Streaming live on the Ihearts Radio Whip. This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
Hey, welcome back to Alve. I am the ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I remember where I'm at. I'm with, I'm Steve Rivera, You're Dave Silvan still here, not Jay Silver, James Silver.
Now you have Henry whos gonna.
Knock it out of the park with the breaking news.
This is I on the Ball breaking news on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
The Friday game against Duke has been announced as a white up.
So white out. You like those gimmick games? No, but I remember going to one.
Derek Williams block shot That was like maybe one of the last ones I went to.
And then okay, so you've been to a number of games, obviously, Michael Sander, I'm into a ton of them.
Uh.
And they did a poll, I don't know, five years ago maybe the greatest game at McHale Ever, yess who was guess guest switch game? That would really exactly Washington, You're exactly exactly. That's not even top ten overall. Yeah, you know what, only the kids know what happened yesterday. Yeah, No, that was the shot. Were you here for them shot? Probably not?
I was? It was?
I was.
That was a weird moment too, was I'm trying to remember exactly where I was. I was in the upper I was covering it, and I was up there, like you know, in the top not the top deck, but the concourse, the concourse area. That's right, that's I'm trying to trying to say. So I think I don't even know if we were videoing it. I can't remember exactly, but I know I was in the building when it happened because I can still see it happening. But yeah,
I was there for that game. So was that not one of the top couple.
Because nobody who's Henry's age knew that existence?
Yeah?
Yeah, what year?
Was it?
Three or four?
Probably it was fort was Kerr was out right?
No, No, he was on that team. Yeah.
The college football playoff rankings came out last night. Oregon remains in the number one spot and Boise State has taken over every Big twelve school, so they are the overall number four seed right now.
Yeah, they gotta buy yep, you gotta buy well by U has screwed.
The Booch didn't help by losing no to Kansas. So they play they play a su this week.
So give me the rundown real quick, because I haven't paid attention. But there's still a lot of brew ha ha about it. Got a good word brew haha.
Go ahead. Do you have the list?
Yeah? Okay?
Oregon one, Ohio State two, Texas three, Penn State for Indiana five not there name six, Alabama seven, Miami eight, almost nine, Georgia ten, Tennessee eleven, Boise State twelve.
Okay, so of those twelve, Oregon good enough to win it?
Oh? Yeah, okay, Who's who?
Who?
Would you said? Who's is Ohio State too? This year? A close game on the road.
Yeah, they're probably gonna play again in the big.
Time somewhere somewhere. Yeah.
Isn't Oregon guaranteed already?
Yeah?
They clinched the ten champions get.
Into the championship game. That's gonna be fun.
I mean, it's gonna be an interesting month of December for sure, and then I guess into January two.
College basketball.
Last night, number fifteen Marquette defeated number six Purdue seventy six.
To fifty eight. Okay.
In the NBA.
The Celtics defeated the gap the Calves one to one, seventeen to ten, the Calves undefeated season at fifteen in a.
I watched a lot of that game.
Boston went crazy from three point land in that one too, so they were just all hitting. They're deep shots, and finally Cleveland loses a game. It's They've been pretty pretty amazing this year so far. Huh fifteen straight, wasn't it? Yep seconds and their coaches one of Steve Kerr's former assistants, Kenny Atkinson, so good for him. Warriors had the still have the longest opening of the season winning streaks, I think like twenty four or whatever it was when Luke Walton was there.
Yeah.
Right.
The Arizona women's basketball will face NAU tonight at six pm at NAU.
Okay, well they're going up there to play him.
Yeah, that's interesting.
Remember Luke went up there one time. Never went again. Yeah, my have before your time to the NAU.
Oh yeah, I know.
That was the walk up sky home away he went up and I'm not going back there. You had to drive.
Yeah. Yeah, there's no good restaurants probably probably no where, and that's.
They've made the drag Nau down here, and they beat them fifty times in a row.
Right.
Arizona Athletics announced last night that for the Zona Zoo there will be a camp out on my Kale Thursday night, and the first six hundred Zona Zoo members who stay overnight will be given a wristband Friday morning that lets you get into the Duke game before anyone else.
Okay, this is the quiz, Henry, Are you gonna be silly enough to do this?
No, me and my friends already agreed when not to.
But you have your tickets? Yeah I have a ticket. Yeah you don't need this.
They're taking a page out of the Dukes. Yeah, Easchewskiville or whatever.
But I was there. It was kind of fun.
It was kind of funny and kind of cool at the same time. A bunch of a bunch of smart dudes, smart smart people out in the It was you. You know, what, did you ever go somewhere that you just want to experience the what all the hype was about?
But of the Yankee, I got another story probably shouldn't tell in the radio, But yeah, I've had a few times where I just wanted to be there early really early, like even the day before, just to kind of see it.
Yeah, and that's what I went to Duke for.
It cost you whatever, but I went and I'm thinking, Okay, maybe I could have done something, but I had to go, and you you saw all that. You know again, they did it at Stanford. They do it at a few other places. Okay, okay, what's a big deal where.
It's gonna be a good news story?
You know, I'm sure the stations will be out there doing live shots at ten o'clock the night before.
What time do they start.
The camp out?
Yea, they think it starts at nine they open.
Yeah, perfect, that's why they did it nine so they can be on the ten o'clock news.
So that should be fun. That's all I got.
Okay, did we talk about what did I talk about before? The women's travel ball? Yeah? Yeah, and I didn't. I didn't look at that story. But you know, it was a story enough for them to write about it. Unless they're trying to be funny, I don't know. Was it just a bit did you read it?
I read a little bit of it.
Yeah.
The volleyball and women's volleyball and women's basketball team have been finding difficulty traveling around. I didn't get to the basketball part, but the volleyball team they were in Cincinnati and they couldn't find any flights to West Virginia, so they had to take a bus there.
I wonder how far they had to take that bus too. Trivon's a weeknd in the road, and then the basketball to Morgantown. Well, welcome to the world of this Big twelve.
Good luck. Yeah, yeah, I'm looking. There's a story on Airson a desert asy, desert swarm.
That's what That's what we were talking about.
Yeah, wow, Yeah, And that's going to be the case for a lot of the things. And unfortunately that's just how it is for the women's athletics and and the the the sports where you're not the basketball team or the football team.
You know, it's gonna be crazy. It's gonna be difficult and a big adjustment.
Just all around.
I mean football, you're right, Football gets chartered and basketball gets charters.
But that's about it.
Everyone else is gonna have to deal with Tuesday games and trying to get back to school occasionally. It's going to be interesting, interesting to see how it all plays out. And you know, this first year is going to be a big test for everybody to get used to it.
Okay, what else that's it?
Yeah, Okay, that's fine, that's fine. There was nothing else that was really nothing else because we could do we could be s here, I can be.
I can talk about the Yeah, tell me the Pro Football Hall of Fame semi finalists, and there's a couple Arizona connections there. Actually not going to be U of A but certainly a s U with Terrell Terrell Suggs, who everyone thinks is going to be a first team, first ballot, I should say Hall of Famer. I had a great career with a couple of teams, obviously Baltimore, but he was he was amazing. I remember seeing him
in high school at Chandler Hamilton. He came down here and played against I don't know, Flowing Wells or one of the schools and just unstoppable on defense and offense. Terrell Suggs, Oh yeah, ye had big dude, big guy, and he had a good, you know, great career at a s U. The big names they're eli manning.
Things like that, and you know, you know those dudes that you get to see and see. Yeah, that dude's a pro. That guy, you know, you can tell right away.
Well, did you guys talk about Kadem winning the Great Cup?
Yeah, yesterday, No we didn't because I was doing the doing the break news. I'm not even talking about.
I mean Kadeem.
You know those kind of guy when you saw them in high school as a whole, Right, this is this is a different type of athlete.
Did you and you and he was part of the bleak Martinez stuff?
Right?
He was good.
He was good too, but you didn't come on, you didn't think that he was going to be a pro and then do really well at Stanford.
No, he he blossomed. He you know, he was smart and he was good. Yeah, and just a great athlete. We had him, I think as what we had used to do, like Players of the Week and things like that. I think they still do. But we had both those guys multiple times through Cdo and then Blake I think wound up going to Santa Rita. I think maybe I'm wrong. One of the guys kind of went to a different high school at the end.
Yeah, No, it wasn't him. No, No, I don't think so, I don't think.
I'm not sure anyway, they were you know, head and shoulders above the competition.
Right, right, So there's a couple more things. Kate and Clark won't play in that league, that unrival.
Yeah, you know she's going to concert on golf. Yeah, I saw them doing I saw that.
I saw that.
Yeah.
And then the Jets owner suggested benching Roger that that organization you you.
Can of you of a guys, Woody Johnson, you have alum? Is he is he an owner?
What year is this?
Oh?
He's been the owner for years?
But what years old? These guys a long time ago? Did you have No?
I'm sure tried. Not me, okay, but I think others have have met with him.
Sure, sure, that'd be the guys who go to Hey, mister mister Jett, we.
Need to look like to name name the stadium for us? Yes, John J.
Johnson Jet Stadium Johnson. Yeah, yeah, where you need meds to go?
What the game? Something like that? Yeah? What else were we talking about?
Oh? I know, let's answer some questions because you gotta more questions. Yeah, the same guy. Because you found that your story and your story and my story were interesting. Do I here it is? Okay? Uh, this is very interesting. Those were interesting questions answers. Who was your favorite writer and his favorite newscaster? Your favorite you better say me no, I'm just chicky newscaster. Higgs wasn't Hicks? Was he not an intern for you? He was with Dan Ryan, Dan Ryan.
Yeah.
Local, like for a local sports guy, believe it or not. Keith Olberman I used to. I mean, he and I are like the exact same age, so we kind of grew up the same time. When he was a local guy in Los Angeles. His shows weren't fantastically funny creative, you know. He kind of obviously branched off to do news and he did Sports Center for all those years with Dan Patrick. But he was great as a local guy that I I kind of looked up to. What was the question again, No writers?
No, no, no, not the writer part.
You know, it was great too.
Again in my younger years, Brian Gumpel was also a local sports guy in Los Angeles. He was a great got to watch you know. Obviously Bob Costas the Joe Bucks of the world, the play by play guys. I mean, there's been so many good ones. I mean that's kind of what really influenced me when I was really young, like in high school. The people that I would listen to in the San Francisco area, you know, my friends and I. We still talk about some of those those guys.
Can I ask you what your dad did?
He worked in like the electronics injury industry.
Okay, so he was. He was also a lawyer.
So I'm glad you said that, because did he get disappointed when you wanted to become what you were?
No?
He loved it.
You should have seen and when I when I first started, you know, I was like in I was twenty two and I was on TV.
And mom and dad would come because that's my son.
I have my face on a billboard on a bus and so my mom, would you take pictures of that as a bus drove by. They I think they got a kick out of it. And I got to take them to a few games. I remember I took my dad. Probably shouldn't say this, but I had him in the press box one time.
You know.
It was my guest, you'll have no more credentials for you. Yeah, I don't know how he got in. He just had one of our extra credentials. And here's my father sitting next to me. So that was I was proud. It was, it was great.
He was proud. Sure, my Uh did you ever bring a relative up?
No? No kids, No, no, really, yeah no there was. I mean I would I guess, you know Toros games and things like that.
Yeah, I want to subject them to the Toros games punishment.
Sorry, but for me, you're talking.
About that, You're talking about your dad for me, and I just lost my train of thought as usual. Uh uh.
I was just gonna say, I mean, I made I was. They were proud, and you know, I was just getting started. And my especially my mom, you know, just was she'd walk into the stores with me and she'd introduce me to this is.
A guy he's on Channel six.
Yeah.
Yeah, so my kind of funny story for that. And I don't know this is me, but what the hell? So my youngest son, who's you know, twenty six now, but he's maybe four or five years ago, and you know, the paper's closed, and and you know, I'm trying to figure out what I'm gonna do. You know, I have to write my books or whatever. Just you know how chaotic k he gets, and you're kind of like, what
am I gonna do? YadA YadA. He said that don't you wish you would have become like a like a doctor or attorney and blah blah blah, I said, Trey, I said, those dudes want to be me because I get to do what I get to do. I would have never met the people I get to met, do the things I've done if I would have been that, right, you know, I might be broken son, But I had a great life.
Yeah, no, I agree.
I mean I that's kind of why we both stuck around so long doing what we'd like to do. And it was fun and every day was difference. That was how I looked at It's like you just didn't know. You kind of knew there were going to be things going on, but every day I had some type of breaking news.
Let me ask you, though, and we got to go here in about a minute. Let me ask you, at any point or maybe a time or two, or maybe not at all, did you say, God, I don't want to go to work?
Oh? Probably?
There were a few, mostly is when I didn't feel good, literally, like you know, I had a sore throw like should I go in today? Where to call someone to replace me? But I mean I really liked it. I liked to go in. I liked the people. You know, I enjoyed.
I enjoyed the job for most of my time there.
Yeah, yeah, Okay, we gotta go, We gotta go. Come back with Aaron Taurus.
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Steve Rivera, He's got his Eye on the Ball on Tucson's sports station, Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
Hey, welcome back to my on the Ball hero Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera here, Dave Silver, I am now on the phone. We have Aaron Torres Love having erin tours on the show. How are you, Aaron?
I'm well, fellas.
How we doing We're doing fine. Hey, it's a big week here in Tucson. I mean you may have noticed.
I've heard. Yeah, who are you guys? You got a charity exhibition this weekend? Or what? I forget? Who's coming it down?
Yes?
Slow Friday night?
Yes?
Are you gonna come down?
Yeah?
I won't be there on Friday. I will actually be seeing Duke next week in Vegas. They played Kansas next week in Vegas. I have family that I spend time with during the Thanksgiving holidays, so it kind of worked out pretty conveniently. So I'll see Duke. You know, I'm gonna see Let me put it this way, I'll see the remnants of Duke after Arizona picks them apart and leaves them for dead on Friday night.
That makes two of us.
Because I said this last week before they went and played Wisconsin that they were going to knock off Duke at home. Nothing's changed for me, nothing's changed, So I agree with you.
Yeah, excuse me. Listen, Friday night was an awesome night at college hoops. Not for Arizona fans obviously, but I think what it reaffirmed to me it's really hard to win on the road in major college sports. Listen, we talk about it every Saturday in college football, but just look at college basketball this year, right, is that it wasn't just Arizona losing it Wisconsin. It was Alabama preseason number two team in the country losing at Perdue. Perdue
then goes on the road, it loses to Marquette. Last night, you know, North Carolina loses to Kansas. There's no shame any of these losses. And listen, this isn't college football. One loss doesn't shake up your season or you ruin your season in any way, shape or form. And so I won't be at Michale Center on Friday. But I know how great of a venue it is, I know how toup of a place it is to play. And I also know, respectfully that as good as Duke is, they got a lot of young guys that are playing
their second, third, fourth career college basketball games. And I know they're talented, and I know they obviously just played a good Kentucky team a few weeks ago. But there's a difference between playing a neutral court game in Atlanta and playing Arizona in Tucson, and I expect a much better effort than Arizona. I don't think the Arizon effort was bad on Friday, but I think you'll get a better effort. And I agree with you, Steve. I hate to ruin the spoil of surprise, but I think Arizona.
Went on Friday.
What about Duke's talent, I mean, I'm just looking at their roster. I guess both teams have what like total ten top one hundred players. We're going to see it on the Friday. It's going to be quite a show, don't you think.
Yeah? And I think the thing that stood out with Duke is that sometimes, you know, you see a player that's labeled to quote unquote McDonald's All American or whatever. But the Duke guys, I mean, they.
Played a bunch.
Of fifth and sixth year seniors against Kentucky in the first game or the you know, the first Marquee game of their season last Tuesday, and they were completely unphased. And so, you know, I know it's easy to root against Duke and hate Duke, but I came away actually really impressed, even with their loss last week. Like I said, you're playing a veteran team, a team with a bunch
of guys that our fifth six year college players. Not only were they not phased transparently, they were the better team for probably about probably about thirty four minutes in that game. Now, to Kentucky's credit, they made all the big Yeah. Yeah, so you steeve you watched like you want to. Yeah, I was gonna say, you want to give Kentucky credit for making the plays late, but I also don't think you can deny that that that Duke
was the better team for large stretches. So they're they're you know, they're guys that have stuff like McDonald's on American attached to attached to their name. But sometimes that means more than others. But with these guys, these guys can really play.
Right.
Let me ask a good dumb question, Aaron, because I don't know off the top of my head, and.
There are no dumb questions Steve Stole, Well.
Hold on, so, I know you're a big UA guy, kind of like almost a fan reporter kind of guy. How did you become kind of affiliated with Arizona.
Well, I'll be honest. So the way most Arizona fans got to know me, I was the only national media member that defended Sean Miller during that whole situation. Okay, yeah, you remember, Steve is like it was just you know, and one thing about me is you can like me, you could dislike me. But I'm never going to talk about something on any of my shows, any of my twitter you know, on my twitter feed, I'm never gonna put anything out there unless I've done my homework and
I've researched it. Despite what people will say about me and everybody in our business, I don't do stuff for clicks. I have no interest in just doing something for engagement. And so, you know, I thought a lot of the coverage of Sean and frankly of Arizona at that time was really unfair, especially to the way other programs were
being covered, and so that was really where it started. Steve, and I think Arizona fans have always appreciated that about me and you know, but I also love college basketball, and I will say it is nice to just be able to talk about the team on the court and stuff like that. But again, I know now that I refresh your memory, you remember, but that was really where it started with me and the uf A fan.
No, I do remember now, but that's been like four or five years ago. So you know, I'm an old man. Don't get old there, don't get old.
Oh what has it been like? Both you guys? What's it been like? You know, being reporters in this era right now? You know, the Sewn Miller story was big here. Maybe maybe if it happened today, it might.
Not be.
Paid.
Okay, big deal.
Man.
There's so much going on outside of the games. I mean, how is that as reporters? Is your reporter's life is going.
Well? You know, i'll speak for Steve. I won't speak for Steve, but you know what I'll say is even I think even the last four or five years, and you know, I've been doing this about fifteen years. I don't know how long Steve has been in the business. But you know, I did actually go to school for journalism and print and you know, work for some newspapers when I was younger and worked for some magazines things like that. And you know, the one thing I will say,
and I don't think it's necessarily the best thing. And by the way, I think this was a lot of the Shaw Miller stuff is that everything is so instant now, so urgent now, and you know, we just kind of and it's all of us, and I include myself, is you know, something happens, you have to react to it, and you have to this, and you have to that, and everybody moves on from stuff so fast. And I think sometimes with complicated issues, we don't take the time to kind of get all the facts. And so I
think on the perfect example of that. And by the way, you know, everyone's guilty of it. I mean, there is still a tweet that you can find of the night the DeAndre eight In report came out where I said, well,
Sean Miller's never had to coach college basketball again. And then you alter, yeah, you start to you know, you start to reread the report, look into some details and I don't even remember everything now, but you know, I think the report came out on a Friday night, and you know, you start to say, well, wait, a second, now, you know, and I'm just using that as an example,
but wait, wait a second. Now, so Christian Dawkins is this Detroit based agent, but he's supposed to be representing DeAndre and who's from the Bahamas and who's played his high school basketballer. Like, something doesn't add up here. But again, you know, and I'm sure Steve experienced this being on deadline or being a columnist or whatever is. You know, your bosses kind of expect you to have immediate reaction everything.
And there's a lot of issues in sports and otherwise that that need more nuanced than just the immediate reaction. And then I think, not only do do do they need more nuanced? But I think also, you know, nobody ever goes back and revises the facts, you know, Like I like, I don't know that anybody, to your guys point, cares about you know, Sean Miller, And I don't mean don't don't care about Charldrene. I don't know that anybody cares about you know, what happened there six seven years ago,
whatever it was. But I would also say, I bet if you pulled the random college basketball fans, they would say, oh, he's a cheater. And he got busted by the NCAA and he got suspended by it, and it's like, no, that's not actually what happened at all. And you know, he fought it and whatever happened, and his contract ran out in Arizona didn't renew it. But I just bring it up because I think that's what's what stood out to me even the last five, six, seven years, is
that everything has become instant. You don't have time to kind of really do your homework. And then I think the other thing is when stuff has proven to be not true or whatever, you have a situation where you know, it doesn't allow you to go back and kind of kind of fix things and things right, you know.
Yeah, yeah, no question. Last I saw you, we were at the Final four in Phoenix. Obviously it's having a good time. But let me ask you. You've been to a number of places, right, you're going to Vegas now, but you've been to a number Where does Arizona rank in terms of places to watch a game compared to the places you've build?
You know, I've only been there for really big games, so I think that's you know, like I've talked to people who cover Kentucky that say, you know, when when Rupferina's rocking, it's as good a place as anybody. But you know, on a Tuesday night against whoever, it's not always great. So I have not been to Arizona for anything other than really big games, and.
It's awfun.
It's right up there in the short conversation. You know, I've been to Rupperena, I've been allen Field House. Listen, and I've said this. I've probably said this to you before, Steve, But with Arizona now being in the Big twelve, I know that. You know, financially, not everybody can afford to do it, and I'm never one to tell people how to spend their money. I'm the last person to do it. But if you can afford to go to allen Field House, I would do it, and you're not going to regret it.
You know.
My Yukon Husky's played there last year. They played right around a year ago. It's like the first week of December, maybe the last week of November. I don't remember, but it was I had never been there and it was my alma mater, and I went because it was a big game. But you know, the point I'm trying to make is that that place is unbelievable. And now with Arizona in the same conference, I know they play there
this year. If you got a chance to go, just go because it's so unlike anywhere else in sports really. And it was funny because the night that Kansas played North Carolina, my mom happened to be in town and my wife was here and we were kind of just had the game out in the background, and what I said about fog Allen Field House was it's just the type of place that could never be built in twenty
twenty foards. It's a big capacity, but it's really small, and the fans are piled on top of each other, and it's really hot, and it's just it's just a totally unique place, unlike anywhere else in college basketball. By the way, I'm standing here in my living room and it's six thirty Eastern and the Xavier Musketeers just came on. So Sean Miller must have heard us talking about him and decided to play a basketball game. But yeah, to Tucson,
Tucson is as good. Like I said, I haven't been a Cameron indoor yet, but I've been a rough I've been a fog Gallon. I've been at the Carrier Dome is very unique for a big game, thirty two thirty three thousand people. Uh Gample Pavilion at Yukon is really good. I'm at you know, you guys know where I'm actually going for the first time this year that I'm really excited about is BYU. That place holds about eighteen nineteen thousand people, and you know, the move to the Big
twelve has really energized that fan base. So that's one that I'll be going to for the first time this year, and I can't wait for that one.
You remember what happened there at BAU You're covering the team. I think, are you covering in Arizona?
Okay?
So I was there. I can't remember. It was ninety nine, maybe in ninety eight. So I was a little played there on the road Christmas game, Thanksgiving game and Geene Edigerson pops the guy in the back of the head and gives him a concussion. He's out for almost the year. I think he had to run an apology to the to the school and the guy. Back then. This is twenty five years ago.
I remember the Jim remember Jimmer Fordett when he came in on the Kale he scored forty nine points.
Or something for you that is I don't remember that, Yeah.
It was.
It was.
It was also like a Christmas time because I remember we were at the Holiday Bowl, so that was, you know, right after Christmas and Arizona was playing that one of those games.
Right now, I think he may have the record or set maybe the second most in the in the arena.
Speaking of conference alignment, Arizona is getting its first taste of the Big twelve in college football. And you talk about fan experiences almost everywhere they go now it's it's sold out, right, I mean that never happened in the Pac twelve. You know you'd go to some of these stadiums. That's a big it's a big change. What do you what do you expect then for you know, Big twelve basketball is.
Well, it's really funny this has been And obviously, like everybody else, I think Tommy Lloyd is an incredible, incredible coach. Like really obviously he set all sorts of records for year one wins, first three years, all that good stuff. But I think the one thing that you can't deny is that there have been games where his team, especially on the road, but really in league play, where his teams just don't show up and or they don't show
up ready to play, or they don't whatever. And you know, listen, last year you lose at Stanford, last year you lose at Oregon State. And I do think that it's going to be a bit of a wake up call. And the staff is really smart, they know what they're doing, but I think it's going to be a wake up call of there is basically your guys point, there really isn't a venue that the fans aren't going to show up ready to go. And I think the bigger thing is that the league is just so much better across
the board. I think everybody focuses on Kansas, Houston, whatever, But look at a BUYU, look at a Texas Tech. I knows this State isn't. You know, they took a loss the other night, but that's a really tough place
to play. And you know, I've talked to coaches in the Big Twelve and they'll tell you it's just it's a league where you can be playing really well, you can be playing good basketball and still go, you know, four and three over a seven game stretch, lose two games over a seven game stretch when you're playing really well, and so that's not even factoring in when you're not
playing well. And so I think that that it's going to be something that I think the entire Arizona program, I know they're excited for the step up, but you just got to be ready because, like I said, there's really no off nights in that league, especially.
A basketball Well, let's switch to football just real quickly, got about abe two minutes. Your thoughts on what's going on with the program.
Yeah, it's been disappointing, there's no doubt about it. And you guys cover the team every day. I'll defer to you on you know everything that's gone wrong, and you know what needs to change in the offseason and all that. But I guess all I would say is is, listen, you don't get much better situations than not only inheriting a ten win roster, but inheriting a ten win roster where the quarterback is coming off of a twenty four touchdown season. You obviously have the best wide receiver, in
my opinion, in all of college football. And so it's just been really disappointing, And I think what's been disappointing is there's really no consistent First of all, obviously no Fafida taking a major step back, and I don't blame him as much as just the coaching and what's going on, you know, Sunday through Friday, not necessarily on Saturday, but Fafita's taking a step back, and I think there's just really no consistency. You know, sometimes the defense is pretty good,
sometimes the defense isn't. Sometimes the offense is moving the ball. Sometimes they are. Sometimes the offense is turning the ball over, sometimes it isn't. And to me, that's just been the most disappointing thing. Is it's one thing when you struggle as a first year head coach when you don't inherit much. But obviously, you know, Brent Brennan inherited a ton, and I don't think there's any way to look at it other than that it's been an incredibly disappointing season for
him and for the program. And you know, I frankly feel a little bit bad because I know how excited Arizona fans were for this coming season that obviously has not gone a plan.
Yeah, Okay, Aaron, I appreciate your time. I always love having you on man. You know that.
I love coming out with you guys. Thank you very much.
And we'll do it against Question in enjoy Vegas and once Friday night, we'll see, we'll see what happens.
Thanks man, I'll be watching, don't you work?
Thank you all right? Eron Tauris from Fox Sports or Spots Radio. Let's take the break, Henry and come back and byes the rest of the way. If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you know it's been successful for newly forty years. Now take a look back at the
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Streamy live on the Iheartsradio WIP. This is I on the Ball with Steve Ravera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
Hey, welcome back to my on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Bavera, You're Dave Silver, He's Henry. You get about fifteen minutes. If you guys want to call, please do let me hear from you five two zero or one six seventy four forty excuse us a call, let us know what's going on. Going to the game on Friday, because we're not I'm not here tomorrow or Friday. Too busy with El tour and other stuff.
So yeah, going to the game should be fun.
Just found out this afternoon we got some tickets, so we'll be going and joining got to get a white shirt apparently, is that what we're saying. It's gonna be a white out. So have you seen Henry? He better not be custiner Henry. Yeah, I'm sure the students will be in rare form real form.
Yeah. I hope they don't give him the UCLA treatment.
Big ESPN broadcast, although you know when it's on what ten thirty eastern?
Yeah, it's kind of late. But Jay Billis is going to be coming in. I don't know.
I'm not sure he's doing play by play but he's always Yeah, he comes.
It's usually a big game.
So he's been here, I know, for game day a number of times and you know, usually he's usually here at least once once a year.
Right, right, I was gonna ask. We had a press conference with him today on Zoom and I didn't have time to stay all the time, but I wanted to ask him and like what I asked, Aaron, is is it one of the best places to watch a best game for like big games like this?
Right?
You can't really tell on a regular game, right because they don't always get up for the game.
But games like this Michaeale crowd shows up.
They should be ready for this one. Yeah, you know, were you there for the North Carolina game? No one loots one of loots last? Oh wait, yes I was. I'm sorry, I was done of a game.
Yeah.
They got hammered.
You got hammered, so the crowd was not really involved.
Yeah, trying to think what I mean I was. Some of the last Oregon games have been pretty spectacular.
Uh.
There was that Kerk Crease a game a couple of years ago, and the game last year against Oregon here was was pretty big in terms of just the crowd and you know Arizon, it was losing. I remember, how about the Tennessee game a couple of years ago where they were down, Cats were down maybe.
Oh yeah, thirteen or fifteen, they came back one.
Yeah, I mean those are always kind of fun when they when there's some drama in the game.
Yeah, well we had were you went to be with Chase? No, uh, they were his game Houston. Oh yea, that's right.
What a crazy great game that was.
It's right down by like eleven with about a minute left, and they came back and won that game. And after what's his name stepped on his face? Gonna say he stepped on and got stepped on that game. I think I was there. He said, how would that go?
With talking to Chase with his transition to volleyball, did he enjoy his summer?
And oh yeah, yeah, he had a great time, a great time, you know, kind of living a dream of getting to do what he did. You remember when he came out and I asked this question, you remember what he obviously he would remember, but when he was a freshman, he came out for midnight Madness. I think it was how he came out.
Now, what was he wearing.
He was in beach attire with the beach volley beach volleyball and kind of with the towel over with the sunglasses and stuff like that, and obviously that was his destiny.
He was one of those guys.
I think I may have told the story here before where we went to his high school. It just so happened that they were playing like his last high school game where he was going to be breaking the California state scoring record I think may have been held by Bill Walton of all people. And we went down there to La Costa and covered the game, and I've never seen I mean, he signed autographs after the game at center court, they set up a table for him.
He was that popular. It was his last high school game at home.
Yeah right.
And then you know, this was in March. We were covering the Pac twelve or Pac ten tournaments in La so we took a detour and went down there first.
Well and if you remember too that and I talked to him about this, how did he feel about lut saying at the time too it might have been hyperbole from Loot because he needed these guys desperately at the end of his career. That he was the best recruit he'd ever had, ever signed, the best recruit he'd ever signed.
Really.
There were guys like Bibbie, there was a guy like Sean Elliott. There was guys like you know, those guys, and Chase was the best you know what I'm saying.
He needed he needed him at that time.
That was a good, good little finish that at least those couple of years were a good, good period of time.
Yeah. Well, and again those good old days.
Actually those days were like two thousand, two thousand five ish, two thousand and seven, whatever it was, And it was just the end was near for Loote because it was not going well. Yeah, with Jordan Hill and him and Marcus Williams and those guys.
But it seems like, you know, I mean, Sean Miller kept it going pretty pretty consistently. We can't we can't say anything bad about that. But you know, Tommy seems to have kind of turned the corner too with some of the recruits and some of the you know, we're hearing about people who are coming, you know, in the future, and the young guys now, so I think the I
think the programs in Good Footing. Yeah, it was really dropping off, you know, is as we were talking about just going to the Big twelve, it's going to be interesting to see how they compare and how they stack up against some of these places in some of these places, and those teams got to come here.
Too, right right, Let me ask you, did you watch the game out or did you watch part of it? Yeah, watch the first half. What were you impressions? What were the impressions like just you know, okay, they lost, but.
You know, I sometimes it's like almost so obvious, like when when you're you know, one of your top scorers not hitting right, that's not a good right, and you know, things like that, And I would say that almost every I mean even last year, I'd say, well, you know, if he's not hitting and Baba is not making his free throws, Arizona's going to be in trouble.
Sure, And that's how it played out.
Sure.
Yeah.
Uh. That was one of my points in my column the next day where and it was probably not brought. It was one of my one of my friends, the guy we we know, sent me a message during the game or later in that game says, uh, it's disheartening how he he not so much? How he played, but how he reacted to the game he played, He wasn't kind of engaged. He didn't do well, so he kind of not freaked out or he just just became disengaged. And that's one issue. And then that they gave up
one hundred points how many teams doesn't happen. That doesn't happen. I mean those two things. The hundred points was, yeah, very obviously, that doesn't happen with the defense that you think is pretty good. And then Caleb a guy you need to come up halfway decent, and he didn't do that, and he didn't react well to it.
You know. The fouls.
The foul story was, you know, kind of going on as you're watching the game, like this game is going to take forever. They were in foul trouble, like literally like seven minutes into the game. I think they were shooting, you know, in the bonus and things like that. I just got a little out of hand. And then that technical and that that custom like five points. I think altogether it was just kind of a mess.
Right, I've we've seen those, We've seen enough these games. Sits in November, and I'm not going to give these guys an alibi because I don't need Tommy doesn't need one, and this.
Team is going to be good.
Like I said, I think they're gonna win on Friday. I think I was told two days ago that the spread was like five five and a half Arizona fact. I would take that every day, their favorite the underdog, underdogs still at home. Wow, it might be lowered now, but that's what it was Monday. Okay, we'll see, we'll see.
I like this team though, I like it a lot because I think one of the things that makes good coaches, one of the many things is the roster construction, and he's done an excellent job at that with this team.
I agree, there's and again, some of these guys are kind of come into their own coming back like a like a like Henry coming back, you know, having not played for a year or so. And another big guy in the middle who you know has kind of proven himself already, but how much will he improve over the course of the year. Obviously, the nucleus in the back court is pretty strong, and I hope that when Caleb has a bad shooting game and someone else will pick him up, that you know, it was a del or so.
Yeah, he's still struggling though from the field, which makes no sense because he's a good shooter. Yeah no, And I think I've said this to a number of people when you've been on too that you think you think that Okay, one of the guys goes down, the other two wouldn't or you know, and you could go three card monte with it. Okay, this guy goes down, this tool this kind of this, and it happened right and
Bradley was the guy. And I think Bradley's going to be the guy for a long time because he's not afraid and he plays very aggressive.
He does not afraid to go to the basket, not afraid to get fouled, a good free throw shooter, which is important.
You're right.
I mean they've got to have guys who are not afraid to mix it and mix it up and go in there, and you know, use the big guys as well.
Yeah.
Again, this has it'll be a fun test just to sort of see how they how it plays that.
So if you watched a little Henry, did you watch basketball? Were the game?
Yeah?
I watched.
I watched the first time.
Okay, so this is me.
I just watched the game because I was at the football game and I kind of watched back and forth.
Did Henry not play well? Or was he not a factor? Did he his name was never really mentioned.
I don't even remember if I remember getting more than only a couple.
Of minutes exactly exactly.
I'm thinking, what do I know about basketball? Right? Because two years ago or last year, I thought that that uh, we were of an inch, it would have a great year. He really saw the court. Now, I said, this year, I really like Henry. I think he's gonna do well. And well I gave him the kiss of death too.
Again, there could have been some matchup situations too, because there were some games where the two big guys played together on the court the same time, and maybe Wisconsin was spreading the floor too much, and there were obviously they're hitting their threes, which we've seen over the years, Yeah they do that, So there were you know, we're not maybe watching it as closely as we should.
Well, and they do have another pretty good big man besides Greevis, they have a waka who's right, who's pretty good.
And he didn't start well though either. I think he kind of struggled at the beginning of that game, whereas he played great a couple of games ago. So they need they need, you know, guys to kind of step up and when someone's.
Not at their best, someone else should be there.
And realistically, I'm like, I'm like tourists and talking about the Kentucky Duke game. Duke was the better team for a long portion of that game. Kentucky just came back. And not that Arizona was the better team against Wisconsin, because it wasn't. But how many times you see that game, a game like that called that way with the fouls. Yes, yeah, it was very rare, very rare. I don't think that's
going to happen again this year. So that's a bonus that you know, they experienced it, maybe take care of it.
And how do you how do you guard against that? Yeah, I don't know, you don't because you don't.
I mean, I'm sure you coach, you know, to play defense and not to foul things like that. But you know, whatever whatever was going on there, it wasn't working. There was too much, too many calls and too many you know, maybe with some things were tiki tak and then you know, next thing, you know, get a technical, so you get two fouls in that situation, which you know, took him off the court for much of the first half anyway. Yeah, so he could never really get into a rhythm, right.
No.
Yeah, Like I say, I really like this team. Where they lose a few games in the Big Twelve, no question. Could they lose Friday, no question. But I like the schedule. You got your hands on some tickets, you'll enjoy it because I think the fans who have tickets just this season, it's it's not unlike it's any other season in a long time.
Yeah, in a long time, Sean wouldn't be doing this. I mean, he didn't do this. He didn't do it. Yeah, I think we missed that.
I mean I used to love having those games, especially back in the days of the Fiesta Bowl Classic when you get like three good teams. But even then later there would always be that one kind of magical game in December, right after school's out and before the students are gone, you know, and Syracuse would come.
In and then and they would always lose that game. Yeah.
Remember came in, Yeah, Vansas came in, Yukon came in, Michigan State came in State. Yeah, both those games are great. If you had a ticket, say, and you were able to go.
Yeah, because you know, again, you look at them, you look at the non conference schedule. Obviously the Big twelve is going to be a little bit different maybe than the Pac twelve. But you look at the non conference games. Oh gosh, we haven't you know, old dominions going to come in, They're gonna lose by sixty, you know, things like that.
But now you get Duke or we're an underdog. Yeah.
Yeah, and in this day and age, I can't even remember. And maybe Bruce would know because he's covered the team better than I have the last ten years because I don't have a publication very much. But it's very rare, very well. You remember Stanford and the court stormy. Yeah, Arizona was an underdog. I think that game because there Stanford may have been a one or two the ranked team at that time. Arizona wins and then they stormed
the court at Kale. I think that's the first and last time that I remember that.
Oh was that the Jason Terry shot?
No, there was a different one. I think it could have been. That was a very good game too. It might have been a different one. It could have been that one like now you're but I remember that game. It was we'd have to go back in the in the books, but it was one of those let.
Me call Mike Montgomery real fast. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah.
I brought up his name yesterday too as well. But you know they did that when they when you before you, when they went to the big big pack Tan Tan, when they beat U C. L A. And you was seeing back to back days, really back to back games here here and they stormed it.
Yeah. Yeah, it was just you know, it's you if you're in the pack ten. And that was in the snowed in.
Years, late seventies, seventy ninety.
I wish I could have seen those teams.
And remember in the book that you said you had of mine, the one book it's in there. It's it's the spaghetti Game. Remember they beat some Oh you don't know that. I got to look at the book again. Yeah. So the Spaghetti Machine, like the spaghetti Machine restaurant said that if they go they beat usc whatever and everyone with the ticket gets a free spaghetti meal. Well they that's exactly what it was, and they they shortly went out of business. I think I might I might be
stretching the idea. But but but they're no longer around, right. It was pretty quickly after that. Wow, that's a good story. Yeah, it's it's in the book, you know, I wrote it. I've just been so long because they went back to back against U C, l A and USC.
I gotta go. Yeah, Okay, thanks Dave.
I'll see you next week baby, I'm not here tomorrow or finally with tour. Yeah. Thanks, thanks there, yes everybody, yeah, we be aware of the delays.
Thank you. Henry