This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jag and Zalaz sound Fox Sports fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure your most Prized Possessions kat z R two sad at iHeartRadio STATIONA. Hey, good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. He's Jagan Zollis. Happy New Year, everybody. Jay, Good to see that you're alive and upright. I'm here. I'm choking down the
cough drop, so I don't up along all over the studio. Keep your distance, ready to go, keep your distance, don't talk directly to me. Yeah, just you know, I'll just apologize ahead of time to everybody. If I cough into the microphone. It's you know, it is what it is. I won't get through the system. I'm gonna try and hit the button before I do that. But uh, you know, came home from Disneyland with a cough and a little bit of a sore throat. Happiest
placed on the earth. Uh you know what, Steve. We had such a great time and you know should have a time of parent This trip was for for my my one year old grandson, and I'm like, he's you know, he's obviously not gonna remember how much fun is he gonna have? I know we're gonna have fun. The kid had fun? Did you tape it? Oh? We're we It was funny. We set up a a shared album on you know, on the cloud for us all three days. Okay, over a thousand pictures and like two hundred little videos. You see,
Dad, we really or Grandpa, we really wanted to. He had a good time. We could tell he was having fun. You know, he went to Goofy's Kitchen and you guys have fun. He was I rode Winning the Pooh two times. We had a great time. It was a great family trip. And we got back and a couple of the family members turned up with COVID. My daughter stayed behind in in in LA to spend New Year's Eve there she got it and my wife has it. But I've so far tested negative, so here I am. Yeah, okay, good,
just stay keep your distance keeping. Just a lot of people, I know, I'm so real. Yeah, there's a lot of people say yeah, yeah some time of year, Okay, no, hey, a lot to get to a good show. First of all today with Lamont Hunley coming in first first in about ten minutes, and then Brian Jefferies on the second half. Right, you're gonna have us with Jed Fish and Tommy Lloyd in
between. Yeah, we figured out the technology and I think I think I'm ninety nine percent sure we're gonna be able to live stream Tommy Lloyd's three thirty press conferences, holding it during our show. They can't stop us from having it on. Great, we're gonna I think I've worked out the technology and we're gonna play live for you. Great, and we have a lot of positive to get to and some negative. And there's lots of negative out there
with the basketball team. But we'll wait. Let's talk first. Football first. We a lot about football. We're gonna talk with Brian, but both of them, Lamont with football. But you must have been very happy. I let me tell you. I didn't think they were gonna cover, and they found a way to win it. Uh cover only in sense of coming back. But I thought they played out of their minds in that fourth quarter. They looked bad. It looked really bad. We were watching it in
our hotel room outside of Disneyland. It looked bad. You know, they got that great start and you thought, ok right, this is gonna be a killing. Oklahoma doesn't have their players, and all of a sudden, Oklahoma starts to playing ball for two quarters, Arizona had nothing. You know. Well, what ran through my mind was, this is a big boy football. While Arizona had a good record, winning streak against some good teams. You know the difference between an Arizona and Oklahoma, Michigan, Alabama,
Georgia, all those teams are the lions. Those guys have massive guys. And that's where Arizona was. There was always going to be bad, badly. Yeah, and so that's right. Arizona can't block now, like can they not block? They're being blocked, so they can't stop them either, And and it looked bad. Well, the the offensive mines that they have came up with a plan. They rotated the fuffita in the pocket, moved them around and made made them less stable, and they moved the ball.
Hey, and and thankfully for Arizona fans, maldon and I don't know how you feel about this, but we were the guys are talking about this. Maldonado's play has to be in the top five all time biggest players in Arizona. It's up there, top five because you know, when you think about you know those the momentus brought you obviously go to Chuck Seasil, you go to the Leap by the Lake. After that, you got about eight plays
that could be next. You know, uh uh, you know the game, you know, Darrel loss against Muskraave James the bow in the A s U game. There's a whole bunch of whole bunch of players. You can go in there. But yeah, I mean, if not for that, players don't lose the game. They're they're driving this. They were gonna score again, this score again, it's over. Yeah, score again, it's over. Yeah. And you know, we're watching the game and I'm like,
this is it. Arizona's gonna lose this game. I had already talk myself into thinking believe has lost the game. The fourth they're not playing very well. You're thinking how they gonna survive this. They're out there what twenty whatever it was, and then the ball pops out his hands and they have a chance. And not only do they have a chance, they show that they're capable of winning the thing, right Because you could have a chance,
but they moved the ball. Looking in the end, you know, people are gonna say, well, Oklahoma didn't have the quarterback, they didn't have this, didn't have that. I get that. Yeah, And you know what, and the Oklahoma quarterback made a bunch of mistakes, freshman quarterback through some picks. He had that last fumble that a lot of Arizona to get
the clinching score. But you know, I'm gonna tell you at the end of that, when that game ended, I had the same feeling that I had after Arizona beat Nebraska in the Holiday Bowl, because so go there, go there and say say that, and then I'm gonna ask you a question, because again, Oklahoma's the blue blood, right a college football blue blood one you know, once some national championships. They were that team that Arizona wants to be, you know, and regardless of st Oklahoma was in terms
of its its its team, They're still Oklahoma. They still have those guys, and they were beating the hell out of Arizona and it was kind of like, you know, remind me of the nine eight season and that you know, this team came out of nowhere, had this great season. H and then they went off and beat somebody just set up. Okay, So so so I'm gonna ask you to get your realistic football fan hat on.
They win this game, they win ten games of ten and three for the season, realistically, realistically moving forward, What is capable or what's this program capable of moving forward? Should the fans who usually get too giddy over giddy for this because now they think they can compete with everybody, you know, bring on, bring on, baman, where do they stand. They've got
work, They still got work to do, you know. I mean, look how many of those games in the in the in the winning streak at the end of the season, did we actually think they were gonna win? Not many? If Colorado, without you, I didn't think they were going to win any of the rest of them. And they did. Here's the thing, and this this gets back to when you're an Arizona fan as long as I've been. Here's what here's what you think. I know where you're
gonna say, you know where I'm going. Ten wins in nineteen ninety three, they crapped, They craped the bed. In nineteen ninety four. Ye ten wins in nineteen ninety eight, they crapped a bed. In nineteen ninety nine, they went six and six and nine, right, you know, ten wins in twenty fourteen, We're never. We're never. UCLA blow them out in the first conference game. Game day was here and they yes, they got to I think they played in the New Mexico Bowl again. Or
it's like the follow up has been bad. After all. They can't sustain it. They haven't been able to sustain it. And the question is what are they gonna do? And I'm gonna ask Lamont Huntley this because Lamont Huntley was on the eighty two team that the eighty then the eighty three team came up and they were ranked like the number three in sports illustrated all these expectations and that that team didn't I live up to you it's expectations. What are
they gonna do during this offseason to not let that happen again? Because that's what we're using. Well, I've said this a number of times with the program itself, just for basketball and a little bit of football. They can't handle prosperity, right, they get the everything? Do they overthink it? They think they're full of it? And I'm thinking the crowd based the CAMBI where look just last week with the basketball team and I said this on Facebook
and I will get to that later. Where we're we're the we're the stuff, We're the stuff. You can fill up whatever word you want, and we're the stuff and no one's gonna touch us. Then they show up and they don't show up, they don't show up and says, don't talk it, don't talk it, just do it right. Don't you have to say who you are, what you do. Just go on and kick the crap out of him. And I love Tommy Lloyd and how he reacts. Did you you read his comments to kick their ass? We're gonna how many times
the dude, the dude is right. The dude self evaluation was pretty damn good. But but you know, getting back to the football thing, that's you know, that's what's happened to Arizona every time, right, So give the history. I want to know. I want to see. I want to hear what's Jed Fish and his staff going to do to not let that happen, because that's what's happened every time. You hope that it's different, because, like you said, those years twenty fourteen included with rit Trod.
You think, oh, he's gonna build on this. Yeah, and it didn't. Right. And I've mentioned before a few years after that, that ninety four season, you know, because remember the ninety three and then they were number one and sports illustrated going into ninety four horrible and they went, they went eight and three, but it wasn't a good year, and they lost to Utah in the Freedom Bowl, a terrible loss where Utah had like
less than one hundred yards total offense but won the game. Something like that. And a few years later I asked Dick Tomy, I said, what happened in ninety four? Why did Why were you guys didn't work? Why did And he flat out to him, I said, we didn't do the work. We thought we were good, We thought, you know, we didn't have to do the work, and we didn't do the work in the off season. And that's what And no matter what we did, no matter
what we said, our guys didn't do the work. And that's and that's what happened. The number one killer of Arizona Athletics many times, many times, not all the time, but many times. Okay, so we're gonna have Laman huddling here in about five minutes. Uh, then Tommy Lloyd at the end of the hour, see how long he goes partly fifteen minutes or so. And then have breaking news. There's a lot of breaking, a lot of breaking news. Lots happened over the last couple of weeks, right
and even today, even tonight today. And then we'll have Brian Jeffries, who's lived at all the last two weeks in person, traveling all over to get to the places to give you the news. We'll hear what he says about everything. We'll talk to him about those follow ups. Yeah, yeah, because he's all right, And that's the thing that's what's in my mind now about this year. Great, he had a great year, a lot of fun. Sure, it was as much fun as we've had. Gratulationship.
Okay, now what No, you're you're you're car sails, car salesman. Jay. You sold ten ten cars in January, you better sell twenty of February. Yeah, exactly? Or what or your job? I mean, what's the expectation? Right right? You know what's the expectation? So I'm interested, Okay, okay, let's get out of here. All right,
Let's let's take our break. We're going to come back. We'll have a lemon hunter will comind and we'll talk to him about you know what, what goes through what goes through players minds in this in an off season like this, when people think you're the you're the stock. So stick around.
For more than twenty years, the Window Depot has provided the best price and the biggest inventory on in stock vinyl windows, and now the Window Depot is more than a window store, offering homeowners and contractors, a one stop warehouse offering interior and exterior doors, granted and courts, countertops, in stock cabinetry,
and skylights to finish your project. Their team of professionals will help with everything from free kitchen design to orders from leading manufacturers like mill Guard in jail win, order online or find a location near you at the Window Depot dot com. Steve Rivera here to talk about Dorato Rock Materials. I needed a lot of gravel for my driveway, so I called Eric at Dorato Rock. He found out the amount and color I needed and boom, it was taken
care of and at a great price. How do I know radio commercials work? I heard one of his on the radio. Dorato Rock and Materials provides a wide range of landscaping materials, including decorative rock, boulders, gravel, soil, and sand for residential and commercial use in the Tucson area. They are locally owned and have been around for more than fifteen years. Give them a call at five two zero four zero zero four two three three. Where
do you buy exercise equipment? Arizona Health Arizona Health Arizona Health. Of course, to feel better and look better, it makes sense to buy your fitness equipment from the people who know it better than anyone else. At Arizona Health, our goal is to help you choose the equipment you need to reach your goals. Your health and fitness deserve the vest you deserve. Arizona House the
leading edge and exercise equipment on twenty second just west of Wilmot. At Nova Home Loans, we believe everyone deserves the opportunity to enjoy the independence that comes with home ownership. Paul Volpi is ready to help you find an option that best fits your needs. Whether you're a first time or veteran home buyer, or want to get cash out with the refinance. Nova has a variety of
home loan programs to meet your unique situation. Visit voltpeteam dot com that's volpe team dot com or called five two oh six eight five six two six today in MLS three oh eight seven, aerzon a b K nine two nine four two equal Housing Opportunity, Got to commitment to Lyndrixyn credit rates and available loan programs or subject to change with un notice. It's summertime and the summer leagues are wrapping up. Volleyball, softball, baseball, swimming, and pickleball are
coming to their season end. Come down and visit the cool and relaxing Creative Awards Idea center to pick out your awards for the champs and MVPs. It's also time to replenish your corporate apparel with new Polos caps and safety t shirts with your corporate logo to make your team look sharp. Creative Awards also has a large selection of brand names like Nike, Eddie Bauer, New Era,
and car Hard just to name a few. Believe it or not, its corporate holiday gift season time for your clients too, with over one hundred thousand items to choose from. Come visit Creative Awards, Inc. To twenty eight
West Drackman Street or online at Creative awardsaz dot com. Did you know sports cards at Memorabilia are setting records sales last month of nineteen fifty two tops Mickey Mantle SO for twelve point six million, Lebron James Rookie SO for five point six Also, collecting cards is a family fun hobby that can be very profitable. If you want to start a collection or expand your collection, check out Showtime Cards. They are one of the leading card shops in the country and
have served our local community for twenty five years. They are located on e Speedway. That's Showtime Cards. The Secret Savings Account from Pyramid Federal Credit Union is an account you pay yourself and save oh right. It's set up as an automatic transfer for any amount and the transfers add up over time. You can save for a down payment on a dream vacation or an emergency fund and the best part for withdrawals. Your Secret Savings Account can only be accessed in
branch or over the phone. Visit Pyramid FCU dot com slash Secret Saving to learn more Betterally insured by NCUA. It's that time of year summer in Tucson. Time to take control with Temperature Control for all your air conditioning needs. Will keep you cool during all the hot streaks. All you have to do is stay in control with Temperature Control where we handle everything you need with prompt response, affordable pricing, and sound solutions. We also excel in plumbing and
electrical work. We handle everything you need. Give us a call at five two oh eight one five five six sixty five or visit our website at tempdash con dot com and remember, stay in control with temperature control. Need concrete, hard Works Concrete has it. We have more than twenty five years of experience with all things concrete. Installing sidewalks and patio floors are our specialty,
and handle masonry work and retaining walls. We're locally and family owned. Just let us know what you need, how you want it, and we'll take care of it. Leave the hard work up to us. We're Hardworks Concrete. Call us at five one two nine six' two five six six zero or visit our website Hardworksconcrete dot com. We'll put the work in for you. Got bugs, termites, bees, or rodents, Arizona Pest Control will
hunt them down. Arizona Pest Control is your complete desert pest management specialists tests can't run or hide from Arizona pest Control. They use only the latest and most technologically advanced methods of pest elimination available, which minimizes the effects on the environment. Let Arizona Pest Control get rid of your bad bugs, termites, bees, or rodents serving Tucson and Southern Arizona since nineteen forty seven. Go
to azypest dot com to schedule your free evaluation today. Breaking down all the excess at all. It's Steve Leavera and Jagin Salmas. This is I on the Ball on Fox Sports fourteenth. Hey, welcome back to I the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. He's jagan Zaus. It's not on the pune. We have Lamont Hunley. When you a football All American and great sponsor of ours. How you doing the month? Oh, I'm doing well man. Having new years to you both? So do
you did you have a great time in San Antonio? And how proud were the team? You know what my my chest was was was spreaded wide out their way out there. It was I mean it was. It was such a great experience to be around that. I brought my family and my daughters and my wife. We all was able to enjoy it. And you know, it was like being in Tucson really and they had quite a few wild
cats, was there. It's a Lamont you know, we're we're We've been talking about this season as you know, it gotten better and better as the year went on. You get this, you get this big win. You know, I don't know how you can wrap it all up with a little bow, But tell me one thing that you think about this team that allowed them to do what they do. There's a lot of things, right, but the one thing that comes to your mind first when we think of this
is why they did this. You know what I tell you, man. I watched the interview by Hervy and and he summed up the whole thing. Man. It's all about, you know, the love, the faith you know that they had in one another as far as what they did collectively as as a group and as a team, you know, and they understood each
other. They came together as a team. You know, I'm talking about the players themselves and the message of that kid put out there in regards to the feeling that he had for his brothers, you know throughout the season. I think that that right there is it's maybe something we as fans really didn't get to see that they had internally. And I think the worst that he said it basically summed up their whole whole season in regards to what these guys
did as a family unit as brothers. No, I think that's it. You've been on teams like that, I'm sure where people don't see what happens inside the locker room or on the field with that love that's huge. Without that great chemistry, you don't have a great team. You don't know, I mean, and and you and you don't allow things penetrated either. You know, once you get that that that connection with one another, nothing can penetrate it. You don't let people in it. I mean that was fortunate
of course, be there and in the hotel with these kids. I mean you can see the kid as far as the relationship they not only had with the coaches but with their family members. Man, it was just so exciting leading up to the game, but after the game you really tells it even more. Well, that's yeah, And that's exactly where I you know, was going to when I saw that interview. I'm like, whoaly yact. You know, there was something really special that was going on in that locker
room. And we've talked a million times about you need to have that, you need to have something like that. You can have the best talent in the world, but if you're not all on the same page, you can't get there. Whereas a team like this that, while talented, wasn't the most talented team on the field every game. They were able to do that because of those things exactly. And and I mean look and even look at
the kids that was playing certain positions. As I said earlier in the year, I mean, you got you got, you got defensive backs playing linebacker, you know, I mean me as offensive coordinator. But I look at that, I'd be like, well, heck, I put a big body on that small body. We should be doing things. But these kids, I mean, they played out of out of out of their you know themselves, and and and they of course played for themselves and play for the rest
of their teammates, and and and everything just came together collectively. And you can even the game itself. Man, we we was controlling that game in the first quarter, and then Oklahoma just came and took it away from us, completely took it away from it. I was like, okay, where are we going with this? And all of a sudden, the defense, the defense just got out there and created turno was made, things happen, put the ball in the hands for the offense again to control the game and
take it back and the momentum back to us. You know again that that's that, there's stuff that that you know, it happens because of togetherness. It happened because of the fact that you know, brothers are bonding and and and and trusting one another. So that's that's that's that's it's true stuff. It's true to form and that you can't teach as a coach. So I'm gonna let Jay ask the sixty four thousand dollars questions, but these days it's
more of the nil million dollar questions. Okaylemn So you know, every ten win season that Arizona's had, the next season hasn't been hasn't reached the expectation, and a couple of playing cases not even close. I'm gonna I'm gonna throw you back to your your your team, you know. Nineteen eighty two, you guys, you know, did pretty good. You beat ASU at the end of the year nineteen eighty three. You guys are in Sports Illustrated
and all kinds of stuff. You're considered the top ten team. What what has to happen this season to not let them, to not let what's happened in the past with these great teams happen. What put yourself on the locker room right again? I mean, they can't allow outside distractions, you know, penetrate, penetrate their unit that they got, and you can't allow you know, you know again all of these outside distractions, like even the nil and whatever it may be. I mean, for me, they all outside
distraction. I mean, these kids got gotta gotta believe that, you know, they got something special here. We got to try to keep this together. As far as far as players, at this point in time, it's all about the players, and they got to take the initiative to say we got to keep this thing together. You know, for me to go chase a dollar at this point in time in my career, why chase a dollar, you know, because you're gonna get that dollar. I mean, you're
gonna get that dollar eventually. And if things keep going where is going they're gonna get even more dollars than they talk about getting tomorrow if they go somewhere else. It's going to take a few guys that's in that locker room to step up, you know, and show that leadership and create that leadership and get them to believe we got to keep this together as a unit and let
them not allowed any outside distractions pull us away as a family. How hard is that to do with kids with kids, because you're dealing with young people first and foremost, and you're dealing with people of need. You're dealing with football players and that family of need, and so when you're dealing with that aspect of it, you know, you can find kids chase dollars. But I still think there's a certain culture of players that's on our team that believe
in family first. And then sometime when you got that culture, and I believe family comes in for anything. A dollar, you know, don't mean anything at this point of our lives, you know, because the mom and the daddy are gonna make sure you stay true to form in regards to what
you're doing. Now. You know what you're doing now, stay true reformed for that, and the dollar's gonna come and I think we got enough families that's that's a part of this team that can step up and say let's do this thing more at least one more time, at least one more time, and see how far we can take it next year. Well just twenty seconds in a response, please. So the taste of the victories and all that
fun has to help, has to help moving forward. Oh yeah, it's gonna help in every fashion as far as keeping us together collectively as a unit. And also it's gonna help you know, the community here. They going to get on board. You know, they're gonna start selling some more tickets and who knows, they might know, people may start doing that little nil things organically and the kids don't have to chase it. Yeah, no, that's great, great, great, Okay, thanks the lonch An mind.
We appreciate your comments all these long. It's been great, all right, brother God bless you. Yeah, thank you so much. So. Yeah, it's great. Uh, we've got some insight. He's inside, you know, he's got some insight and he said the right exactly what you would think. You with you. It's about the player. They have got to have got to keep their quote unquote eye on the ball this off season, right right, not on the nine il exactly. So all right, and
we'll have some we'll have some talk about that during breaking me. So all right, we'll be right back. We're gonna come back. We should have the Tommy Lloyd press conference live for you when we come back. So stick around and hear what Tommy's got to say, not only about what happened over the weekend, but what they got coming up with Colorado started tomorrow. If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you know it's been successful for nearly forty
years. Now take a look back at the Ludolsen 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. Hey, Walcat Nation, Jake Fisher here, I got to tell you about my winning team over at Arizona Health Insider, I was able to get a custom private health insurance plan with no deductibles, no copays, nationwide coverage, and I get to pick my own doctor for less than two hundred dollars a
month. If you want to avoid getting gouged on the exchange and you want real health insurance, call Arizona Health Insiders five to two zero eight five zero six eight sixty six five two zero eight five zero six eight sixty six fare doown. What's your goal a new career or career advancement? How about transferring to a four year college. PEMA Community College can help you make Someday today
and reach your goals affordably on your schedule. With over one hundred programs to choose from in financial aid available, it's time to earn the degree or certificate you need to prepare for the career you want. PEMA offers free career exploration classes so you can choose the field that's right for you. Learn how at PMA dot edu slash someday here. With the new year, we usually make resolutions to be healthier. Water quality in your home can help you achieve healthy
living goals. I'm round arenas with picture rocks, cooling, heating and plumbing. We offer solutions to filter the water in your house that you drink, shower, and cook with every day. For clean and healthy water call five two zero four to four zero or zero six' nine takes and plumbing. All season is upon us and fans are bearing down for our new and improved Arizona football team. I know Edmund Marcus is He's a huge Arizona football fan
and of course a University of Arizona graduate. If you don't see him at the football game or a you a sporting event, go see him at All State Insurance on Campbell and get a quote for your car and home insurance and more. Visit Edmund Marcus or State Agency at twenty seven nineteen North Campbell or give him a call at five two zero three two three nine three three three. You are in good hands with Edmund Marcus State Agency. Do you want
to be part of a winning team? A team? Security is looking for friendly, outgoing event security guards and event staff to be a part of our team. We've been providing our outstanding services to some of Arizona's biggest sporting events and concerts for over twenty years. We want you to join the action. A Team offers a fun and exciting opportunity to work in the sports and entertainment industry, with flexible schedules that are perfect for those looking for a part time
job or a second income. Come be a part of a winning team. The A Team apply online today at a teamsecurity dot net. It's put Shangha time. The Barstool Sports Arizona bo is thrilled to bring two powerhouse programs, the Toledo Rockets and Wyoming Cowboys, to Arizona Stadium on December thirtieth. But Pat Shungo Week is more than the football game. It's Tucson's own end of year party that doesn't stop until the Taco touchdown at the Taco Belt New Year's
Eve Downtown Bowl Bash featuring fireworks presented by O'Reilly Chevrolet. Start your put Shanga journey and get your take us today at the Arizona Bowl dot Com. Streaming live on the iHeartRadio Whap. This is I on the Ball with Steve Ravera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteenth fifty he Welcome back, everybody. We're gonna get in progress with the U, a pres converge with Tommy Lloyd.
What there's it a chance, especially now a few days like this, that real guys really lock him maybe a little bit more after a game like that. I mean, Bruce, if you don't try to lock him more, I don't know what to tell you. I mean, like, yeah, I mean I hope. So, I mean, I don't got it. I don't got any magic potion. I just know we didn't play well last weekend against a team that did play really well. And you know we've moved on, and you know we're obviously you know, I don't know, I
weedy dress things whatever. We just we we had like a normal week of preparation and you know, we've lost games before and I'm sure we'll lose them again, and uh, you know do we just know we're prepared to play a really good Colorado team in a big game. Those two games against the Washington Schools without a couple of starters to that impress you even more than well, listen, they're really good. They're really good all around. They got
a great group of experienced guys. You know, they obviously had Cody Williams as a really young, talented freshman. I don't know if he's gonna play or not, but but they have a really, you know, good group of experienced players and they've been together for a long time, and you know, this looking like it could be one of those teams where they could have a real special season. So you definitely about Sunday's game that you weren't able
to maybe see from the sideline. Maybe it's about defensive rotations or just kend of what happened on defensive I mean, we played a team that you know, maybe our sense of urgency wasn't enough, but you know, they hit a lot of tough individual shots to kind of it going. And then you know we probably panicked a little bit defensively and maybe got too active or every little adjustment I tried, they picked it apart and made a three at the end of it, and and it was you know, you tip your hat
simply. Well, beyond that game, you had mentioned that the perimeter defense hasn't been good multiple games down we've watched the film. Is there a calming thread in that of the I mean, you can probably find a bunch of things. I don't know if there's one common thread you know, at the end of the day, you know, it comes down to want, want to You got to want to do great there, and then you know you
have to have the discipline to execute a plan. And you know, for long stretches this year we have we just you know, kind of lost our way a little bit, and you know we'll have to, you know, see if we can get it back. Think about teaching defense, you know, a lot of time to it starts with the shell or it starts with on ball and it feels like you got Okay, okay, here's the guy. You guys, stop you're making you guys make a lot. We got
our as kick last game by a team that was on fire. Okay, okay, you know what, going into that game, we were the second rate defense in the country. So I mean, I don't know, if it's broke, we'll figure it out and we'll see how it is tomorrow. And if it isn't tomorrow, I just have to keep working on it. We didn't. We're not approaching it any different than we have before. And we're not we don't need to get into philosophical deals to start questioning, well,
do we start with a shell drill? Do we start with this ball screen coverage. Going into the game, we had the second rated defense in the country and we got torched. So now we need to step up and see where we're at. I mean, I you see, the plan was
okay up to that point. I mean, if you had the two hundred and second ranked defense in the country, you could ask me any philosophical question you want, and then you know, now you and I could go to Bob Dobbs, get out some napkins, and we could talk about you can help me with how I want to start my base defense, and I'd probably
be all ears insinuating of that. I was saying, since you guys are such strong on ball defenders, and you see that in the first half against Cal, what does it take to get the rotation or get their you know, their their willingness to help at the same energy level of their own. It just takes consistent effort. And you got to be great on the ball, you got to be great off the ball. What you're saying maybe is if you think the schemes and that things were there, but maybe the effort
left. No, the scheme wasn't there, the effort was wasn't there. Well, I mentioned a little bit after the game about getting Polly as an opportunity and looked like he made the most of it, especially with being able to have that. You haven't really had a man like that that that stretches the floor and shoots the three as well in the previous two years. What does that do in terms of changing the office? Well, he Poulos is.
He's an interesting player. He's got he's got some real strengths, and he's got some weaknesses that you know, he's gotta he's got to address if he wants to be a great all around player. And uh and he's young, you know, so so we'll see in time over time how he develops. But there's no doubt he has a real talent. He has some real strengths, you know, and and we'll see, you know, if we can tap into those strengths. When you have a player Kylon's been struggling a
little bit, how do you kind of handle that? Do you just part of the deal. It's it's it's it's your guys's place, dirt bakes, it's part of growing up. You just hang with them. You hang with them and you help them and you love them. You mentioned that nothing is guaranteed to the starters that like a lot of the rotation or some of the rotation players are getting some more action of how have you seen them respond to
speaking practice? I mean, yeah, practices were fine this week. You know, our practice was fine and and you hopefully they would be after what we just went through. So you know, but but guys, I know, you guys haven't had a chance to talk to me, and you guys are like picking up the scab a little bit. We've moved on. We're one hundred percent focused on Colorado. I have not said one thing about Stanford in forty eight hours. You guys can scheme about all you want. You
know, I have to move on. Our team has to move on. And we've got a really good team. If we would have won by twenty or lost by twenty, tomorrow's game is gonna be hard. So that that's one hundred percent where my focus is about Colorado. That makes them so good. They got really good players, and they got a good scheme, and they've their experience, they've been together, and you know that they're a team that's kind of been building to this. You could see a building for a
couple of years. They've added some really good pieces to a good core the audio of the audio, and they're just an impressive outfit. I mean either they look like one of the stronger teams in the country, and I felt like that going in the offseason too. You look at Kaja Sumpthing last year versus yar, what do you think he's made in such picion? He just continues to get better, you know, he just continues to get better. I mean he's a he's a dynamic guard. You know, he can you
know, run their offense. You can play with great pace, he can score, he can pass, and he just he just you could just see he has a supreme confidence about him. He's a really good player. Oh he just he said he had a really good conversation with you media day. I didn't know, like, you know, what that relationship has been like because it was kind of this that was so fast and you know, I mean it was I mean, listen, it was probably a lot you know,
things were probably a lot more. He was probably a lot more focused on his situation. I was focused on a lot bigger situation. And he's a really good player, and you know what, he obviously made a great choice for himself. And I'm really happy for him. I'm really happy for Colorado. You know, we've been fine, you know, the last couple of years, and you know, it's just looks a situation where it kind of worked out for both. But it was never anything where I didn't think
kJ Simpson was a really good player. It's just hard. You get a job, the kid signs with another staff, that's a tricky situation for a lot of people to work out, and you know, and then and then you have to rebuild a whole roster. Things happen fast, and and he he picked a perfect place for him, and he's a perfect player for them, and he's playing really well. What do you make of Eddie Lampkin and are there any advantages of guy like Umar going against him two years ago?
Eddie Lampkin's a really good basketball player. I mean we saw the best of Eddie Lampkin. I mean he you know, had a twenty point, twenty rebound double double against that's the NACAU Tournament. He's a really good basketball player. He plays with great energy, He's got a great feel for the game. Yeah, I mean he's impressive. He's an impressive player. What Burph
said you're going to assume that Da Silva and Williams play. But if if if Da Silva doesn't play because of what he does so many different things, does that make them different? I mean, then do you kind of that too? They have really good players and and you know, so you know, I mean, I I think whoever they roll out there, they're going to be really comfortable and they're going to be really good. And you know,
obviously Da Silva is a dynamic player. He's really experienced. Now you know, he's he's he's you know, playing well in side, he's playing well outside. So you know, I'm sure their preference would be to have him. But whether they have him or not, whether he's at one hundred percent or not, they're still going to be a really good team. So we're we're preparing the same way. We don't have a we don't have two
sheets of preparation with the Silva and without Da Silva plan. So just a really good player and whoever they plug in there, it's gonna be a really good player. You guys are a great home atmosphere in Phoenix, but you haven't played here in the Kale in a month. What's it gonna be like having a two game we get here, it's gonna be awesome. I mean, you know, you know, hey, the scheduling kind of broke, how it broke, and you never want to be away from home that long.
It's gonna be good to be back home. And you know, I think we need a little home cooking. But hey, you know, I have no regrets for the schedule we're played, and it's just kind of a tough hop when you play a tough Deceimber schedule and you end up with your first two conference games on the road, and you know, but that's also
a great opportunity to go win them. You go win two road games right away, and and you know, you kind of get put yourself in a good position, you don't you know, you're you're probably right where you should be. So you know, I'm comfortable with where we're at. And you know, I mean, we just we just got to have a great for tomorrow. One more question. Did you guys take Monday off you don't have to, right because you're not in school, or did you go? I
can't remember. I mean, what does it matter if we did or didn't. Bruce, we got a really hard game, Bro Bruce. Bruce, Bruce, do you think we took Monday off after the way we played on a Sunday? Okay, there we go. I mean we of course we came in and we we might not have ran him into the ground, but of course, I mean, we got to get better. We're like everybody
else, got to get better. Jesus last time. Are you looking at the coach with you you kind of do you ever just throw out them, just say we played like crap, Let's move on to the next game. Mark. I mean, I don't think either. I mean I don't make too much of it. I mean I don't make too much of it because, like I mean, at the end of the day, we got to you know, you got to figure out some why's and you address those things a little bit. But like I said, we haven't talked about Stanford in
a couple of days. We had to move on. We don't have time. We don't have time to sit there and dwell on something that, you know, we didn't do well. And at the end of the day, guys, I tipped my hat to Stanford. They played awesome that day. They played really well. The last two years we've played them, there played really well, exceptionally well, I mean so well, to the point like sometimes I'm like, how are they not? How is the record not better?
But but that that's neither here nor there. But they they played really well and we didn't so and and you know, we probably had something to do with them playing well. They probably you know, had something to do with us not playing well. And it's just kind of how it went that day. So I'm excited for tomorrow. You know, I'm looking for a great effort from our guys, and you know, you know, win or lose, we're gonna we're gonna keep plugging away. Thanks guys. Well there
you have it, le Vintage to Tommy. Yeah, and it's it's some that's his relationship with with Bruce. Uh and they do that because well he does that because he can and he does. But that's the most uh back and forth I've heard from him ever. That's also the most how can I say this more the most the not dire straits. But he's in a tough spot. When you're at Arizona, you don't lose like games like this.
Loot lost a few and Luke got a little testy with the media after questions like that, but you know what he meant, that game is history and I'm not gonna do that either side because you have to ask the question, right, you know, you do, You absolutely have to. You have to go because the first time the meat has had a chance to talk to him, so you have to ask those questions correct. But on the other hand, Tommy is a coaching He doesn't dwell. No, he's not.
No matter how part try to make him dwell, he's not going to dwell on on those games. I listened to it, and you did as you did, and many people did. Uh. Some guy just said, I won't say some guy, but one of our listeners said, he ain't very funny. Where are the jokes? He's a boring interview? That was not boring to me. That was very funny actually because he was very pointed and he's he's there in every day dude and every day man, a common man. Jay, we sucked. How else I mean, is gonna tell you
that we sucked and we got to get better and we sucked. It's not about defending even though well he did funny say this on Sunday. Uh. The Ken Palm, Jim Palm, Jim Palmer, The thing doesn't mean crap. I was cussed, doesn't mean crap if you don't play that way. And they didn't play that way. They didn't were terrible, And I covered a pretty good coach under Loot. He had these games. Yes, he had a few of these games. I remember trying to kick the ball at
Oregon State the National Championship, No, No, No eight nine. It could have been could have been eighty eight eighty nine. When you get pissed and kicked the ball. Hey, these guys get paid a lot of money. They're not a lot of stretch. And and again you know if he if he sits there and dwells on it, then the team is going to dwell on it, and they have to prepare for a team that's really good coming into coming in. It was disappointing. I think the fans know say
that all the time. A lot of people were coach YadA da da, YadA YadA. In fact, I posted something I wanted to talk about. We will talk about your stuff. So you know, here's a guy I won't say who it was, but one of the most talented and also the most inconsistent teams we've ever had, just not that good way overrated, and there was people just just ripping, just ripping, and another guy said,
please stop this, blah blah blah. And I responded, responding to the guy who was very sensible, I said, well, a rational response unheard of on these things. You know, on these posts, the worst thing that happened for you of A and its fans was beating a mediocre duke team. It brought out unrealistic expectations and as for years and now people think UA is short of invincible. I'm guessing many of those posts, most by the pictures, are done by older people, more than older than thirty. You
won one title in your lifetime one a second might never come. But by my posts, by my posts of the recent past, or the world post recent past, uh, they think or act like they're entitled. You're not entitled. And I've said that many times in the show. Relax and enjoy the moment. They're not. They are fleeting. Even Arizona's best teams all time didn't win. It didn't win at all. I mean, realistically, just why do you why do people go freak out with this stuff, because
honestly, you're gonna sleep. You're not gonna sleep tonight and they lose. I mean, you know, after watching the Stafford game, I'm like, what the hell just happened? I'm like, I'm mad at them? Did you get on Facebook or Twitter? And no? What would be the point? Right? Right? I was mad? What it was Sunday afternoon? It was Sunday afternoon. So you know, I'm like, what the hell was that? You know, we had friends coming over Sunday night. Get
a ruin your day? No, exactly, no, man that maybe I had a prima, I had some crab legs and had we had a great I say this on the show with you and joke with your what's the big deal? I mean the world ended because Steve's so many people throw so much into this emotionally, emotionally and in some cases because they don't have enough other stuff going on around them. Right, But you know, look, you know did I care? I absolutely cared. I was pissed partly because I
put some money. You're the reason again, you know I lost you. I lost a little bit of money, but more than anything though, here, here's here's why where I am on this stuff is I I hate the noise that comes after after something like that. So That's why I hate losing those games, not because they lost the game, but because then I have to listen to this. You know what you're talking about? I hear you
know you want me. This was after the game, right game? You buddy of mine says we got out coached, and I said, yeah, probably, well they have a better coach. I'm like, what you're gonna tell me that you think Florida Atlantic has a better coach because he have coached just one time? Right? Stop it? Yeah, it reminds me, and I've said this before. So you get a mathematician who you know,
there's a meme about it. He goes up on the board and has nine equations in one right, two, right, nine or right, the last one purposely wrong. What do they talk to him about? The wrong one, the wrong one, the wrong ones right? Here's this mathematician. They should have them all right? No, guess what every now and again you have a clunker. Yeah. And I'm not trying to apologize for for Tommy Lloyd because he'll he'll be fine. But it happens. It happens to everybody.
Ten and three, ten and three, Okay, if you said, looking at the schedule that they had before you knew how good Duke was, how good Michigan State was. And if somebody said to you, you know, if you're an Arizona fan, you're ten and three overall, one in one in the league, will you sign will you sign on the dotted line? Hell, yes, yes you would. Hell yes you would. And
guess what, they're tenth in the country. The only thing you might not sign on the dotted line for is splitting that cal Stanfords because that's a trip that a bunch of teams are gonna sweep, you know, but Arizona didn't. But then there's also given take you beat Duke on the road, you beat Alabama on undertube game, you know, you know, people just lose their minds. Okay, to put it in context, what would people be
saying about the football season had they lost to Oklahoma? Ah, you know, Luke, you guys got lucky though all those games you lost to an Oklahoma team that didn't have its quarterback. Yeah, it's not, you know, overrated, That's what we would have heard. And at the end of the game when Arizona was losing, that's what's going through my mind, was
like, oh crap, now I'm gonna go back to town. I'm gonna go back to home, and I'm gonna have to listen to all these people who said Jed Fish can't coach in the big game, Arizona can't play with the big boys. The season was a fluke. They got lucky the Pac twelve. The league was down, the league was not done. Guess what they may have This league may have a national championship, right. No. I used to say, you know, how many big games do I have
to win to prove I can win the big Game? You know, He's only had to win the Big Game to win it all, you know, obviously, But I mean, what would legacy if he had not won? That's a very difficult question. You know, you're right, right, he's probably he's probably still a Hall of Fame coach. But they totally everybody has been saying, but he didn't, he didn't win, he didn't win.
Well, what's the knock on? Sean didn't didn't get to the final hasn't got the best coach had ever gone to the Final four and may never get to the final four at this point. Yeah, you know, I mean, yeah, yeah, you have to And for anybody who out there who listened to the press conference and thought Tommy Lloyd was being snippy or was mad or he's not. If you if you're watching him, you just know he doesn't want to talk about the Stanford game anymore. And it's as simple as
that. He wants to move on. Yeah, OK, let's take this call. You're on the AAR and I on the ball. Yeah. That press conference is great. Tommy's fantastic, and like Steve, I got some kicks out of it too. And you got to enjoy the ride. I'd rather be on this ride than running around our stupid town run Buddy's idiots, the Bumpiness and Tucson roads. I gotta get that one in there. No, I agree with you, but you're not a I mean this in a
good way, Howard. You're not an overthinker. Enjoyed the moment, go to the game. Yeah, if they win, great, If they don't, d well had Okay? How many times have we said this to these guys are eighteen to twenty three years old? How many times have we messed up in our work the tennis court, the rec center? How many? You know what I mean? Come home? These kids are young, Howard Man, what a sensible call. Look at that. What you haven't been
drinking, have you? Or maybe you have? You're going up. I just wanted to call before I'm going to my favorite I'm having a brewery the name thanks my house. Okay, all right, well you guys later, even though should we have one? Probably on paper? Yeah, but how many times does paper win the game? Well? And and then and and again. The whole thing is exacerbated by the fact that two nights earlier a su went into Stanford and beat me up. And that that's what I kept
saying, like, wait a minute, what's happening here? This team wants to a sc two nights ago? How are they doing this? That's the way it is, Jay, because its circumstances of events. Well, John Rothstein, who was always posting stuff, and and he said, he always says, it's at the end of something like that, how does this happen? He says, that's college basket, college bus, friend, college foot just sports. It's just how it is. Some things are unexplainable. Well,
uh, and talent doesn't always win the day. He just doesn't. It doesn't and and it did you know Arizona could play Stanford tenth time? We say ten times they'd win. What eight? You think? Yeah, at least come on, everybody, everybody has Arizona winning in eighty eight eighty eight championship. Play play Oklahoma nine more times? You know they're gonna beat
them eight more times or whatever? Uh, every other game, every other game, Oh we were better than well, you weren't bad day day and guess when you had to play them that day on that particular day, and you move on. Tommy was fantastic in the sense that he was biting. He was biting. He doesn't get how was you watched it? You watched it right? How was this? He just just like it's like like you guys, stop, just stop. Okay, we've moved on. You know,
you want to pick the scab and and I'm I'm past that. Well, we got to go to Bob dobs out and meet him, see what's going on, because no, he he wasn't you know, well, he wasn't getting angry. He was just like I don't want to well, I don't want to keep how many dead horse? How many times can you answer the same question right? And it did get asked much times? And you know, you got you got guys like us out in the audience trying to break down his offense and how to run his offense. I mean, are
you going to do this? Your rotations? And Bruce, I love Bruce. Bruce is a great friend of mine. Uh did you break this one day? Because he does get in the weeds. He's got to he's got to have confidence. You got to. But you know what, this is a side that we haven't seen of Tommy. Uh if if if he gets the uh if these uh the strains getting tighter, we'll see how he well how And now you know, if you're listening to so you heard the whole
press conference, that's the whole thing. I mean, we didn't butt in. That's a that's a Tommy Lloyd press conference. And that's how they're You know, if you're not there, you know, you follow on social media. You get answers to certain questions. We play that. We play some of the answer, but we pick and choose what's the most interesting stuff. You heard the whole thing. That was the whole thing, and that was his his approach the whole thing. And he was like, guys, I've
gotta I've got a game. We've got to win tomorrow. I can't keep thinking about the game we played three days ago. You know, I got to think about this one because Colorado is really good and I can't be preoccupied. Said, we haven't talked about Stanford in forty eight hours. Everybody else is still talking about sure that it was fun, it's funny, it was good. Okay, we gotta go. We got news, Yeah, we do have breaking news. Interesting thing. Yeah, I'll be back with it.
We've got all kinds of stuff going on, and as we said, stuff going on today, but you got to catch up on a few things as well, So stick around for breaking news at the top of the hour. We'll be right back
