Thursday, January 4, Hour 1

Thursday pod, Hour 1
− Thoughts headed into Arizona vs. Colorado.
− GUEST: Reggie Geary discusses who Arizona can get past Sunday’s debacle at Stanford.
− Which Arizona basketball coaches have been “great.”

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
This is I on the Ball withSteve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez. Sound Fox
Sports fourteen fifty powered by Nova InsuranceServices and Sure Your Most Prized Possessions kat
c R two, SAG and iHeartRadioStation. A good afternoon, everybody.
Welcome to I on the Ball hereFox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera.
He's Jagan Zawis. We don't haveany kids this week our child support

(00:27):
payment, so I can say weshouldn't be having any kids anyway. You're
still coughing them for a little bit. I am a little bit. I
think I'm you know, getting alittle bits better by the day. I'm
well enough to go, you know, do my job at the basketball game
tonight. I'm still testing negative andso I got a call. Yeah,

(00:49):
the question is will the Cats dotheir job to it? And you know,
I think we'll we'll last REGI carrythat, you know. Oh well,
yeah, yeah, he saw hewas front row on that bay.
He wanted to make sure that weknew that he's not doing the game tonight.
So that's okay, that's what weget. We get. We get
to ask him some questions then yeah, and he'll be he'll be playing with

(01:10):
us, honest with us. Hewent through a few of these. I
remember a few while bringing those upas specifically, I mean, what mind
they were the senior year they wentto say, they went to Stanford,
Uh got beat and they and unlessReggie, Joseph Blair, Joe McClain,
Corey Williams, Reggie who is theguard? Who's the Reggie was? Must
have been the guard because Corey wasa three, Joe McClain, j B

(01:34):
Ben Davis, Ben Davis uh anduh No, No, In fact,
I don't think JB was on theteam anymore. Remember he got academically ineligible.
They went and they lost to Stanford. It was the team was kind
of in disarray. I know Corey. I did a story. I don't
know if I'll bring this up toReggie, but TRD the story that they
were some in house kind of likejealousies. Because guess what happens and and
and I'm not saying that all mentionhappened. A lot of them were seniors.

(01:57):
So when your seniors and at theend of the your career, what
are you thinking, NBA, Ineed the ball exactly. I got to
get my numbers. They righted theship and they fell into Sweet sixteen.
But those are the things that remember, Sean would say, things are going
okay now, but the outside noise, the outside noise, so everything and

(02:19):
anything can happen to a Dean atany time. Yeah. And also remember
last year was kicking the crap outof Stafford and then they lost. Then
they lost. Stuff happens, Jay, You've seen it a number of times.
Sometimes the rambl are covered and sometimesthey aren't done the last second.
Can that was but you know what, that was awful on Saturday. I
mean it was bad from the fromthe get go. You're talking about Sunday.

(02:42):
Sunday. It was nine to nothingand it never got better. Yeah,
I think that they I don't know, do you think they lowed themselves
into believing that they can make arun at any time that could be it,
because you know that that's been that'sbeen their thing, you know,
I mean, I know I satthere through the whole game, waiting,
Okay, they're gonna make a run. They make a run, They're gonna
make They're gonna make a run.And they never made the run. Stanford

(03:02):
kept running right, no, right, and then when you have no solution,
but you have a solution that justdoesn't work. And defending the perimeter.
You wonder if there's a time,if there was a time in that
game where Tommy just kind of threwhis hands up and said, you know,
they're not winning this game. Infact, Jay, I know you're
the Twitter guys. I saw somethingon Twitter yesterday fans. I guess they

(03:22):
took a shot of the coaching onthe sideline and they looked distraught. Tommy
had his arms crossed, and ithad to be with a minute left,
and they're saying, look, look, this is what the coaching is doing.
They were getting round. What areyou gonna do? You know,
you don't have a twenty exactly?I would look that way too, And
so they showed these guys they shouldbe No, they were already either butt

(03:45):
kicked. Yeah, you know,time and circumstances of a photo. Oh
look he's not smiling. What thehell was there to smile about? True?
Yeah, you know what, don'tlisten to theirs on a fan right
now? Running there are you know, and there and there's another thing,
Jaya, and you know this becausewe we all went through this. Oh
ninety seven, they lost nine,don't worry, well, that doesn't.

(04:08):
Ninety seven has nothing to do withthis year. Ninety eight has nothing.
They're in the moment today. Theygot to get themselves out of it.
I know. But that's also away of saying it's gonna be okay,
it's gonna be fine. Sure,you know they can go. This is
how bad it can be and youcan still do this. You're trying to
give fans perspective. Dand what thehell you wasted your time? Go have

(04:29):
a shot of whiskey. Man,I need a shot of something, but
you need a toddy hot toddy.I'm drinking some coffee. Okay, okay,
but hey, he's a good gametonight, big game tonight, and
it's always a huge game. They'reeleven and two. Yeah, I know
why they're not ranked, but youknow they're not ranked, but they're close.
But if they win, they'll beranked. You know, Look,
Colorad always Color is that team inhistorically for Arizonea, it's that team that

(04:54):
everybody looks at color and says youshould kick their ass. Sure, but
you haven't. But they're always toughto play. Yeah, well you remember
the last second shot with the fingertips. Yeah, yeah, I know his
name is Yeah, you know,you know it's Arizona has a tough time
with them all the time. Andand you know it's because you know,
when UCLA comes in, not thisnot this year's UCLA, but anytime UCLA

(05:16):
comes in Arizona, you know,Arizona fans expect a tough game. Expect
hey, we could lose because it'sUCLA or whoever. Colorado is that team
that doesn't get any respect as abasketball program from Arizona fans. All right,
so anytime Arizona plays Colorado, theythink it's Colorado, you should beat
them. Well, that's not necessarilytrue. And this team is one of

(05:36):
those teams where Arizona better have itsact together. They better not do what
they did even close to what theydid against Stanford where they're gonna get beat
tonight, they need to play well. Totally totally agree. I was gonna
say now I lost the train ofthought. And obviously they're pretty good UCLA.
The thing about it with Arizona,they need every win in the conference.

(05:57):
They just do because the conference sucksoutside of the Colorado really u c
l A lost to Stanford. Infact, I wanted to start the show
today and then we got sidetracked.How about them Cardinals. How about them
Cardinals they beat They went to uc. L A and not the Cardinals,
card the Cardinal. Yeah, theCardinals, Uh, how about them?
They're going to UCLA the Airson toturn their season around maybe maybe well

(06:18):
they got the kid. Yeah,they got some guys back. Yeah,
you know, so there, youknow, they got more of their team
back, and you know, wetalked about that with Brian Jefferies yesterday.
But you know, they're there,They've got more of their guys back and
maybe that win, you know,it turns everything around them. Although I've
never been that impressed with with uh, they're they're called Jared Haws. Yeah,

(06:41):
dawksh Yeah, Jared Haw. I'venever been that. You know,
he just doesn't look you ever seethey ever see the movie hang Over to
where the father in law calls callsthe guy what do you call him,
I don't know, like milky Riceor something, the guy the guy who
had his tooth. Yeah, yeah, he just takes like he's just kind

(07:02):
of playing in vanilla. Yeah,yeah, you're right, he was just
kind of seeing he's Stanford, he'sbooking Stafford, he's books, you know,
he's a good guy. I'm not. I don't mean to criticize him
and say he just he doesn't inspirefear in anything. You're the looks guy.
He's not coming off the buzz guy, right. So it's not an
airport in airport right, right,But he did airport you in nineteen ninety
six, if you remember, hewas with Kansas and he's the one that

(07:26):
nailed the shot in the corner thedefeated Arizona to that same team we're talking
about. So I the one thingI was going to say to you,
and I remember what I was trainingof thought that Tommy has not I think
he's gone. Whatever times he's lost, he never lost two in a row,
never lost two in a row.Right, So there's that. Have
they covered. I don't know helost two out of three, you know,
a couple of weeks ago. Butyes, he's not lost in a

(07:46):
row. So look and I andI think he I think he has a
way of gaining the attention of hisguys. We'll see and and again the
approach being we stopped talking about Stanfordthe day after the Stanford game. Sure,
you said to Bruce, you thinkwe didn't practice the day after that,
of course they did. You know, you get it out of their
system and move on to the nextthing. Sure, Bruce is such an

(08:09):
innocent target really, because you know, it's a question, it was a
fair question. Did you see didyou see ideas press converce a snippet or
two? I I only saw aquote coming out of that that's saying five
stars and stuff like that or notwhere she wants to go. Okay,
no, there was one. Therewas one that came out of the news
yesterday. I didn't I didn't seeit live or anything, but she was

(08:31):
a bit snippy in a question abouther defense and offense. He says,
we're not gonna ban on defense.It got us to the national title game,
and you're you're talking to a coachwho coached I'm paraphrasing that. I'm
probably screened it up, but weyou know, we went to a national
championship with our defense, and we'regoing to stick to it. You know.
It's kind of like defending how sheplays. And it was not in

(08:52):
a bad knock of Tommy Lloyd tone, but it was in her don't screw
with me, don't don't try tome what to do exactly right, exactly.
No, little little testy over there, Michael, Which is fine.
I mean, let me tell yousomething, Tucson, and not to say
that they're in bed with the teams, because you know we've been around,
but they are. Yeah, yeah, of course. I mean I just

(09:16):
see I see media people defending thecoaches, whether it's Tommy or da or
Jed or whoever. There's a lotof there's a lot of defending of coaches
in uh in the media. Nowthey're not that they're so much rooting for
him, for them, but kindof like this is what they meant,

(09:37):
kind of like defending them when theysay things. Right, Bruce doesn't do
that, so he doesn't do itat all, but a lot of the
other media does, including some mediaat the Star. Yeah, we should
wait on Michael Lev's not one ofthose guys either. He could be on
the show today because we still wantto talk about, you know, a
few the things that have been goingon. Yeah, no, no,
okay, So Michael Lev will behere in about ten a team minutes right,

(10:00):
Well, no, no, he'sat four to seventeen. Yeah,
no, we got right regigary Forgiefirst regigary about three in about uh Yeah,
in about ten minutes, you'll becoming on and uh, you know,
look, we'll ask him about Stanford, but we also want to say,
okay, what's you know, what'sup tonight? Right right? In
evaluating the team as well, youknow, and again Reggie being a former
player, is one of those guysthat we can pick his brain about,
you know, what this team isgoing through after after having something like that,

(10:24):
uh, you know go against youright right. Uh, you know,
Stanford's not always easy. Colorado willsee what happens because they are good
this year. So, like Isaid, we'll see what happens. Yeah,
I got I'm looking for this text. I got a text yesterday talking
about asking you do Bruce and TommyLloyd get along because he seems to poke

(10:46):
at it because they heard the presscar on the shows. He said,
what is that like? He justyou know, Bruce is just kind of
a target to poke at. It'snot unfriendly. I don't think they have
a bad relationship. No, Ithink Tommy likes to poke at him as
sort of got a comfortable Let's alsoremember that there's no one in this town.
Back in the day, it wasBruce and I traveling with the team
together, him and I together.Uh, and we're the only dudes that

(11:09):
were traveling. Greg showed up everynow and again. So it was me,
Bruce and and Greg every now andagain with lout for for twenty years
or whatever it was for twenty years. Uh, and now then Sean,
and then Sean came in and theythose guys had a little test. Sean
would be Sean to a lot ofeverybody, even including Bruce. But but
remember that Bruce is trying to dohis job, and Tommy's all he knows

(11:33):
well because none of us travel withhim except for except for Bruce. About
Bruce, about that is that Brucehas got to get as much material as
possible, and he's got to getsomething different from everybody else who they're posting
what they've got the minute they getit. And Bruce has the right for
the newspaper and stuff that's gonna youknow, right and every day Bob is

(11:54):
a little different, right. Andluckily for Bruce because the other guys wouldn't
have the material because he's asking alot of the questions. You know.
Uh, he thanks me when Igo because we asked questions. You know.
We add to the to the criteriaof the guys asking like real questions.
Well, and that's another thing,because yesterday he Bruce gets into the

(12:15):
weeds. He does get into theweeds, and that Tommy wishes he wouldn't,
you know, And that's you know, what did you have for breakfast?
Type of stuff? You know,But it's all part of his story.
He's got you know again, he'sgot to have more stuff, more
angle than everybody else, you know, because he could you have for breakfast
to day? So here's my story. As Jay got out of bed and

(12:37):
brushed his teeth, he sat atthe table and the eggs and eggs and
it was all part of a nutritiousday. Because you know what I'm saying,
it's a part of the story.People don't understand that. But but
if you're on a one and oneyou'd understand it. But when you're at
a podium and everybody, yeah,and that's the problem. Everybody's getting the
same stuff exactly, Like, whyare you asking that? It doesn't matter

(12:58):
to me? Right right, Well, I'll bring your point of Channel thirteen,
damon, Damien, help me toask someone you know about his growing
up being an insurance guy, growingup where we grew up and he was
at press comments midway through the firstseason, I think it was, and
someone looked at him says, whyare you asking me these questions? Well,
this is the only time we haveaccess to you. If you're not

(13:18):
going to meet me somewhere else attwo o'clock in your office, where do
I get to ask that? AndI'm trying to do so that's what you're
get. So that's what you're getting. If you're going to say, give
me five minutes somewhere here. Okay, I won't ask this question, but
you know, what did you havefor breakfast? Or yeah, yeah,
I just found tweet. There's somelanguage in it that I can't use,
but not tweet a text to measking about does Tommy Bruce every time?

(13:43):
No? No, hey, Buthe poked at it question because it's it's
the militia type of stuff. Youknow, it's funny stuff anyway. But
you know again, you know,we'll get to this with with Reggie here
and I'm here in about five minutes. But this is a huge game.
Very Arizona's really got it. It'sgot to show that it's right in itself

(14:05):
and that it's got to try andshow that that game on Sunday was a
one. So you talked yesterday Ardihad another two. I'm play the first
two, which is the five.There w a bull. They're the best
team in the West. Yeah,yeah, And he said that, he
said, look, there's still aone. Yeah, but where they are
right now is there? There aretwo for today? What's today? Which
is fine? January third turn andfourth January before? So what does it

(14:28):
mean? Not dead? That's likewhat they say if the playoffs were done
today. Well, the playoffs aren'tbeing done today, so shut up.
I know you're you're right, Steve. It means it's it's it's conversation,
and that's what sure, that's whatwe're here for, correct, and that's
what we do, all right.Reggie Gary coming up in about five minutes.
They'll be sure to stick around.We'll get his take first on what

(14:50):
happened on last Sunday, but thenlooking ahead to this Colorado game, and
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(20:27):
mean, iHeartRadio WAP. This isI on the Ball with Steve Brivera and
Jacobzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen.Hey, welcome back to Why the Ball
here Fox Sports fourteen fifty of SteveRivera. You're jiginbas. I'm now on
the phone. We have forwork.You'll they guard Reggie Geary. How are
you, Reggie? I'm good.I'm good, guys. Oh, Happy

(20:48):
New Year? Sam? Do youReggie good? How was your New Year?
I don't want to ask you howyou New Year's Eve was, because
you witnessed something something that wasn't fun. Yeah, and New Year's Day was
a little difficult. Uh, youknow, fortunately, uh the night went
a little bit better. But allin all it was a great New Year.
But obviously a nice about that winin Stanford. So Grig, you

(21:11):
see, you sat up front,got got to see it up close and
personal. I mean, just whatthe hell happened? I mean, what
what do you think? Uh?Went wrong on Sunday? All across the
board? Yeah, you know,you know, after after a pretty strong
performance in cal especially in the firsthalf. He really thought, or I
had though, at least for thatroad trip that we kind of had you

(21:32):
know, correct corrected some things,especially energy wise, and just being a
little more aggressive and and kind ofyou know, our pickup points and just
just overall being more aggressive and thenjust to come into the Stanford game and
get off to a slow start asthey did. You know, we missed
a couple of layups that didn't help. And I think maybe I don't know,
the mythum just swung so great inthat first half where Stamford has every

(21:52):
every time they got to make buckand they just got more and more confident,
really you know, propelled by theirtwo freshmen, uh Styakovich and Cannon,
and just you know, from thereit was just you know, just
it was just tough studying for twentyminutes. Yeah, no question. It's
almost like you you're stuck in sandand you can't get out, more like
concrete. Actually, I was explainingto to the Jay here. Uh,

(22:15):
it's not like you haven't gone throughstuff like that. I remember your senior
year at Stanford coincidentally, where thingsjust didn't go right and you lost In
fact, you lost them twice thatyear. Yeah, and sometimes that happens.
I do remember that that trip.It was a frustrating trip, things
weren't clicking as well, and andyou know, and when you find yourself
on the road and everything is outaligned, you know, upsets can happen.

(22:37):
I think Jayden Bradley said it bestrecently talking about some of the defensive
woes that, hey, our connectivitywhich is not as connected as we once
were. And so I know they'vebeen spending the last few days over the
break getting and you know ready forthese Rockey Mountain schools want to get that
connectivity back, get that that defensiveedge back, so hopefully that will be
their time. So, Reggie,you're known for being a defender, one

(22:59):
of the better ones in the inthe team history. You can kind of
correct me and say the best one. I'm fine with that. Uh but
keny ken defenses are weird. Eitheryou got it or you don't? Is
that true? Or can you Youcan get better at it, but can
you get it or not get it? Yeah? I mean when we say
that, I don't know if there'sso much talking about defense, but maybe

(23:21):
just some of that, you know, in a resilience fortitude that you know
out of that mental and more moreimportant physical toughness, and not everyone has
that, you know, and that'sfine, but it's something that everyone can
do nonetheless, and you know,effet wise, you know, that's just
something you can control. And forme, it's something I enjoy it.

(23:41):
And when you start enjoying it andhave the passion for it and realizing the
importance of it, you know,whoever that person, that's when that's when
it has a great meeting. Andwhen you do that team, that's when
you're really cooking. It was onthe shown that this year. First,
you know, ten games, youknow, defensive, they really were locked
in for whatever reason that for gameand since there's just been a little bit

(24:02):
of a little bit of a stepback. So you go through a game
like that and now you got yougot a you know, a tough Colorado
team coming in and I get it. You know, nobody in the Pac
twelve is ranked but Arizona. Butthese guys they're eleven and two, they're
pretty good. They're always tough.Yeah, they've always had a toughness about
them. You know, how doyou move on what's going on in the
locker room to get zeroed in onthis game? You know, we know

(24:25):
Tommy's in his press conference as theysaid, I've moved on, and he
was like giving the media some crapabout not moving on. But how,
you know, how do you asa player, what what what do you
have to do in your mind?You know, to get zeroed in on
the next game and shake what itjust happened to you. Yeah, you
got to get back in the gym. You got to get back in the
gym. And I'm sure coach Lloydand the staff, all the players have

(24:47):
done that. You get back inthe gym, you you almost you know,
if you break it back down almostto a simplest compound and start with
the fundamentals again and start kind ofbuilding the other directions. You get in,
you start getting the shots up,You get into the film room,
both individual as a team, andand you just try to figure it out
because physically, you know, you'refine. It just mentally we're just not
from the right places. And soit's important to get back on the horse,

(25:08):
get back in the gym. There'sgonna be some question marks and some
small anxiety going tonight's game about howwe're going to respond. But you know,
you have to respect Colild They're agood basketball team. They have talented
player kJ Simpson. I mean heis a he's he's the first first team
Pac twelve candidate, maybe even playedthe year type candidate. Coming off thirty

(25:29):
four points last game. You know, they Cody Williams of talented fresher and
out of Gilbert who is on thetear right now. In the last two
games he scored twenty and both ofthose Tristan the Silva, you know,
we all know him. He's ahe's a familiar face. I think they
might. I think they're going tohave him back for the games coming up.
An ankle injury and so and it'sa team that scores eighty five points

(25:49):
like they want to get up anddown and and they're explosive. So defensively,
Arizona's gonna have to be on tonight. So I also think that,
you know, having covering you guysforever, that one game, you know,
one game is a season. Youmove on to the next season.
How how And this may be adumb question, I even know how to
phrase it. Okay, So youhave one bad game, you win ten,

(26:11):
you lose one, and everybody focuseswhat on the one? Right?
Uh? And it was just somethingthat happens. Did you believe that as
a player here. Yeah, Imean, if it's just a one off,
in my mind, that's not toono concerning, you know, nights
like that happened. I mean,uh, you just often you still have
that yet still realization held on.I'm still a good basketball player. We're

(26:33):
still a really good basketball team.And that being the case, if we
just refocus our mind to get backto practicing and playing hard, that things
will correct themselves and we'll go backto our winning ways. It's when it
starts crying over. You know,if you loft two in a row or
three out of five, and you'restample side could a little bit bigger,
that's when it can be a littlemore concerning. It's a dow coom.
If it's a one off, getback in the gym, realize, hey,

(26:55):
this is not going to occur againand be bad time out? Did
you? Did you? Maybe someof your guys I mentioned the group earlier,
a good group with Corey and JBand Ben. Did you guys play
pissed at times after a loss likethat? Yeah? I mean, I
mean whether whether I was playing atthe U of A, you know,
playing professionally, you know, coachingfor the fourteen years I did you always

(27:18):
want to have an end. Youalways want to play with a little bit
of fire in your belly. Andand and I think, you know,
there's a lot of ways to goabout that. I could do that.
I could play with that intensity andhave a little bit of chip, but
also smile and talk a little stuffand have a little fun but all the
time be siously competitive. But youdefinitely want to have a little edge.
This is Arizona. You're gonna havea target on your back. You have

(27:40):
to realize that. Yeah, andyou can find it almost disrespectful to someone's
going to come in here and tryto beat you. And so hopefully you
have to play with that buyer.Who who on this team can can bring
that the most or who do theyneed to bring that right? You know,
I mean all of you guys thatthey're really out, they're playing the
art time right now, they're playinghard. You know, I just collectively

(28:03):
they just have to get back toplaying with that same fire together. And
you know, that's what makes greatbasketball so great. You can it's not
an individual sports. You need allfive guys on the same page playing with
that connectivity, and it's on oneguy on everyone. You know, energy
is infectionous when one guy has it. When Colin Bonds was picking up bull

(28:25):
court and guys are stending and Bobois doing his thing, it's infectionous and
they need that energy to be throughoutthe team. Right. So one of
the things that Tommy did after thegame that day and then again tuesday,
we Wednesday in this press converce sowas he called out the guards. They're
getting the ask ask ask kick beinga guard. And I said this yesterday
on the show. Back in ninetyseven, ninety eight, if Bibby was

(28:48):
off, Miles showed up, ifMiles didn't show up, and baby Terry
was showed up, differention they hadlike four headed monster right to different degrees.
And your team, I think youwere the guy. You were the
guy, But this year they havefour headed monster. Kind of was that
surprising to you because the backcourt gotbeat so bad? Yeah, you know,
I mean obviously, you know,you know, cantabiddy ability is important.

(29:11):
I think that's what Tommy's alluding to, that, Hey, take some
personal pride and defend some people.You know, killed Love has done a
great job offensely last few games.Colin Balstiwall, I think it's fair to
be struggling with the shot and maybethat's affected him a little bit, but
I'm looking for him to bounce back. K J. Lewis has been terrific,
and so I Jayden Bradley. ButI don't know if they give you

(29:33):
the same type production as bottle willover the long haul. So you know,
they got the guys, Peel Larson, they have the players. It's
more of a mental and physical thingright now, and they just got to
figure their way out of it.Okay. So so having said that,
figuring their way out of it,what is the way out of it?
You know, the guards obviously haveto play better defensively, but you know
they just looked in complete disarray onon on uh on Sunday. You know,

(29:59):
but before that, we you know, we're sitting here saying we don't
know what their flaws are and thenwe found them. So, you know,
how do you play your way outof something like that? Or you
know, let's say they fall behindearly, you know tonight, what happens
there? Well, I mean justgo back to Stamford game. You know,
after credit they shot they shot theball at a rarely high clip and

(30:21):
shot the ball. Well, soI definitely want to get Stanford credit for
that. Defensively, you know tonightyou get back on it. You can
start the game with energy the firstfive minutes. You come out and play
the right way, and you comeout with a lot of energy, and
you see you're at and then youtake a break and can do another five
minutes. And you do that eighttimes and so you know, I think
you just have to take a stepby step. Not they're not get ahead

(30:42):
of our selves, think about theend of the game. Just start the
game with the you know, wegot the horses and got the guys,
and if you face them, thatwhould be double down on Tommy's philosophy,
double down on the team philosophy,and not splinter. And so you know,
those are two ways they could addressthat. Yeah, no question.
In fact, uh, that gamewould have ten assists. I think it

(31:03):
was. It was totally not theteam we've seen for two plus years where
they shared ball, they moved allaround. I'm sure that was what you
were. What did you how wasyour how was your your play by play?
How was your color analyst job?That day? Was a tough no,
I mean, I mean it's firstof all, it's over the pleasure
of with Bran Jeffers. But youknow, it is what it is frustrating

(31:23):
because you really want the guys todo well and you're right there with them
and they were not playing well.You have to describe them not playing well
right right, and so that canbe that can be difficult. But like
I said, I have full beliefin this team. I just think they're
going to just get better and better. There's a young team, yeah,
no question, and they are,and you know, we like to think
that they're not because Cayle, youknow, Kyler Boswell has been here for

(31:47):
being playing for two years now.Well he's still like twelve years old.
So I mean, you know,it's you just you know, you just
have to still realize, you know, uh uh what, Jade Bradley is
a young guy. I'm a bunchof young guys. I know. I
know. You you've got a keyshot who he looks like an old man.
He looks like he's been around fora while and you're relying on him
to, you know, to kindof carry some of that. But you

(32:07):
know, they are still a bunchof young guys and people have to realize
that, Yeah, the young guy'sa lot of success right out the gate,
and we're in that rare air numberone in the nation, top five
in the country, and that sometimesis psychologically it can be difficult to digest
if you haven't been there a lot. You don't have some veteran guys,
and they do have veteran guys,but just collectively, you know, that

(32:30):
takes them getting used to. Nowthey've taken a little bit of a knock.
I'm loving. I'm going to loveto see them bounce back and start
going in the other direction. SoI have here's another little anecdote for you.
It kind of applies to this year. So in ninety five ninety six,
you guys senior year, you losea damon the year before, people
say, well, this team mightbe okay. So I don't even think
you guys were rated or ranked inthe first first to first poll. Right,

(32:52):
you guys go to New York winthe n I t be Georgetown in
the finals. Here you are.I think you're making the top ten.
And I said yesterday to a fewfans on the internet, you know,
the great Internet, that one ofthe things that is the hurt Arizona is
to go to Duke to beat Dukeget all these high expectations, the fans
go crazy, and they get allthese expectations, and they should be the

(33:14):
most unbeatable team. You guys wentthrough that in ninety five ninety six,
because that's how you started. Yeah, you know, that's exactly exactly right.
You know, it was almost criminalwhat the AP and the basketball did
to us in terms of taking usout of the top twenty five without having
seen a flight, because they brokeour streak at the time, coach Olsen
had a streak up like two hundredyou know, weeks in a row,

(33:36):
so they broke it without even seeingthis, which was I thought criminals,
and we were upset about that.To win in the preseason an I T
and being number three in the nationright out the gate. Now, you
know, keep in mind that teamhad five seniors. We had you know,
Miles Signing, Michael Dickers and JasonTerry, so I thought we were
maybe more mentally equipped then maybe thisgroup a little bit, just because we
had been together so long and wehad been you know, number two and

(33:58):
number three previously. But yeah,that was a year we went, you
know, not ranked the twenty five, and we handled the expectations. We
knew every night where Arizona and whatdoes that mean? That means we're going
to the other team's best game andwe need to be prepared to that,
prepared that and actually prepared to playharder than them, and we did that.
Were not the Arizona is We needto get back to that. And

(34:19):
you're talking thirty years later and guesswhat the lesson still needs to be learned.
Oh no, no, it's allrelative. You know. That's crazy
about this game. That's why Ilove it. And yeah, the same
lessons a fundamentally sound back then,are still fundamentally sound today. Yeah right
right, Okay, Reggie is alwaysthank you very much. Yeah, yeah,
Jay, Steve, I appreciate you, guys man, thank you again

(34:40):
and bear down all right, takecare. Thank you the Reggie Gary.
I love this stuff because it's accurate. Well, well, it's accurate because
you know he went through it.I mean that's what life having guys like
that on. Because you know,Reggie, what was this like when you
did this? Yeah? Right,right, and how did you react?
Well? I think I think hegives us a lot of it. That
year and they were unranked, theyin the in the n I t beat

(35:00):
Georgetown, Arkansas or whatever, andthen all of a sudden, you're the
crap. I want to say theS word, but you're the crap and
gets it. You start believing thatyou said you don't your bulletproof, and
then all of a sudden, somebodystarts punching you in the face. You're
like, what the hell is that? Right? Exact? Not just once
twice all day? Because you knowwhat, they want to kick your ass,

(35:20):
right, they did, and theydid really bad, and then they
want to kick your ass. Soyou know there you go, all right,
thank you, Reggie, that wasthat was awesome. Appreciate it.
Uh, we're gonna take a break, We're to come back. We'll take
your costs. Five two zero fourone six seventy four forty. What do
you want to see tonight with Coloradocoming into town? Uh? Looking for
a big win, looking for justa win? Uh? Do you care
how much they went back? Giveus a call. Five two zero four

(35:43):
one, six seventy four forty.If you're an Arizona Man's basketball fan,
you know it's been successful for nearlyforty 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,

(36:04):
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
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(39:22):
and get your tickets today at theArizona Bowl dot Com breaking down the hall,
the exes and oh's. It's SteveRivera and Jagin Salax. This is
I on the Ball on Fox Sportsfourteen fifties. Hey, welcome back to
win the ball here on Fox Sportsfourteen fifty I'm Steve, He's Jay.

(39:42):
You've got about thirteen minutes. Haveyou got the call? Do you want
to call? Five two oh fourone four forty. We'd like to hear
from you. Good discussion. We'vesolved all the world's problems, including the
best world tips. Yeah, we'vesold how Kylon Boswell and lit Love.
We're gonna get out in guard Coloradoguards and not let him do what so
far Purdue, Florida, Atlantic,Stanford all did to them. It seems

(40:06):
so simple, right right, That'snot no, it's not it's not.
You know, It's it's funny becauseit's it's in times like this that you
find out how good a coach isa coach, right, you know,
Tommy Lloyd so far has been verygood at this is not losing two games
in a row. Whatever issues theyhave gained them fixed by the next game.
He's had kind of a short weekbecause they played on Sunday, traveled

(40:27):
back, right, you know,and now you know they're they're they're coming
in on Thursday and having to playColorado. But they did practice on Monday,
did practice on they did not getthe day off. Yeah, you
know, you know, and youknow, and people who you know who
question whether Tommy's a good coach ornot? What does he have seventy one
wins in two and a half seasons? Stop? Yeah? Yeah, Well

(40:50):
so one of the guys, Iguess who reads me and we had a
quick discussion. The jury still out, Jerry still what the jury? Well,
because well, I guess the juryfor some people is going to be
out until he does something well inthe in the UH in the Double A
tournament. You know that in atArizona, that's where the jury makes its

(41:12):
decisions. Sure, and for SeanMiller never get you to go final four?
What do you think do people whatdo you think people think of Sean
Miller as the coach at Arizona historically? Now, yeah, yeah, he
won a lot of games. Theythink he was pretty good, really good.
Okay, give me give me alevel okay, excellent, Okay,
you know, pretty good, prettygood? Uh average? By average,

(41:38):
I mean John did maybe what youknow, kind of the minimum No,
so so social three four? Washe bad? Okay? So I think
depends, Like now, I thinkit's pretty good because it's your three years
removed from the you know, whateverhappened happened. It's kind of the recency
bias is kind of fading away.He wasn't actually it wasn't. Didn't get

(42:00):
to the four. You know,had a shot or two fall and he
would have gone to the final four. Pretty good because he won a lot
of games. I couched that bysaying, and I did the numbers.
Fifty to sixty of those games cameagainst the Northern arizonas of the world,
right, So he won a lot. Yeah, but let's put a little
astress there. Yeah, because that'sit's true. What does three elite eighth

(42:20):
get you here, three elites eighthere, what is it? Yeah,
bon chips and that gets you topretty good, pretty good, right,
And the problem with that is thatwas early on in his career, at
the end of the at the endof the road, he didn't finish strong.
No, in fact, people forgetthat he won a lot, lost
a lot of games consecutively, infact, since before Lute, because Lu

(42:45):
didn't go on these losing streaks offive, six, eight game Sean did.
And I'm not here to rag Sean. But he was very good,
and he still is a heck ofa good coach. He just didn't know
the formula here. He wasn't great. He was very good or pretty good.
Well, it might better than sortof kind of what you would accept
my in my departure and my departingcolumn on him the next day after he

(43:07):
was fired, I said, whatis his legacy going to be? We're
still talking about it and what isit? We don't know. There's like
two or three things to it rightnow. I ever got quite to it,
never got to the final four,although he did get to the date
three times. You know, hada last second shot at one of those.
At a couple of those, youknow the n C double A stuff

(43:29):
that you know that that's part ofthe legacy. You can't ignore that that
happened, and that that you can'tignore what kind of effect that had on
the program, right right? Sookay, now, if the jury is
still out on Tommy and I'm surepeople and I want to ask you this
later after this, how much ofa sample size do you need? This
is where I go to the momentum. This is why I don't believe in

(43:52):
momentum, because if I walk tothe door, say eight feet to the
door, is it one step?Is that my momentum is two steps momentum.
His three point is the moment whenyou start to fall towards the door.
Okay, so I got eight steps. I got eight steps, and
I don't disagree with eight steps beingsome momentum. But you know he's got
momentum after two steps. No,he's won two games. So so so

(44:14):
where was I gonna go with this? So what's the sample size allowed for
Tommy to say, Okay, hecan coach. Yeah, well, I
think we already know that he cancoach. The question is how good of
a coach is he gonna? Ishe gonna be great? Is he gonna
be very good? Or is hegonna be pretty good? Right? So

(44:35):
that and that part, I thinkright now you're leaning towards he's going to
be great, right ultimately, sure, but you're holding back on that because
you're waiting to see what. Let'ssay he gets a final four this year.
Okay, this year he's going afinal four? Is he great?
Yeah? Well he's gonna be prettygood because then Genhua, because the only

(44:57):
other coach has gotten in Arizona finalfour has been low But and guess what,
he couldn't win the big win,the big one, right, there
was something else. But you knowI've had I've had a person. I
know this person will be they'll remainnameless. But who's Who's told me?
And he said a number of timesLudelson was not a great coach because he

(45:20):
only won one after well, Iwas and he should have won a bunch
more. I was gonna we hadthis discussion because I think I bought a
friend of mine about three months ago, pulled me aside when I was selling
the book. He says, oh, good coach, YadA YadA, But
my friends tell me he should havewon more. And I said, really,
how do you figure at the sametime of his good teams. I
think coach k had a few prettygood teams. So Jay, just because

(45:44):
you can beat me and golf nineout of ten times, ten out of
ten times, you guess what you'renot playing me, you're playing good golfers.
I mean, come on, shouldhave he had good, good enough
teams to play capable against those teams. But there's other teams. Well,
I'll just say right now, anybodywho doesn't think Luke was a great coach
and shut the hell out. Yeah, they don't know enough he had good

(46:05):
teams. But at the same time, or you could have a fast car,
but guess what other cars are prettyfast by a bull driver. I
mean, do you sit here andthink he had teams that could have or
were worthy of winning the national championship? Of course we'll go to eighty eight,
eighty eight, two thousand and one, ninety eight, ninety eight,
eighty nine, eighty nine. Soyou hit a four or five because what

(46:28):
you run into stuff that happens betterteam that day. I mean, I
remember whenever they're watching watching watching themlose to u n LV in eighty nine
eighty sweet sixteen, and thinking wheredid this UNLV team come from? We
didn't. We hadn't seen that,sure all year long, Utah utah ninety
eight. Come on, you thinkthat's gonna happen. And stuff happens.

(46:50):
Stuff happens. You plan a tripto go to Disneyland, there's a crash
on the road or a rain forsomething happens, right, something happens.
No, I hear that all thetime too, It says, don't you
think other teams are pretty good too? It's like it's like last year when
Florida Atlantic showed up in the Finalfour, You're thinking, what happened here?
You weren't paying attention. It's likeyour the analogy we used yesterday with

(47:12):
Pennix, what happened here? Well, you weren't paying attention. Were all
of a sudden this is a goodteam. Well where were you? Well,
I didn't watch much college football.Shut the hell up there, exactly.
Yeah, No, I hear yourfriend is a lot like my friends.
You should have wanted more. Well, it doesn't work out, but
that and that doesn't make him notgreat. Exactly right, No, exactly.

(47:34):
I mean, yeah, every coachat Arizona that's won a national championship
and whatever sport should be considered agreat coach. Sure you know every single
one. Well, let me tellyou. I'll give you a good example
Kendrea's later years. Yeah, peopleare saying, what the hell is he
passed his prime blah blah blah,and then he gets him to the finally
he gets him back there in hisfollow year. I don't blame him.
Are you know what? Here's thisfinger? You like this finger? You

(47:57):
can take this finger. I'm gone. Honestly, his finger was that I'm
glad this is but you don't wantI want to. You're gonna tell me
I want a few championships. Youdon't like it, pull my finger,
take it home with you too.I'm not gonna pull. But you don't

(48:22):
have a line. There's a linein the sand, and I'm not good.
I might know exactly what you're saying, because you know again, and
it gets back to the how hardis it to win a championship in any
sport? Sure, in any sport. It's like you talk you talk to
Laura Ianello. You know who's wona national championship in golf. She should
go down as one of the greatcoaches at Arizona because she won a national

(48:45):
champion softball. You got a lotof Frank Bush. Frank Bush, well
he does. I mean people knowhe was a great sure coach, but
you know, we should ask himhow difficult this was. David Rubyo a
great coach, very good, consistary, good, consistently, lasted a long
time, was competitive every year.But was he great? I don't know,

(49:06):
no. I think even he wouldsay that he wasn't. But he
was just about just about there?Remember who you remember? Where we're at
here, we're two a results isthe Dea Barnes a great coach. We
not know yet the jury is stillout right, but she had a hell
of a star. We had anice run there in that one season and

(49:27):
and you know, and that's kindof created this expectation of her teams.
The worst thing that we're going tofind out about that this weekend as well.
They've got Colorado and you're talking inboth highly ranked. The worst thing
to happen says you win early.Guess what people think you could do it
all? That's where you should beevery year. Absolutely, it doesn't work
that way. It doesn't, itdoesn't. I mean, we have a
great show. We should have agreat show. Every year. That blows

(49:52):
right away. That's to the pointthough, right to the point. Nice
of all the time, we dothe show five days a week. We're
not on vacation times fifties to twohundred and fifty times. If we're lucky
to survive two hundred good shows,we're doing okay, that pretty good.
We're better than most. But it'snot easy. I think people the general

(50:13):
fan doesn't understand that, especially playingon the road too. There's a reason
why they call it home court ofthat again. And you know, you
look at you look at Maple's pavilion. You saw it. There weren't a
lot of people, the students aren't, weren't in town, so it certainly
shouldn't have been an intimidating atmosphere.But still you're on the road, and
you know they were on the roada lot in December. You know,
yeah, you know, I hateit. I hate that kind of travel.

(50:35):
And you know, and when you'reeighteen, nineteen, twenty years old
and you're not sleeping in your bed, and I'm not making an excuse,
I'm saying it's harder than playing thoseguys and Arizona typically, at least for
my history, if they're in halffilled. Arena's twenty five percent. It's
like the first round of the NCAAtournament on that morning over Thursday. They
don't play well. It's they needthe bright lights, they need the whatever,

(50:59):
they need the big well and that'llbe important tonight. As Reggie said,
they've got it. They've got tocome out with a lot of energy.
They got to come out. Youknow, you can't be behind,
you know, ten to two afterthe first few minutes. Uh, I
think one the fans are gonna getnervous. That will change the atmosphere in
the arena. And you got tothink that, you know what's going on
in their heads if they if Coloradocomes out and punches them in the face

(51:21):
right out of the box. Infact, you should start saving some of
those Twitter because you're on Twitter,I'm on Facebook. I'm gonna start saving
some of the responses here in Januaryand then eventually bring them back in March.
Yeah, and you know and seeif they still exist, yeah,
or what they're saying here to there, if it's still relevant, or if

(51:42):
a bad right ages bad is theright phrase, yeah, because a lot
of those things do. But youknow it's uh, and I've said this
before. I've said this a numberof times on the show. We're living
a time when everyone can figure outeverybody else's problems but can't figure out their
own. That that is it's truetoo, that is for sure. I
mean, yeah, you know youwant to go figure out your problems like

(52:04):
coming yell at me about money.You want me to cut my grass?
What about the weeds over there onyour side? Man, I got a
twin of lead for break in mybackyard. All the leads Asters Association doesn't
bother you, any of my grandsonto grow a fast. Get over to
start raking. All right, we'llbe back. We'll be back here at
the top of the hour with thebreaking news a stick around