This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services Insure your most prized possessions.
Thy good afternoon, everybody.
Welcome to Iron the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera and with me today is Dave Silver and on the other side of the screen is Juan One. How you doing even been better? But we're out here. It's cold here in this town. What's seventy two degrees?
No, No, it's like twenty seven.
Degrees, about sixty degrees. It's our winter. We get about ten days of this. Yeah, this is it. You should be happy. I'm happy with it. It's cold, but it's not really cool. You grew up in this hell. Oh yeah, you're used to this.
I've been here longer than you've been alive. Yeah, ten days is pretty accurate.
Twelve on the leap years or whatever, right, right, But you know when it gets cold, it's it's the golf tournament.
In fact, it's late late February.
Early remember years ago, there was a nice little snowstorm when they played that gallery. This has got to be you know, early two thousands. Yeah, and yeah, they had to have pis. Players were having snowball fights out there, So that was like late February right.
Around the road.
We see that ago. But yeah, you're probably right. Yeah it was picturesque, I mean very beautiful.
Yes, freezing though, especially his spectators and his media folks. We have to run out there on the golf course. Yeah, and it was cold, right, Yeah, this is child's play compared to that. But it's it's cold everywhere else. This is why you're sure, that's why the snowbirds are here. Yep, snowbirds are here having fun. Hey, you were tying real quick the day before we went on the air. Is uh, last night, you ain't look good? They did well? Why
do you think well? And be realistic. Oklahoma State wasn't too good.
They were good, and they weren't that great, but it was nice to see her was on a play up to the level that they can play, right. I think two guys to two guys kind of surprised me. At least it was part of my story. Caleb Love, he's been refound at least for the moment.
For a game.
And what about the other guy, Tray Tray, I mean, that was his best game since he's been here by far.
By far he was. You could tell he'd been frustrated. He wasn't playing all that well. People expected more from him. I think coming in everyone heard all the stories about him last during the year, during the y A Tournament, and you know, hadn't been doing all that much. It was usually one of the first guys that they would they would bench during the game.
But yeah, nineteen points, seven for eight shooting.
And he even admitted in.
The post postgame press conference that you know, I hadn't been playing up to my expectations and people thought more of me, and here I am.
Yeah, nineteen points twenty minutes. So he didn't really play all that much. But when he was out there, he was in trouble early. Oh it's Alady had two fouls right off the bat.
Yeah, like in the first couple of minutes. I don't know if you believe this.
I'm not sure if I believe this, but him and a Walker are kind of bulls in the china shop. Yeah, but they need that kind of stuff. If previous was there, it'd be different too, But but yeah, they it's how they play.
Yeah, there's not a lot of grace, you know, no it's pretty much just barrel in. Try to get, you know, try to work your way, you know, to the boards and pick up some garbage buckets if you can.
Townsend has some good moves though. In a lane he does tries.
He's got that good, little short, little flip jumper from about six feet out that sure makes half the time.
And he bowls his way into the lane where you can get you know, that lay up.
I'm gonna say he knows how he gets to the bucket. He knows how to get his own basket on his own. And do you find it the same thing as me? That where the first possession. It looks like they go to him to score right away.
Yeah, underneath one of the two. They usually go inside.
They're gonna need them, obviously. I'm not sure how good this team is. That's the mystery of the whole thing, because it's.
Not any better than it. It's not.
This is probably the worst of his four that he's at here. Oh yeah, but but you think that if they could catch fire, and right there, that whole sentence is screwy. If they can catch fire, right, they can have a couple of wins in the tournament.
Yeah, that's It's always kind of been the story around here. Sometimes sometimes the fire flickers out before they get past that first weekend. But I mean, you know, yesterday was kind of fun, just in terms of guys did play minutes. I mean, kJ played twenty nine off the off the bench. Brian Crater, Brian played twenty one minutes off the bench, you know, so he's really spreading things out.
Del also didn't play all that much.
Someone someone I was surprised by was Emanuel Stephan nine minutes.
Yes, you could tell you look like he was just out there. Yes, am I on the right Bill, That's the first thing I noticed.
He was like just all over scattered. But but they needed those minutes, yep, so you know there were and he even talked Tommy talked about it at the end of the end of the game. But you're right, David, I saw the same thing. It was like where do I go?
What do I do? Where I go? What do I do?
But but if you if you can fill those that time, giving the other guys a chance to say that's fine.
Rebounds, no turnovers.
Yeah, you know he didn't take it. Did he take a shot? He might have taken one. I didn't even take a shot. So he knows his purpose.
Yeah, he knows he's not gonna right and all equality aside where previous is out and they need him. He he he wanted to play, and he says, I understand the situation. Yeah, I mean, I playing a whole lot, but I but I'd rather play than than not play.
Yeah, or you know, ruined the road Richard, Well, I.
Mean I think you know, the coaching staff probably turned to him and said, listen, you can contribute here, you can play. You're not going to just come in at the end of the game and you know, play thirty seconds. He winds up playing almost ten minutes. Sure they needed him and just to fill you know, the slot. Give some guys a blow, right, right, Same with same with Martinez. You know, he came in late. His situation is really strange with me.
I know that he'll probably get a shot here in the next two or three years, right, two years, but he's got no shot now because temmy he's going with eight, right, and Martinez is nine, and it's a tough nine, and then Stevens is ten.
I think, right.
It was also good to see Henry kind of come back.
He'd not been playing too well the last couple of games and even so good, and then he just looked terrible against Texas Tech. And then he looked more like Henry last night. So it was good to see that.
Well, that's the whole thing, Dave.
I think that if you catch lightning in a bottle and you have to do it six straight times in March, right, you have to catch it. And there was one who did that in ninety seven, and everybody holds it. But if you have Henry catching some lightning, you have Love catching some lightning. Townsend doing the same thing. And four of the seven or eight playing really really well, this team has a chance.
Yeah.
The thing is that's a lot to ask.
Well, you know, they've won what eight of nine, and we.
Need to look back maybe and see how especially you know, we kind of talked about Caleb, you know, kind of running the machine. But you know, let's look and see what he was doing over those nine games, and he had a few ups and downs.
Yeah, the ninth and I wrote this last night. If I can remember, I think he had five. I have in double figures.
More than twenty. But the thing is, no one talks about that.
Yeah, everyone talks about the other five points here, six points there, because if he's your star, what do you need to start to do?
Be a star?
Right?
But they're winning too, But they were winning, yeah, especially in this last stretch. But yeah, I mean very efficient last night, ten for seventeen, you know, four for nine from threes. I mean, you can't argue that was a great game for him.
I think the flip side of the four or five games where he's twenty or double figures is those other five games are against top teams. Right, So there's a really large falloff between twenty points against in Oklahoma State, yeah, versus a six or against Yeah.
So yeah, that's where the frustration comes from the fans.
Right, right, Well, and that's when you need to show, Righteah, and Dave, I've said this, and whether people agree with me or not, this is what I'll say. Over the last seven you said eight games that they've had a pretty nice stretch here. They really haven't played anybody worthy maybe Baylor at home, right, everything, And your boss Peterson wrote this before the Baylor game. They had played the weakest schedule the Big twelve to that point. Yeah, and hey,
but the thing about it, it beats the alternative. They could have usually lost those games too, right, Yeah, and then you'd say what the hell is going on?
And going into conference blay.
A lot of people thought that, yeah, because they weren't playing well exactly.
These next two weeks are gonna be fun though, with Iowa States and even Colorado coming and they've had some battles at school for there.
Well, O seven, that's a dangerous owen know, Colorado in conference play.
Give me the next so they have, So we go Colorado Saturday.
Okay, Iowa State which is which is going to be the litmus test?
Which one i State? I was staying the Monday night.
It'll show what kind of crowd you can get. Who's after that?
And after after they go to a s U okay, which which could be tough because they're playing fairly well.
They won last night, yeah, and then at the YU right.
After that, and then when Houston until February fifteenth, Okay, so this stretches. Then they play Houston. That's the next second best test, right yeah, Texas Tech at home? Yeah, between the Texas tim here, I mean I think they're gonna kill Texas Tech.
Yeah, the road games though, you know, a s U Kansas State, Baylor all in the next month.
I think is gonna give a heck of a game over there, probably beat them. Baylor's Baylor's pretty good, especially at home. Arizona just kind of they played really well in that first first half.
So we'll see.
I mean, we're talking about a win today, so that's a good thing.
Yeah. Yeah, the first things first.
Right, right, you know, and Sir Tommy said, you know, we need this, We needed to play well after Saturday's game. It's kind of and guess what, people don't talk about the bad things, and they have been because once they lose, everything goes to hell. Everybody's free. The world is ending. Tommy needs to be fired, get rid of love, blah blah blah, the.
World is I like the story I guess Bruce did in the in the Star about about the travel situation and you know, staying in some you know, not the greatest hotels in the world and not having room from and things are a little bit different than the Big twelve travel wise, and I mean the schedule itself, the way it sets up. I mean here there still on the road. I guess got home, you know, to crack
at dawn, got to maybe go to class today. You know, it's it's a little bit different than it was back in the Pac twelve.
Yeah, no question. And it's funny.
I wonder how if that's the case, If that's the case of the conditions, I wonder how Loot would have handled it, because because you know this, you travel a little. I travel all the time. And they didn't. They didn't stay at easy no cheap hotels. No, they stayed at the best hotels. It would have been the same where we stayed. Well, we're Motel six, Bobby. No, we're not been to Stillwater though.
Yeah, is there Airbnb anywhere?
I was in Stillwater?
It was great.
This is off subject, but one year.
We had the chance to cover the women's softball team in Oklahoma City in May and at the exact same time baseball was playing in Stillwater. It was a really good u of a team. As one of Jerry Kendall's last year's and softball he did. We did this drive. It was like sixty five miles, not the most beautiful trip, but we did it. You know, we said we're going to try to cover both teams. So we made the drive to Stillwater.
And it's twenty forty five fifty thousand people. That's what still Waters, what the radio show said last night. I'm thinking, really, okay, I didn't really know if there was a college town like that.
There's trying to think of you. I didn't look, Matt Hollida. I'm trying to think there's some great baseball Oh yeah, yeah, but there were some all these Hall of Fame, you know, the Oklahoma State Hall of Fame. So it's pretty in the sports school for that.
Of course.
Barry Sanders, that's funny you say I covered it when he was at Texas with the Rangers.
Yeah, he was a he was O s U. Big dude, big dude.
Yeah, Arizona. That was another one of these bad losses.
Again, I'm just digging back into my memory, but I remember going to Stillwater and it was a game that the UFA should have won, should have advanced the College World Series, and they lost in a regional and meantime, softball was probably winning that another national championship that same year.
Yeah. No, it's it's funny.
Did you care at any because I covered Anthony and I covered the first Kendrea of two titles in ninety one ninety two. I think it was a couple of tornadoes warnings in.
May in late May and Oklahoma. Yeah, Oklahoma. It'll be interesting.
I don't I don't haven't looked at the softball schedule, but I wonder if they're gonna have to go play you know, I'm sure they're gonna play playing some games in the Midwest in April May before the tournament starts. So that'll be some challenging road trips possibly. Yeah, yeah, good and baseball. Yeah, we'll see what happens.
Uh. Today we have Eric Rhodes, Uh, former guest competitor of yours was he he was at the other.
Seah, but you know, now I even think about it, he and I did some of those trips to the baseball and yeah, we had some baseball stuff.
Yeah, we can talk about that, you can. You can talk about the good old days, the little days of doing that.
And then were in the second that we're going to talk to Bob Elliott again. Last week we spoke to him before the doctor j uh presentation. Yeah, PALAVERTI so no, I just kind of wanted to talk to Bob about how it went. Uh, you know, the it took to put this thing together and just get his time, his thoughts on today's world of college basketball. I mean back in seventy five, seventy six when he played, how would have Nil worked back then?
You know he would have been a star obviously. Yeah, he would have got a car.
Yeah, he would have the accountant would have days they were getting stuff.
Oh that's true.
Did you in fact, did you read We Got to Go in about a minute?
Did you read?
And I happened to a friend of mine, David Cooper. I don't know if you know who he is. He's a UA grad, worked in the Sad Office back in the day. He worked with the Senator Kyle. Senator Kyle is one of those guys. He popped up my Twitter feed the other day and I kind of went through his things and I because I don't really follow him, and he posted something on book. I guess it came out in one of the ringers, had you this story?
I did not.
What a fascinating story, and I missed it back. I must have missed it back in October. You should read it. They talked openly about what was done and how things were done before before and I yell, and before, but everyone kind of knew that Hey, Dave, what do you need?
What can I get you?
Blah blah blah, And it was like it was not an open secret anymore. It was like, this is what happened. Yeah, everybody knew what happened, but we're talking about it now before all the troubles, and I think, yeah, we kind of knew, but this is like really making a public right.
There's been some books written, especially from the UCLA guys when Kareem wrote about you know true while Cindery Years and Sam Gilbert was their big benefactor there who was giving these guys things. And Bill Walton I think, talked about it. So there's always been there's guys behind the scenes. But now it's right up there, right now, it's in the public.
Now it's legal as all hell.
Yeah, well, that's part of the problem is because there's still thoughts, many thoughts that it's still happening under the table.
Why does it even have to Yeah, but it's I mean, as long as I guess there's like no regulation, it seems like I guess there's a half to They're talking about a salary cap with teams like Ohio State football team, you know, proving you know, you can win with a twenty million dollar and I.
But you can also look at have you seen fifteen?
We got to go? But once look at.
North Carolina basketball. I'm sure they're getting paid a lot of money, they're not very good.
Look at Arkansas. I mean, so there's there's extremes.
Right.
You have good teams that get paid and good teams that just really stuck. Okay, let's go. We get hold of Eric ruds.
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This is I on the Ball with Steve raveron Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Subscribe now to the podcast on the iHeartRadio WIP just search I on the Ball.
Hey, welcome back to my on the ball. Here a Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve River. He's Day Silver. Now on the phone, we have Eric Road from the Snoop dogg Arizona Bowl.
How are you doing, Eric, I'm great.
How are you two doing? Yeah, that's quite a duo with you two on the air. There's some good stories there.
Well, we'll get to some of those stories involving you and you think we have some of the same stories.
You got to make you clean, Make you clean, Please.
Make you clean.
The first you're silver. Everything is clean, you know. In fact, I gave flavor of two C FOURD.
Just the clean cut, the clean cut, not the age the green guy.
I told them that last week. I said, Dave, Okay, let's get something great. You're You're a good dude. That's part of your problem.
I think nice too nice for this.
Sorry, that's a rough intro.
See guy.
So so, Eric, you you got a little perk yesterday or this weekend?
Tell me about it.
Yeah.
First of all, impressive connection, Steve. I didn't really tell many people I was in Atlanta, but I did get to represent the Snoop dogg Arizona Ble at the National Championship at the events around Atlanta. So it went out on Saturday, got to be in a bunch of rooms that probably didn't belong in, but was really fun to rebelbows with some big time folks, and then experienced the game on Monday night at the Mercedes fens Dome, which is an incredible stadium.
I had not been there yet, but a wow.
One of the amazing works of athletic art in our in our industry.
I'm sure that one of the requirements were one of the requisitis to go on the trip was take a little notepad, see how they do things.
If you did that at all.
Oh one hundred percent. In fact, we had our staff meeting this morning and I was sending around pictures of things that I thought, you know, we could borrow. As we do in sports, it's always what they do well, what they didn't like. I mean, even down to I was texting our team about the length of halftime because you know, with an entertainer like Snoop, we always talked about how long halftime should be, and so you know,
definitely taking notes the whole time. And so for sure in a little business in with a lot of pleasures. So it was cool to see you know, our sport and especially the bowl industry at its highest level, and see all the things they're doing and maybe some things that we're also doing, and certainly a lot we can learn from.
What are the people saying about, you know, bowl games like the Tucson game and things like that, The way the bulls have been switched around with the college football playoffs and stuff like that, where games like ours are going to fit, say in the next ten years or so, are they giving you kind of a message on how that's going to play out?
You know, certainly, there's just there's there's a lot of question marks, right Like one of the things we're very confident in is we've been forward thinking enough to do things that make our game a spectacle outside of a
great football itself. And so certainly, with the way the college football landscape is changing, they're talking about adding even more to the playoffs in the next couple of years, and certainly, you know, Now, I was watching the college basketball game last night with a young man who's who's in his fourth school and it was like listed as a junior, so, you know, I'm not great at math, but that didn't really add up to me, you know, the Bulls itself is still really valuable because it gives
young people and the positives of changing schools a chance to showcase themselves on a national audience where maybe they didn't get seen and in some of their normal group of five contests. But you know, now there's surmised because maybe somebody wanted to just see the Snoop dogg Arizonable and now they see a young man competing who maybe will get a look, you know, eventually maybe the Sunday.
You know, there's there's one great thing about the the NFL Draft is it's how many guys you've never heard of from these schools that are O linement and you know the d Lineman. You know, they do these things on Sunday Night football. When they do their announcement, You're like, wait,
what school, what where? So around about answering your question day, but they certainly are still really valid and as the playoff lands, you know, one of the things that came about this year is all four schools that hosted that first round quote unquote were all for semiitanalysts and so saying well, maybe that should be a bull a bull destination versus a home game, because maybe that gave some you know, those four schools a lot, a lot bigger
hand in winning and success in the in the playoff system.
Let me ask you up, I'm not sure many people knew who you were when you got there and when you're mingling, because you're you're not Kim and obviously you know she's more of a face than you are, and you win. But but if they when they did find out you were with the Arizona Ball, the Snoop Dogg Arizona Ball, I'm sure I'm not well, I'm not sure. I'm guessing that they said, hey, how did that go?
And how was it with Snoop being the guy? Because because to me, that'd be my first question if I knew you were attached to the game.
Yeah, well, first of all, thanks for thinking nobody knows who I am. I appreciate that.
Uh I call It's good.
It was just giving me some grief. But you know, certainly, yeah, I mean it was.
I don't know if you got to see what some of us during game, they were wearing custom like starter jacket with gin and Juice in our in our Arizonable logo on it. So I wore that as much as I could this weekend and certainly to your points theme as soon as people find out who I was with more so than saying how did it go a lot of people, I was really pleasantly surprised with how many people watched and saw how it went, and saw all the interactions and saw how big Snoop was and the comments.
You know, I'll say the best one I heard was from a BULD colleague of mine, and she said, thank you for so much work that we all now have to do because our title sponsors are just boring people who write big checks. You know, now you also have to have the entertainment component to it, not just pay the bills. So, you know, very fortunate that we were able to land Snoop and and have it for another couple of years that they're minimum.
I was gonna say, I'm sure more more of that's coming.
I mean, if it was so successful and it got great exposure, and you know, if you can do it with Snoop, I imagine what you could do with you know, another superstar.
If I can add to that real quickly, because you guys had the only component maybe maybe others did was the nil deal along with that.
Yeah, we We've been talked about a lot, you know. When we announced that, probably in you know, July or August, we got a lot of phone calls immediately from our colleagues in the bowl system. First of all, like you said, Steve, going, how you know, I mean, it's it's the it's still kind of the wild world West somehow in nil world, so, you know, figuring out the legalities of.
It, you know.
Fortunately, our chair person has a bit of a legal background himself, so we made sure we were on the up and up on that and ended up doing it the best. Really worked well with our conferences. Can't say enough about the Mid American and Mountain west On on working out the right way to do that versus you know, how the money went to a certain collective or to
a conference and they were able to do it. So it all went the right way, making sure that that student athlete not only got their money, but got it in the best form possible and the most legal way possible.
Yeah, makes sense, makes sense. So what did what was the most striking thing you saw? We're gonna go to other things, but what did you see that? Okay, hey, this is cool.
I really they had a great job and I'll say this for Able. They had a DJ that we actually also had a few weeks before here in Tucson.
It was the same guy.
But I think you're you're starting to see this around sports and a couple of the you know, the pro teams here in Tucson do it in the University of Arizona with that in game host to really keep the energy going as you know, everyone's trying to pay their bills with more and more timeouts during the game, media and injury and all those nour instead of thirty seconds, you know, two minutes and fifty seconds like they were
in the National Championship. So how people are staying engaged daring it your new ideas of on field things just kind of that guy who's kind of talking just and going back and forth with fans, and you know, they used the filter on the giant scoreboard of putting each team's helmet on somebody during it, and so just really focusing more on fans than than sort of the games
we've seen all for many years. That dizzy bat race, the you know, Papa balloon, or try to get dressed in oversized shoes or something that was a lot more fan interaction with the endgame host.
Yeah.
Plus I'm sure the corporate dollars were flowing pretty strongly there too, so there's probably some pretty good you know arrangements with State Farm or whoever was you know doing.
Oh my gosh. Yeah.
So the coolest thing I saw outside of the game, Dave and exactly what you're saying is their tail game.
It was freezing in Atlanta.
I'll just tell you that, guys, especially for a Tucson native like myself, it was so so cold, and so they did a really great job of making so they used their convention center which was roughly about the size of Tucson Convention Center, so you know a lot of space but not huge, and they turned their tailgate into
an indoor thing. And so, like you were saying, day like amazing activations again with a lot of virtual reality from you know, field goal challenges on full size field goal posts to forty yard dashes to you know, tons of cornhole and you know, the football toss and a lot of different things where you know, Doctor Pepper had a huge interaction where everybody was walking around and Doctor Pepper beanies and all that stuff. So I will say the national Championship does a great job. I arrived on
Saturday and through you know, I left yesterday. There was something to do, and it was most of it free and available to the public, and they did a really great job of engaging with the community and all the fans there.
Atlanta doesn't mess around too because you've got you have Coca Cola there, You've got Home detail companies.
Right, yeah, yeah, and all of them had huge activations there. You know, you got to sample new new flavors potentially of Coke and Doctor Pepper and Home Depot had a massive activation there called the Backyard Brickyard and so yes, Dave, absolutely, those those big time sponsors made sure their money went to a big time event.
Absent of big time sponsors. Eric could could Tucson pulls something like this off. I mean, it's you're tasked to do it. Your group is tasked to do it. But on a smaller scale.
I think so.
And you know, honestly, Steve, I don't know that it would.
Be that much smaller.
You know, it was it was announced in the stadium that it was the second largest crowd ever at a at a college football national championship, and it was seventy seven thousand, you know, in Arizona Stadium, and it's peak. I think it's around fifty five. Don't quote me on that, but I think it's somewhere in the fifty five range. May maybe a bit shy of that. But as far as the activations that happened outside and around it, the
infrastructure exists. And I will say for the weather, you know, it was great to land back in Arizona yesterday and see all the people on heavy coats and sixty five degrees and you know, down at fifty eight versus eight degrees in Atlanta when I left. So what's called the Austin is still quite pleasant for everything else. So I think, you know, gosh, it would take a ton of work, yeoman's work to make something like that happen here in Tucson, but you know, they pull it off a little bit north.
I absolutely think it's something that Tucson could handle, should we ever got that opportunity.
Yeah, you know, I think I don't even know if this is going to happen, but there's some talk about making some type of an entertainment district around Arizona Stadium. I don't know if you guys are in the loop on that, but maybe where the cold David Colin Jeannie Davis practice facility is kind of that road. I've heard that there's some possibilities that could be a you know the venue list.
Let me tell you I did that story. Dave Hike told me this story. Did this story for BIZ Tucson maybe two and a half years ago. It was sur it's where the Beach Volleyball area is. Is that what it's so it's in the corner of the old UA football pervice field where they had a lot of space, but it was it was for shops and for things for the the student to send students to go by. It's kind of a pipe dream, I think.
But you've just heard that, well, I mean I've heard in the last year or so, okay, some talk that maybe maybe using I don't even know as a championship drive. Whatever the road is it heads out to sixth Street, is a spot where they could put some entertainment.
What did you hear, Eric, or have you?
I you know, like all of us in our industry, guys, we've heard, we hear the you know, different versions of the same thing. So I've heard a little bit of what David saying, I'm not sure how they would do that with the existing structions around. I have heard the one that Steve mentioned the Humanez practice facility in stand volleyball area to build up, you know, because that's that's a sizable space. I sure would love it, you know,
I mean, I think it would be great. You know, again, as a lifelong two Stone end and a season ticket holder personally for a lot of the Arizona sports, you know, the fan experience is now so key, you know, and it's one of the reasons, you know, if I'll speak hubably but bragging about our product for a little bit, then I think the Arizona bole has become successful. Is
it's not just the football game. We've built a massive tailgate and all these things that happened around it, and a New Year's Eve event, and so it's the experience of the game itself. And that's what made Atlanta such a cool experience was the football game was a couple of hours, but the rest of the weekend was you know, it was just it was a vibe. I was telling one of my colleagues in the office today, it was just great because the moment you got on the plane
headed towards Atlanta. There was fans heading there, and the minute you got off, there was you know, I will and I'm sorry for all your listeners who like this. If I don't hear Ohio for the next year or two, I'll be okay. I think I got my lifetime quote over the last seventy two.
Hours of that.
But it's just it's the excitement around the community, you know, from all the people who live there and all the shots and all the things that were open and exciting and open to the game and maybe back to both of your points and how we can make Tucson one of those things. And I think, you know, we're starting to get there, certainly through the Arizonable and some of these other events. You know, I heard the WBC advertisement
as I was waiting to come on the show. You know, the more the community is excited and opening and you can feel that in the city for our folks who are visiting for that event, the more successful it is, and you know, the numbers will will go with it. But it doesn't even necessarily have to be the numbers at first, as much as it is the feeling of those people involved in that event to go Oh my gosh, Tucson and Southern Arizona supports sports.
Well, here's here's my last question before we go. One of the things that I wanted to say was you were Arizonable. The WBC that you just mentioned, will tour, there's some other sporting events. You guys are not competing against each other. You guys are all pulled on the same side of the rope for everybody to succeed. I know that because I'm kind of involved with that. But everyone's talking about that. Hey, it's cool to be part
of this. They're helping us. And and you know, you scratch my back our scratchers one hundred percent.
And I think hopefully you know that's one of the reasons. You know, this is my hometown, so I'll always be a little bit biased. But I think you know you're you're you're head on Steve right there. That one of the things I love about my job is that we don't compete with other people. You know, we purchase tickets to other things. We advertise the Roadrunners and the Sugar Schools. We have a sponsorship and al tour. You know, Steve, I know you're heavily involved in all tour and what
a great event. You know, I get to see out there every year because I go from sponsor it and you know, I did the five k this year.
I walked it. Man, I'm not running.
I'm not not a good shape anymore. But it's just a cool event. And I think the more thing. And again we're saying that we've all done and we're all still involved in it. I mean, Dave, you've been doing this unofficially for the last few minutes a couple of years here. Who thought of promoting athletics and why Tucson is a sports town And you know, Steve, it's such a great point that if we all are here to
make things succeed. You mentioned Kim earlier she wants to get a tattoo in her arm because she said, since the moment I've known her, a rising tide lifts all ships. And that's like she wants to get that tattooed on her arm because she says it all the time, and it's so true, and especially in our industry and athletics.
You know, the more we can support each.
Other and the bigger and better we can get together, then we all win. Like it's not trying to take dollars or fans from someone else that's trying to get our community to rally around these things that make our community bigger and better. And in the end, it makes more money for everybody working in our community. So it tells the restaurants, all of it that makes Tucson a better place in southern Arizona continue to grow as a destination for athletics.
We'll go with this because you've been here at mid eighties or early eighties, right, and I've been here late eighties. It's not dusty anymore. It's one and a half million duson.
No, it's people.
Yeah, we all still like it, like it. We also think it's a you know.
A couple hundred thousand, but it's at a couple of zeros. You know, I live way up northwest and it's a huge town and I love that about our.
I was gonna say, you know, people have been coming here now kind of regularly, and now we're giving the even more reasons to come with well games and golf tournaments.
I guarantee you got to see more California plates. After what happened in LA, They're going to be coming here.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's just what it is.
I mean, and the best thing we can do, like we've all been saying, is you know, roll off the red carpet and say, yeah, you should be here because this is a great place to be. I mean, the BBC just just named Touson one of the top twenty five places to visit. You know, some when we're getting attention from across the pond, then you know, maybe maybe people on the side of the shore should pay a little bit more attention.
Well, thank you, Eric, appreciate it.
Oh my pleasure. Thanks guys, to talk to you both soon.
Rick Rhodes from the Snoop dogg Arizona Ble, We've got to go a little over, come back and talk more. Maybe take a call or too. If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan. You know it's been successful for newly forty years now. Take a look back at the Ludelsen era in my new book, Lessons from Loot. It was a labor of love through the eyes of twenty five former players, coaches and friends to give insight to the coach and the man who led them, competed against them,
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Streaming live on the Ihearts Radio. While this is Eye on the Ball with Steve Rivera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
Hey, welcome back to One in the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera and today.
Is Dave Silver.
We get one at the keyboard, so we should be okay, safe.
Good to talk to Eric. He's fun. He must have had a good time.
Yeah, it sounds like a good time and nice to represent Tucson the way he does. You know, really all year round, but get to have that perk of going to the national championship game.
Yeah, especially fun, especially when you're not working, working right. You know how many final fours you've been? Yeah, four for a see, and I've been to a few. But it's work. And people say, oh, you are at the final four. Yeah, but it's worked right, and they don't understand, Well, it's not working on the roof. No, but it's still our work where you're working doing stuff for a long, long hours. But so for him it was like, you know, hello,
mak Roads and this is what I do. Yeah, oh cool, you look up by your ambassador, Yeah, exactly.
So it's different.
And so you know, I'm sure you know, we know that they were working super hard the last you know, a few months leading up to the game, and I'm sure that last week was crazy, and you know, they're probably all looking forward to a nice break and the holidays come and New Year's comes, and then they're finished, and hey, I get to go to Atlanta for three or four nights to represent Tucson and talk about it, like he was saying that, you know, the Tucson's getting
a lot of a lot of good press just about the city in general, getting a lot of attraction from magazines around the around the world about about the desert in this area. And so it doesn't hurt to have somebody out there, you know, in a place like that where we may you know, maybe he does turn around and he's talking to somebody from you know, some magazine from around the country.
Sure, and it's a good place to find more sponsors, right because they're there, they're walking around.
And the Snoop Dogg thing too.
I mean, as much as you I don't know, it seemed like it went over pretty well. There was some controversy maybe or some people were upset with him sure, being you know, the face of the game, but it certainly brought attention.
Let's put it that way. Sometimes all you.
Need, David, you can always have twelve angry jurors, and you're gonna have two dudes who don't like each other or something. Uh, you know, put one hundred people in a room and you're gonna have ten people.
Well, he came across, at least from what I saw as the specteria. He looked funny, likable, likable, likable, funny. You know, he was serious, but not serious?
Right the thing about it, Dave, as far as I know, he was perfect visibly and he was out doing his stuff, But he really didn't talk to people here locally, you know, like he wasn't granted any interviews, didn't any publicity enough that he has to obviously you know, he's like, could you advertise on my show? But do I help need to advertise on your show? You don't say he didn't need to do that, So he didn't.
Did he do any local media at all? No, even like after the game, before the game, No, he didn't talk to people.
As far as I know, he didn't do pre we I asked him here, asked him for Bistussan.
I know that Justin did too.
I don't think he did, and he didn't really talk to people just randomly, Hell, how are you dad?
But that's about it.
Yeah, I guess maybe the Bold obviously did that. The bulls people spoke, Kim spoke and things like that, so I guess they didn't need him. But maybe maybe, you know, maybe he didn't know what to expect. Maybe he didn't know what who was going to be asking him questions.
Well, here's the thing.
Okay, so now you have the the the big shiny penny. You had it one year, Will it continue to be the shiny penny.
The next year? Yeah?
Because you saw it, you came, he saw what he did. Okay, I'm over it. You know what I'm saying. You know, what's your two going to be?
Yeah?
Well I think you know, I think you know, I think, as I was saying before, it'll he had a chance to see it. You know, he got an idea of who you guys were, what the media situation was here in Tucson.
It's not overwhelming.
It's not Los Angeles where he's from, right, so, you know, having a chance to maybe step in front of a microphone next year.
With the press comments kind of thing, just one.
Time orchestrated in just do something I'm surprised, like even at their banqueting or lunch, didn't he didn't he come to some kind of a kickoff or did he come to that.
He went to the game? Did you go? Now he had the juice house or whatever it was.
Yeah, you know, doing his thing, and that's great because people just want to see him anyway, maybe take a photo op or whatever. Maybe he performed pregame in that little gin and juice house. Yeah, okay, so I want to talk to you real quick. We got about six minutes some Evermakawa one of my favorite guys.
Things.
Uh, I already got a text about snoop here uh Top three lineups by Evanmaya dot com. This is based on observed efficiency margin, which measures lineups performance adjusted for opponent quality. They love del Orso vsar combination has been a catalyst for Arizona. So tell me, guess do you already have it up?
Do you do? You know? Okay?
Good?
He want you to cheat on me here? How how high do you think they are in the list.
Of Division one teams?
I know, surprise, do you surprise you a little bit?
Yeah? A little bit? So they're fourth, fourth and yeah, well and what is that proving?
Now?
What is what is it that they think they're doing efficiency?
Yeah, the based on observed efficiency margin, which measures lineup performance adjusted for opponent quality, which of course Arizona's well you talked about this with a quality. Tell me Arizona has faced five six of the time. So looking at his.
Top ten, Arizona has either faced already or is gonna face five of those top ten teams. He's gonna be We've already played Duke, gonna play Houston. You still have to play Aowa State. He still to play Kansas, and we've already faced Texas Tech.
Right, so five and they're all see that's ahead. I mean, that's why I said they haven't played anybody yet. Well, they're gonna play anybody pretty soon.
Yeah.
You know, so that three sume has done for the well, I think a lot of it has to do with love success and then we starts coming on or has come on.
And I think adult also being a little bit efficient too. You know, he doesn't really turn the ball over.
He's had he's shooting close to fifty percent from the three point line. Yeah, if they could get like eight nine ten points from him, same from Towns and.
Yeah, if you can get you know, ten from Townsend, and the last night they got nineteen. So it was a nice little little bump that they haven't been getting really in the first half of the season.
Sure, it's it's easier said than dead, right, because they've got they've got some talent. He's got a tend of even come up with some numbers.
It just depends on the matchup.
I think sometimes you know what, I don't watch it as closely maybe as you do, but you know who is guarding him. He's not a big guy, right, you know, did he not have a six to eight guy, you know, power forward and he's six four maybe six ' five.
Yeah, yeah, so yeah, No, it's all matchups and matchups and how you play that day, that's for sure.
Yeah. So the fourth it surprised you as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I think I think the those three are really just surprising overall because maybe it's me just not paying attention. I haven't really seen those three on the court a lot, or really even just or pay attention to those three on the court, yea, when they're on there or when they're on at the same time.
You know, it's usually just one of them.
Well last year, if you remember, I know, I did this story at the tournament that the guy that made the team to run or the you know, the straw that stirs his drinks for Arizona was a guy that I who would you have thought.
Bradley did.
I kind of give away this because it was kind of a surprise. I thought, you think it'd be loved he had such a great year, But it was Bradley he was. He was the guy that kind of did things that weren't on the boards in kind of odd numbers that Evan does.
Well, He's been pretty consistent, he really has. I mean, you're not going to get more than you know, fifteen points basically, but if he can dish out yeah, five to eight assists, no turnover, no turnovers, and just you know, protect the bomb, especially at the end of the game. I mean a couple of losses they've had I think has been when they've had struggled against the press and they're panicking a little bit and throw the ball away.
Well, Tommy said, I was surprised that they didn't process. Yeah, they and you saw the game. It was like a nothing burger. Yetta pretty much.
I mean you know, they again, it was one of those situations like Okay, they're going to stay close, stay close, and then you know, there was that little spurt for in the second half, right, the Arizona scored maybe nine points in a row and that was pretty much it.
Right And and Oklahoma statey you could see, was not disciplined, they were not smart with the ball. Yeah, well, the next six weeks are going to be kind of what's going to prove who they are.
They have some big games we've already talked about. It's just gonna be kind of fun to see what they can do with the you know, so called better teams in the Big Twelve, which they are themselves. You know, I don't think I don't think teams like Houston are looking forward too much to coming in here or some of the you know, the Iowa State.
It's going to be a big deal.
They're highly ranked, they've played and beaten Kansas and things like that, so they're not going to be intimidated. But it's gonna be one of the marquee games for the U of A as well.
Do you still think this is a tournament team?
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I just don't know if they're a four seed, more power to them, because I don't see a four seed, but I think it's going to be like a six, seven eight. Maybe where they go I don't know. And the postest place in the first round could be Denver. I would love because I hope to go there, but anybody else I'm not sure.
I want to go because it could be a quick trip, could be quick. Yeah.
Well, look, I think all our colleagues one, we're not sure whether to go to the Big twelve tournament or not because they play Kansas that week. Then they go to Kansas City for the tournament, and who knows, they could be one game out, two games out. It's really not worth traveling there to come back to go to the tournament.
A week later.
It'll be really interesting how that week goes, because not just it being short weeks, it could derail a season, you know, depending on how that first game goes.
Then you got to turn it around and face whomever.
Texas Tech maybe, yeah, yeah, Texas Tech in a secon around first round.
Who knows, and we already know the result of one game.
Yeah, well, we were talking about this too, and not that they would do this. So you finish the say third fourth in the league, you probably play the second day right in the tournament. You don't play in the first game, and you kind of already beat up or you know where you are as a seed.
What's the incentive.
To do well in the tournament because you're gonna get beat up for two more games?
Yeah, I mean even the difference between one and a two sometimes hasn't made a difference. But you know, if you're gonna be I want to, you know, stay sharp. That's usually the other side of the story, as the coaches are on I want today. I don't want to have like a five day layoff and stuff like that. But they're gonna be beat up. They're gonna play on Saturday right against Kansas and then turn around.
No, I think it's like a Tuesday. I could be wrong. I could be wrong something like that. Yeah, So let me ask you both because this is one of the momentum questions I have my theory on.
Do you guys believe in rust? M not really, I don't because they're not gonna have rust. There'll only be the game isn't on a Saturday at Campas and then.
The tournament starts right away Tuesday, Okay, so it was like that.
Like three or four days, you know, sitting in Kansas City.
Well but do you you do you believe in RUSS because I hear it, you heard it now in the playoffs? Well, Kansas City didn't play the Rusty. This is what you do for Olivia. Yeah, yeah, you're still practicing. It's not like you're a couch anything.
Sometimes maybe in baseball, maybe when they're you know, playoff series ends on a Saturday and they don't play again until Friday, and they seem to think, oh, you know, it's but still they're taking batting practice.
Yeah, they're going to That always seems to be the excuse that you come.
Up, Well, you know, who's asking the questions dudes that have never played or or maybe you have to ask the question because it's an obvious question. But when you're not doing this and you come back after week, do you get rusty for being in this show? Sometimes?
You know, but I think I'm not doing anything really strenuous. But I think some athletes sometimes use that, Well, you know, I haven't played in six days.
So, but you've been doing it for six months exactly. Motor mechanick and all that stuff. You do what you do. Who knows? I think.
Let's just let's just let's let's let's wait and see and let's let's see what they have to say about when they lose that game. Right, Well, you know, we haven't played since since Saturday, and here we are, it's Thursday.
Forgot how to play? We got to go, so come back. Breaking news. Thanks,