Monday, March 11, Hour 1

Monday pod, Hour 1
− Have opinions of Arizona basketball changed after Saturday’s loss to USC?
− GUEST: New Arizona Athletic Director Desiree Reed-Francois on her first days on the job and her approach going forward.
− With so many one-year players on college rosters, is leadership harder to come by?

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
This is I on the Ball withSteve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports
fourteen to fifty powered by Nova InsuranceServices and Sure Your Most Prized Possessions kat
z R two SAD at iHeartRadio Station. Hey, good afternoon, everybody.
Welcome to I on the Ball hereon Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve
Riverta, He's Jagan Zaliz. Wegot our guy Kevin in for the first

(00:26):
two hours for every day we thisis on that show to this week.
So if you guys want to callus find us here about that Steve Broo,
Yeah, well I was gonna sayit for the first fifteen An're gonna
here for two hours, right,You're not gonna skip out on us the
whole show. Thank you very much. Good show today. We have planned
yes, our disclosure and full disclosure. We spoke to Desiree Reid fancois.

(00:46):
We had everybody, not everybody butmedia people who were wanted it got a
one on one time. So wedid record an interview with her about a
thirteen minute interview that will play asthe second segment where we normally have a
guest. We put it on asour guest list you know, she's our
guest, right, we recorded it, and yeah, and as a good
interview, and you know, tryingto get some insight into into her.

(01:08):
You know that she doesn't have alot of time who she is on the
job yet, but we had youknow, we asked some questions just trying
to get to know her. Sowe play that after the three fifteen break,
and then we want to soothe yoursavage beasts for the college basketball rust
whatever's left of it with Corey Williams, who gives his insight to whatever he's
seen so far well to this pointin the college basketball world, he's been

(01:32):
out there covering a lot of games, asking what the hell is going on?
What the hell is going not justwith Arizona but everywhere. He's been
all over the country, in theWest Coast mostly. So I ask you
both this, how's your trust leveltoday? You know it's it's not any
different than it was before. Wealready got to call her. Let's take
this. Yeah, are you guystaking calls? We are? You're on

(01:55):
the air. Hello is this Jay? And Steve? Hey Jay, Hey
Steve, This is Can And Iwanted to know how many how deep in
the in the bench. Do youthink will go in Vegas and also in
the march? Man? Is howmany players will we see action? No

(02:15):
different than what you've seen eight didyou go? Eight? Eight? Nine?
Man, No, you're not goingto see Philip. You're not going
to see Maurice short of a blowout, yeah, yeah, but in quality
time, Yeah, he's going togo with these guys. He's this is
not the time to test that takingany chance. Yeah, why do you
ask? I was curious if there'sany thought or possibility if we run into

(02:39):
teams like we've lost to about possiblystarting to play a full court press,
if we get behind to try toget back in the game, which would
require some additional people. No,that's that's not happening. Well, they
press, okay, you know theypress some I don't. I don't.
They're not. Here's the deal.They're not going to change what they do.
They've been doing what they've been doingfor you know, the whole season,

(03:01):
and they're they're not you know,they're not going to change that up.
You know, the the losses thatthey've had or you know, have
been bad, but they're still thebetter team on the court pretty much every
time. They're not they're gonna makethe other team change what they do.
Okay, thanks guys, thank youfor the call. Thank you. Thanks.
This kid's first time calling that.I appreciate it. But no,

(03:23):
I mean, you know, gettingback to your question, right, the
trust level is the same, andit would have been the same had they
won or lost. They can stilllose to anybody, and and they did.
I was initially. You saw howpissed off it was on our on
our text thread, you know,Saturday night. I can't remember, well,
there was an F bomb in there. I lost my mind, but

(03:45):
I lost my mind because I wasso mad that they blew uh a parlay
for me, you know what.The funny thing about it, and that's
what pissed And then when I realizedthat's why I was mad, and really
nothing has changed about them, Iwas better. Well, you're you're speaking
about somebody something of the subject toUh. There's another guy on Facebook because

(04:06):
a friend of mine, and he'sthe more realistic guy, and he says,
you know a lot of the peoplewho are complaining and bitching and blah
blah they lost is for that reason. They have money on them, right,
and they're complaining. Guess what don'tput money on him. Don't put
it on him, and you'll havea better life. Well, and I'll
be at the game, So that'llbe the last time I do that,
right, you know. But youknow a road games, you know a
fair game, right. And itwas an obvious win. I just wanted

(04:28):
it was an obvious right. Allthey had to do was win the game.
They didn't even have to cover.It was obvious win. But it
was not so obvious. We weWe're not going to say that we predicted
this, but going into this season, going into the weekend, we think,
Okay, good game, bad game. It's always the up for a
game. And the one thing I'vesaid on this show more than anything is
the one thing I've learned about beingin sportswatter is the emotions of kids when
they play and if they're not specificto basketball, if you're not up for

(04:51):
a game. And this was Loot'steams too, because I'll take this one
or two guys they don't show up, they don't show up, and it
affects everybody. Give you one exampleUtah nineteen ninety eight. I'll give you
more examples if you want to,right, how do you and and the
question is I get why they werenot up for this game. Yeah,
I don't like it. I thinkI think it's it's bad form, but

(05:14):
I get it and I understood it. I wasn't happy about it, but
I was like, you know,in the end, nothing was going to
change, you know, tennis.You know, Tennessee had won, Tennessee's
on the Tennessee's got that one seed. Now what's changed is maybe they've dropped
one more spot to the this accordingto Lenardi, they're the second two seed,
and maybe they could have gotten theone seed. But those guys,

(05:39):
it's just like we're one or two, we're gonna We're gonna play whoever we
play. So that struck me asodd. The way they played kind of
not really okay, did that itstruck you as odd? Kind of not
really well, no, kind ofnot really well. Yeah, because they
thought they would want to keep surethe momentum keeps, you know, stay
hot, play well and not.But then on the other hand, it

(06:00):
was the second game of the road, was the last game of the regular
season, they clinched the league.You can see how a twenty year old
dude or twenty two year old dudewould go out there and pooped a bit.
Yeah, so okay, so,uh did you read my column?
You didn't? I know you did. Did you get a kind of I
can win a little snarky, butbut it was truthful. So so then

(06:24):
then I listened to Tommy. Didyou listen Tommy? He was He was
like, oh, okay, no, nothing to see here. Stuff happened,
stuff happens, will be okay.I was kind of like taken aback
by his almost nonchalant and I thinkthat upsets people. Yeah, he doesn't
get upset about losses like that.It seems like fans get more upset than

(06:44):
he does about losses, right,very much. So I just thought it
was kind of like he's done thatmost of the year or two. You
know, all you guys will getover it, blah blah blah. But
but for that one, I'm thinking, yeah, you know, he maybe
a little more fired. But I'mnot the coach and he's I'm not Tommy,
and we're all different. We allreact to death or lost differently,
right, But it was kind ofsurprising to me in as much as they

(07:05):
just didn't play well, and theyhaven't played well and in four or five
six games such as these Yeah,and you know, and you know immediately,
you know, I started getting textmessages from people who listen to the
show pointing out that, you know, three lots they lost the three worst
teams in the league. Correct,how does that happen? For the exact

(07:27):
reason we talked about emotional If you'renot emotionally up, you just show up.
If there was a basketball come on, we can go through and I
have the media guy here. Wecan go through every NCAA tournament game and
explain things. How will they happenand why they happened? Who your question?
The judge Busher in nineteen ninety,Yeah, how does that happen?
Does it happened? We weren't ready. We weren't ready. We did we

(07:47):
didn't. My transition to that wedidn't take this game serious enough. I
think Lude is still looking down heremad at me. Yeah, but it
and that translates to me is wedidn't take this game serious enough that we
had to care. And that's theissue with Arizona basketball, right because it
out of the basketball. They're bluebloods right there for every game and they

(08:09):
should win every game. Right.Okay, we'll talk more about that.
Anybody want to call. We stillhave time. We're hoping to gets your
calls. We can't get the callsfrom during the Desiree trans first of all
interview, but throughout the show wecan. We can do this our last
week, the last show of theweek. Right, where are you going?
I'm going to the backbuff Tournament.I'm going to Disney. No,

(08:31):
I'm not going to Disneyland. Disney. We're both here tomorrow for the tournament.
As we've mentioned, Unfortunately, wecan't do a show from there,
just the timing does not work forus, So we're off the rest of
the week. It will beat You'llhave here to the national feed. Then
we'll we'll come back on Monday tokind of break down, not on the
tournament, but you know the bracket. The bracket will be out on Sunday.
Yeah, and in between this,we had promised something on Friday that

(08:54):
we kind of spaced out because wehave a good show today. Our twelve
or Memories of the Pac twelve,and we'll do it football basketball, and
we'll randomly kind of throw them inthere when we have a chance, you
know. So if you guys haveany throughout this whole time, give us
a call. Let us know whatyou think of what yours were. You
don't pack twelve titles big games.Be advised that Steve and I are old,

(09:18):
and so our memories are probably goingto go way back. Yeah,
probably before I know, it's certainlybefore Kevin was born, but before.
A lot of good thing is ourlisteners are old like us, so they
have a lot of great memories backin the good old days. I mean,
it goes, it goes way back, right, And no memory is
a bad one, just it's yourmemory. It's just yeah. I mean
the things that stick out to meare all things that came out. You

(09:39):
know, we've got a long time. We got to take this collar.
Hi, you're on the air andeye on the ball. Hello. Hello,
oh no, okay, go ahead. Hello, Hello, you're on
the air. Yeah, Hi,oh okay, Hi Jay, Hi,
It's Kevin ke and Lehman. What'sup. Well, I gotta tell you

(10:03):
I was watching the game. Iwas out of the country, but I
found a way to watch it.I have to tell you this because I
go back to the I think,guess was the Washington State Games, and
I listened to your analysis of it, and I thought, and these guys
are better than those go falls onESPN. And I'd love to know what

(10:24):
your analysis of that game was.It was obviously sloppy and all that,
but I mean, how do youdo that? Well, I'd love to
know what your insights are. No, stay on the phone, because who
better than you? Then talk aboutpsychology? I think we should ask you,
right and let me ask you formy valuation? Is any because it's
it's emotions psychology. They had alreadywon Thursday. They celebrated like crazy in

(10:48):
the locker room with their banners andthe water and the craziness and Richard Jefferson
and Okay, you know what dowe play for on Saturday? You've been
around Arizona basketball long enough Kevin toknow that there was a little kind of
walks differently, he talks differently,and they think they're going to show up
at USC and everything's gonna be hunkydory, and it doesn't work that way.
It just doesn't. So I'm thinkingover confidence killed the Cats on this

(11:09):
one. Well, I don't useI don't use four letter language, but
I'm going to you can bleep thisout n I L Yes, you're right,
it's only three letters. But youknow what people forget is these kids
are making a ton of money.And nobody in the U of A is

(11:30):
going to tell you how much moneythat eighteen year old is making and how
much Bollo is making. But they'remaking a ton of money, and so
what you just said, Yeah,they're out parttering, partering, parting the
word right, and with Richard Jeffersonand all the celebration. I get it.
I mean it's let down, trappedplus but yeah, it's beyond me.

(11:54):
When your coach says your next gameis going to really test your maturity,
I would say, we got abunch of toddlers out there when of
the money's on the line and itscares eleven heck out of me, It'll
be interesting to see. I'll giveyou one more thought of mine. And
if they if they end up winningthe Back ten Championship, uh, you

(12:15):
know the tournament. What a tournament? And then they turn around, Uh
I think, well, I thinkthere'll be a one seed if they win
the tournament. No, I'll haveto distribute with you. I think that
one seed is gone. May bethe first number two seed, but no,
there's there's no way. All right, Well, let's just remember that
and we'll see what happens. Okay, because I love you guys, you

(12:37):
call me and ridiculed me, We'llhave you back on this show. Thanks
Duck, Thanks Duck. All right, Kevin, you appreciated enjoying yourself.
Thank you. I think he's morequalified to tell us what, you know,
what might have happened over there.I mean, I mean, we've
been watching sports for years and you'veseen teams do this. You think teams

(13:00):
don't do it, but they do. They do it, they do the
best teams do it. You know, good teams do it, and and
and you know, how do youexplain Purdue losing to Fairly Dickinson last year?
They obviously didn't take Fairly Dickinson seriously. Virginia or the time Virginia lost
as a one seed, they didn'ttake that team wherever it was. They
play Arizona and against you know,a couple of times, and no matter

(13:22):
what, even if it is theNC Double a tournament, they think of
they're looking at the team that's infront of clearly, and so you know,
I think I think it was asimple matter of they went out there,
they didn't take this game seriously becausethey just didn't. I mean at
the first TV timeout, I'm like, oh no, this it had a

(13:45):
bad feel to it. You've coached, I know what level it's at,
so it's a different level, butyou've coached. If the kids think they're
better than they are and they playagainst a team they think that they can
crush, sometimes they don't play.Yeah, I mean, come on,
I'm sure we got run ruled bysome bad teams. It's both in BASEB
politics, and you've been able tobeat teams that thought the same of you,

(14:07):
that that thought the same of us. It happens. It happens.
Yeah, at any level, anyand every level, for any level,
girls and guys, girls, guys, pro college, high school, very
much, little, wherever. Andit's unexplained. It's unexplainable. But that's
the explanation. Yeah, it's it. It's it all right. Uh uh.
Coming up our interview earlier today withthe Desiree Read francois, the new

(14:31):
athletic director at Arizona. She's beenon the job about a week now,
so didn't We weren't able to geta lot of what's going on, but
just some of her plans and thethings and who she is and who she
is and the things that she shehas in the work. So when we
come back, it'll be our recordedinterview with Desiree read Francois. Stick around
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Sports fourteen. Hey, welcome backto I'm about here on Fox Sports fourteen

(20:08):
fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. He'sjigsawsk Now we have desiree Reed francois the
new ad at juve A. Howare you. I'm doing very well.
Thank you very much for having me. Who would have imagined thirty some years
ago this young woman here going toschool while school and joining the U of
A Colors is now the ad?Who would have ever thought that it is?

(20:32):
It's a dream come true. Itreally is. It's very special to
come full circle. And you knowI've mentioned and I've talked to you a
lot of it just feels like I'mcoming home. We spoke to you.
I spoke to you in Sacramento ayear ago, almost to the day Arizona
played out there and Missouri played outthere, and you're the AD at the

(20:52):
time, and I'm thinking, Wow, what a dynamic woman. And then
when the job came open, I'mthinking, Uh, there's a girl.
And I didn't mention who she andI tould sur friends, but she said
Missouri, they're doing really well athleticallyand and everything else. She'd never come
here and here you are did youhow much thought did you have to put
into it to come? I talkedto the football team this morning and I

(21:17):
asked them how many of you hadother opportunities? And they raised their hands
with their fairly level athletes. AndI'm in no way saying I'm gonna lead
level athletes. I'm going to bevery very clear enough. And I said
but, and I pointed it atNoah and I said, well, why
did you choose to stay here atArizona? And he said family? And
then I pointed to another young manand he said love. And I said,

(21:38):
you know what, we shared thatin Common, Missouri, the University
of Missouri, the people were incredible. My student athletes were incredible. My
son is a student athlete there,and you're right we were. There was
some really good momentum in the athleticdepartment. So the University of Missouri,
the people were so very spell andwe had a lot of great momentum.

(22:03):
I was not looking to leave whendoctor Robbins called me about this. Initially
I thought it was a call aboutI was. I was speaking to the
law school on that on that SundayMonday. Is something that I'd been planned
six months in advance, and whenhe talked to me about the role,

(22:26):
my my first blush in my heartjust said, yes, you need to
do this. The University of Arizona, like I said in the press conference,
they the College of Law. Andwhen Willie Jordan Curtis, my former
dean, when she showed up atthat press conference, it was I felt
like I was twenty two again andI this was a heart move and just

(22:51):
like the football players, and theywere talking about family and love. That's
that's why I came back. Soyou know, it was a while ago
that you were actually announced to bethe the ad You've only been on the
job a month, But what doyou I mean a week? Excuse me,
but what do you know so farabout the job and is it shaping
up to be what you thought comingin? I look outside and I see

(23:14):
those banners, and we have twentytwo national championships with our last one I
think in twenty eighteen with women's golf. The University of Arizona has an incredible
championship passed. We have a lotof success. What men's basketball is doing,
what football has done. Women's basketball, I think they have a thirty
four net and I hope that theythat they get selected for the NCAA tournament.

(23:38):
I just saw women's tennis on Sundayand they beat University Nevada Areno,
and we've there's so much greatness here. There's such a storied and championship pass.
I was here in ninety seven whenwe won the national championship, and
so what my job is is tocome in and build build a model business.

(24:02):
I don't want to just balance thebudget. We've got to build a
strong infrastructure. We've got to makesure we have the right people in the
right spaces. They understand their job, responsibilities and what success looks like,
and we're giving them the resources andthen we're holding them accountable. We've got
to build an athletic department team sothat we can continue to have that success.
These are challenging times and athletics acrossthe country, not just here at

(24:25):
the University of Arizona, but everywhereacross the country. And how we will
tackle those challenges is if we havea very strong athletic department team. So
you ask me, I think aboutwhat I was surprised about and what I'm
excited about are our students. Youknow, Caleb Love has spent a little

(24:45):
time with him in Los Angeles,and he's a really incredible young man.
He is a great teammate. He'sa caring young man in the isis space
and then Noah's and I look forwardto getting to know our student athlete and
hearing their hopes and dreams. Iwant to work with our coaches and make
sure that they have the resources andsupport they need to be successful. I

(25:07):
look forward to going in an athleticdepartment team. So about Children of weeks
ago, when you were announced asthe new AD. I start to a
colleague of vahe Grigorian who you know? And I know a colleague of mind
form a colleague of mine, andI said, what's she about? He
sent me this. She is asports force of nature and a very delightful
person. How can you be twowith the scene? Well, like,

(25:36):
first of all, he's been veryvery kind. You can be strong and
be kind. They are not mutuallyexclusive. I am driven by a purpose
of providing student athletes with a championshipexperience, a holistically championship experience. But

(25:56):
I don't have a lot of tolerancefor nonsense. And I shared that with
the staff that you know we're goingto do things the right way. I
look for people of high character,and you know, every team that I've
ever been a part of, yougot to put your team first. You've
got to be selfless, you've gotto be smart, and you've got to

(26:17):
be incredibly hard working. So Ithink it's if you're guided by your purpose,
then you don't have to have youcan withstand the challenges. And in
terms of I don't know if youmeans by force of nature that that we
drive things, and we drive prettyhard, but but we do because we're

(26:38):
guided by a higher calling. Asyou begin to tackle the financial situation that
you have here, you know,where do you start on something like that
that just seems so big. Well, in addition to that, we had
the doctor ns on it go ahand ask that question. Well, doctor
Robins said, you thought it couldbe fixed in eighteen to thirty six months.
How aggressive is that? Or isthat something that you're on board with

(27:00):
and that you think is doable?We absolutely are. What we're going to
do is so my first step.So when I first got here, I
told the staff, I have fivepriorities in three to five special projects in
this first quarter and the first oneis our people. The second one is
university partnerships. We can't fix thisby ourselves, so I tend to work

(27:21):
with I am working with President RobinsJohn Arnold in my university colleagues, but
also we need to be great partnersin athletics. The third thing is I
have to analyze the budget, andso I've been working a lot on that
and looking at where our financials are. But also it's not just building to
balance the budget. We've got tobuild the infrastructure to have that model business.

(27:41):
As an athletic director, you're aCEO of a one hundred and fifty
million at the other place, onehundred and twenty million dollar company with an
altruistic purpose within the framework of we'reone of I think there's eighty one campus
units, but we're a very visiblecampus unit, and so we have to
embrace that responsibility. So I lookforward to building that business model with both

(28:04):
a short term and then longer termgoals and expectations. But we're going to
analyze every single one of our departmentsand our profit centers and then look at
our cost centers and figuring out figureout is this now I'm pointing him up.
I want to ask the next questionand figure out is the way we're
doing it? Is this the bestway to do it? Or are we

(28:25):
doing it because this is how we'vealways done it. You talk about the
model business, how different is thattoday than maybe two years ago, five
years ago, ten years ago.The intercollegiate athletics landscape across the country is
changing at an incredibly rapid pace.I would argue the fastest pace that we've

(28:48):
ever seen in the history of collegesports, specifically when you look at name,
image and likeness, revenue share,litigation, conference re alignment, television
contracts. Yeah, the lawsuits arecoming rapidly, but you know what,
it's a beautiful game. We're providingaccess to higher education and we're providing some

(29:15):
of the best leadership teachings that you'llever have in your whole life. The
experience you have as a student athletewill take well. So we have to
not get away from our core purpose. We have to recognize their challenges.
We've got to have a great team, a great infrastructure, and then we're
gonna we're going to take those onhead on. Well, let me ask
you, obviously, a dynamic person, the person you've been a student athlete,

(29:41):
been an ad you've been an attorney. What did you want to be
when you were a little girl.I wanted to be the first female GM
in the National Football League with theforty nine ers. And how did it
come to this? I realized thatworking in athletics is part of my DNA

(30:04):
growing up. I'm not a greatnatural athlete by any stretch. I'm remarkably
uncoordinated, but I work really hard. Athletics is a place that I can
compete. And it was okay.You were. You weren't told to not
you weren't told to you know,keep your opinions to yourself, but you
were. I you were encouraged tocompete. So that's why I love athletics.

(30:26):
And also I wouldn't be sitting herein front of you all if it
wasn't for my dad was an eighthgrade English teacher and my mom was a
school secretary and she and she uhuh worked part time. I come from
a a very lower middle class family, but it was because of education that
I'm able to do what I do. And so I s believe in the

(30:47):
power of higher education to transform lives. So when you so, when you
met with the administration here when youfirst got here, and obviously the man
I think that was the word youuse. I can't remember what it was
specifically. How did they receive youshould I don't know how to How was
I received? I'm looking at ourstuff. Uh. You know, I

(31:07):
think champions of champions rise to theoccasion. If you are someone that wants
to revel in mediocrity, if youare someone that just wants to do just
enough to get by, uh,if this is not gonna be the place
for you. If you are someonethat says, hey, I want high
expectations, I embrace challenge. Iam gonna work and I'm gonna prove that

(31:30):
that I that I am the bestat what I do in this not only
in this entire conference, but anentire country. If that's what you're looking
for, and you are gonna loveit here and this will be the dynamic
uh work environment that you will thrive. But if you're looking to revel in
mediocrity, it's gonna be a struggle. Last question, with all the uncertainty

(31:51):
you mentioned the second ago. Youknow, in athletics, the possibility of
student athletes becoming employees, uh,those kinds of things. How how can
you manage this recovery that you needto manage. I mean, there's so
much uncertainty. There's uncertainty, butand there's a little bit of chaos.
But you know what that brings.It brings opportunity, and that's what we're
about. You know, when Name, Image and Likeness first came on board,

(32:15):
instead of complaining about it, wesaid, hey, you know what,
let's look and let's make it acompetitive advantage. And you know,
we were pretty aggressive in my priorplace, and you know, worked with
our legislature and created a law thatwas remarkably competitive and and it really helped
our programs. So I'm not sayingthat we're going to necessarily change the law
here. I would never mean toget out in front of our legislature and

(32:37):
certainly not my president either. Butwe're going to look at everything we're doing
and making sure that what we're doingis the best in class, and if
it's not, then we got tofigure out why not. And I just
don't want to always do things justbecause we've always done it that way.
Well, thank you very much,as rightful, hope to see you more
on the show. Appreciate it.Thank you guys. Fare down. I

(33:01):
found her to be very intriguing,honest, very bright. Obviously you don't
becoming really smart. Uh. Andlet me see this. We we've talked
about this internally with us, andI don't think i'm miss speaking. I
think that people in that building willhave to up their game. You're gonna
have to be on their toes andyou're right up there. Game is a

(33:22):
good way to put it in thatshe you know, she said, I
mean, I'm I'm I can Ican be nice, and I can be
all those things. But I'm gonna, you know, basically, she said,
in a nice way, I'm comingin here to you know, make
some changes and and and if youwant to come up, yep, you
got. If you're gonna come alongfor the ride, then you better be
prepared to work hard. Let's let'stake a break. We can take the

(33:45):
break now and then come back andtalk more about this. Yes, and
then we take some calls. Yep, let's talk about There is a lot
to talk about, So stick aroundand come back. We'll kind of recap
all that she said, so we'llbe back. If you're an Arizona men's
basketball fan, you know it's beensuccessful for nearly forty years now take a
look back at the Ludolsen era inmy new book, Lessons from Loot.
It was a labor of love throughthe eyes of twenty five former players,

(34:06):
coaches and friends to give insight tothe coach and the man who led them,
competed against them, and inspired them. Twenty five chapters for his twenty
five years as Arizona's beloved coach.Lessons from Loot is an insight to how
he built the program into a nationalpowerhouse. What one email me at Steve
dot RIVERA ninety five at gmail dotcom. Hi, this is formal wild

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Breaking down all the exes and olls. It's Steve Rivera and Jagen Salviz.
This is I on the Ball onFox Sports fourteen fifty. Hey,
welcome back to I on the Ballhere Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve,

(36:42):
He's Jay. You got Kevin withus for another fifteen this hour and
then we'll get to breaking news onthe other side. But one of the
things that I thought was, oh, there are a lot of things that
were interesting. She's a former athlete, and I asked this question, and
you know this, Jay all thetime when I ask former athletes on how
do they compete? And she talkedabout wanting to be the GM, Right,

(37:04):
that's what they do. I mean, you have to find things to
get your juices. There has tobe a fire. You golf, you
play a little, you double alittle wink wink on on sports betting.
You know that's kind of your competition. I played poker, poker. I
love I loved being the day today beat writer because you compete. I
compete against the star. Start competingagainst me. I love to. You
know what I'm saying, we didyou find you find ways to compete.

(37:28):
And this is how she's done it, being attorney, being very aggressive.
You know what I'm saying, right, No, and and and and that's
why she is where she is,okay, because she is a competitor.
She takes on challenges. She talkedabout, you know, the you know
this challenge at Arizona being an opportunity. And when you approach things like that,
that's how you get to the jobsthat you get to, and that's

(37:51):
how you're successful at them because youaccept those challenges and you take them head
on instead of trying to find theeasy way out. So the fact that
she's doing that is is a bigdeal to Arizona. They need somebody like
that. Yeah, no question,And I think that President Robinson has chosen
the right quession for that. Andnot to say that Dave didn't get a

(38:12):
chance to do that, but hejust felt that there was a needed to
be a move. Well, youcan see you can see why. You
can see why when Robin's doctor Robinssays, we needed a different direction.
When you talk to her and seeher approach and what she's got on her
plate versus what Dave's sort of hadon his plate all these years, you

(38:35):
understand that the day, okay,Dave was great for what he was being
asked to do. But now theythey've gone into this period where they got
this financial situation that's got to getfixed, and maybe Dave's not the guy
to do that. You know,they need a person like like her.
You know, we were talking offair that that you know, the folks
that Michael Center are gonna have tobe to use a rich rich They're gonna

(39:00):
have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable, because it's gonna get uncomfortable over that
very much. So, uh andyeah, there's and it should it needs
to. Sure. Well we've beenaround long enough to know that. Yeah,
And look a lot of them knowit too, right, And I
say them as like this species outthere. But you know, the people
and maybe maybe a lot of alot of the folks that machayl will will
have a will appreciate that. Wesay, okay, now, I know

(39:22):
that when I'm working hard and doingstuff and getting things done, that there's
some appreciation, maybe even a rewardfor that. And you know, and
and the and the and the lookthe athletic program is is a really one
of the you know, it's agreat program. It's a really good program
for you know, uh, DivisionI athletics. It didn't get there because

(39:44):
there were a bunch of slackers throughoutthe years at McHale I gotta. I
got a text from somebody who alsotalked to her today, uh, and
this is what they sent me.I get the sense that she is not
afraid to tell hard truths and shewon't suffer fools. So there has to
be a lot of nervous athletic departmentstaffers there waiting for her decisions. Or

(40:06):
maybe there's a lot of athletic thedepartment staffers are going I look forward finally,
or yeah, I'm looking forward toyes, someone pushing us this way.
I could think that again, there'sso many of so many of the
people at Michael were athletes and hopefullyyou know they're saying, you know what,
I'm looking forward to having a personlike that. Yeah, let's take
this call. Hi, you're onthe air and on the ball. Hey
you guys, this is Gabe.How's it going you guys, Gabe,

(40:30):
how are you? We're doing well? Oh you must be, you must
be critically go ahead, Sorry,I'm doing fine. I'm just kind of
a little bit dumbfounded by why dothe Arizona loose to a trash university's spoiled
children team? Well, you you'vebeen here enough this year alone of why

(40:53):
they've done it four or five timesto the same type of team. Yeah,
they didn't they sing. Their energywas not there they I mean clearly
they They beat U C. LA on Thursday and so they secure a
conference bed. But regardless, youshould you should annihilate USC because they're only

(41:14):
good at one single spot and thatis not men's basketball. I'll let you
guys figger that out. But anyway, yeah, whatever, alright, Well,
better they better play if you IfArizona plays against USC in the patrol
permit, they bear, put downthe hammer and blow them out one hundred

(41:36):
points because losing to a trash universityof spoiled children. Nah, now that
is good in men's basketball or USCis the opposite? Are good? Their
human seaco matter bad? Well,Gabe, thank you as usual with your
commentary. We appreciate it. Thanksfor listening to Gabe. We always think
that the world of you. Thankyou anytime bear down E was gonna Oka.

(42:00):
So, Jay, let me askyou this. I was thinking this
when he was speaking. Do weknow how good Arizona is? We know
how good they can be? Dowe know how bad they are? We
know how bad they can be.So we kind of know what we do.
We know both ends of it.And the thing is and and and
the problem is that it's a mysteriousto which one is going to show up

(42:23):
the problem? Kevin? Who doesn'thave that problem? Kevin, Kevin,
you've made the observation that I've said, a long time. What do you
think about the tournament and how it'llsettle for them? I was saying,
it's really interesting as an Arizona fanto go through these kind of tournaments because
you almost get more confident in yourin your team as the tournament goes on,
which is kind of the inverse experiencefor most teams who face inferior team

(42:45):
in the first couple of rounds andthey feel really confident about making it to
the third round. But once youget to the tougher time competition, excuse
me, it gets a little shaky. For the fans, they're like,
I don't know if you can beatthe uncs the produced but when your Arizona
are like, oh, the hardestthing we got is you know McNeice.
So if we can get past McNeewho knows the ceiling is the proof your

(43:06):
observation is perfect, because that's justwhat's given. It was onto troubles right
throughout the years. But let mesay two years ago, uh, two
years ago. Sometimes, Jay,and you've seen this, sometimes they just
ran into a better team, Yes, Houston, who would have Houston was
better that day and if they playedten times, they might beat them six
out of the six and Houston teamgot to the final four. So there's
no shame in losing to that team. Right, you happen to run into

(43:29):
him in the sweet sixteen instead ofthe lead eight, but yeah, sure,
sure, and that happens. It'sthe other stuff that you think.
The mcnique states, then you're thinking, well, this should be easy.
The problem is they think that.They think that, and it goes back
to the statistic we brought up,like I don't know how many weeks ago
about their record in big attendance gamesversus record in small attendance games. And
I know USC is like a historicschool for various reasons, but that's not

(43:51):
a very big game. I knowit's the last game of the pack twell
regular season, but they just wonthe regular season title, so yeah,
I don't know, Well they getthe games wise, the bigger, the
better the team is. Yeah.No, I again, it nothing changed
Saturday. Initially it did for me, but don upon further reviews, then

(44:12):
upon further reviews, like we alreadyknew this about this team, and and
nothing's changed. Here here's you know, talking to all all the things that
you run through your brain. Butlook, you know, let Arizona fans
feel a little easier by the factthat to this day, Tommy Lloyd still
hasn't lost two games in a row. So there you go. You know,
I know people are worried about USCcoming out of you know, come

(44:36):
playing Arizona playing USC in the thatfirst game, because they're they're they're in
that bracket that they take. They'replaying the winner of Washington US and people
saying, God, here comes theus See again, just like Stanford,
you know in past years and whatnot. So there was Alas a five to
eight favorite two in the tournament.Uh, this week, I might I'll
say they'll win it. You usC go ahead, It's take this call

(44:58):
high. You're on there and onthe ball. Yeah. Jay, First
of all, you did a greatjob in calling the Alabama Tennessee game.
What do you say, Well,no, last week you called it on
the air. You said he wasgoing to Alabama or Kentucky. Excuse me,

(45:19):
Kentucky was good Tennessee. Anyway,long, I'll get to the point
number one, nil and these transferportals, you have no consistency of leadership
on the floor. They're a greatteam to get all the potential in the
world, but there hasn't been anybodythat when you have guys that have played

(45:44):
together two or three years, thatreal floor leader that can get in their
grill and not always be the coach. And I think that hurts a lot
of teams, not just there asa right rick. So you've you've watched
enough games to know years in fact, So who have they had in the

(46:07):
past that was that guy and thatgot him far? There's only been two
or three in in my time.I mean that was Pre and I l
and that's Pre and I L.Right, look at Miles Simon, Okay,
I mean Miles was a Flora leader. Jefferson was a leader. No,

(46:28):
no, no, I'll give you. I'll give you the three that
I have. Richard was not infact, he was more Jason Gardner.
But it's Miles who You're correct,TJ. McConnell, right, and and
Johnson Nick Johnson, those three inthe last fifteen years, I would say.
Other than that, no, wellwe haven't had a Judd Burchelar.

(46:51):
We haven't had that mentality where thekids have played together long enough more than
you. That's a really good point. Yeah, no, that's a really
good flying Who are gonna go todown? You don't, right, because
well, the last the last howmany years, they're Arizona's best players have
been guys who have come in herefor a year. You know, Caleb
Love, you know, you hadCaleb Love that you know for for a

(47:13):
year, you had uh Courtney orAmy for a year, you had uh
dere Aiden for a year, abunch of these guys who commit, you
know, the the whole uh JoshJosh, uh Josh Green uh uh you
know uh uh Nico Mannion for ayear, And you're right, they don't

(47:35):
get to grow and get whatever cohesivenessor whatever you want to call it,
you know, to have guys likethat who you are seeing as floor leaders.
To your point, Rick, that'sthat's that's exactly it. I think
it's pre n I l but toyour point, it's true. Yeah.
And here's the other quick thing.I think this is where coach should go
to Ballow and say, listen,you are you've been here now two years.

(47:57):
You need to grab these guys bytheir shirt sleeve and shake the hell
out of him so that he coachingskills and Ballow, you are the leader
out there. You need to takeownership of this floor. And I think
that Baba would do that if coachwould put that kind of pressure on top
of them. So, okay,Rick, thank you for calling. We'll
talk about that in second Thank you, Rick, Okay, good day.

(48:22):
I think in theory, and hearme out, Jay, in theory,
I think that's okay. But weare already thirty some games into the season.
How how can you doesn't make theleader when you have three weeks.
Maybe they're supposed they're supposed to behere by now exactly, And I feel
like kind of Boswell could be that, but he went through that space in
the middle of the season where verymuch some of that might have And so

(48:42):
people, I think they're looking toCaleb Love for that. Yeah when you
go one for ten, Yeah,and you know whatever, for whatever reason,
he played his worst game of theyear. Maybe Keishah Johnson is a
guy more maybe more than Ballow becauseI think heshad Johnson can be more vocal,
he can scare the crap out ofguy and speak authority. Two have
been to hire, right, Butagain, these they're all you know,

(49:04):
Caleb and Keishat are both one yearguys. But Jay, you're already,
like I say, thirty seven gamesinto this, all of a sudden,
you can't take charge when when what'sbehind you, the seasons already behind you.
You know, wh where's Pally Larsonon this? On the on the
leader meter? Right? So letme tell you what I was thinking over
the weekend. Just to spite you, they played their ninety seven throwbacks.
They look pretty good. Did theyplay well? And two you have two

(49:29):
final four guys that have been there. What they all happened to that?
You know what, you just needan e racist game from here from all
of that. Okay, you justneed an eracist game from all of that.
It's like, you know, it'sthe next thing. They did look
good in those things, look goodgood at their bud Cat But you know
a kid, Yeah, you're talkingabout Arizona. Okay, you're talking about

(49:51):
Arizona not playing well. Guess whatthe other team wants to beat the crap
out of you. And they playedvery well. And look again, ye
Alice and and Isaiah call here getto play against Arizona. This was their
one shot at Arizona and they andthey came out and played well. And
and then as a tournament to yourpoint, Kevin, it's the McNeese states
the first time at you guys,we're going to show that we can play

(50:12):
the game too. Yeah, andthey have. There were so many things
in play on Saturday, and theyall came to fruition and so and it
added up to a So let meask you, we have too many stuff.
So you and you already have saidthat you put some money on the
money line easy. What were youthinking? What were you thinking? Because
because this Vegas loves these games,because it's an obvious win. I think,

(50:35):
what was the thinking during the games? No, no, no,
what were you thinking before you madethe bet? I just I thought even
if they came out flat, thatthey would win. It was a no
brainer. And that's and that's how, that's why, that's why I just
that's why it was just just win. I didn't I didn't like the line.
I wasn't gonna bet the line.Arizona. You know, this is
not a two foot pot, butnot a twelve foot pot. Imagine if

(50:59):
you're the player thinking this, becauseguess what they're thinking this too, to
show up, we'll play. Webeat them already by a bunch, Yeah,
show up. It doesn't work thatway, No, it doesn't.
It just doesn't. It doesn't.And then that's that was my thinking,
that this was a you know,just a game that even with the celebrate
that Arizona was good enough that evenon a bad day, they could beat

(51:19):
this team. And Vegas loves youguys, yeah, because no, no,
no don't they because they say it'sit's gotta not smart money. It's
it's the shark's money or whatever theycall it. The smart money. Guys,
No, there's no such thing.Some people always say you're supposed to
bet the spot and not the line, some people the whole thing. But
that's to your point as well.Yeah, m but it happens more than

(51:42):
you know, or we know,just until you get until you're affected.
You say, what the hell wasI thinking this? You would think the
team and more consistency. Though Iknow your thing is no, momentum doesn't
really exist, but consistency is areal thing that does being very much so,
you would think that they want thosehabits of just doing what you're supposed
to do, game in, gameout, And that's weird psychology things.
I mean, more so than losingthe US. Consistency is a good word

(52:02):
because that does exist. Yeah.Yeah, and this team, and that's
what people are looking for, andthen when they don't see it, they
lose their minds. Even though theyhad won eleven out of twelve, ten
of eleven, I think, yeah, only to Washington State. They still
wont ten out of twelve. That'sstill pretty good. Yeah, But the
way they want to exactly again.And then when you mix in that,

(52:23):
the fact that three pack twelve lotsthree worst teams in the league should scare
you. Of course it does.And maybe it scares the players enough to
say, okay, no more.How many times? How many listens learn
maybe? And you put you withtheir kids? Man, it takes a
lot of lessons to learn. Ifyou drink all the milk and you put

(52:43):
it back in the refrigerator, throwit away. Don't put it back in
the refrigerator. Don't drink out ofthe cart either. All right, let's
take our break. We're gonna comeback breaking news. A lot of stuff
going on in the NFL today,So Kevin will be right back with that.