nineteen right, I guess number twenty five national champs but five years ago, and they did not look pleased at all with that first half. They came out and they looked Pete off you know, and who in Arizona? Okay, so it just seems like they have a real focus to them right now.
And then what happened at the next ten minutes?
Yeah, exactly next like that.
Offense too though the ten minutes Yeah, yeah.
You know, we gotta go because we're gonna have one of the guys who knows ask him that question. Brian Jeffries will be there because he's around them a lot more than all of us, and he knows comedy very well because he spends a lot of time with them, But that question would be best for him. Okay, we're gonna Brian Jeffries on the other side.
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Breaking down all the xys and os. This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera on Box sportsporteen fifty.
Hey, welcome back to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera.
In with me today is Blake Eager and now you know him and I know him as the voice of the Wildcats, Brian Jeffries.
Brian, how are.
You, gentlemen?
Couldn't be better? Got a decent night's sleep last night. I'm usually not a late night owl, but that was okay, it was worth it.
And ready for the next one?
Yes, yes, lately, you're gonna have a few of these. There have already been a few, and they're gonna have some few more. How do you like this change? Well, I mean the change in the Big twelve schedule overall. Ask me when the season's over, I think after the first road trip, you know, it was long, we were gone for a long time. I had to deal with weather and the whole thing. But all in all, it
went very smoothly. And there's another two game road trip coming up, and then after that it becomes just these in and out one game road trips, which you know, to me, I think that is you know, that's a good thing. And the other half of it is that, except for a couple of occasions here, there are multiple days between games, and so that's good for the players and the coaches in terms of preparing for the next opponent. Steve, you know, the old schedule Thursday Saturday was that way forever.
And those Friday games when you're on the road was I said, the fridays between games when you were on the road was you know, tough time to recover and get ready for the next opponent. So I like the schedule and we'll see how the rest of the travel
goes and figure it out as we move along. But based on the strength of the conference, and I tell you what the atmosphere at Cincinnati and West Virginia, if it's anything like that, when we get to Lubbock and still water this week and that makes it a lot of fun for guys like me. Yeah, no question. In fact, I just wanted to joke real quick. I know you're
a Seattle guy. Did you have to buy a jacket for this trip even though you go to perm now because you know we went to not so cold places now you do?
Yeah?
No, Actually I did have one which I would break out, yes, for that Northwest trip, and so I took it with me to stay warm because it never was above thirty degrees.
And you know, we.
Didn't really get out when we were in Morgantown. We really didn't leave the hotel anyway. But yeah, it was NTTI. You just keep thinking to yourself, we're going home, We're going home. So yeah, no, don't don't have to deal with the click of the reds slippers or whatever.
Go ahead.
Yeah, hey, Brian, this is Blake Eager. It's great to talk to you. Thanks. This is I tell Steve this all the time. But it's such an honor to be on the show and talk to guys like you that I've spent my whole life listening to and and just kind of looking from afar. So this is an honor and I just want to say thanks for having me
against Steve and Brian. So the question I have, and I asked it before the break, was have you seen from the start of the season to now a true change in the culture of the team inside the locker room with which with the coaches? Have you seen the growth from a relationship standpoint and start to bond because that's such an important part of a team.
I won't use the word change a word, I'll use
the word adjustment. I think that when the season started, and obviously before that, when practice was underway and you had, you know, the transfer portal guys Anthony del Arso and Trey Townsend and Tobey Owaka, and then you had a freshman and Carter Bryant and Henry Vassar who didn't and play last year, and you had these guys that and in particular the transfer guys, they played different roles in their previous schools and now they're asked to change and
adjust to Tommy Lloyd's system and that's not an easy thing to do.
And so that's what I've seen since the season.
Started, is that they have found their spot now and it's not perfect. They've got a lot of things they can be better at. But all those guys, the newcomers in particular, have kind of figured out where they need to be on the floor and what their strengths and weaknesses are, and they're starting to play to them. And I think that's why they're on this seven game winning streak right now. I think the culture has always been good.
That's one thing I always noticed early on is what's the chemistry of the team like, and these guys get along very well. I see them off the court, I see them on road trips. It's a very cohesive group and they really enjoy each other's company, and of course that's a great part of trying to build a good team.
And the funny thing about it, you've been with this program for probably almost forty years, if not more. Brian, hate to date you that way, but I'm sure you're having a great time because and Tommy seems like he's a fantastic guy to be around. The team itself has been over the last few years, very very convenient or cordial whatever word is for you, or accommodating.
So am I accurate?
Absolutely? Yeah.
I mean Tommy is tremendous to work with, you know, for pregame, post game, you know, around the hotel radio show every week. You couldn't ask for anybody better. He gets it. He understands it's part of the job, and I think a lot of it he really, I mean, he enjoys being out in public and meeting the fans, and so I think that is huge. The players are the same way. They're all very approachable and they're well. First of all, they're intelligent young men. They speak very well.
They look you in the eye and shake your hand, and you know, you can just tell by the quality of the guys they recruited that, you know, that again, is one thing that's made this team I think, much better now than it was, you know, a couple of months ago when they got this thing started. So yeah, you know, I'll give you a good example guys that you know, we were in Morgantown and we got there
on what Sunday, didn't play till Tuesday night. So Monday night at the hotel, Tommy got everybody together down in the banquet room and had a little.
You know, social game so to speak, as.
We went around and kind of learned more about each other, and it was kind of neat. There was no talk about well, very little talk about basketball. It was just talking about each other and you know, just some questions about everybody, and it was just kind of fun. You got to find out about things about the players and the staff members you didn't know, and there were some great stories and a lot of laughter. And so you know,
that's something that Tommy has brought to the program. I think that's just another building block.
Elements of non basketball stuff is always good for team bonding. Yeah, and they've been playing very well. What's been the difference you think? I was asked this question earlier today by somebody on another show, and I said, well, I think they're just playing better one and two and realistically, and this is no knock on anything. You just haven't played the teams that you think you have trouble against, the Houston's, the North, the Iowa States and those teams.
Did that makes any sense?
Yeah, the Baylor was the best team Arizona scene so far in the Big Twelve. And there's some better ones coming up. And I think Texas Tech is one of those, Iowa State, Houston, Kansas, So there's some really top opponents. Sayhead, So you're right, I mean, you can't That's why you can't just sit back and say, hey, you know this is great. They're won seven in a row, they're on their way. You never know so, but I agree with you, Steve, And somebody asked me that same question on the radio
show this morning. He says, well, you know what's different about this team or what's better about this team? And I had a hard.
Time because I think it's just a lot of little.
Things that have come together. I mean, they're playing better defense, they're taking better shots. You know, the balt movement is better. It's all those things. There's just not one thing that you look at and say, Okay, this is why Arizona's better now than they were. It's just all that mixed together. Man, it's brought out the best of them.
Yeah.
I mean, I think we were talking about it earlier, but you look at that first half defensive effort. We haven't seen that from this team all season. And that's I don't care who we're playing. I think if you're putting that kind of effort on the floor, you've got a pretty good chance of keeping a low scoring game. And if our offense being the flow that it was last night, I feel and maybe I'm naive to say this, but I feel like we can go against almost anybody in the country.
You know, I thought the same thing that for at least a half, they look like one of the best teams in the country.
Yeah, and I don't want to say unbeatable, but they look really It was something you hadn't seen yet, Brian, would you agree, Well.
Yeah, I died. It was tremendous. I think they knew what was on the line. And let's go back to the.
Game against UCF and they.
Did not close that game the way that Tommy wanted. He was not too happy with their effort there down the stretch, and I think he let him know about that. And again, these are smart young men, and they took heat of that and came out and played their best basketball. The one thing you know that he mentioned after the ballgame, and you've seen a crop up here a few times, is they get these leads and then they can't hang.
On to them. They win the games. You know, Cincinnati ed up by nineteen.
And Barrick has come back and tied at Arizona still wins it. You know, led UCLA by thirteen in the second half, lost that game, and then these last two where they had sizeable leads, I mean twenty seven last night, and then it gets down to nine, and you know, the coach doesn't like those things, and of course, now that's a great teaching moment he can go back and
show those guys. But you know, they've been very good at building leads, and I think that's the next step now for the this year's team is to make sure that you get that double digital lead and you keep the hammer down and make sure that you don't let the other team back in because, like you said, when you're going to face Texas Tech and Baylor on the road in Houston and Iowa State and Kansas, I mean, those teams, you know they're going to come back, So
you better have that mentality to be able to hold those leads once you build them.
Brian, with this team and all point to one thing specifically, I thought we did a great job of breaking any kind of press they threw us throughout the game until the last two and a half to three and a half minutes. What do you think mentality wise changes with the u of a team this year compared to teams in the past in that kind of crunch time.
And the end, Well, I you know, I think that they have the guys they can put on the floor, all can handle the ball. I think that's one thing that has helped them. I last night, for example, I thought the thing that probably stood out to me was the fact that they hadn't really seen that type of pressure until the latter minutes. And it was not that
they may not have been prepared for it. But when you go, you know, I don't know, thirty five minutes and you don't see that pressure and then all of a sudden it's there, then how do you adjust to that? And that's something that you know, you've got to learn to do. You got to you've got to be ready, and you have to expect it coming. I think that's part of it. And you know, anybody that knows Baylor basketball and what they've done over the years, then you
know that they've got that ability. I'm kind of surprised that they didn't put that press in earlier, but that's a coaching thing, so I'm not going to second guess that. But that's that's why they've always been good defensively, and so to the Wildcat's credit, yeah, they had that stretch there. I think they turned the ball over four times in
about four minutes. It felt like that. But you know they've got you know, between Caleb love and and Jayden Bradley and you know kJ Lewis and you know Carter Brand these guys that you can handle the ball and have. You know, I think very good QUI two. He saw a couple instances in last night's game where you know, instead of just folding other pressure they were they found one of their teammates down court and that was a great way to break the press.
And so they survived it.
And like I said earlier, it's one of those teaching moments and you hope when they see it the next time, they're ready for it.
So we were talking about Vsar earlier. I've always liked him. I thought he was going to be very good two years ago when he first came on the scene, and then he got hurt last year obviously, and we were talking. I can't remember a center here at Juve as good as him. Maybe Lauren Woods back in the day. But he had a group of guys that were pretty pretty good. You know, Gilbert and Luke and Richard and know them.
But he could do a lot of things. He can block shots if asked, he can score from the perimeter, he can score underneath, He's mobile, he can run the court. Maybe Collocal has some of those elements, but not to all those elements.
What do you think about Vsar?
Yeah, I agree with you, Steve.
I think that he's probably the most afflette seven footer that maybe Arizona's had. And I'll he told me a great story why I think that he's that's contributed to that is that he was twelve years old and the coach he was six feet tall at twelve years old, and the coach made him a point guard. And you say, you know why at at twelve years old and you're six feet tall, you're the tallest kid on the court when the heck you doing well? It taught him those skills that a lot of big guys I think don't
have the advantage of learning. Very smart and now you see it coming to fruition, very.
Smart and of course you teach what you don't know, right, and that's perfect.
Yeah, yeah, And I think that's you know, two years ago when he played sparingly, like you said, as a true freshman. I'll be honest with you, Steve, I mean, you have a better than I, I than I, And I thought to myself, well, this guy's probably gonna ride the bench for four years and you know, get his six points and five rebounds and he'll be a nice
backup and da da da da. And then last year, of course, sitting out, Well, little did we know that year off probably was the best thing that could happen for him.
And now you see how he's blossomed.
I couldn't tell you, but I saw something he was because he was so fluid. You don't see some footers were fluid. You see him like crebos where they're kind of mobile and they're kind of stuttering and kind of you know, mechanical or whatever.
But that's beside the point.
Let's move to football recount for just maybe a couple of minutes. A very tough year for you, of ASA, but you're around him. You probably know Brendan better than most. I'm sure you're pretty confident that he's already kind of starting to write the ship.
Well, I mean we're going to see, well, we'll see in the fall. They knew they had.
To make changes and massive changes, and.
They've done that.
They've gone to the portal and I mean, they have totally reloaded in the portal. He's changed some positions on the coaching staff, and I like all the changes that he made. I mean, getting Joe Salavea back is an absolute genius move.
I think my.
Understanding is Joe's wanted to come back before and the timing just didn't work out out for whatever reason, and so getting him back, I mean that is that is huge.
And so I think, you know, it's just going to be a critical year coming up, and not that his job's on the line or anything, but I just you know, in terms of the fan involvement, you're coming off a tough year like this and you look ahead and you're your best player, Tedro McMillan is gone, and you know, he lost a couple other guys as well, so there's going to be a lot of new faces and having no Fafeeda back, that's certainly health He'll be the face
of the program. But I think the question is going to be, you know, they got to win more games next year. That's the bottom line. They've got to use the new talent they have and the adjustments to the coaching staff. And I'm not going to sit here and say, they have to win X number of games, but they're going to have to show something and show something early because.
They need to. They need fans.
I mean, football supports programs, and so they're going to need to show something early and make sure that the fans are engaged. And whatever's done between now in that first game is going to be part of it. But you know, fans, I mean, they the proofs in the pudding. They want to see the product on the field. And so I think Rett's a great coach. I think he has great relations with his players, you know, because he's he's got that Dick Tomy part of him, and there's
nothing wrong with that. And so if.
You you know, watch what Tomy did.
In particularly in his early years at Arizona, it reminds me of what Brennan's doing right now. Not the portal thing because that didn't exist, but just the way he builds culture around the team. And I think Rhett got that started last year. And I think everybody he's bringing in now and I'm I'm I don't know one of these guys, but I'm certain that he's recruiting them for their themselves, for the culture of the program, not only for their football talent.
So I'm you know.
I'm anxious to see spring practice.
I hope these guys that they brought in and again a lot of them have great credentials that they can step in. They're going to have to step in and play right away, and maybe you know, a little bit of a head start now and with some of the changes they've made, you know, I'm optimistic that they'll have a much better team on the field, and I think it's important that they do that.
Just like I said, to sell tickets, right.
Yeah, no question. That's the bread life platter of the program. Thank you, Brian, as always, thank you very much.
All right, thanks guys, take care on the road. Yep.
Brian Jeffries from the u of A, the Voice of the Wildcats. Let's take a break, come here and talk more about what we're talking about.
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This is I on the ball on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Want to take part in the show called up? Steve now went five to two oh four, one seventy four to forty.
Hey, we'll come back to my the ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve. You're blake, You're one. We're here for another hour and a half or whatever it is.
Uh So, let me ask you something U sawlso be that I didn't see you a bitch. That's true because a lot of people said, you know, damn Love. You know, you know, because if he's really hot, everybody loves him.
If he's not, he's not. But you saw him play defense. I thought he I thought he had more energy on defense than in the past when you see Love and he has those stretches when he goes from an offensive. We talked about it right now. When you've got a doctor Jackyll and mister Hyde tend a case situation, you've seen him kind of shut down on the defensive side. I thought he kept his composure a little bit more last night, especially in the first half. Yeah, why did you see that?
I saw a little bit more movement than I had in the previous games. But I think that's also because he was feeding off of the energy of the other four guys on the court. You know, you saw o Waka and Bassar that they would get a screen and go they cut him off, and then Love would just come and close that out. I feel like these are the previous four games, you wouldn't you wouldn't have seen that from Love.
And I don't you know what, and you probably play with athletes like this like where you where there they have a gate to them, right, they have a gate to them in a confidence, especially in baseball where where they did it's motionless. They just kind of go things. And you see, how come he doesn't struggle to run? How come he doesn't and things just come naturally to him. And I'm not going to say that happens with Caleb, but he's got a he's got a confidence in a
gate to him that maybe maybe it's that Collid. You remember Kalid, of course, where he was kind of like so good. He didn't look like he was trying hard, and that was part of his problem. He didn't try hard. If he would have been a pro forever. But you know, what I'm saying that maybe Caleb has that and he's guilty of his own too good.
Does that make sense? Makes complaye sense? But you're talking almost from like the Goldfish method, right where your mindset's able to forget those bad moments so quickly that it doesn't it doesn't start to pile up. It looks like for Caleb, he's got to get going early, right, because when we haven't seen him get going early, it takes a long time. But even even Ucef he had a great first half and that second half he did not
have great the second half. So I it's just something looks off this year compared to what we've seen in the past. And Tommy said it perpletly. He wants him to play like an All American because he's an all Man and that's what you expect at this level.
I think I was gonna say, well, we were talking about this kind of on the break. Maybe, Uh, he's a shooter, he's a maker. He's a shooter. He's more of a shooter than a maker, but he's good at it. You think that if you're a if you throw strikes for seventy five eighty percent of the time, guess what you'd expect to throw strikes.
He's not that. He's not that striker or thrower of strikes or thrower of makes.
He's a forty sometimes maybe shooter, but he's a good shooter.
So do you expect more? Yeah, you're absolutely right. And I think mom, when we talk about we talk about two components, right, you talk about mental and you talk about mechanical, right, right, And maybe it's maybe it's a mechanical thing with love right now, Maybe something's just a hair off that's through his flow of his shot, whatever it might be. And people don't want to hear that because it's boring, But there might be something there where
he's working through something. But the difference between love last night and in the past is that he usually can find his buckets around the rim. He didn't even to me, he didn't look like he was even able to do that last Yeah, he had one of those floaters that fell short. Kind of the thing is you're gonna need him, and I think you're gonna not. You don't need him now, You're gonna need him in March because that's when I'm gonna buy a hat and I already have it.
It only matters in March. All this is fun and games. Then you tell me you're gonna be measured in March. Tommy's gonna be measured in March. This team's gonna be measured in March. Every team that I've covered since ninety one is measured in March.
So let me ask this question. Because we talked about last time, we talked about expectations as a UVA football fan, what are your expectations on an annual basis as a UFA basketball fan? What should they be? Is it elit eight or bust? Every single year? I'm realistic.
So no, I'm realistic because I've covered the team and i know what it takes to get there, because I've seen it and I've written about it. No, if they get to the sweet sixteen with a chance, that's probably it. I know everyone wants another time. You've lived how long, oh I forty two? Yeah, forty two? How many championships?
How they won?
They've won one, So in the next forty two if they won another one, you're okay. I mean the chances of winning are not very big, not very high. I mean not very really, they're not. But if they sneak went in you'd be the happiest man around. But likely of that happening not very good.
I mean, it's one of those things that I can remember exactly where I was when it happened, and there's only a few moments. You we were fifteen, you were fourteen. I think I was twelve. Was ninety seven, thirty seven? Yeah, so I was fifteen. I was maybe fourteen at that point. Okay, okay, and where were you the Houtneys, what the hell? Yeah? It was crazy when people were going Yeah, people were going crazy and throwing ketchup and mustard. I don't think
we knew how to react. It was like, as a fourteen year old, you're going, what am I getting myself?
You know?
You were with your family obviously, of course, yeah, yeah, hey give me a beer.
There, Yeah, yeah, yeah, No, I wasn't at that point. Yeah, that was a couple of years. Yeah, you were not born. I was not born that way. We don't need to bring that up. We don't need to point that out. I was six years remove. But you've heard stories.
Oh yeah, I watched a video at least once a year of them. It says riot in the video. That's what it is described as but it's just a celebration. Yeah, you know, it's it was to this point. It's quite literally a once in a lifetime thing that's happening in twos on Arizona.
So you're expect to his question.
I think Arizona should be a tournament team every year.
Yeah, that's minimum, that's yeah. But I still think that's a little lax for the program. If we're going to consider ourselves as blue bloods, which I think a lot of Arizona fans do, but which okay, which realistically, I this is very hard for me to say, very hard for me to say publicly. I don't I don't want
to put us in that cap room. Yeah, but yeah, at a very minimal level, a tournament team, right, I think Sweet sixteen is really where you're going for and if you run into a bad matchup, you run into a bad match I'm a little bit more bought into the season. I like the development of the team. I like to see the team come together. I buy into every single game. But you've got to compete in March. So let me ask you, let me ask you this. Let's go back, let's go back and do some review.
Then uh so, Princeton lost horrible. Right scale of one to ten, Maybe it was a one two because in terms of disappointments, I'm nine or ten? Right, Houston? What about Houston? Knowing what you know? Now, that's a bad matchup for us. Okay, that was a bad matchup. I think you look back at that team, and I was having this conversation with myself the other day, which I do a lot obviously because people don't want to listen to me, so I appreciate it again on your show. Yeah,
they're like, wait, he's back on. Yeah, I was having this conversation. If you look at that team, we have four NBA guys off that team, right, so correct if I yeah, I mean in Larson, Bellis matherin Coloco, Terry Mathern. Yeah, so you get five NBA guys on that team, and I think it's that first transitional year. If Tommy could have had that nucleus his second year, maybe a different circumstance. But Houston never should have been They should have been a one or two seed like they were a monster.
But you're still.
Gonna have to beat a Houston type team to win the title. I mean you have to if you're gonna be the best team. You better be the best team. Okay, now you're going through the PAC twelve. How many teams you see that on an annual basis?
And don't you don't?
You don't, you don't, And then that's that's why they're gonna be welcome to this new, new new league. Okay, but I'm gonna go back to some of the history of the program. So Shawn's teams, the only ones you really have to compare them were the Wisconsin teams. Guess what, Arizona was not good though, even as good as the first one in twenty fourteen, I think it was they didn't beat them. And now in retrospect you're thinking, Okay, maybe they should they could have, they should have. They
might have, but they didn't. They later Wisconsin was better, beat them by eight.
Yeah, that second year when you had Johnson compared to Gordon, that Gordon team is on the mount rushmore for me of you of a basketball teams. I mean, you had so many pieces on that team that it's a which two I mean you, yeah, you had Aaron Gordon, You and McConnell, Nick Johnson. Yeah, I mean really, that's one of your top four I think from athletics standpoint, you're starting.
You had Zeus who is a four, Brandon Ashley. I mean you're talking about maybe arguably the most athletic team in the country, and that's a team that didn't have Ashley in March. Yeah, you've lost Ashley and that was a key piece that they lost. I mean my Miller, my Millier years a little bit different. I think you like he was a defensive genius. I think if you allowed that team to run and gun a little bit on offense, I think they're a national competing for a national championship.
Yeah, okay, so those two teams disappointments. If you lose at that point lead eight, is that a disappointment the.
Team that you're talking about personally, yes, I think is a fan No. I mean getting to the lead eight is a substantial thing. But what about the year before the Gordon is a disappointment that the Gordon year is a disappointment? Johnson year Wisconsin was better than we were, Okay, the Gordon that's the four team. Well that's when actually got hurt. Yeah, okay, so that's a just a that's a that's a disappointment. Yeah. And in the us the injury.
Everyone says, if had he not gotten hurt, they would have been Yeah, but you have to deal with this. Injury has happened in sports, so people always say, this is happening, this is I said, listen, you're gonna be able to find other teams find a way.
Okay, we okay with that twoutes, Yeah three minutes, Okay, what about what about Duke Duke?
They lose to be Duke and they lose to Yukon. Now that team overperformed. Oh yeah, I mean, so that's very that's a very good year. That's yeah, that's the best coaching performance by Miller and Mike in my opinion, that's a great year for them. They over they outperformed. I mean, Williams goes second in the draft, like you never saw that coming. Yeah, Okay. They lose to Ohio State I think sweet sixteen. Yeah, completely disappointment. I mean
you're talking about a meltdown. Think about that. Were we up thirteen points with three and a half minutes left to play that in Ohio State? Yeah, I can't remember. Yeah, I think I thought they were well State, it's pretty good then, yeah, but we were up big with a little bit on the clock that was better than mine. Yeah, yeah, which state?
Yeah?
They losing in the first round. Yeah, okay. So so how would you describe Chun's time here?
Oh man? I wrote this solum when.
He was eventually fired to go, I said, I really don't know how to to to describe his legacy.
It's it's a really difficult one, right, because he outperformed coaches. He was one of the I mean, arguably a top three recruiter in the country. I just thought his game he was his thin plant was not his game plan divert. How many times did you this maybe I'm speaking here this radio. Yeah, so how many times do you see a player developed throughout the season? How much he didn't because you were played it. You get the best athletes in the world and you try to force him into
this block. Well, what do you think?
Why do you think that eighton uh Trier and Alkins and Ristick whatever, that group, they were already NBA players before they got here him. He didn't make him that. It's like KLA party kind of parties an NBA gight, No, he's not there. NBA guys think you have to go somewhere for nine months or six months to go get ready for the NBA. He doesn't develop him into NBA players. He's a stop gap. He's a he's the bus stop.
And kind of she was shown with that group they didn't want to be They were here because they had to be here.
They wanted to be here. Yeah, and then those groups never looked like they were having no fun together the Bahamas. Yeah. I think that's a huge difference you're seeing with Lloyd, right. Miller was a fine wine guy. Tommy Lloyd's a PBR guy where he's just like, let's just hang out. I can't understand that PBR stuff with he does. Yeah, I don't want to talk about yeah.
Yeah, but but to your point, no, exactly, And Henry's your your prime example.
Yeah, here's this dude that you didn't think. Maybe Brian Jefferson, I agree with Brian. Freshman year, Yeah, and I saw something. I couldn't tell you what I saw, But he has this thing and now look at him and then if he stays another year, which I think he will and should. Wow, I mean, listen, we don't know if he's going to be able to stay that it comes to March. Let's
say he gets hot in March. I mean, he's a prototypical NBA guy right where he can play a four and five, even maybe a three, which is maybe a stretch at the NBA level. I hope he stays another year. Selfish yeah, yeah, don't yeah, don't, don't jinx him and jink you.
Yeah.
Are we good with that? We gotta go, we gotta go.
Okay, cool, we're gonna go come back, get some breaking news, fill that up, and then we're gonna talk to Michael leb on the other side.