Wednesday, July 5, Hour 1

This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jaken Zalis on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen powered by Nova Insurance Services Ensure your most Prized Possessions, Katie z R Two sid and i Heeart Radio Station. Hey, good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rovera, he's Jakin's as. We're by ourselves today. Hope to get some calls. We've been away for a while. Yeah, I took a couple of days off. Did you do anything with your life yesterday? What

to see? Fireworks on the East Side? It was cool, it was cool. It was hot, but it was cool with it. The country club fireworks all right. But if we were out of my neck of the woods man, yeah, it was right there. It a lot of fun, a lot of get to know how the rich people live. Yeah we can. We can see those from our house, so you know we're not We don't live in very nice from it. We didn't actually go out and watch them last night. We heard of them, didn't watch Yeah, they

were nice. I don't know. Fifteen minutes I can it was. It's a good show. It's a regular thing that when when our kids were little, would go set out chairs out at this by the We live right near the tank. Already, washould go sit out there and you'd be able to see him clear as day. Right. Yeah, it's very nice, very nice. So that was it was hot outside, but it was really hot once the sun goes down. It's not that beast. I did a really bad thing, oh dolfed Monday afternoon. It was bad. It was hot

because it was hot. There was nobody out there. So the good thing, the good news of that was it only takes three hours to play because you ran to your Yeah. The bad news was almost didn't make it at the at the turn, I was feeling a little woozy. Just we stopped and got a bunch of water and gatorade and stuff, and I pounded that down and I felt better by the end of actually played better at the end. But at the tenth hole, I thought this was not a good thing.

For what time We started at one fifteen, Oh, there's only twenty four dollars. They go out and nicke it and phrady. I haven't seen that show and they have like a PSR. I don't know what the the numbers and they come up with five five, and they get better if they's you started at a low pip because you're very bright. There was only twenty four bucks. We couldn't pass up the deal. It was ten bucks. But then we did go. We did go up to Mount Lemon yesterday.

It's the thing that we do. We do every year. We go out for the little parade photo. That was fun. I had the whole clan up there, including my grand does that parade last real quick? We're upset that the that the bagpipes didn't shop there. There's a smart bagpipe there are there every year. Bunch old dudes necessarily I mean some older guy, but you know, a good mix. They're there every year, and they weren't and they're they're the one thing that I look forward to in the parade and

they weren't there, So I was a little upset. They were golf. You know, it was very nice up there. It was it was hot up there, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a different it's a different hut if you don't um because we you know, we couldn't get we couldn't get into summer Haven with the car because they were set up to parade, so I had to park outside of it and then walk in. So my son and I went and got the cars to come back and pick up. The rest of the family stayed in the shape and the walk

back to the car was ruling. It was top up in the hills. It's a different heat because you're closer to the fund. It's a nice tradition that we had, so very cool. Well, a lot of things going on. Well that's a lie. Nothing's going on. Well, you know things, things are starting to happen. You know, we're starting to you know, continue to wait for this the Pac twelfth thing. I was listening to John Wilner's podcast and Louis of getting him on as a guest just to

see where where his head is at. Um, he predicts something will happen sometime next week, said the week of the eleventh. Um. They he and John Kenzano pinned each other down, said, okay, what do you think is going to happen? All right? And Wilners thinks um. Wilner said that, um is he zero for what to this point? Well,

every about zero for everything? Right, they're throwing the pac pass, thrown a no hitter on this one, but he thinks that they're gonna get it done the week next week, the week of the eleven, right, he thinks he thinks ESPN will be in on the deal in spite of all the layoffs and stuff like that, that they'll be in on the deal because but the Pac twelves value is in its uh Saturday night time slot for games and stuff like that. That yes, and he's just gonna want that, and

ESPN really wants that. Um that he's predicting a combination of ESPN and Apple TV, and that Apple TV will primarily be for the other sports. They'll probably get some basketball, may get a football game, you know, few football game, but that it's it's that that's he thinks that's the deal. He thinks it'll be within ten percent plus or minus of the thirty one million dollars. That's that's the Big twelve deal. That's his prediction. Canzano was

basically on the same boat. He's said. He's hearing that Fox is still in the picture, that Fox wants some Thursday and Friday night Pac twelve stuff. So that's what he's what he called a little spring clean of of of Fox in the TV deal. So though that's what those two guys who you

know, some people say their shills for the PAC twelve. Other people say they know more about the PAC twelve than anybody else does, uh to me knowing John, those guys just have contacts and they're talking to people who are telling them these things. Okay, they're not they're not shilling, they're not anything. They're John in particular, I don't know John Kenzano. I do know John Wilder. I've known him for a lot of years. I trust

John in terms of what he's what he's reporting. He's not reporting anything as a favorite of the PAC twelve. He's reporting what he's hearing. So when he says that, I'm like, okay. Now. They also both of them said we completely wrong, you know, said they It could still be completely wrong, They could be shocked by what it ends up being. But though that's what they both that's what they predicted. Sometime next week, Well eventually, you know, it's been eighty four years since we've had this.

Yeah, And they both said if they if this runs into PAC twelve Media Day, which is on the twenty first, then it's a disaster. The whole thing's ass because of because the rack PAC twelve media. That'll be the conversation. The conversation won't be good put quarterbacks and the players and the good past. The conversation is going to be about PAC twelve, the PAC twelve TV deal. They both also said that it's only gonna be like a five

year deal. That then we're gonna want this deal through twenty twenty nine or so because they want to be ahead of the next round of deals. The Big Tens deal is goes and I think the Big Twelves deal both go through twenty thirty one, so they're gonna want to kind of be ahead of the next one. They don't want to lock themselves in just something that freezes them for the next round to deal. So it's not gonna be a twelve your deal like the last one they signed. That kind of stuff makes sense,

so so until the animal will figure it out. But just keep um well, wait, did you see the list of some guy in sports CBA Sports ranked the Pack twelve coaches. Fo Yeah, he had a fish like eight ninth. Uh the dion seventh um seventh. That cracks me up, all right, that cracks me up because the guy has to coach the game in the PAC twelve. Right, yeah, did you go out and get some

players? Yeah, but you know he's driving the new car, and everybody wants to get the new coach is gonna be noticed til this year, right, yeah, and they are gonna get notice, they're gonna get some you know, they're gonna get some attention that they haven't gotten in the past. Sure, I think it's funny that he hasn't coached the game. And yeah,

well the reputation, reputation. Who's number one? It's obvious? Oh you mean in the this yes, here the guy who link Riley, Yeah, link, And I think number two is obvious two yep um um the Oregon guy watching guy Utah, Oh yeah, yeah, he's you know, I still think of your time being in the Mountain West. Don't respect for they've only got back to back back champion. He's really good, Steve, you're not lying man? Still? Oh yeah, hey, you ever had

he eat stroke before? It sucks beheaded? Okay, So let's go Utah, Ucla, Chip Kelly, I drop him lower. Yeah, it's it's tough. He he had a good last year, maybe this first good year back Washington, Washington, Jonason Smith, Oregon State after a pretty good Oregon, Dan Lanning, that's six Colorado, seven, Dion Washington, States, Jacob Dicker at eight, eight, at eight nine California, just Justin Wilcox,

then Jed, then Kenny and Dillingham and then Stanford coach. I think once you get to eight, you can put every guy, every guy in a tie for eight after from eight forward for what we know about Muslim right, Kenny Dellenham as a coach, Jetfish, the hole was so deep. I don't think we still know how good a coaching which I know we have two three weeks when dud do we know when the first practice is? When does this football start? I haven't haven't lived, I haven't seen what's your

first question? But I do know is that today we're fifty nine days. First, well, what's your first question, Jed? If you had if you have a first question and nobody takes it from you, if I have the first question, um, something along the lines of, uh, you know what, what aspect of your game, of your team or whatever has to make the most improvement for you guys to you know, take the next step, which which I would define the next step as at least breaking even

and go into a bowl game. What's He's probably gonna say, our defense has to get better, right, but he might say our offense, we've got to do this. You can't turn the ball over YadA, but you know, or he may say something like we gotta work harder or whatever. But I would say, you know, in order to get to the in order to take the next step, what's the biggest thing, the most important thing you gotta do? And I think defense defense will be the thing mine

is. In the third year, this is kind of you have to break through. Does he what does that mean to him? And does he believe that? Because the first year was kind of like, you know, you have nothing yet you're suck. We know you're gonna suck ground zero Grands Mights one, although we didn't think you're gonna lose ten au but okay, then they did. Then the second year they did better than expected. Now the third year you're even talking playoffs. A lot of the people we have on

the show talking playoffs. What will that take or what does breakthrough mean to you? Yeah? And does he believe that? Question? Like that, he's gonna say something like we're gonna win a pack golf champions Oh, that ain't gonna happen. Well, of course not, but that's what that's what Jed Fish would say. Yeah, nothing, sort of a championships a breakthrough

for us, let's see. Yeah, and that'll be And then does it call him that I'm saying, that's you and I know that that's not the reality, right, you know, maybe you know, you know when he's sitting at home, you know, with a glass of wine or a beer, he's thinking, we just got to get to a bowl game this year, But publicly that's not He's not gonna settle for that being good enough.

That's my that's my opinion of who who I think? Yeah, I think, um, I think the realistic cancer is just to improve on last year. Like what you gotta talk about? Would you guys talk about about me? Seven eight wins? Right? And then you'll be kind of going into the neighborhood of okay, that's Arizona football. Right. If you improve on last year, you're in a bowl your record. If you improve your record by one game, you're in a bowl game? What is it improved?

But the record doesn't show it. That's gonna be hard, that's gonna be a hard sell. But somebody like you or me. Right, we'll see, we'll see, we'll see that. We'll say, man, they just had a tough other teams got really good. Like you say all the time, everybody else is getting better too, all right, you know, you and I might see it. But Joe fan out there, who's paying, you know, for a season ticket, is gonna be pissed. If he's not gonna reckon, he's gonna say, well, maybe you're better, but

it shouldn't short on the field. So I don't feel like you were better. Yeah, yeah, okay, I think that's how again, that's how fans will take. We'll see what happens. We'll see what happens in the coming weeks. We have a good show today, Yeah we do. Uh, coming up in just a few minutes. Brett Fara the new sports editor at the Arizona Daily Star. UM just taking over the reins for Ryan Finley,

who left a few months ago. Michael lev sat in his interim sports editor for a while, decided to go be a columnist and and do some continue to do some writing. So Brett Farah, somebody I've known for a while. Uh, played a little softball with him on Hope team out of sports Parks. Just the guy who's been around, uh, been tied to sports for a long time. He's a new sports editor there. This will

be our first chance to talk to him about the job. Okay. And then the second hour, I was watching the craziness of the hot dog getting contest. We had her on last year, Uh, let's go, let's she finished third this year. I can't remember what she finished the second last second last year, she second last year and first the year and she was close again. You know, she was close again. But I didn't realize she won the twenty twenty one, did you. I don't remember say asking

her that. Yeah, no, we we did that. We when we put her on the show. We had her on the defending cham after after not winning. Okay, so she'll be back. She's in New York. She's gonna give us like twelve minutes or whatever. Um. And she's from two sons. Um. Why in the hell did she do these things were talking about, we're talking about Bravo and all. Then why in the hell are you fighting? Why the hell you eating hot dogs? Yeah? I saw the stats, the finished sheet. The champ was. You know,

she killed her thirty nine dogs second place. That thing had thirty was closer than norm Michelle had twenty four. So I don't know if that's like if you having off to day, or is that a bunch that she can do. That's two and a half two and a half pretty much minute a minute. Yeah, I could eat two and a half to hot dogs in a minute, but I can only do that's all the hot dogs I'm eating, right, I don't don't forget the buds. Yeah, don't forget the buds.

I can look, I can eat two dr Winer Spiel chili dogs in a minute, but then I can't eat any Then I'm done until the until tomorrow, and you're up a store exactly. Okay, all right, let's go take our break. We're gonna come back. We're gonna have bred Farah from there's on the Daily Star. We'll be joining us to uh just talk about isn't your job? And what he's going to be doing and what we can expect from the starts uh with him, with him and charts up stick

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Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Subscribe now to the podcast on the iHeartRadio app Just Surgery I on the Ball. Hey, welcome back to tying the Ball here Fox Sports fourteen fifty on Steve Rovera. He's Jacon saus Now on the phone. We have Brett Fara from the Arizona Day Start, the new sports editor of the Arizona Day Star. Brett, how are you? Hey, guys? What's going on? Well? Not much? How are you doing? I'm too mean and I think you can correct

me if I'm wrong. Uh that this is kind of like a dream job for you. It's it's pretty close, you know. I mean, I've I've been a news reporter, a sports reporter, managed newsrooms. I worked on campus at You have A for a decade working with students at the student media arms there that ran the Daily Wildcat, et cetera. But twenty some

years ago coming up through here and and following you around you. I I joke with Bruce Pasco about this all the time, all the times to you that I used to follow the two of you around, whether you noticed it or not, and try and pick up, you know, how to be a better a better sports reporter. And this this was always the one that I thought, you know, ten, fifteen, twenty years from now, that's the job I won. I love Tucson and don't want to go anywhere,

and somehow magically it came to fruition this last month. So so I'm a pretty happy guy right now. My apologies for giving you the impression. You know, Brett, if you if you'd have called me okay, I just said you need to up the game just a little bit, not a lot. Well, Greg Hamson, was you know, a little out of reach? Yeah? Anywhere quirky every so often, here's some some fascinating stories about life. But but yeah, no. I will say this though,

as a kid twenty years ago, and I say that very definitively. I don't like to be pejorative about college students, but I was a kid.

I didn't know what I was doing. I had the best teachers, in the game, from you guys to you know, even in the sid office at you a game, from Rich Page and uh and and Tom Duddleston, you know, I mean the people I got to be around and learn like it was a it was a murderous row there, and so I feel very lucky to still be in this town and and have a lot of them you guys still around, because it's it's obvious why why people take sports in this

city so passionately is because the people covering it and involved in in the middle of it have have more knowledge than than we could all imagine as a community. So well that first of all, congratulations, because that's very cool that that you're able to, you know, fulfill this. So now tell us first impressions of the job you've been in one of just like a month or

a few weeks, Um, what are your first impressions? First impressions I mentioned I mentioned a murderers grow you know in this city for for decades, but really here as a star. I mean, part of the reason why this job was so appealing to me, Um, when the opportunity presented itself is if you look at from from Bruce Pasco to Michael left too. We still have Greg Anthon in the fold. It's a different elements these days, but Greg is still just as important as he's ever been to our coverage and

end to this city. UM to PJ. Brown and Justin Spears, I mean, there is no lack of experience, lack of knowledge. No, you know, again, not trying to be pejorative, but it's not a twenty two year a group of twenty two year olds straight out of school that we're trying to figure out how to cover things. These are These are the experts on sports in this city, along with you guys and so many others.

I mean, from a standpoint of being able to do this, my job here is to look big picture of long term while maximizing the strength of what they do. So from that standpoint, I feel incredibly lucky that, um, this is an incredible group that they're they're teaching me things every day rather than the other way around. So that's how it should be. I think you come on, oh, you know a lot about sports, obviously local and the passion you spoke of that it comes at a tough time bread

and I'm not blowing smoke because you know this better than me. Um, it's a summer. You know how summers are in Tucson. It's like, oh, what's the story, You're gonna go find it. But because it's the summer, ad soon everyone leaves and then, um, the newspaper business has changed so much since you were a kid, as you said to now, how is that going? How well? What do you think's going to happen from here on out? I mean, if I knew that answer, I wouldn't just be, you know, in the job, the dream job

I want. I'd be I'd be king of this industry. I don't think anybody knows exactly how this is all going to play out. And I don't say that loosely. I mean I joke about it, because sometimes you have to joke about the things. It's a difficult time. But at the same time, I think, I think what I can say about the Star and bringing me on board. Um, you know, we lost Ryan Siddley to an incredible opportunity for him. Everybody knows Ryan in this city and to have

him leave is a big blow. But but to bring me on and keep the rest of the staff intact and invest in what we're doing and making sure that you know, this is still taken seriously. It's yes, news is vital, the breaking news of the day is vital. But this is a community that rallies around things like the Wildcats and sports, in particular high school

sports. You know tomorrow you mentioned the summer, Jay, I mean Steve Tomorrow, We got Elijah Rushing probably making his commitment, and and you know, who knows how the lid is going to blow off this city if he if he decides one way versus another. Yet multiple you of a women's golf alumni, including Anico Storan stam probably the best women's golfer of all times at Pebble Beach starting tomorrow. So there's news going on and stuff going on.

But to answer your question big picture, um, summer is not easy, and it's getting creative and coming up with new things to not only engage our staff with the community, but the other way around. I think one of the things I really hope to implement and to have Bruce and Michael and PJ and Justin on board with this is very comforting to me that they're they're up for this is we want to make sure that their expertise is out there in

the community. They're not just behind a screen typing of stories that we allow the folks who want to know and connect just like you guys do on your shows, just like all the other outlets in town have found success in. We don't want to be behind the eight ball on that, and so one of the big things coming forward is going to be making sure that the four of them and me are accessible, are able to be conduits for the public

to the teams and the sports that they want to see. I know that sounds so vague and kind of pie in the sky, but I mean literally like putting ourselves out there and creating communications and conversations with the fans. It's not just going to be stories, Okay, move onto the next one.

We're we're seeing what's what's moving the needle, and it's it's yes, we're going to always write the really good coverage, but it's more than that, as you guys know, and to have a group that's on board with that, I think is very exciting. Here. Have you been able to kind of get your arms around how you cover things here in town because you know, Steve and I who've been you know, here for a hundred years, and you know, back when you know, sports staffs and all newspaper staffs

were you know, we're being pretty large. Yeah, you know you've got limitations. Now you've got to deal within that, you know, And how do you approach that? And how do you get stuff covered that one needs to be covered versus maybe should be covered, right because some stuff that should be covered maybe you just can't. How do you? How do you? I mean, I think high schools is a great point on that. I mean I think to me, to me, there's a piece of this.

You know, we're in a competitive industry, but I think we also have to recognize that there are numerous outlets in this town. Um from radio units like you guys, to all sports too on which I know see sincs to to to a lot of the fans psyche type elements in town, to TV stations. There are so many resources to cover things like high schools and U of a sports set. Well, we want to be the pre eminent one. We're also not saying that with any kind of negativity toward our peers in

this industry. And to me, I think being a resource is more important than being the only person with a story. And so what I hope to really accomplish is figuring out if there is a way that we can help get the right news in front of people. If it's an email newsletter and we're putting links to other folks in town who are doing stories, even if those page views aren't coming to us, that's still being a resource to our audience.

If we are on social media and sharing what another competitor, for lack of their word, quote unquote, is doing, I don't have a problem with that. To me, the goal is creating trust amongst the audience and making sure they know that the truth is we don't have a thirty large sports staff and at the same time, we know there's things that are being covered. You know, if Annie Morales and Jabbia Morales are covering high schools to the degree we wish we were, well, then I want to amplify what

they're doing. You know, that doesn't hurt us. That helps us because it gains trust amongst the audience we're working with. So to your point, we're not going to be able to cover everything, but we're going to make sure that we're picking up the right thing. Last thing we're gonna for rambling. That's also the benefit of where Michael Lesley roll. I know, you guys know Michael Rowell. He's been on the UFA football beat for about the

last eight years. He's shifting into a feature senior writer column this type role where his job is to be covering the biggest thing happening. That could be high schools. That could be a local golf that could be Little League, that could be U of A, that could be all literally everything in terms of the needs and wants. That's where Michael's role is going to come into

play too. So it may not be covering everything, but what we do cover, we're going to absolutely be great at it, and that's because of the staff we have. So I know that's a very roundabout way to answer the question, but it's a very good question, and it's the one I'm going to spend my entire time working here for you, however long it lasts, I hope really long time, continuing to work toward and try and figure out that, you know, getting as close to that infinite zero as I

can on what the answer is to that. That's a very noble approach because it's nothing that we would have done thirty years ago. In fact, we didn't talk to each other thirty years ago I hated. Now you're sharing stories. Now you're sharing stories and almost applauding the competition just because you see that there's worth in the story. Well, I think that. I think I

think you're totally right. I mean, I think that the best thing I can say about this city, even amongst the competitive nature of covering sports, is that there's a lot of really really good, talented and experienced people doing this. And I'm not going to lie to you. Guys know there's people

with way more talent experits than I have. So the best thing I can do, sort of being the you know, conductor for lack of a better word, in this particular office, is making sure I'm amplifying or helping our staff amplify ourselves. But also if there are other folks doing things that that supp or the mission of covering sports in the right way in this city, We're not going to steal their work. That's not the point at all. It's to make sure that, you know what, if we have a reader

that says, hey, why don't you cover this? I might give them an honest answer and say, you know what, we weren't able to, but hey, I'm glad you trust us for that, let me show you who it is. And I think that there's some value in that, in gaining the confidence from an audience that, you know, we're not going to get to every one point one million people in this town, but if we can hit the ones that trust us that need it, I'm going to make sure we do. Yeah, it makes sense and a great point. Great

point. Now, I think that's you know, it's sort of a new I'm I'm gonna say to use this work because I'm not even trying to know exactly what it means, but a new paradigm in in uh, you know, in journalism right to say, we know we can't do it all, so if we all kind of you know, ban this together, it does all get done because you're right, you know, the Morales Brothers cover so much stuff and even they get crap that they're not covering enough. So,

you know, I think I think it's really interesting. I think it's also we recognize that the audiences are different. Our audience for our print newspaper, which is still strong, is completely different than the audience that we're seeing online from just that use our website, and the audience that refers to us for things from email newsletters which are robust or other methods. So it's instead of trying to be everything to everyone, it's making sure that we're maximizing those areas.

We're not going to be able to use other sources. Stuff in print that's a different animals, but linking to something in a digital format is helping all parties involved in the sense that you know, and it's a simple thing that we need to do more of. And I think that news outlets lately have been doing better at that, making sure that we're supporting each other and putting who's breaking a story, and not just locally in Tucson, but we've

seen that in sports coverage across the board. If something's broken by a local news source and ESPN goes to run if they're citing, for the most part, other than certain times, they're citing who broke that story, And I

think that's important that we do that as an industry. Okay, So now, having said all that, what's going through your brain right now as all hell gets ready to break loose here and let's say late August and September, when high schools are going you have a football is on all the other all yo a sports you know, are you are you going home and night going what the hell am I doing in this job? Or how you how are you thinking about all of this? Right? No, I I'm excited for

it. I know that's that's the canned answer, but I'm really excited for it. I think. I think, to me, the best part of this is going to come when we have too much stuff. Like you guys said, I would rather have the decision we have to make of what's going on and what do we cover then, you know, I'm not trying to pull too much behind the curtains and trying to make sure, shoot, I got another page in a print newspaper tomorrow. I got to figure out what's

going in there. You know. I would rather have too much stuff going on and be able to to make sure that we're maximizing our resources to the best way we can. So, No, I'm excited for August. I

think. I think getting to that point is going to be amazing. There's a lot of really interesting stuff going on even before between now and then, you know, from this man's basketball trip to the Middle East to um, you know, getting to tomorrow, like we said, with a love of rushing at South Point to getting to text World media days and the first time we're gonna, you know, have an opportunity to have people you know, talk to the Jet Fish and anyone tied to you with a football program since

spring ball. And there's been news that's happened since spring ball with Jay Nlaura and other things. I mean, there's a bod going on in the short term that to me is just a build up for the most fun time of the year, which is when we hit that September, October, November element of getting to you know, even in November, you know, talk about Arizona playing at Duke. I mean, there's so many amazing things going on in the first four or five months of the of the academic calendar that I

can't wait till August gets here. Yeah, yeah, No. And then leading a group of good guys that who love what they do probably helps a lot. It does, And I feel really blessed that there was a decision made by Ryan and his leadership to also expand, you know, to include someone like PJ. You know, Pja is you know, covering beats that

traditionally news outlets on this part of the country haven't covered. Um, I feel very proud to be part of an organization that puts pride into that and PJ being the pre eminent firston covering you a women's basketball which obviously has had an amazing five or six years under a Da Barn so um so yeah, it's it's it's a really amazing group and that's probably the best part of this

job altogether. Well, we like you will will be using the hell out of you guys, because we do anyway, right with the with the Bruce during basketball and Leve during football, and and Justin even though he's a competitor, he was on the show last last week, and you'll be on as often as we can have you if that's possible. But you're not a competitor anymore because he changed time spot. He decided the afternoon with the sought for him. Yeah, exactly needed he needed to. You know, you got

you got David Kelly now going head to head a little bit. But but Justine said, now, I don't I don't want that. After dude, I'm going to get away from these guys. I like how you're thinking we're gonna take it just like you use that. We're going to use that clip in fact, for no, you're gonna get me in trouble with my guy. Thanks a bunch, hey, Bratt, thanks a whole bunch, and good good luck on the job, and I know we'll be in touch,

all right. Take care from the Arizona Daily Star. New project's new role. Obviously, we'll see how that goes and go very well. Yeah, hard job man. It is this it's not this is not our grandfather's. Well when we were, when we were sports writers thirty some years ago, it was different, right, it was different, and it just slowly you had to beat. You covered what you need to cover, and you let everybody else worry about all the other stuff. Now you got these guys who

I'm going across different you know, all the different sports. So your Michael Laft sounds like he's got to do a little bit of everything. Right. That's it. Just games stopped. It just came away that they gotta figure it out. So all right, we'll be back then we'll take your calls five to zero, four, one, six, seventy four, forty. If you're an Arizona Man's basketball fan, you know it's been successful for newly forty years. Now take a look back at the Ludolson 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 men who led them, competed against them, and inspired them. Twenty five chapters for his twenty five years as Arizona's beloved coach. Lessons from Loot is an insight to how he built the program into a national powerhouse. What one email me at Steve dot RIVERA ninety five at gmail dot com.

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Okay, welcome back to one about him on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve, He's Jay. We have about twelve minutes. You guys want to give us a call five to old four one six seventy four forty. We haven't heard from you in a while. We've been out, Yeah, we have been after a couple of days, yeah, get a couple of days. How many people took that Monday off, you know, from work?

All right? Everybody? You know, I mean, I know there were some places where they weren't fighting people, but it's like, how do you you know, what do you do? What do you get done in that day? You know? I tried to work in that day and I just couldn't get my mind. Yeah, there's you know, there's some things I wanted to get done that I just couldn't get it done. There's you know, it just four day weekend. No, Yeah, of course, yeah. I might take fightay off, just so you know, I'm serious.

I might go back home. I wanted to go home, back home last weekend, trying to get well. I got. I got up today. I was a little pissed off because I turned to go to turn on Dan Patrick. Right, those guys are taking the whole week, take the whole thing. Dan Patrick is their body. He leaves, they all get better bosses. But so I was a little disappointed. So instead I had to watching Daylight this morning. Okay, I have I watched a few of the

idol so I wasn't reading an interesting article. And um, we've talked about this a number of times. Um as it relates to recruiting and recruiting the local kids. Um when when um the kid that we had on the other day. Um, oh yeah, yeah, point kid that we had on

the day that Nie of us can remember his name now. Um, But you know a big deal of how little the Kevin summer, A little effort that Kevin summ administration put into recruiting South Point at a time, there was some great Division one players coming out of there, certainly guys that Arizona probably wasn't gonna get anyways, but they didn't even try. So Ari Wasserman,

who we gotta get on the show. He's the he covers um the air Zona region for the athletic And if you don't get the athletic, I'm gonna tell you it's it's too I got a subscription to this A couple of years ago, and I don't read everything in it, but there's some all some interesting stuff that I do go read. And they did a long piece about Arizona and and the fact that how much effort it's putting into recruiting at South

Point these days. And it leads with the with a with a comment about the fact that on January thirteen, which is the first days, the first day that college coaches could go to high schools to make in person visits, the entire football staff went to South Point at six o'clock in the morning to go to their offseason workout. Now again, South Point has always got got players that are are you know, they've got a bunch of Division one guys.

As kid um Elijah Rushing is going to make his decision tomorrow. He's a forced four or five star kid, depending on on on which UM service you look at. He's an edge rusher, defensive van big kid. He's probably the number one kid coming out of Arizona. And oh he is the number one that I think he is. If he's not, he's certain way up there. You know. They made the point that regardless of whether Arizona gets him going into tomorrow, it's between Arizona and Oregon. They fought off

everybody else. There's a there's a website that's saying there's more more of a chance he's going to Arizona than Oregon. It's that website has made it so believable that Oregon fans are already on there ripping the kid and he hasn't even made his decision right to the world, right, Yeah, and the kid's name is Keona, right, Um, so you know, so Arizona's in on this kid, and and so that in and of itself is a big

deal. But this whole article, and it's the only the only person quoted in there is Eric Rodgers, they head coach at South Point, and he's just talking about what a difference there is now in Arizona, the connection between Arizona and South Point. Uh. And it's you know, whether it's South Point or Cdo or Sienaga or whoever's putting out Division one kid. If they're doing this at South Point, they're doing this with the other schools, they

got to be made. He made he made a very big note of it that high schools in Tucson and in the state are going to be a priority, right And it's he's doing what he's saying. It sounds like he's you know, to listen to here, uh at Eric Rodgers saying, I mean the number of quotes in that you just go. You know, if you're an Arizona fan who's been wanting to see them do this, this has got to give you goose bumps as to you know, what's going on over there.

But you know, Eric Rodgers said that there was he goes said, this is a quote. There wasn't one coach who wasn't there. They wanted to be with our guys and support. That was special, man, and it was unique. It was different, and it meant a lot to our team. And now you've got you know, uh, you know Elijah Rushing, you know, considering Arizona and a lot of people saying he's going to Arizona, which would be the he would be the first five star guy since

they've been doing start right. We know they got preayed all Americans, whatever the ranks we're back in the day. You know, would Michael Bates have been a five star guy? Would Mike Chaska been a five star guy? But you know, since they've been doing you know, the highest rated recruiting Arizona ever got with j team at last year and he was a four star guy. He was a high four star guy. This would be the first

five star guy that Arizona Arizona gets if they were to get it. But it's it's if you got a chance, um, you know, go read this article. It'll it'll make you feel really good about so so how he said it was a long story. What else besides what you just said? Says that over and over and over again. It goes into how how bad it was, into the history of it, goes into how bad it was.

His first got us to the point for you know, you know, Rogers talked about the pitch that they made, which was, you know, you know, be the you know, be the guy, be at home, be the guy. You'll be on every billboard in town. Everybody know you true, there'll be nil in place for you, all kinds of you know, all that stuff. He said, you know, you know, there's every reason to just stay here. Yeah, you know, and and there is. If it's all that's true, and I'm sure it is.

With the nil stuff, Yeah, it's too it's too far for us. Because we talked about this a couple of places of the nil, how much they're getting and who are they're giving it too? Before in someone's last year, someone's last recruiting class, they signed one top one thousand player one thousand. He signed one guy in the top one thousand according to two for seven

supports, which is just terrible. You know, you got to get guy um Fish got five top five hundred play Let me let me because we're on this topic now, this is a dumb question because you're not the guy that should be answering this, and don't give me um He didn't care. Why do you think that someone didn't care? It's like he was obvious. What what was the reasoning he came here for the check? Steve? And that's the answer. No, that's the answer. That's the answer I would have

given. He got a job that was gonna pay millions of dollars and he knew that they didn't have to do much and still paid a million dollars without having to work, and he didn't have to. He just he didn't he there was there was zero, zero commitment to Arizona from you saw it at Prescot. Ye saw that I watched this presc the first one. Yeah, the first one. When you know that guy does not I mean, he's

gonna take this job. And unless he's got a lot of pride in himself to just do a good job for the sake of doing a good job, he's not gonna do a good job. And he did it. And you can see it. You could see it by his his um. Uh, just watching him on the sideline at the first spring game. He looked uninterested. But there's no question. Uh. And then I was saying that after the fact, I thought that that day. No, no, no,

I get it, I get it. I was there as well, and I was in the room and and it was no excitement, no nothing, um yeah. And then they would Denhill from there. Yeah. Yeah. Here's a here's a paragraph from from what from what Washerman Rhody said. The truth is someone and his staff didn't try. In the twenty twenty recruiting class, there were three Power five prospects on South Point's roster, Arizona Whift on

all three. Then it mentioned, you know, Bijean Robinson, Lathan, Ran Bruno, you know Bruno Fino, who was you know, a legacy, said maybe there was nothing Arizona could have done to get Robinson or Ransom because Texas and how the state were involved. But someone and his staff approached you with a why bother attitude. It felt as though there was no point. Yeah, no, no, no, there's nothing that we haven't already said. The point has to be we're still gonna try so that that school

knows that we made we've made a commitment without their program. We watched their guys. We've had coaches on the show locally. I don't think we had any in Phoenix saying that the difference with this coaching staff and the last coaching staff or night and day, Yeah, night and day, because they are

making an effort to make it known that they're here right here. Here's another just another talent statement that why this is washerman, this is not he's going to the coaches didn't bother to make that same two point two mile trip to South Point. Someone took no for an answer, which is an unforgivable sin for a coach. Or the base salary of almost fifteen million dollars over five year period, and that's what you were just and that's and that's it.

Yeah, you're getting that kind of money do the job. Of course, of course, don't mail it in. Yeah, and he and he mailed it in from them for the minute he got on camp right, right. So so anyway they look again, if they don't get him, they don't get him, right. And you know what, but who who's gonna blame

him for going to Oregon? He decided to go to Oregon. Sure, but you know what Arizona has to sell is it has to be you know, if you're a Tucson kid, you become the guy, and you can become that guy for a long people, for sure, the rest of your life. Sean Elliott, Steve Kerr, Corey william Uh, you know all these guys who are still around, you know who come to Tucson and still have uh what's it called, uh, you know a profile in this town because they played a sport here. Elliot, Seanie, I can come to

if you want to start doing business. You know, I know the guy's life in San Antonio. But if you wanted to come to town and start opening businesses, people would fall all over themselves to do business. Right, Same with Steve Kerr. You know all these guys, you know, Corey Williams, like I said, you know, just a guy who Cory Williams wasn't Steve Kurr or Sean Ellie. Yet here he is is, all these years later, doing doing business in Tucson, doing great stuff, making a

great living that you know has worked out for him. You can be that guy in Tucson, Aribody, go to you know, you can go to Oregon, but you can be that guy in Oregon. But if you want to do it in your hometown, you gotta do it here. You got to stay here. And that's what Arizona has to sell. That's what they had by tomorrow all time, I don't know by tomorrow. Sometime tomorrow we'll know if that works or didn't work. What happened to the kid that went

to Oregon from here? Miller or something like that who went to Oregon left but I don't know where he wanted. But he didn't land anywhere unless he just said I don't need football anymore. I don't I don't know. I should come maybe text somebody, because he was one of those guys that left, didn't like it or for whatever reason, and came back for here for for a little while. You know, they've been and there've been some other guys who have done that. You just gotta text this. It's at two

o'clock tomorrow. Okay. So you know, look, I think Arizona fans would love it if you came Q went to a Jay Thank you Hugger jac in California. That's yeah, okay, okay cool. So you know, if if Elijah Russian decides to go to go to uh Oregon, you know, best luck works out for you worked hard for that, you deserve it.

But but if you go to Arizona, there's you know, there's a lot of play for you here at Arizona and you can't you can't ignore what comes with that, other than the visibility of playing for four years at a place like Oregon. So uh, you know, hope, we'll see what happens, but this it would be a big day for Arizona in the model. All right, well, we're gonna be back. We've got breaking news

and then we'll take you, oh, breaking news. And then we've got to Michelle Lesko, who finished third in the women's division of the Hot Dog Eating Contest yesterday. We'll talk to her all about that. We'll be right back