Wednesday, January 22, Hour 2

Breaking down all the xes and os.

This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty eight.

Hey, welcome back to ian the Ball here on Fox Sports sporteen fifty I'm Steve Rivera.

You're Dave Silver, your Juan with breaking news.

This is I on the Ball, breaking news on Fox Sports fourteen fifty eight.

Happy Wednesday to everyone out there, yours truly, mister Greed, two shoes, mihitolindo, whatever it is. You know it's a Wednesday. We love it O day. Starting off breaking news with looking ahead to a women's basketball game tonight for Arizona women's basketball. They take on Cincinnati at six o'clock tonight, coming off a win at Kansas.

Are you doing that?

No? No, no, yeah.

I'm hoping to get her on the show pretty soon, just to see her gage her enthusiasm or whatever, because you know, it's been tough. It's been a tough year.

Yeah.

They I don't think they they haven't won at home in conference, but all three of their conference wins.

I've been on the road. They're good road three and four. Overall, they're a good road team. I haven't been to Have you been to a game.

I've not been to a game this year. No, when was the last time you did go to They went to one last year, did Okay? I drove by the Cincinnati bus needs anything. I know they're in town. The stay at the Marriotte right by campus. We know there's somebody in town, so that that'll be fun.

Yeah. Games on ESPN.

Plus, yes, yes, yes, PM plus uh. And then of course the men's team got to win in still Water against Oklahoma State ninety two to seventy eight.

Yeah, they'll played well, they're looking ahead.

Colorado's this Saturday at one o'clock, yes, PM plus one o'clock.

It's a doubleheader day too. I think who women play after?

Yeah?

Later yeah, later, late in between.

So I'll bet I'll be at tennis covering the men's team. They play on Saturday as well.

So they're good. It can be good. Again, they're really good. Number six, they're really good. That's nice.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So looking to some other scores across college basketball, Ucla took down number eighteen Wisconsin in LA. Yeah, eighty five to eighty three. And then you had Arizona State beat West Virginia, number twenty three West Virginia at West Virginia. Yeah, so the state of Arizona got that sweep in Morgantown.

Get to the NBA. The Mavericks forward.

Last center Derek Lively, the second is out for two to three months with a foot fracture, So a little blow to their championship RN. They're already missing Luca and now they don't have one of their star players. The Lakers are adding Jared Vanderbilt to their roster, not adding, but gaining after he was cleared for the season. His season debut on Saturday. He's been out since February first, with let me see, where's you say it?

Right?

Foot right, midfoot spring since February first? Wow? Okay, uh.

The Bucks and Pelicans game was postponed tonight after the snow storm.

And you see this.

You saw the snow in Orleans. Yeah, no one's on that street.

No.

I saw some video of Bourbon Street like last night. It was unbelievable. So it doesn't happen too often in Florida. There's all kinds of snows. I think it's their first snowfall in thirteen years. Yeah, probably, it's crazy.

The Sun's acquired three first round draft picks in a trade with the Jazz, kind of sparking speculation for a trade with Jimmy Butler and the Heat, especially since the Heat have now suspended Jimmy Butler for two games following his return.

Does say with pay? Probably not with pay. I doesn't say, but he's it doesn't really matter. But I'm just wondering how much each game is, like maybe one hundred and fifty thousand dollars each game.

Probably at least.

Yeah, he said they said he missed a team flight for their road trip, the two game road trip. He had planned to join them the same night. But now there's they're gonna suspend him for two more games. Maybe you'll see a trade within the next two days or so. Yeah, Do you think that's not gonna do to the Suns? Are they gonna who they're gonna trade?

I'm not sure.

I'll probably trade those first three picks, the three first round picks.

Maybe.

I mean, if they could just get those three feel and Durant and Booker all on the court at the same time, they're really good, but they just haven't been able to It's like fifty percent of the time that they've all been teammates, they played together.

Do you think Jimmy Butler will be a help to the Sons or a hinder.

How many basketballs do they played with one? Two at least? I think so they're changing the game now.

Too many stars on that I Booker and Durant is enough. But well they're not.

They're not because their own is doesn't sit still. I mean they've changed coaches, They've made moves, fired, fired coaches, made all these trades.

Yeah, whatever it.

Takes to win Now. I don't know if you guys are paying attention to the NBA, because I don't. The kid from Alabama Smith that was really good that he was the one with the gun?

Is he playing?

Who's he playing for with the Rockets? I'm not sure he was with the he was with the Hornets. I had a good rookie season. I haven't really heard from him since because you don't hear his name very often.

What about the guy who who wore that red red outfit shiny red outfit Kansas?

I think it was Kansas the year before with the draft? Yeah, yeah, I have to kind of go.

I'm just thinking, because you don't hear these names, you hear names that you've never heard before out of.

The very international. I mean, you're not necessarily ever see these guys before. Sure, France, number of players from France in the last couple of years.

Especially speaking of France.

Uh, the Spurs and the Pacers are going to play their first game in Paris tomorrow.

Uh, why a time, there's a couple of a couple of news.

Yeah, there's a couple of games out there there, I believe for right now it's just the Pacers and Spars.

They play tomorrow.

Yeah, wenby, big, big French guy. They play tomorrow Thursday at noon on NBA TV and then Saturday. But the big story for them is that Great Papovich is still out. There's still no return for him, no time for return. But the the CEO R. C. Beauford has said that he's recovering. Well, he's recovering aggressively whatever whatever that means. Did you ever have to deal with Pop?

Yes, anything.

Well, he's covered the two thousand and one and still NBA Finals. He was good, he was good. It's funny. I kind of when member Sean got his kidney, his kiddey. Yeah, when he went I flew out there for a week and I spent time with the team and them, and I asked maybe a dumb question at the time, and I thought it was a smart one. And because I got the impression that people thought Sean was saw because he was had that my old mannered.

Kind of am I speaking out a turn?

No?

I agree, yeah, And he.

Looked at me like where you get the where are you getting this? And who are you because I had just shown up from Tucson right to cover this big thing. And he looked at me and says, well, I'm thinking that's what the perception is is it's not the perception I should know. I'm as coach and I left it like that, But at the time that's what it was.

I know he was He's always been fun. He's kind of funny.

And yeah, remember how he would deal with Craig Sayer with the with the interviews.

I would to go, do you think those questions are are worthy of anything?

But he played it up and then they wound up becoming really good friends. Of course, Craig got sick and so it turned out to be pretty emotional. But sure, you know he's been around. He was with a Warriors organization in his younger years, and I kind of remember him there I didn't and then kind of, you know, matriculated over to San Antonio.

So let me ask you Harmon. Is it Becky Harmon?

Yeah?

Oh yeah, so his assistant for a while. Now.

Would you think that at some point that she could be an NBA head coach?

I think she'd probably be the first person to do it. I mean, she's kind of in position right.

Right, and she's one. If there was gonna be a first, she should be the first.

Yeah, very very successful at what she does in that organization.

They might bring it. I don't know.

I mean, you know, obviously the men are coaching the women's teams. You know, Gino's got a zillion victories of a ukon, so it's kind of gone that way. But whether or not the men can take orders from the women, you know, who's who knows, But she'd be the one.

She's kind of in that in that spot right now.

Dust some NFL news with some hiring and firings and parting ways. The Jets have hired Lions of defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn as their new head coach.

Denver Denver, Detroit.

It's kind of not falling apart, but the people who have gone their coordinators have left. Yeah, it's kind of like the Patriots were, you know, twenty years ago, when every one of their coordinators would get head coaching jobs. But Glenn played for the Jets too back in the day, so he's got a little bit of a history there at least.

Okay, So well, I guess Ryan didn't get the job. I guess not Reck or yeah, rights Ryan? Thanks Ryan?

Yeah?

Uh trp uh.

I don't even know if I'm saying Balky is out as the Jaguars GM. So now they're in two searches for one for a GM and now for a head coach as the Raiders have also hired Buccaneers uh GM John's spider. I'm not try to say that as their new GM. The Rams starting quarterback Matthew Stafford. According to his wife, he said he played through broken ribs or cracked ribs the last month or so.

Well.

One of my secrets daven doing my job. And I don't know if you had the secret of doing your job and how you did it was you always got good information from the girlfriend or the wives. Yeah, and because they like to talk on a record or off the record, she might even.

Have a So that's where it was okay, yeah, found out and nowadays that's back and it didn't have exactly and they're doing commercials together.

So they they're you know, they're a little media company amongst themselves. So when there's breaking news, you know, again, go to the wife. The wife, she'll be the one to give about the information.

Pass Rusher Khalil Mack has decided to return for the twenty twenty five season, and after speculations that he might retire, he'll be back for the Chargers this year. Looking ahead, got Championship Sunday coming up, Commanders Eagles for the NFC, Bill's Chiefs for the AFC.

It should be the fun weekend.

Yeah, that was that Washington game last over the weekend was amazing. He's he's really good. Jaydon Daniels. You know, we saw hi at Asu for a couple of years. He was decent. It wasn't great. Then he goes to LSU and all this you done. Yeah, one last fie. Okay, I'm curious if you're gonna have the same one I have.

Probably not.

Because this is ESPN's top one hundred players from the twenty twenty five college football season. Twenty twenty four colleg football season tetroll. McMillan bring came in at twenty eight after being a preseason thirteen and uh for obvious reasons. Camp's got to be from Arizona State finished at number four. Oh well, yeah, it's big after not being ranked.

Yeah, and probably McMillan will probably be in the top ten.

Oh yeah, every mock draft i've seen, he's top five. I've seen top five in every mock draft. Yeah, so let me ask you. You want to talk about the duke Duke, I'm sorry you can. Danny Hurley, Yeah, did you see it? It's funny.

I didn't.

I didn't see the game, but then I saw the tweets and then I saw the highlight.

Yeah, and exactly what he said, he uh, they're playing Butler. Yeah. Right.

He went to overtime and I guess he was talking with twent the officials, and the official came over and maybe said a word or two and then turned around and walked away. And he's like, don't you turn your back on me. I'm the best coach in the blank sports.

Yeah.

And then then he commented afterwards, you know they're always the cameras are always on me.

Why are they always showing me on the sideline. And where did you use to describe the media? Oh god, I don't know a thing like that.

A whole media who tweet things and because they did right after they said that, or you can see what he said, mouth off.

I just wish these they would show these other coaches losing their minds at the officials and other big East games that I'm coaching, go into a timeout when I'm not talking to officials. You know.

It's kind of the Mike Stoops cam that we used to have here. I mean literally the cameras, but they had one camera just focused on him because I knew you were gonna get something crazy.

Guess what, He's won two in a row. Of course they're going to look at him and follow me because he's that guy. I mean, people don't put their camera on boring people.

No, and he's you know, look at his brother up the road. The two of them could put on quite a show.

Yeah. No, I'm surprised they don't have a podcast. I think I would listen to. I think it's coming eventually there. It's like the Miller's had theirs, That's right. I didn't I kind of early in the whole game too, didn't.

Did you ever watch it? I didn't either. Yeah, there's not really, It wasn't a need to.

No.

You know, they know where how to get their messages out these and they do it that way.

Through the media, through the media, their own media. Yeah, let's go. Let's take a break here and going to get ahold of the mister Bob Elliott.

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Authority Steve Rivera.

He's got his eye on the ball on Tucson's sports station yet, Fox Sports fourteen fifty.

Hey, welcome back to Iying the ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. I'm Steve Rivera. You're Dave silver goetut of control.

We just lost Bobs. We'll defne cocas your call.

You could love.

Look if I could just talk here, hello, let me just tell him.

And we'll talk about his situation with doctor j How that went.

Yeah, big night for him to get you know, one of the all time greats to come to Tucson, and you were there, you got to chance to hear them together.

Right, they've been friends since what.

Seventies seventies when Bob was a rookie at sixers. Yeah, yeah, so you know there's that I want to talk to him about that because I didn't stay for that.

Maybe they talked, Bob, are you there, Bob? Are you there? Hey, Bob?

How are you am? One second?

Will you wrong with us?

Okay? Good? Do you hear me now? I can hear you?

Fine? Yeah? Yeah, hey, okay, good. Congratulations on your night last week. How do you think it went.

I thought it went extremely well. I think it was great for the community to be able to see someone like Julius irving right there in person, to hear him talk about his life, not getting some feed from a television or something. And and the responses we've heard from people is that they were amazed. I mean just some people said they cried.

You know.

When Julius started out, I talked about the fact that he's the only living member of his family. I think that that kind of that kind of got people thinking.

Right right, And I didn't realize his brother had died at an early age.

Yeah, yeah, his youngest brother and it was his uh, they had they had a sister who was older and then Julius is the middle child. And then Marvin or they called him, he was the one that was three years younger than Julius, and Marky died at age of sixteen when Julius was a freshman up in a U mess.

Yeah, what do you think this is the most important thing he talked about. I mean, he's he's been in our world and we've watched him, you know, really since the seventies. What's his what's his overall legacy going to be? I mean he was kind of there before Michael Jordan, you know, but you know, everybody kind of looks back to doctor j has been one who started that.

Style of basketball.

You know.

I think he left everybody with the message that your best day is yet to come.

So regardless of what he's done.

Is past, I think he feels like he lives, which is that his best day is yet to come.

Who uh, did do you remember the first time you're having fun?

No?

No, you know it's amazing because I mean I think people when they came to the fireside chat might have had preconceived notions about what they were going to see and hear, and I think they left impressed, overwhelmed and thought provoking.

You met him in the late seventies, I'm assuming, right, what was were you obstruck too before you actually met him?

Yeah? Come on, now, I mean I'm drafted.

I'm drafted by the sixers, right, and Julius is the icon for the whole league. But immediately I could tell that on the court, oh he was doctor j He did things on the court that you just don't believe are possible. But then off the courting with Julie and we struck up a relationship from from day almost day one in camp to the point where after one week, you know, all the veterans have their own rooms. The rookies are two to a room. There was a cut

Be Free?

And they were like, now I put three of them ugly rascals in one room. And Julie said, now Bob can move in with me. He's been my big brother ever since.

Yes, yeah, you told that story.

Uh I would I would have seen that you guys liked each other one in part because one you're very talented basketball players, but also cerebral, you know, kind of bookish.

Uh.

Yeah, I've been called a nerd. Especially I've been called a nerd.

That's one of the one of the things that Channing Fry and I always laugh about.

They say, you know, the nerds of of the world unite. Yeah, but it's true.

I'm sure that was kind of like a thing too, because he's a very bright man, well spoken, just as you are, you know, well respected.

No, I mean we hit it off in so many different areas. It's like we had known each other for life.

Like I literally was his little brother.

And then you know again, since when I got there, his little brother had passed away, I have literally become marquee.

Yeah, that makes sense.

Talk a little bit if you could about the museum. It's on campus, it's new, pretty new. This was a benefit for the week.

Can you maybe we just had Yeah, we just had our second year of actually being open. We've been in business before that, we were basically running the museum off of the Internet and our website. But after two years, you know, we've had over seven thousand people come to that museum, and you know, as a reference point, you know, State Museum gets about two thoul within a year. So we're extremely happy about what we've done and what we've

So I'm not sure you want to talk about this.

But one of the purposes, or if not, the purpose of bringing him over was to help raise money to help support it, correct.

No question.

Definitely was a fundraiser, and Julius said he wanted to do something to help the museum, and we said the best way would be to do a fireside chat. This is a fourth that we've done. We did Ruby Bridges. It was the first one. Stacy Snowden was the second one, Coach Snowden's.

Daughter, a lot of walls from the Little Rock nine.

And then at the same time Julius is the fourth one.

Yeah, some big names who, what's what's next? And what else do you have on the calendar?

Anything?

Planning?

How this.

Good?

Questions?

You know, we keep raising the bar and it makes you wonder how far can the bar be raised. We haven't really discussed what is next, per se, but we do know that given our market, given Tucson, you cannot do too many of these. So it's not like going to do one every three or four months or one every six months. I think that probably one a year or one every two years. It's probably the best way to go about it.

Yeah, sounds about right. We had you on the show last week, I think it was and knowing you how I know you and your books and stuff and mine. You talked about the bomb at Utah and some other things, you know, Dave sid and of course I wanted you to kind of relate another story the year that you got hurt on your right knee or left knee, I can't remember, but how you kind of evaded the press and how you trick people and believing in your right hand left hand with your hook.

Well, about two weeks before our season started my senior year, I twisted my knee and they said I had torn car lage on my left knee.

Have you heard this thing?

And so back then, though, you know, it wasn't like today. There's no way if something like that had happened, everybody in the world would have already known. Back then, nobody could tell.

It.

Just meant that if you think about how you play basketball, if you jump off your left lege, I mean, as you're shooting the ball right handed, well, my left leg I was trying to avoid as much as possible, take it at the end of the year and have surgery on it. So I played my senior year left handed, always going to my right leg to go up.

And take the shot.

Did teams not figure that out?

Well?

I was amidextress up to twelve feet, So I mean it's like pick your poison. And you know, somebody was talking to me about a week ago, but how do you do though? And I remember having a conversation with Kareem, I'll do jabbar and he said, and Kareem, I thought, articulated very well. If you draw a line down your spine to the floor and up to the ceiling. That's why you see NBA guys kind of with their bodies go back to try to establish contact.

Whatever side of that line they're on means you go the other way.

It's that simple, because if you go the other way, they're already behind, and so they got to go through your body get to the ball.

There's an one and that's it.

Yeah, well you didn't finish your story. So you're in St. Mary's and what happens, Well, so season's over.

I go into Saint Mary's under a different name. They removed the cartilage in my left knee and I went in maybe about five o'clock, and about four o'clock the next morning, they whisked me out out of a back door and what I remember was the anesthesiologist and I don't know his name, had just bought this brand new red and white Rolls Royce convertible and he says, you want to take a ride in my car? And I'm like, yeah, I'm twenty one years old, you know I do.

And I ran to this dude, I.

Don't know, six five six months ago and he says, do you remember me? I said, I'm sorry, I really don't. He said, I'm not anteshesiologist with I said, no, no, not the red and white, the vertable.

Rose roy Drude. That car was serious.

So so I go home. And then that's why I didn't play in any All Star Games that year, because I couldn't. I was rehabbing that knee. So the excuse I gave was, hey, you know my academic load. I can't afford to go over here for a week and go over there for a week. You know, I had had an audience class and a finance class, and I couldn't afford to miss those kind of classes.

But the real reason was I.

Couldn't play for one or two I was in rehab on that knee.

Wow yet, and you were drafted? Where were you drafted?

Again?

Second round to the Sixers, So the scouts.

The scouts had no idea, what did you get? The training camp? Still kind of give me, oh no, no, no about training camp. I was fine, but yeah, yeah, I was my memory. I played in the summer league, the Sunny Hill Baker Summer League that the Sixers like, they had the rookies plan. So I did that, and no, I was fined by then. But I knew that right after the season and the sooner I had the surgery, the sooner I could be rehabbed, sooner I'd be back to normal.

We wanted to ask you another quick question before you leave NL. What do you think about it today and how do you think it would have been back in your day.

Well, first of all, I think they need some restrictions on how much is being paid. I mean, this has gotten out of hand. But at the same time, I would have loved to see some nil back when I was in school, because see, when I was in school, we could even work. And so there we were married. In college, she was picking up jobs stocking jeans and stuff and clothing stores and cleaning people's houses, et cetera.

Had nice you had a nice meal plan?

Then? Oh yeah, no, no he he he said it out there.

We just had to gets like the vegetables and stuff like that to go with it.

Yeah.

Do you think you would have stayed at the U of A or would you be one of these guys that would maybe go back to Michigan or maybe go back and play for Michigan State the way things are now, I don't know.

I really don't know.

You know.

It's it's something that the nil like Lynn Gordy, you know, my former teammate, he's up at Creighton. Two years ago he called me and said, Bird, you know this nil man,

So I don't know.

I just don't see this being something good.

Yeah, No, you're exactly right. We talk about that too.

It takes to be being school for five years, but they only have like sophomore credits because they've only been around lastly. Because we talk about this with the guys every now and again. You stayed, you chose to stay.

There's a few. Corey Williams have stayed.

Matt Mulbacher stayed, Joe Nell's why is it Tucson that special?

A Tucson this special? But in terms of the why, you know, the economics are not the same. My rookie year in the NBA, the average salary was.

Seventy five thousand a year, which was better than what.

My classmates going into big eight CPA firms are going to make. But it's not the twelve million year they're paying now, I'll be honest with you. They had to put me out of the league of ourselves up there.

I'm not leaving. I'll wait. I'll be that good veteran. They could give that a good knowledge to the rookie. I mean, if you I mean, I mean twelve million right for the same the same job.

Eighty two regular season games, eight exhibition games.

Hope you make the playoffs.

And these guys now start call going for loading management saying I'm tired, I need a day off.

What you mean a day off?

You signed for eighty two I'd be like Michael Jordan as an owner. I signed you for eighty two games. I want to see you out there for eighty two games, right right, you said, like Charles Barkley, Yeah, I mean it's it's crazy, but I mean they got private planes. Beat the flat commercial. You know, you play a game and you got a four point thirty wake up car to go catch a bus to go catch the flight to go to the next town.

There was no executive chef on board.

I mean it's just but I mean, hey, it's a sign of times things change, right.

Right, Okay, well as usual, Thank you very much for coming.

On all right, appreciate it man.

Yeah, good luck with that.

Yeah, thank you, Barb Elliott, good stories, love y sure, yeah yeah. We'll take a break here and come back and finish the show. You're an Arizona men's basketball fan. You know it's been successful for nearly forty years.

Now.

Take a look back at the Ludelsen era in my new book, Lessons from Loot. It was a labor of love through the eyes of twenty five former players, coaches, and friends to give insight to the coach and the man who led them, competed against them, and inspired them. Twenty five chapters for his twenty five years as Arizona's beloved coach. Lessons from lut is an insight to how he built the program into a national powerhouse. Want one Email me at Steve dot RIVERA ninety five at gmail dot com.

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Streamy Live on the Ihearts radio app. This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.

Hey, welcome back to Flying the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, you're Dave Selbert.

We got on with us. We got another but ten to fifteen whatever, we got about thirteen thirteen.

Cool.

That was fun. I'm hoping the phone lines work.

If you want to call us, please do five to two oh four one six seventy four forty. We're experiencing I guess people are saying it's busy and they're trying to call in.

So yeah, I've tried messing with it, but I don't know what's going on. There's gonna be a bnon Louise. I'll give you a call. Yah, check, yeah, check, we should check. I should call and check.

But again, if you want to call five two oh four one six seventy four forty if you want to, if I know you, you can text me or send me a message and we can call you if you want to get on the phone.

That's because we can call, right. That's how we got Bob a week.

Yeah, okay, it's stories and Bob Elliot, of course, he's been part of the Tucson sports scene for what fifty years.

On the seventy, yes, mid seventies.

You know, he's been around and obviously great player and has had a wonderful you know where we were away from basketball and then we've you know, watched him on TV for years and years.

Oh, he's just going to say that to you because I think were you not with me when he last week? When someone called it, I can't remember who called, uh, some guy Joe or whoever said, uh, he missed Bob and sitting and I said, well, don't forget Larson. I mean back in those days he replaced Larson maybe yeah, or they did what of these two did well?

Larson was the color guy, and then Bob came in. I think maybe I don't know Bob was. We'd have to kind of check his resume, but I think he was doing maybe some other things besides local U of A as a broadcaster. But you know, he obviously flourished here with with Dave Sitting. That was a good team for a long time. And you never well, I said, you never left. You were just here for thirty a round the house. Yeah, yeah, yeah, because I haven't left and I liked you people know me here. Why when

And like the guys I mentioned Corey and Bill Back and Joe Nell, there's a lot to be said.

And those guys have all had great, you know, great careers, whether you know it's lawyers or accountants or you know, you name it, business guys. Yeah, and they took advantage of their notoriety as basketball players or football Reggie Geary's you know now working at the u of A.

You know it's a good again.

You're in the spotlight for four years, hopefully you're doing interviews, see how you act, and you know you're basically applying for a job during those four.

Years, you're you're exactly right, and you don't burn bridges, you don't piss anybody off.

Yeah.

No, and the guys you mentioned did exactly or didn't do that exactly. We're good dudes.

You bring in business because you're you're famous from your basketball time, and then you have to kind of prove yourself. I mean, I remember going back way back to Sean Elliott when he was a uh he was an intern at one of my friends insurance agencies or something, and he just loved having Sean Elliott there is a new You imagine walking in and hey it's it's an All American basketball player.

Him, her, Jenny Finch. Imagine them in the NIL time. Yeah, they would be the top earners. They would be making some major miles, you know miles. Yeah, especially after after the championship year, if he's stuck around here.

So, yeah, it is busy. It's something I just I don't know why though.

Yeah.

I tried calling it on my own. Yeah, it's really strange. I'm sorry about that.

Guys.

You can always text me and I will. We'll get a hold of you. Someone just said, but it's me. I tried to call what couldn't get in? Yeah, okay, makes sense again. I'll hope you enjoyed the show. Yeah, so you know all these guys.

Yeah, I mean it's you know, he was talking to a little bit about you know, your loyalty to your school. Where does that fall for like a Caleb Love or someone who's going to go to two or three schools and you know, all of a sudden, you're fifty years old, like do I go to homecoming?

Where do I go? Which is to go to all of them? To all of them?

No?

But you But you're right, especially the education thing. You go to a school, go to school, go to school, you're credits stone transfer. By the time you're twenty five years old, you don't have the what do you stay?

What do you do?

Not that that's a big deal because sometimes they don't care about the education.

Yeah, and you hear a lot about you know, guys have gone back after they're jump playing and things like that and go get their their degree. But you're right, and many people, not just athletes, they get their undergrad one place, they go, get their masters another place, their PhD in another place. So Bob is one of the you know, rare that real guys that stuck around.

And you know this because you're a part of the business. Maybe what year was your last year? Twenty eleven, twenty eleven, So that's the start of it. Greg had showed up, right burn, Oh yeah, Sean was here. We didn't get really a lot of access to it. And I'm transitioning in a weird way, but it became less of the the player stories, less of the player stories, And how do you get to know the player stories unless you

However, Yeah, well, the one thing maybe this is different now than was then was they're on TV all the time. You do get that viewpoint of these guys, and you know, we may not know what Caleb Love really thinks, but we can we can see him on TV. We see his expressions. That's about all you're getting now. And it looks like, well it's supposed to maybe some postgame comments and you.

And you're you're part of this.

You go out to the fan base or the you know, corporate or whatever world, and and and how you sell the basketball program when they really don't know who they are or whatever. You know them because of they're successful, but you really don't know them. In fact, DeAndre Ayton when he was here for that first year, we had little access to them. We you know, talked to maybe three or four times in the season on the podium.

I agree.

I mean, you know, I kind of, like I said, I was kind of there and sort of as this thing was happening, it was kind of switching out to full access to barely any access. And that's just the way some of these organizations, whether it's universities or professional teams, kind of orchestrate who gets to talk and the messaging, and I'm sure they're coached quite a bit and told, you know, say certain things or don't disparage your teammates.

And you know this just as well as me, or if not better. People who are fans, like the the the the ones here, they support the program. They support the program, not necessarily the players, because the players come and go right now, it's they're helping you, of a They're loyal to you. They not to the the Alcans or the Treers or whatever. Exactly, those dudes come and go exactly. In fact, how often do they come back?

True? Not often?

Not often.

I mean it's like a big deal when you know when there is on a play duke this year and yeah, I mean they brought back, you know, a nice little all star team with Bibby and those kind of guys. Gilbert Gilbert was there. Yeah, but you're right, I think they got their degrees. So maybe they'll come back for you know, other reasons. Well, and they're sending their kids here. Perhaps you have the status of okay, you got you

But but how many of them don't. It's a very big percentage who have done really well with themselves.

I mean there's a there's a letter Winners Club I think it's still called in the athletic department, and they're kind of the group of people that are you know, contacted by athletics. It's it's an interesting dynamic because when I was fundraising, I could be fundraising for you know, the Department of Communication. But the guy wants to give to athletics. I mean, you know, you should never knew you never knew really what you were going to get.

Oh.

You would find that the ex player.

Sometimes didn't care, could care less, or they you know, maybe they didn't have a great experience, maybe they had this animosity tour. As a coach, I totally get that same thing. I had a terrible professor in you know, in English. I'm not going to give to that point. We would get those stories all the time. Yeah, they did have a magical experience where it all kind of came together.

But doesn't it make sense, Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm not going to give money of my exl that I had.

A bad time.

No, I mean, so much of it is their experience on campus and whether or not they led to a job that gave them the success to be able to give so totally get it. That was part of part of it when you had to kind of decipher as you're meeting these people, like, oh, yeah, I was a huge when I was a student, used to go to all the games. I love the Wildcats. But then you know, now I'm sixty and I don't know anything about these guys. I never get to hear from them, right, they never

Why are you calling you know? What do you want? Do they? Would they actually say that to you? Well, that's a case study in in all this.

I was listening to something I think it was about Ohio State just after they won the championship. They have like eight hundred thousand alumni. Yeah, and Arizona has around four about half that number. So can you imagine just the size of the development staff and some of these universities. Sure, and they've got here and it's doing well, right, it's doing well.

Yeah, seemingly it's it's an interesting, interesting part of the university scene.

And the reality of it is that Arizona will I'm saying this with my audience being arizonaats that it will never be Ohio State in that money world, right, or the Texas or the Balance or whatever.

I mean.

You know, when you're at Stanford and you're you know, two miles away from Google and Yahoo and and these are alums that are starting these companies, right, you know.

They're right there. They have that advantage going for them in the Bay Area. They also have to hope that there was a good experience, right, and they love the place.

Yeah, but you know, when your endowment is in the thirty billion range or whatever Stanfords is or USC they can just turn around to Hollywood and just say, you know, George Lucas, do you want to name the school after you?

Or whatever?

Sure, Steven Spielberg, did you find it? I probably asked you this question a thousand times. Did you find it difficult?

And yeah? And the ask is a different, different beast because I know I couldn't do it. Yeah, depends on who who you were talking to.

You really had to you had to really get a relationship going with people, and it got easier as the relationship goes on. I mean it's usually you know, a major gift is not going to come instantly unless they're going to just say, Okay, i'll give you X amount of.

Dollars, but usually you want more.

Yeah, oh, rest of your mind, you're going, oh, you're going to give me, you know, ten thousand dollars, Well you could probably give me twenty five.

Yeah.

Yeah, And do you say you asked that?

Could you have to kind of dance around, dance around a little bit and just kind of prove what that money is gonna do.

Dave, I'll give you ten million. Don't call me back exactly what we did. That happen ten million or something like that.

Yeah.

They would sometimes say this is gonna be my last gift for a while. Yeah, you know, call me in five years. That's kind of how it plays. And that happens in athletics, and it happens.

I could have see I can see that happening here because I mean, how deep in the pockets.

Believe me, there's people out there. Yeah, I mean, I gotta find those things you know you need, they're out there. If you're looking just for that kind of money out there.

Right, and they gotta want to do it.

Yeah, Like you said, there's a lot of factors that didn't have a good time to have kids going there.

Now you know, am I paying tuition?

Now?

That was always a good excuse, like you know, I'm already paying.

I'm paying my kids tuition. Well yeah, yeah, we'll talk to you in four years years. Yeah, how would do we do it on time?

Rambling? Yeah?

No, no, no, we're good and a half.

Yeah, okay, sure, See when you get your degree and you get your job, you'll be on the one.

Mister s here, you're doing well that well. You can answer the phone though, that's the hardest part, just getting the meetings. It's silver again, that's six number from the University of Arizona. Why are they calling the want one thing? It's the nil money. That's a whole other ballgame. But have you talked with them on the show.

Yeah, we've had them. It's it's it's and they're innovative. They're trying to do as much as they can in different areas. Right, every team has their own little bucket. Now, I don't MBM because it's a tough.

Time there's a lot of people out there and a lot of things to that they could give to, So you have to kind of match that interest and passion.

And sorry, Dacion was just called a gift to him, right, it's like treating true to treat. Sorry, there's no more candy. If you have no more candy left.

The the thing is to get to them and ask them what they're interested in, not what I'm interested Oh yeah, what do you care about? Yeah, that was That's kind of how the conversation would begin. And then then you can play along. What if it didn't fit your wheelhouse, well, you try to find place where it would. Sometimes you say, you know what, we can't control that. We can't just create a major for you because you wanted to create a major. It doesn't just work that way.

We would you get that script in the back of your bucket or well you have to just.

Kind of go along with the rules of the U of A or the Board of Regents or where everything's like that.

Yeah, okay, well, thanks Dave for coming into the chair one as usual. Thank you very much. Tomorrow, I hope to have these phones fixed so we can get some calls. Thanks everybody for listening. Thanks Bob Elliott, and thank you to Eric Rhodes.