Wednesday, March 27, Hour 2

Streaming live. I mean I heard radio WAF. This is Eye on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jacob Salez on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Welcome back to Vollking on Fox Sports fourteen to fifty on your host Jacob Zalas. Bye, buddy. Sammy is in here running the show today. Woo. So we're gonna turn her over to Samue right now for breaking news Eye on the

Ball, breaking news, yes, some literal breaking news. Georgetown head coach ed Ed Cooley is stepping down after just one year at the program and had some very interesting words to say, saying that this project, this rebuild, will take a lot more, a lot longer than expected, in that some of his personal relationships have been tarnished by it as well. So he's stepping down after just one year after year, you know that says that that says

a lot about what a mess Patrick Ewing made of that job. Well, I think it was already a mess before you and found here. And not to say that Ewing made it worse, made it better this that the other, but it says a lot that Ed Cooley from the job that he was doing at Providence and the program that he had built, came over and had these expectations and after one year one year was like, I can't do this. It's gonna it's gonna take a lot more than just me, which is

really really interesting. So that just broke and then Washington State had basketball coach Kyle Smith. I don't know if you guys talked about it. Yesterday He's headed to Stanford, Yes, and he had a really his press conference was really really cool. He was talking about his son with with autism and Stanford having a lot of really really good resources for his son. So he got

a little emotional about that. It's a great yeah. And that was very cool because because you know, when you think about these coaches, you think, well, they're only about sure the basketball. You forget that they have families. I remember, you know, people talked about you know, Chris Peterson and you know, shit, he takes the the USC job. He was up at Washington he said, should he take the USC job? When? Uh, when the time came and he's got a special needs Yeah,

a special needs kid that uh he needed to be in Seattle. Yeah, and people, why wouldn't you take the OC because I got a kid that has stuff that he needs to be up here, right, and you forget

about that. Yeah. And Dan Lanning, the head football coach for Oorgon, he was asked constantly when his name was being thrown in the hat for Alabama, and I remember in an interview he was saying that his family and his kids have like been grounded here in Oregon now and that they have this, they've built this relationship with the schools and this, that and the other, and to pick them up and move again would just be a lot.

And so I do I do respect a lot of those coaches that just can can say no and comfortable where they're at and and and you know, and they they have to. I mean, they've got they've got things, and they've got you know, they got families, and they've got all this stuff, and you just forget. Yeah. Switch Gears, the president of the nc double A this past a couple of days, was asking states to ban NCAA player prop bets, And that was something that we didn't include in the

Tommy Lloyd segment, but I find it really interesting. Obviously, sports betting within the United States is is state based, so but it is college sports and college players. And I think NIL has had some had some stuff to do with this. But because before this you couldn't bet on player props with

now, and you can't do it in Arizona. They never they've never allowed that, but other places have allowed that, And I that's a no brainer rule because you got these are young kids that can be easily influenced into something. Sure, and so you know, when you're talking about pros, they're

making a bunch of money. You know, the the the likelihood that they and there's still some guys who are going to do that, but the likelihood is it's not as easy to get to them as it is to get to you know, a kid, a college student, you know who might need a few extra bucks and whatever. So I have no problem with that. I've stayed away from from college preps anyways, because it's just I mean, I've been told a million times, what are you doing betting on eighteen to

twenty two year olds? To begin with? Sure, Now, if you're betting on one individual eighteen year old, that's that's not good. I agree. I think there's always lines that and there's lines in the sand, and I think the NCAA and the even the people betting on this stuff should take

a look at themselves. Like you said, they're eighteen to twenty two year olds that are playing a game that ninety eight percent of them won't play past the college the college game, and so they're they're having a good time. They're competing, and it's really really a lot when you're betting on someone to have however many points, how many rebounds, right, and they're just trying to win a game and for some go to class the next day, you

know. So that's really interesting. Now there's only sixteen teams left. Jay, we talked obviously about a couple of them, but you're some honestly pretty interesting stats storylines within you games. So Duke and Houston are playing in the upper right corner. I think that's a great game breaking and they've never played against each other, Wow, the history of ever Duke basketball Houston basketball, first time ever. So that's a cool one. Should be should be a

really good game. Duke's been playing really well. Houston got an overtime scare, so we'll see who comes out of that one. Uh. Top left, you have yukon Stsu right the championship from last year rematch. That's right, Holy cow, So you can't even think of that's why I'm here, Why I'm here. Moving on to the Gonzaga Perdue game. So this is Gonzaga's ninth straight Sweet sixteen. So a lot of times, especially the last couple of years, it's been O Gonzaga was this or is this small conference?

Good story, but hasn't won a lot of big games mark few And Gonzaga has been to nine straight fund their nine straight Sweet sixteens. Right, really really good. Say what you want about what conference they playing and stuff.

When you do that, you've been pretty damn good. I agree, And Perdue and Zach Edy, who is arguably the most dominant player in the country, is the first player since Luell Cinder or crime Ol Dujebbar too in his first two NC double A games have fifty points and thirty five rebounds through the first team. Wow. So he's in and that that that that hits me right here, because I you know, I saw Luel Cinder as a kid and I loved watching him play for U c l A. And Zach

Edy and Purdue have a good thing going. He looks like that, I mean, he you know, I'm trying not to give you a lot of props here because I know you took Purdue, but he he was He's a he's a beat, He's unstoppable. I don't I'm not saying I think if Arizona had to play them, I don't know what we do. I don't know that they could play him as well as they played him when they got

to beat the first time. And I do think if they do play Creighton in the Elite eight, their their big man is is pretty good as well. So that's those are my numbers there. You go to Clemson and Arizona the game that we've been talking about. So Clemson is the best free throw shooting team in the country. Wow, shooting at a team percent of seventy nine percent. So that could be important if the game's close, they're more

than likely going to hit their free throws. And I don't know, I've watched you with a lot we have good percentages, but sometimes it never feels like, well, it always made like when you need the free throws that

it's Thumarbalo at the line. Yeah. Always, and you know, you know when when he gets fouled under the basket, I'm like, crap, this could be an empty possession, you know, when they got when they made a good play to get him the ball under the basket, and and that, you know, and not not not taking a shot at Umar about

that, but that that's what it is, you know. Of course, the other night I had a game and I'm trying to hang on on the line and the guy goes to the line and is a fifty percent free throw shooter. Yeah, and he makes two free throws, and I'm like, what the hell is this? Hey, that's how it goes sometimes, you know. And the Arizona and little nugget that I like, Kylon Boswell has dipped down under this at just nine point eight points per game, but before

we had had five starters double figures, which is the nation's best. So something to look there. Illinois and Iowa State a lot of a clash of two different styles. I think. I think that's a completely understated game. Again, people were assuming that as good as Iowa State's been, that they're just going to kick their asses. Illinois is a three seed. Yeah, Illinois top four offense in the country, Iowa State top four defense in the country. So that'll be that'll be fun. And we all saw what Iowa

State did to Houston. That was ugly. That was just ugly ugly. Marquette and NC State so interesting. Nugget Shaka Smart has yet to be has yet to go back to the Elite Eight since his Cinderella run pcuh So that's been a while and NC State now has won seven seventh straight game straight game. Every one of those games would have been their last game. Yep, I agree and unbelievable. A lot of people look back to that shot against Virginia. They don't make that shot, they don't win that game. The

bank the bank shot bank like half court. Yeah, exactly, And honestly, I think that's gonna be my favorite game to watch this week. Tyler cole X back. It seems seems virtually unguardable, but NC State is the hottest team in the country aside from Yukon, and they have three really really good players U n C and Bama. Bama is the oldest team remaining in Oh no, no, sorry North Carolina. Their average age is older than the Oklahoma City we had that yesterday. Okay, yeah, it's funny.

I'm like yeah. And an interesting thoking about this game is Alabama has yet to be uh yet to play in a final four in program history. There's four teams Bama, Clemson, Creighton, and Tennessee yet to play. I thought they got beat early. That's they were one. They were the one seedon Yeah, okay, you're And the last two teams that haven't been to the Final four play against each other. Tennessee and Creighton UH to go to to the Elite eight to then play for a Final four. And Tennessee has

Dalton Cannet, one of the best players in the country. If you haven't seen him, he is fantastic. And Creighton under McDermott, it seems like they've had a good enough teams to go to the Final four but have yet to go to the final four. So that is the quick breaking news you look at it. There's really not a lot of not a lot of other stuff going on. The stuff is still really hanging out there. I know he didn't do anything. I really hope he didn't, genuinely for the sport

of baseball. I pray exactly. We didn't cover this yesterday because I think it happened even during the show. Then you kickoff rule and the hip drop rule in the hip the hip drop, I don't even know what that is. I don't either, So I'm you know, but did new kickoff thing I have? I saw a bunch of tweets on it yesterday. It's like it's like we're headed towards playing t ball. Just put the ball in the

twenty five yard line and let's go. But and I just feel like, you know, I get, you know, with the with the bodies that the way they are and stuff like that. But football is a game where you get hurt. I I I agree with that, and to that level of if they're going to get rid of it, stop beating it around the bush and just get rid of it. And if you're going to want to do an on side kick, you do a fourth and twenty play, right

something. That's what That's what you get rid of it all together exactly because there's still going to be the people that are going to get hurt in this new rule, new format. And yeah, I understand the protection rules. Yeah I agree with you, Sammy, But I grew up playing football. The first my first uh tagle football game, quarterback, I broke my arm. It's it's how it goes. It is the only play I got to play in and and freshman and JV football. I was on the kickoff team.

Yeah, because I was fast, and so they you know, I was little, but I was fast. They thought I could go out there and get into somebody's legs and tackle them. Yeah, and that's the only time I got to play because I was little. I agree, and I totally get it with the the all the information that comes out posts and all this, that and the other. But then you it's it's a larger it's a larger picture thing though. Yeah, it is. Then what are we

what are we doing? But all right, real quick, I want to play this clip we got from we picked up off of off of a social media of Steve Kerr. It was on the on the Final four twitter feed. Just somebody did a little brief two minute interview with Steve talking about his his Final Four experience. Here's what he had to say, thinking back thirty five years nineteen eighty eight, Final four, what what kind of comes to mind? What are the first memories that you think about? Well, the

good memories were advancing to the Final four. You know, I'll never forget our game in Seattle Elite Aid we beat North Carolina and the feeling of just pure joy and elation for our team, coach Olsen, for all of our fans. It was incredible. My second emotion is thinking back thirty five years nineteen eighty eight finals. I'm not sure what happened there. We're gonna have

to fix that. We'll try and play it, play it back during the during what maybe at the end of the show we didn't I didn't listen to it before we put it on. We just threw it on there. So I'll fix that and we'll come back to it. All right, let's go and take our break. Sure, we're going to have John Court, who's gonna be calling us from he's the Arizona gymnastics coach. UH. They're playing

in the they're participating. You don't play gymnastics. They're competing in the UH, in the UH, in the NC Double A regional that Faydeville, Arkansas next week. Nine times, nine teams get into each regional. UH. They've got a shot at this. They're not one of the sixteen top seeds in the in the in the competition, but they are. They're in and it's like I think I believe his fifth in a row that they've reached NC

Double A. So he's really gotten the program going. They've had a great season, so we'll let him talk a little bit about and bring us up to speed on what we can back from his teammate. I think you'll see you can see those competitions on ESPN. So we'll be right back with John Court Arizona Gymnastics. The Window Depot is more than a Windows store. The Window Depot is a one softwarehouse with everything you need for your complete Homer model.

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Welcome back time the ball Here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm your host, Jacob Zalas Steve on the road in La. We had a chat with him a little bit ago. Now on the phone, we've got Arizona Gymnastics coach John Court joining us to talk about the season. He's had another n C Double A Championships appearance. Aheaded to Fayetteville, Arkansas next week. Coach, thanks for joining us. We appreciate you being here. Thanks thanks for

having me. Jay really appreciate it. So tell us a little bit about you had some an amazing year again, Uh, a lot of a lot of records being set and and a and a and a team that, uh, you know, just kind of was good all year long. Tell us a little bit about your team, you know, throughout the year, and then we'll talk about, uh, what you're expecting to see next week. Sure, sure, Well, we have a we have a fabulous team.

We're very well balanced throughout all of our classes. And I'm fortunate enough to work with two great coaches, a trainer, and academic counselors and sports psychologists. It takes a village to have our success, and it's been a very special year. We've we've changed us. We have changed our train of thought from last year. We wanted to score higher. We want to go a

little bit deeper into the NC Double A tournament. We want to do better in our conference and try to make this season very very very memorable and we were We have absolutely been able to do that so far. We still have a few more meats left, we hope, and we're going to keep the magic going through NCY Double. Ash Well, when you talk about that, what kind of you said you wanted to do these things? But what do you as a coach see as the adjustments or the changes that you have to

make to get to where you want to get to. As far as that goes, We've always really paid attention to the details in practice, and that's something that we focused on a little bit more because our sport is subjective. They're definitely get you get points for style, right, but some one is also judging you against somebody else that's doing something very similar. So we dialed into a lot more landing and handstands and always have been supportive of each other.

So they're a loud group that's here, really loud, which which is nice. And we've also changed our schedule around a little bit to see a different type of team. And okay, and so how did I mean, how did it come out? Obviously you're you're back in the turn and in the tournament, back in the in the n C Double. As you set some scoring records and and things like that, both individually and as a team.

You did, did it come together as much as you had hoped or better than you had hoped, or there's still some things that you're reaching for. Well, I'm a coach, so there could always be more. There could always be more when you're a coach. The first, the first really stands out. ESPN hosted a competition we were fortunate enough to go through this

year. There was four teams up in Utah, there was Boise State, Nebraska, North Carolina, and we really set our sites to go into that competition and it it was going to be on live TV the ACC Network, and we were able to do that. In the last rotation we were down by five tens, we came back to win it and that really was a

springboard, one of the springboards for our success this year. So you tell us a little bit about some of the individuals who maybe you know shined a little you know, did more, maybe more or as much as you would hoped for them in the different in the different events. Well, we have some really great seniors leading up and Malia Harbor with your senior, A lot

of deeps is a senior as well as Caroline Harry Jess Jessic Castles. Our seniors are doing nine of the twenty four routines that were doing every every single night the freshman class came in. They're certainly ready to play. They've been doing a bunch. I think that Emma Strom is one of our sophomores. She's probably the most improved player from last year where she didn't play much,

and she has been a three event starter this this year. Four right, right, and Ali fears in the all around, certainly carries a load at every single meat and that that is our roster night in and night out, from meat to meet. You know, do you set your sights on different stuff? You know? I mean, good, look, we're football guys. Basketball guys. You game plan for the other team and that kind of

stuff. With gymnastics, it's more about what you're doing right and and but how do you you know what kinds of goals do you set for a specific meat? Is it all about scoring? Is it you know, hitting certain things? I mean, educate me a little bit on that. It's the second thing that you said, it's about hitting certain things and controlling the controllables and what I mean by that is that's our form, that's how well we perform, you know, dance wise expressions. How many hand stands do we

do? How many sticks do we have? You don't have to know anything of out gymnastics, but you know what the stick is, you know, and soone lands something they shouldn't move, all right, twenty four routines? How many of those things did we accomplish? And hopefully our score is reflective of what we accomplished. Right now, do you see a progression over the course of the air. You like a team that's got to be getting,

you know, playing its best as the season goes on. And how much can you you know, how much can you move as far as that goes right, because the scoring and the and the performances are so you know, detailed, and you know a tenth of a point where half of you or one hundredth of a point can make a difference. How do you look at that over the course of a season. Well, you want to peak towards the end, but you also have to be ready to go the first the

first night of the year. Our consistency has been our strength all year long, and we've been scoring that high high one ninety six area. We scored a one ninety seven back in January. We are a team that makes routines. We're we don't we don't miss a lot of routines. We have not done that all year, and we have a good reputation for doing fundamental exciting gymasters. Yeah, so what what what are your sites set on next week

in Arkansas? Uh? You know, do you have do you have the have the growth, look at some individual stuff that they need to get done. What do you want to accomplish as a team? I know you you know everybody wants to win it all right, but uh you know what what do you what are some realistic thoughts about what what would make you happy next week? Well, you want to play as long as you can. Obviously

every coach, well every coach will tell you that. So if you can't make the national championships, make the sweet sixteen, If you can't make the sweet sixteen, make all of your routines, because your national ranking is also going to be based off of what you do and that need right, So if you can't make the sweet sixteen, maybe you finished ranked seventeenth or eighteenth

in the nation. That's a yes, Okay, Okay, any issues with you know, where you got to go, who you got to compete against, uh, that type of thing, you know, going to this particular regional. Well, are our session. We have Kentucky, Arkansas with a three seed. Nebraska is behind us. So Nebraska we saw opening night. Arkansas we competed against at a neutral site in Texas, and Kentucky we haven't seen it. Yeah, so certainly we want to control what we can control,

but we have we have to be good. Okay, we have to do our best gymnastics in that biggest moment on Thursday afternoon. All right, and and what what will that be? You know, you know everybody getting or you know some people, some of them girls getting you know, highest scores for the season, those kinds of things. Or are you keeping an eye on the other you know, on the other teams? How are you looking at this when you're actually competing. Well, but coaches can watch the

other team. We'll we'll take care of that because we know, we know that there's some matchups that we need to win just score wise in order to advance, right, So we're going to look at that for them. We want them just to maximize their routines, don't give anything away and go big. We have nothing to lose, right, right, everything to gain. I would say Arkansas might have everything to lose because they're they're they're hosting.

It's a different type of pressure. Wow, okay, all right, you mentioned that you know a bunch of seniors you have, I mean, how how much do you relying on them to kind of you know, hold it, you know, get the team confidence, hold them together, you know, pep talk's in the huddles, those kinds of things. Do you rely on that? Yes? Absolutely, I'm a I'm a player's coach. I

don't believe in over coaching. And it's so important. You know, they trust each other, they feed off each other, and they can also motivate each other in certain circumstances. You know, if I were to sit down and watch uh, your your meat, which I you know, I think I will because I'm just interested in who am I looking for? What am I? What am I looking for? In terms of, you know, a specific athlete in a specific event, you know what's gonna what's gonna knock

my socks off? Well, if you're looking at vaulting, okay, you want to look look at Malia. Look at Ali. Those are two of our best vaulters. Ali won our won our session at Pac Twelves on vaulting. If you're looking over at bars, Sophie dur is one of our freshmen. She's a fantastic bar swinger, and so is Ali. They both averaged nine to nine. You want you want to look over there, balance in

looked at anybody, they're they're all awesome. And they also broke the school beam record this year up in Washington, and we tied the bar record this year. So both both those events very high scoring. You can look at really anybody and floor. We have three of the three six routines or seniors. Okay, this year we start with Emma Strom Creushman lead sophomore lead up does a fantastic job. We closed out with Emily Mueller Emily Harbough. So

there's plenty of entertainment over there. How does this compare to for instance, like track right where you're track and field you you know you have you know, you know about where you are performance wise you're hoping to meet you know, go out and get a personal best or whatever like that is it's a is it a similar kind of approach in terms of how they you know, how they performed. They're looking at what they've done in the past and they're

just trying to do better than that. Right, You're really trying to beat your own times, Right I was. I was selling my vaulters at the speed of the sprinters. But yeah, so it's it's just it's fascinating to me. I was always a fan of, you know, watching the Olympic gymnastics coming up and stuff like that, and it's just it's always fascinating to

me. You might I'm like, I don't even know how they do those things, and like, how do you make that move the very first time and not you know, and not be afraid of injuring yourself or something like that. I'm that guy who thinks of it that way because I know I would never want to do with what they do. Well, that's why we got to get you to come in the gym one day and we'll give you a little one on one on one. The team can help you out and

you'll feel good next time and you watch you watch me. I don't know, man, I think I break the bars. I don't know. I don't know, Well, John, I do appreciate the time. Uh, good luck next week. We'll keep an eye on you and uh, you know, go get it man, you know, as you said, you know, get on to the next one, right. I just want to keep survive in advance, and certainly good luck to the basketball team playing this week out in l A. All right, well, good luck to you.

Thanks for your time. We do appreciate it, and we'll talk again. I appreciate it. Jay bear Down, all right, John Court, Arizona gymnaskis coach headed the Fake FAIV. I mean serious, I did you know. I mean I grew up in the you know, Olga Corbit and you know, all those and I was fascinated by that. Yeah, you know, and and it's really it really caught my in high school. This is the weirdest thing. And I don't know why this happened. I was

at our high school. It might have been a senior. It would have been seventh It was after the seventy six Olympics, so I would have been my senior year high school. And Nadia Komenich had in the Olympics. She's the first one to get a ten on her routine and stuff like that. Some for some reason, the Romanian gymnastics team came to our high school.

Damn performed in our gym and they were here or they were I must have been in for an exhibition or something like that, and we, you know, the whole school went went to the gym and there's Nadia Komenich, who I had just seen in the Summer Olympics, and I I was always fascinated by that. And I don't even know why, but it's like when I watch the Olympics, you know, a handful of sports. I always liked the track and field obviously, but you know, I love the gymnastics,

swimming to a degree, you know, and stuff like that. And I just always done that. And now my sisters, I have two younger sisters, neither one of them. They did some cheers and stuff, but not really serious gymnastics. But I I watch it and I go, who the how the hell did you do that the very first time? Yeah, you bring up a good point. How does your brain think to like, Okay, I'm gonna be able to do this, but I need to do this

motion first, then this then Like it's a progression. I think, like you do one thing one day and then in a month Awsen, You're able to do this, Like the first time you do a flip a backflip on a balance beam, it gives me the GB Like we're a couple of guys who just you know. But you know, if you're an athlete like that and you have the confidence in your ability to do that, you do it. But I don't know how you learn to do that. No, yeah,

I it probably starts with I don't even want to speculate. You got I can barely stand on a balance beam exactly right, right, exactly, you know, walk a straight line. Yeah, I'm lucky that, you know. Yeah, So all right, Okay, we're gonna be back in a few minut Well, no, we better hang on here for a couple minutes because Ryan Hansen, we're gonna get him for the next segment. Ryan's in in l A. Obviously, he'll be doing the game tomorrow with UH

with Brian Jefferies. Get some of his thoughts. I know he preps, you know, quite a bit. We'll get his thoughts on Clemson. Yeah, he'll be able to give us a nice little deep dive. Yeah. Yeah, because because I genuinely do think that people listening, people watching all week long, ESPN, whatever it may be. Like, I genuinely don't think the Tucson people know who Clemson is exactly one hundred percent, And I agree with you again, you know, you know, you know, one

of the guys at lunch said, well, yeah it's Clemson. I mean, how good do we gotta be? And I'm like, you better be pretty damn no. Like my I'm in my text chains with my buddies, it's like, well, we should take care of Clemson, right, I go, No, you can't. You can't. You can't just say oh, we'll just take care of someone, because then you lose by fifteen. They're there for a reason, exactly. They're absolutely there for a reason. Like everyone like you MEC crushed them. They were like, oh good,

good Baylor team. Yeah not even here, Yeah exactly. All right, let's go and take our break. We're and come back. We're and have Ryan Hanson. We'll get to him. He's in LA and we'll get a solid preview of Arizona Clemson tomorrow. So stick around. 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 Loudolsen Era in my new book, Lessons

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on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Jaconzalez. Your host Steve is in LA. We had to chat with him a little bit ago, and we're gonna get a little another perspective on this Arizona Clemsons Sweet sixteen game tomorrow from Ryan Hansen now on the phone calling what we called him in La. Right. Appreciate you joining us today. I know you've got a lot of stuff going

on over there calling the game tomorrow with Brian Jeffries. Initial thoughts on this game tomorrow, I mean, you know, what do we think of Clemson? First of all, any team that you're going to face and the Sweet sixteen is going to be very good. They're going to be very good at something or many things. And when you look at what Clemson does, they

are exceptionally efficient on both ends of the floor. All of their metrics suggest that their efficient offensively shoot a high percentage and on the defensive end, they do a great job of limiting their opponent from getting to their percentages. And look no further than what they did in the NCAA Tournament. They limited high powered offensive teams in New Mexico and Baylor to below their scoring averages and drastically

below their three point shooting averages, especially the Baylor Bears. I mean, Clemson has only allowed nine made threes in two games in the nca Tournament. There is going to have to recognize that this is a solid Clemson defensive unit. So you know, a game like this is a game of wills, right, if they're the styles are that different, It's kind of like,

okay, who imposes their will? How does Arizona do that? In light of all this, if Clems has been able to handle to other teams, you know, you know, up tempo teams like that, well, first of all, I think Arizona is much more disciplined offensively than Baylor, and that's something that Clemson will have to contend with. The Wildcats need to stay true to their DNA and what does that mean. It means offensively, it's an inside out attack. Arizona needs to establish the paint as their place to

feast, and that means Zumar Ballo posting up early and often. It means Arizona cutting and back cutting, utilizing ballstreen action to turn the corner and get into the lane. Arizona does not need to settle for three point shots, but they need to be confident in taking three point shots when that opportunity presents themselves. I would add one more, maybe two more points here Jay to how Arizona for it faces this game. First of all, while Clemson does

play a slower tempo than Arizona, Wildcats don't need to be frenetic. They need to push the tempo like they always would after missed shots and turnovers. And then lastly, expect a zone of sorts at some time or multiple times during the game. But watching Clemson, they do deploy a zone defense, but I don't believe it is the zone that Arizona faced against Oregon or USC

meaning a very good zone. I think we'll see a zone, but I don't think it's a zone that the Wildcats will see exceptional length and exceptional athleticism. But they have to be prepared because Arizona that's the tactic for most teams is to try to throw a zone just to see how Arizona responds. Well, time, I got asked today, you know you've got you know,

how do you build a team that can win different ways? And it's like it's the team that has the ability to do that, especially in the nincy DOAA Tournament, when you're seeing teams that you haven't before, you got to be able to do that. And I mean they've shown that they can win in a lot of different ways, but you know the consistency of it, you know, running in, you know, running into a team that is way different from what they've seen before. They you know, sometimes they're there,

sometimes they're not. How is that going to play into tomorrow? Well, as we have seen through the postseason, we have, uh, you know, we've seen a little up and down Kylon Boswell amazing in the Long Beach State game, not exactly his style and his game against Dayton. When I when I see what Arizona's toolbox is, the guys that they can go

to. The balance affords them the ability to play through different styles, play against different tempos, different defensive looks because they don't have to rely on one singular player to be the stalwart offensively for them. So that balance on the offensive end affords them the ability to withstand maybe an off night for one or

two cats on the offensive. Vent. Now you and I both know, as you advance in the tournament, less and less players can have an off night, right and Arizona can't withstand multiple guys having bad days offensively, right, well, and we saw, you know, in the Saturday game. You know, Caleb Love came out lights out in the first half and then all of a sudden he was kind of gone in the second half, or maybe it's something that the defense did, but nonetheless he had two very different

halfs. So there was that inconsistency even within a game. And you know, he's they need him for forty minutes. You know, I agree and disagree. I don't think Arizona has to play lights out for forty minutes tomorrow to win. I don't think they need Caleb Love to go for thirty for them to win. The game is an EBB and flow game every sporting event that you watch, even in football, it's not like, well, the New England Patriots with Tom Brady have to score every single time they touched the

ball or they'll lose. You know, they have to be at tiptop. You know, Tom Brady can't throw one incomplete pass. Caleb Love's gonna mince a shot, right humar Bilo is gonna give up a dunk to PJ. Hall. Clemson's gonna go on a run just like Dayton did. Why because that's sports. Tiger Woods is gonna miss a punt, It's gonna happen. I don't think Arizona has to play over their skis per se tomorrow to advance against Clemson. They just have to do their job defensively and not allow Clemson

to have the lights out game and play as Arizona basketball should. But a lot of fans get hung up on what happened in the first half, Why didn't they blow them out? What happened in the second half, Why did Dayton go on a run? Because that's sports, it's gonna happen. You just have to mitigate the big runs and withstand the rush of adrenaline from the other team and make sure that you have more minutes of great basketball than your

opponent. Well, in terms of what Arizona does and the things that the reasons that they win, whether it's you know, the the inside game with Balow, you know some some you know their guards, you know play extremely well. You know, what's the most important thing they've got to do in terms of what they do game in and game out, take care of the basketball, which if I were to say that in for tomorrow's game, Clemson does not turn you over a lot. So that means if Arizona's turning it

over, that's problematic against a team that doesn't do that. In general terms, Arizona needs to continue to dominate the glass. Number three team in the nation and rebounding margin. Clemson not a great rebounding team. They're plus three on the glass, but Arizona is plus ten and this is one of the best rebound margin team that Arizona has ever put on the floor. You have to be good at what you're good at, and that's what they're good at.

They need to dominate the paint. I think Clemson is very good in the paint, so that's going to be good. Question good big men, not elite level athletes, but crafty, smart big men that can face up, take you know, and take lamar Ballo away from the paint, take Mo creeb Is out to the three point line. I think the bigs you know, have to do their job. And Aaron almost got a knockdown shots THENCE tournament is about making shots. Uh, and the Wildcats cannot miss bunnies.

They can't miss the layups that they missed against Long Beach State. UH. They need to They need to do what they would normally do from the field on a field goal percentage standpoint. Tommy talked a little bit about where he was asked about Keishad Johnson, and to me, I mean, look,

you they're all playing pretty well. Everybody's contributed, and I thought way at the beginning of the year key Shot was going to be a key from the standpoint of he's the guy who brings a physicality, an attitude you know of uh, you know, don't mess with me kind of attitude. And now he's added a three point shot, which has been he's shot some He's

made some crit shots in these first couple of games. To me, I feel like Pela's going to do what Pella does and as long as he doesn't have a really bad game, turns the ball over a bunch of times, you know, same with Kylon. I didn't think Colan played horrible last week. He just didn't score on Saturday. He didn't do anything horrible. Keyshot's got to be a menace out there in my mind against a team like Clemson.

You recruited Key Shot from San Diego State for tomorrow, right, for the next four games, hopefully, and his contributions are immeasurable because you said it. He can be a score for Arizona inside and out. He can be a rim runner for the Wildcats to put pressure defensively on the opponents. He can be a versatile defender and guard the point guard from the other team, or guard their five man and every player in between. He's an energy

guy, he's a rebounder, He's an elite level defender. He can knock the three down. He just has to be assertive of offensively. I don't want to put so much onus on key Shod, but he is Arizona's capital X factor. I don't know if there's a lot of teams that can account for a key show Johnson. I don't know if Clemson has somebody like a Keyshaw Johnson. As Arizona advances in the tournament, there will be players that are like him, and you'll have to kind of play above your norm as

they get closer and closer to a championship opportunity. But I agree with you Jay that the time is now. Keyshod was brought to Arizona to fill a hole exactly for tomorrow's game. That's a great way to put that, because you're right, I mean when. I mean, I remember when they when they signed him up, when it was you know, certain that he was coming here. I thought, that's the missing piece, that that that's kind

of the missing piece of even the last two tournaments. Yeah, and you know, not again, I don't want to put pressure and not that. Listening to this broadcast, I wish he would. He should be listening to you and Steve Rivera every day. But you know, as you said, everybody needs to be prepared to play well. I just think if key Shod plays well, that's a difference maker for Arizona. Yeah. Yeah, what you've been around the team? What do they seem like? They lose,

they ready go? You know, what what's it been like over there at practice and all that stuff? If you could say they're loose with an edge, if that's possible. I was in the locker room with them, interviewing some of them, and of course they're they're loose, they're laughing. But then when we walked out onto the court and we were able to see them on the practice floor just a bit ago at Crypto dot com, Uh,

there was an edge though to them. I thought, Tommy is the one that's setting that loose but edge nature, and Tommy, I would say, in his first three years has more often been loose than has an edge. And I feel like he's developed a chain since we started the nca Tournament. I think that's cascaded down to the team members. So that's right where I love to see Arizona basketball. I think there's some school, some teams that need to be more edgy than loose. I think Arizona needs to be both.

Yeah, well, you know, Tommy took that loss to Princeton as well, you know, and so maybe he's a little still a little pissed off about last year. By the way, Jay, just FYI, I'm ready to bury the ghosts of the Princeton Tigers. I'm kind of done talking about that. But I understand from it because that question was asked in the press conference, and I can understand Tommy's going to get that question until he exercises the demons and gets probably needs to get to a final four for the

press to stop asking that question. And we know this from a historical perspective because Luke could not exercise the East Tennessee State and Santa Clara demons until Arizona got to the Final four. In ninety four. Yeah, and it was asked every press junket the entire year leading up to the Final four and ninety four and probably rightfully so. No, absolutely absolutely, and he'll, you know, he'll, he'll, it'll, it'll happen for him. And people

forget he's year three as a head coach. It's not like he's year three at Arizona and he was the head coach somewhere else for a bunch of years. This is his third year as a head coach, and I think that's lost on some people because of how good he's been these first couple of people don't realize he's brand new at this He's brand new. The cupboard wasn't there. Let's not say that it was empty. Ben Mattherin, Dayale Terry, and Christian Holoco all went to the NBA after Tommy's first year, so there

were horses in the stables that could run for Arizona. But putting it in perspective, Jay, and you know this, if Arizona wins tomorrow, Tommy Lloyd will tie two really good coaches, Brad Stevens and Brad Under for the most wins in the first three games as a head coach in the history of college basketball. So we know Tommy has that record for most wins in the first two years. He needs one more win to tie those two guys, Brad Underwood doing it at steven f Austin, Brad Stevens doing it at Butler.

So I love it. A Final four, berth So, a clinch tomorrow and Saturday would make Tommy the winning his head coach in the history of college basketball in his first three years as a head coach. That's not easy. It's a huge accomplishment. Getting to a final four in his third year as the head coach would be rarefied air. We're eighty minutes away from that. That's a long way, basketball. But appreciate the journey that Tommy Lloyd has brought all of us on in the first three years. All right,

Rhino, appreciate the time. Go get it tomorrow, play a good game. Give Brian our best for that as well, and we'll see if we're talking about a win on Friday. You got appreciate it, boy, all right, thanks a bunch. All right, that's Ryan Hanson in LA. He'll be coming. He'll be on the call on twelve ninety with with Brian Jeffries. I'm I'm excited, man, I'm excited. Ready, I'm ready to go. Let's play this game. Let's I agree, what do you

think let's get I think I think they win. I think they win, and I don't think it's I think it's comfortable, right, and by that I mean an eight ten point win. You're not you know, you're not up a similar to the day. Yeah, similar to the game. You're not up against it in the last couple of minutes. I think Arizona's their talent is just it'll just show. And I think they got the pieces. I think convincing will be the word. I think they I think they'll be

ready to roll. Tommy, like you said, has that chip on the shoulder to big game for him. I think they get it done for me. I think this team's proved when it's focused, it's really damn good. I agree. All right, we'll be back on Friday. No show tomorrow. We'll give the day off to watch to watch a game Arizona's on at fourrow night and we'll be back on Friday. So we hope to see you then. Thanks a much for being here.