Wednesday, January 3, Hour 2

Wednesday pod, Hour 2
− BREAKING NEWS: Former Arizona receiver Dorian Singer heads to the transfer portal again.
− GUEST: Voice of the Wildcats Brian Jeffries recaps his week calling the Alamo Bowl and Arizona basketball’s trip to the Bay Area.
− Callers weigh in on Arizona’s win in the Alamo Bowl.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This is I on the Ball withSteve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports
fourteen fifty. Subscribe now to thepodcast on the iHeartRadio while just surgery I
on the Ball. Hey, welcomeback to Winning the Ball here on Fox
Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, He's Jaginsaus. Now you have some
breaking news from Jacob. This isII on the Ball, Breaking news on

(00:22):
Fox Sports fourteen fifty. All right, Well, in what has become just
an I don't know, I don'tknow what you call it. It's just
this is the this is the collegecollege athletics world. Right. You know,
we talked all year long about youknow, people you know, transfer
portal and guys going and chasing moneyand whatever. Jed Fish has made a

(00:43):
bunch of comments about it. Oneof the guys that left Arizona to go
to USC last year, Dorian Singer, was a big part of the U
of A offense last season. Hehad let me let me dig this up
here. In a year before lasthe was a starter. He he had
sixty six sixty six catches eleven andfive yards, six touchdowns in the in

(01:06):
the five and seven season, andhe said that's not good enough. I'm
going to USC. I want more. And so he went to USC.
He had he was down on thedef chart twenty three catches, two hundred
and seventy six yards, three touchdowns, fifth on the team in receiving.
So now he's leaving USC. He'sgoing somewhere else. He jumped into the

(01:26):
transfer portal today and it's headed somewhereelse. You know. It's like,
so so, Jay, I joke, you joke about this. I joke
about this, but seriously, jokeabout this. What's the divorce rate in
the United States now over sixty percent? Maybe it's pretty high. If I
don't like you, jakus, whatI'm gonna do, I'm going somewhere.
I'm going somewhere else. Yeah,I mean it sounds maybe divorce is not

(01:49):
the right thing, but I don'tlike it. I'm gonna go. Yeah,
I'm gonna go somewhere else and getsomewhere else and do something else.
But you look at this kid,who you know, got an opportunity,
a look and none. And Iwas blamed him for going to you,
Like, Okay, you're gonna goout some money and you're gonna get a
better situation. Great, but hewent and he did not get a better
situation. Right. He broke upwith the with the steady girlfriend that he

(02:10):
had here, you know, kindof cute, very nice, steady girlfriend,
broke up with her, followed thehot girl to to USC and she
turned out to be at this Yeah, a mess. And now he's you
know, he's going, he's dropping, He's going somewhere else for whatever reason.
Yeah. No, it's it's theway of the world today, you

(02:31):
know. And and you know,on the one hand, you don't want
to wish anything bad on somebody,but the go, okay, dude,
lesson learned. What do you what? Now? What now for you?
Right? Jed could come back?Yeah, I mean really, did he
derail his his career? Did heblow it? Right? I'm completely blow
an NFL a potential NFL career bywhat he's done by because he decided to

(02:54):
go chase whatever he chased us.Yeah, we won't know. But I'm
still on the corner of him himbecause I've defended him about two or three
months ago, because you talked aboutthe numbers and he's still the same player.
I'm not wishing him anything bad onhim, but I'm saying he's still
the same player, the guy whogot sixty six balls and only caught whatever
here? But wait, is heright? How much more would he have

(03:15):
been developed here that he got developedover there? He's got these NFL guys
here and that that's what Jed fishis. Sally, you come here,
We're gonna get you ready for theNFL. He goes over there, and
how much development did he get?Well, we don't know. Is he
a better player? We don't know. You don't know what the thing is

(03:36):
the US. He's not a badplace to take a back step or whatever.
But but you know, he's probablythe same player, if not better.
They just didn't use him, maybeas they should. We don't know
the circumstances. But to me,he's probably the same player, probably still
a very good receiver. And whoknows what if he does come back,
what do you think you think theytake him back? Well, here's the

(03:57):
here's the catch. And have youbeen on Facebook or Doug Twitter? What
was what was what happened near theend of the year with him? And
DeLaura is gone? There you go? Which is our next breaking news?
Uh? Jane de Laura? Uh? With this With this ruling, the
court ruling that said players can transfer. It will so now he didn't even

(04:18):
have to get his degree in Arizona. He can transfer. And he did
announce during the during the holiday break, after it was it right before,
it was right before the game.It was like the Tuesday before the game
or maybe even money might be you'vebeen on Christmas Day, announced that he
is in fact in the transfer andtriangle finish. You know, there was
a lot of attention paid to howhe was reacting on the sideline, giving

(04:40):
hugs to know Aflfeda. It seemedto be very excited for him, exciting
for the win. You know,he played, He played the good soldier
and he played a big part inthe Arizona's success to this point given what
he did last year, kept himafloat, played very well, gave him
hope. There's some people out therewho continue to be very they don't like

(05:00):
it, no because of what happened, of course because Hawaii, of course,
just because of that, of course, and they say, you know,
I don't like him being here.I don't want him be in here.
I'm glad he's gone. Well that'sall done, and yeah, but
I but I've said to those peoplehave said that to me and said,
but you can't deny how much hemeant sure to what happened this year because
of what he did last year bycoming here to a program that had gone

(05:25):
one and eleven and saying, I'mgonna go there and try and start to
turn this thing around. And regardlessof what you think he would have done
if no, if he hadn't gottenhurt, YadA, YadA, YadA,
he meant a lot to what howquick Dedfish was able to. He's if
you're writing a book or a bigstory, he is part of that story.
He is and a big player inthat story, a big part of

(05:46):
the story. So you know,so he hasn't announced where he's gone.
He's looking around. There's two thousandplayers in the in the portal, a
lot more. And if you're aschool, if you're a school, given
his past, whether whatever, doyou take them, I don't know.
I don't know. That's not foryou to decide, right for me,

(06:08):
he's gone from here, So Idon't really care to you because it's say
in our world, all right,speaking of the portal that been, there's
been a lot of action in theportal, but most most prominently nine players
from Alabama have jumped into the portal. Now, you know those are all
good players. They're all four andfive star recruits. You've got a a

(06:31):
four star quarterback, couple wide receivedas a tight end, two offensive linemen,
defensive lineman, and two defensive backs. So this was also uh an
hour and a half ago. Therecould be more by now, sure,
but you know you've got players jumpingjumping into the portal from great places.
Well there was lost a couple ofpeople, right, they lost a couple
uh uh uh, well one oneone player declared for the NFL, and

(06:54):
then Konga, the defensive defensive lineman, jumped into the portal for the old
Tyler Minoa. Okay, okay,yeah he's going. He's going to the
he declared for the NFL. Soanyway, okay, for all of for
all of you who are fretting,continuing to fret about what this Stanford loss
may have done to Arizona their seed, all that kind of stuff. Joe

(07:17):
Lenardi came out with with his latestbracketology. He's at Arizona on the two
line in the West with Kansas isthe one. But he did say he
still thinks Arizona is a one seed. Eventually they're not today, but they
eventually will be sure a one.You don't talk about the pregnancy success until

(07:40):
you get to the pregnancy. Here'slike four months in we get the right,
A lot of time left, alot of things to happen, a
lot of teams going into the weekend. Arizona was the favorite to win it
all. I think they were likestill the one, their second only second.
There's there's still plus one thousands,so the same same same number.
Who's first produce Arizona plus a thousandproduced not gonna win it. I'm not

(08:03):
gonna say Arizona was gonna win,but produced one. So there's still the
the the the odds makers who knowway more than you and I. They
still believe in Arizona. Uh andand there they bet Arizona had a good
price too, plus one thousand,you know, bet bet ten wins one
hundred, bet ten one eleven.There you go, all right, uh

(08:26):
as we all know Washington, it'sWashington, Michigan in the in the National
Championship Game on Monday. Two greatgames. I was, yeah, very
fig was so locked into both veryfun games. You know. On New
Year's Day by by middle of theafternoon, late afternoon. I'm out on
a couch somewhere, and I wasglued. I was riveted. Well,

(08:48):
you didn't watch very many good gamesearlier in the day. Oregon came in
and blistered Liberty, Tennessee and Iowa. Uh and who was the other one?
Uh? Uh, I can't rememberwhat it was? God, I
forgot. It was another big,big game. Obviously wasn't very good.
Oh l s u and uh yeah, yeah, yeah they came back.

(09:09):
You one. You liked that game, didn't you. No, they didn't
cover, they didn't come Yeah.I was mad for taking them instead of
taking Georgia. Oh I still gota four though. Yeah, I know,
this is your best week of theyear. The year. Well,
because I had locked Arizona, whichis great, and then I had Washington
in the special. So I gotthree points with those those two games.
But rivety, both games, veryriveting. Washing It almost blew it,

(09:35):
Washington almost blew it, and Alabamadid blow it. Yeah, they had
very strange They were up twenty tothirteen. Michigan had been moving the ball,
gave up a long drive, gotit into overtime. Uh called a
crappy crappy call, you know,very strange play Hill. Well, if
you listen to I don't know ifyou heard what Nick Saban said, saw
some of the pressures he said.He said they had a play called and

(09:56):
they had a good look on youknow what Michigan defense was going to do
what they lined up for a Michigancall timeout and then they come out to
the come back out. Now Michigan'sin a look that Alabama doesn't like.
So Alabama calls time out. Sothen they called another. I don't I
didn't mind them giving the putting theball in in in the quarterbacks. Just
not that, just not that,just he I mean here, I don't

(10:20):
know where he thought he was goingright And if you saw the play from
behind, the right guard pulled andhe had an he had an open lane,
but it was a low snap.He got it paniced went straight into
the line. Saban said he thoughtthat they expected to have a gap.
There there was no gap. Itclosed. Yeah, no, two gives

(10:41):
a good football. Yeah. Ihad Alabama and Washington on the money line
on both of them. I thoughtboth. I thought Alabama was gonna win
that game too. They should have. I thought they were gonna win it.
All when they were announced to bein the tournament, I picked them,
and you know it was cool.I've been poking at some people on
social media, but well, letme say, I saw, I saw
you, go ahead, go ahead? Well about you still don't think,

(11:01):
well, Michael Penix, don't.I don't. I don't always agree with
what you write. I don't reallyfollow Twitter, but I read your Twitter
on that, and I think youwere spot on because you know what it's
like Fau last year? What's histeam? Oh, they're pretty good.
Well, you hadn't seen them allyear. How would you know until you
see them? No, I guaranteeyou how many voters Heisman voters in this
country? Okay, six hundred?How many of those six hundred actually saw

(11:24):
Pennis play one hundred two games?Right? One hundred? Okay, one
hundred, and they're voting to seeif he's the best player. You saw
him the other night. That's probablywho the guy was. Yeah, he
was that guy all you and youwrote that. It says where you been
right exactly, And that was andthat was my point, like, Okay,
now you're seeing and all these peoplewere saying, Michael Pennix, Wow,

(11:46):
unbelievable what a performance. He's thefirst quarterback to have back to back
forty two hundred yard passing passing seasons. What ever they're saying? And man,
where did this guy come from?He's been there all damn year A
damn your first time beat bow Knickstwo times? Yeah, you still voted
bow Nicks ahead of him or fromthe High or Jayden Daniels. No,

(12:09):
So I like that tweet because it'saccurate if you don't know what you're not
seeing. They they gave it toJameis Delaarden because you know, they saw
him, I mean j Jaydon Daniels, because they saw him week in and
week out. Ellis, Oh,he's really good. He's got all these
stats. Well yeah, how manygames did he win? Yeah? He
didn't get him to the promise line, right, and then he didn't show
up for his bowl game. Yeahyeah, Hey you know Loo come to

(12:33):
twenty twenty four? Oh man,I was so mad. No, No,
I thought that was a good Idon't know why I'm why, I'm
no goud. It's a good tweet. I thought it was. It was
good because it was accurate. Ifyou don't know what you're seeing or not
seeing, don't be a voter,right, watch it pay attention to.
I mean I watched them. Ipurposely went out and watched, you know,

(12:54):
the other guys. Yeah, youknow, I saw Jayden Daniels I,
you know, well obviously saw bowKnicks all season long. But you
know, I watched Marvin Harrison Junior. I watched these guys. But I
had the advantage of, you know, of the Washington guys playing in my
time zone. Yeah, and youhad a bias because you'd like them to
begin with, right, and soyou had Washington from day one. You

(13:15):
made good two picks, good thingsall year. That was one of them.
Hey, you know what I gotArizona in the ALBUMA both too,
So that was that was nice.I mean, I I again for all
you, for all you Arizona fansout there, I stayed off. They
won ten games because I didn't takethem all season long until the bulgein and
then my daughter, who we youknow, she was we were watching the
game together in California. She yellingat me in the second and third to

(13:41):
see what you did. I thoughtthey were gonna cover through. They didn't
have it. They did not haveit. No, So it's been it's
been a crazy last couple of weeks, no question, all right, I
know if you saw George Kakov,I saw him. Well, he was
at he was at the Yeah,he was at the uh get aa.

(14:03):
I took a picture of him.He was not too far from me.
But he said talking about Washington,just saying, uh. I'd asked him
about you know, he was askedabout you know, what do you think
about Washington? Get into the winningthe CFP semi fi. I said,
it's surreal, it's surreal. Soit's upsetting that some of our schools weren't
more patient because if they saw whatwe were building, it would have paid
off. What the hell were youbuilding that we didn't see? He was

(14:28):
still on the on the ground AppleTV. Dude, Yeah, okay,
we gotta go. He's gotta justshut them all right, we gotta get
out of here. We'll be backwith come back, come back with Brian
Jeffries. So stick around and we'llhave Brian Jeffries here in a couple of
minutes. We'll talk about football andbasketball. So we were at that for

(14:58):
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(19:52):
on Tucson's sports stag Chat Fox Sportsfourteen fifty. Hey, welcome back to
right the ball here on Fox Sportsfourteen to fifty on Steve rivera he' jigbs
Austin. I went the phone.We had the voice of the Wildcats,
Brian Jeffries. Hi you doing Brian, gentlemen doing very well. Happy New
Year. It's great to be intwenty twenty four and working strong. The

(20:15):
last seven days for you must havebeen very fun, very tiring, very
everything given your job. How wasit because you went from I guess San
Antonio kind of plane and then wentdirectly to the Bay. Yeah, it
was one of those crazy things.And that's just the way the schedule worked
out. And you know, youalways have a little added I guess energy

(20:37):
or whatever you want to call itafter a big win. And you know,
that win at the Alamo Bowl waspretty special, and so it didn't
get much sleep that night and flewstraight to Oakland and called the game on
Friday night, which you know,Arizona one handily had a data kind of
catch up before the game at Stanfordon Sunday, and then you know,
took a couple of days off todo some fun stuff and you know,

(21:00):
now back home ready to roll again. So let's go back to the to
the Animile Bowl. You know,you and I've been through a lot of
these seasons, you know, oryou know, ten win seasons, and
you know, all kinds of excitementto go with these. I you know,
I told Steve that I thought,you know, at the end of
the Oklahoma game. At the endof the Ellima Bowl, I kind of
had a similar feeling to what Ihad coming out of the Holiday Bowl in

(21:22):
ninety eight when Arizona had beaten Nebraska. You know, Arizona didn't get quite
to the Promised Land, but youknow, beating Nebraska, beating Oklahoma,
you know, no matter what thecircumstances are, you got to hang your
hat on that. And it feltreally good. At least that's how I
felt. Now. No, Iabsolutely agree, Jay, and I think
that you know what this does toboost the program. You know, we

(21:47):
really don't. You can't measure ityet, but I think it's something that
we're going to see on the roadin terms of recruiting and you know,
ticket sales for next year. Imean, just the excitement around the program
because you know, beating Oklahoma,beating Nebraska, you beat one of the
story programs in college football, andyou do it in exciting fashion. The
way that game kind of played out, it was if you weren't a rooting

(22:08):
fan for either team, that hadto be really fun to watch because of
the way the teams went back andforth and both played really hard, battle
hard, and I just, youknow, I'm glad Arizona came out in
the end, but I just thinkthey were already on the upward swing and
this kind of puts them now intoa new atmosphere in terms of what Jetfish

(22:30):
can do with the program. Well, go ahead and asking that question,
because all all these successful teams you'vehad in the past, the four can
win seasons. What's come of it, which is that's been the tough thing.
It hasn't really sustained itself well.And that's the that's the tough part.
Now that's you know, they putsome more pressure now on the coaches
because come next year, you know, Arizona expected a little bit more.

(22:52):
I think coming into this year theywhat was the thought this year? You
come off five wins, you're hopingmaybe for six, and you get into
a bowl game, and then youhave nine, and then you get ten,
and now the expectations go up withthat, even though you're going into
a new conference. A lot ofpeople who feel Arizona's going to be one
of the strongest teams in the Bigtwelve next year, and so you know
the pressure is on now to keepit up. I mean, now no

(23:15):
one's going to sit here and say, hey, you got to win ten
games next year. But at thesame time, I think with the number
of players coming back, there's goingto be a lot of people that feel
that Arizona's going to be certainly atop twenty five team going into the season
next year. And yeah, that'sthe that makes the work a little bit
harder now for the coaches because youknow that that old target's on your back

(23:36):
now whenever you play another team,it's you're playing Arizona ranked team instead of
just you know, an Arizona team. So that's that's the I guess you
look at the flip side of it, is it it makes everybody's job a
little cover. But you wouldn't bein this business if you didn't want that.
Well, actually, Brian, Ithink a lot of people around here
are going to expect Arizona to winten games next year because that's justo Zona

(23:59):
fans are and if they don't,they're going to go, what the hell?
I mean? I mean, youknow, unfortunately, that's that's just
how it is. But again,if you know, if you've been here
all this time, you know you'vehad these seasons in the past, and
as he said, they haven't sustainedand we talked to Lemon Huntley earlier about
what do they have to do tosustain He just said, the players have
to sustain it. They have tomake up their own minds that they that

(24:21):
they got to do this and notlet quote unquote the outside noise affect you
know, what they're doing. Butthat's the challenge. Now, It's like,
Okay, you got there, nowhow do you stay there? And
I think this year's team that's agood point. I think this year's team
blocked out that outside noise. Andwhen things, you know, didn't go
well those couple of weeks there againstWashington and USC and you're thinking, okay,

(24:45):
what, you know, which directionare we going to go? And
you know that you're playing a reallytough schedule, and you get that win
at Washington State, it's like,Okay, you know these guys they're starting
to figure it out now. Andthen you just keep winning after that.
And I just think that the playerswere able to block out the outside distractions

(25:06):
because you know, Oregon State camein here one of the best teams I
think in the country, and Arion'sgonna wins that. You know, UCLA
comes to town, and you knowthey're looking for a chapter last year Arison
One's at and then you have thatthe game that you knew you were going
to have a bit of a letdown. You go to Colorado, they're not
playing well, but and yet it'stheir last home game. You know,

(25:26):
it's coach Prime, full house,the whole thing, and you figure out
a way to win it even thoughyou don't you know, play your best,
certainly in the first half, andthen you just drill Utah, you
know, really kind of the flagshipof the I call it the pac call
South right now. And then ofcourse you go up and do the same
thing to your your rival. Andso they were the players were able to
block that out. They were ableto keep their focus week in and week

(25:49):
out and win games. And soI really believe that these guys will go
into an extra with that same typeof feeling that hey, look if we
play, if we work hard andwe play hard, we know we can
be successful. And that's how theygot it done this year. So you're
part of the team, but notpart of the team. How enjoyable was
it for you given the circumstances ofthe last five years. You know,

(26:12):
on the sum lend time which isyou know, I'm sure very difficult previous
two where we're not as difficult,but still tough as a professional in your
end, because you know, there'ssome you're the voice of the Wildcats.
Sure people identify you as that.Hey you're Brian, you know whatever,
How was it for you? Ohwell, I mean it's great, But
then you don't know from week toweek. I mean, the great thing

(26:33):
that I love about this business isthat you know, you work all week
to get prepared to broadcast a footballgame on Saturday, but you have no
idea what's going to happen during thatgame. And I guess that's why I
still get nervous before every game becauseI don't know what's going to happen.
I mean, yeah, I wantArizona to win because you know, that
keeps everybody in a good mood,It helps everybody around the program, it

(26:56):
helps our business. There's no doubtyou want to see them win, but
you don't know, and that's,you know, probably the mystery of this
whole thing. But the exciting partis when they keep doing it. And
I think every game, really thelast few games, the Utah, Arizona
State and Oklahoma game, I wentinto all three of those thinking, Wow,

(27:17):
is there any way they can win? Can they win this game?
And I was probably more nervous thananybody thinking that the difference that it went
over Utah would make to beat ArizonaState to finish the regular season, the
difference that would make, and thenwow, to beat Oklahoma. And in
some ways, you know, theElimi Bles, it's kind of a it's
kind of gravy. It's kind ofa gift. It's a present, it's

(27:38):
a reward for a great season.Uh. For a team like Oklahoma,
it's just a it's another bowl gamefor them, and I know they wanted
to win it and put another Bowltrophy in their trophy case. For Arizona,
it was a chance to have amajor stepping stone. And so I
just can't tell you how it wasgreat to walk into the lobby of the

(28:00):
hotel after the game on that whatwas that on Thursday night down in San
Antonio and they were, you know, the ice was jammed with Arizona fans
and the players, and just tosee the joy on everybody's face, That's
that's something special. I love beingaround that. So you go from the
football program and you go jumping andplaying, and get to the Bay Area

(28:22):
see a very good Arizona team beatCal handily, and then you see Sundays
and you're going through it. Youwatch this game and then you interview You
know, I'm being serious now,So you interviewed Tommy and I had not
heard him so distraught in the timehe's been here. I was going to
actually text you and say, didI hear what he was saying? He
felt like he almost like a deathin the family or something. He was

(28:45):
just very distraught. What was hisreaction to that loss? Oh? Yeah,
I think that he was. Hewas exceptionally disappointed because you look at
their two losses prior to that,and they got beat by Purdue, a
better team okay, played better,just was better, and you got beat
by Florida Atlantic, a team thatgoes to double overtime, a Final fourteen

(29:10):
from a year ago. Arizona didn'tplay. I didn't think played all that
well and they still got to doubleovertime. And so it's a respectable loss.
And you know, Stanford they gothealthy. I will say this that
they had not had, you know, all their parts together until that day,
and then all of a sudden theyjust go off. Their three point
shooting, as you well know,was record setting. They had sixteen,

(29:33):
you know, Spencer Jones goes offin the second half, and then a
guy that you know nobody had heardof, Canon Carlisle, you know,
puts up twenty eight in just hisfourth game in college. And yeah,
I just you know, Arizona didn'tplay with a lot of energy. Their
their defense just you know, itwasn't there the entire game. They could
never find you know, really Ithink a combination of guys that could stop

(29:59):
Stanford, and and so yeah,I could see the disappointment when Tommy came
out after the game, and certainlyyou heard it in his voice because you
know, Stanford, Stanford's maybe they'llturn out to be a pretty good team.
I don't know, but when youlook at their record and who they'd
lost to going into that game,you just figure, there's no way,
Arizona you can't win this game.And they should have could have. That's
the way it happens. And asyou guys well know, we talked about

(30:22):
a year after year, when Arizonagoes on the road, it's the biggest
game of the season, and Stanfordshowed that again. Yeah, they did.
They sure did. And you know, again and as as fans are
wont to do, you know,Arizona fans want to do. There's panic
in the air already, and it'slike, guys, it's a it's a
long season. There's a lot,a lot left to happen. And I
thought we just thought it was funnythe way Tommy Lloyd was just like,

(30:44):
you know, at the at thepress conference, guys, you know,
quit picking the scab. I've movedon. Everybody else needs to move on
as well. And that's how acoach like Tommy Lloyd coaches, and that's
how they're successful. Okay, wehad this, we you know, we
dealt with it. We're onto thenext thing. And Colorado come, you
know coming in is a really goodteam. Well yeah, really good team.

(31:07):
I mean might be the second bestteam in the conference. You just
take a look at their talent,and you know, they've had a couple
of guys out here of late,including Tristan de Silva, didn't play this
past weekend. They still won bothgames at home, and so they haven't
won here since they joined the Pactwelve. So I think that's it's a
huge game for them. And youknow, the Wildcats better have their heads,

(31:27):
you know, screwed on tight andready to go in this one,
because I think this is a Thisis the best Colorado team that Ted Boyles
had and I'm looking forward to seeing, you know, how Arizona comes out.
But I'll tell you this, eventhough you want to move on from
games, there's always lessons to belearned. And I think for the guys
in an Arizona uniform that found outon Sunday what it's like to play on

(31:49):
the road against a good conference teamthat wants to beat you more than anything
in the world. Then the nexttime Arizona goes on the road when they
get to Pullman here, what isit next week in Washington State's pretty good?
You better have your a game becauseyou're going to have the exact same
approach. Washington State's going to playjust like Stanford where it's the biggest home

(32:13):
game of the season for them,and they're gonna do everything hand to knock
off the top Dog or the topCat in this player in this situation.
And so it's a lesson I think, particular again for those those guys on
the Arizona roster that have not beenthrough this before, Yeah, no question,
And you've done this often enough.And I was with you guys for
like twenty years on the road.We've seen this loot suffer these glosses.

(32:36):
Some dudes shows up and scores thirty. You don't even know who the guy's
name is. And it happens,I mean anywhere anytime. Yeah, no,
it's not. You know, youcan't look at that game and say,
like you said, nobody can pushthe panic button right now. I
mean they're sitting at ten and threein the ranked tenth in the nation,
and they're still going to win mostof their games the rest of the way.

(32:58):
Like I said, it's how yougrow from like that, and this
team has a lot of growth andthey've got to learn. They've played,
you know, their offense has beenfine, but in the three losses this
year, the defense has you know, not been effective. All three of
those teams, Purdue, Florida,Atlantic, Stanford all shot fifty percent or
better. And that's where I thinkTommy Lloyd is hoping this is going to

(33:20):
be a better team and if they'regoing to avoid you know, losses like
that down the road, that defensehas to come to play well and I
mean we've been saying up until maybeup until the Purdue game, we thought,
okay, we hadn't seen any flaws, although we knew their wereflaws.
There have to be flaws, right, They're not the perfect team. Nobody's
the perfect team. And okay,it's been exposed. We know what it

(33:43):
is. Good for Tommy. Nowhe can go deal with it. Yeah,
well and that's it. And youlook at it Stanford game and just
a couple I know Tommy doesn't wantto look back at it, but we
can. Season low ten assists,season low free throw attempts. I think
they tied their season low. Theygot to the line only fifteen times.
Those are two areas that Arizona's excelledat and so they just got to get

(34:05):
back to that. And uh,you know, for one reason or another,
it wasn't working that day. Igive Stanford more credit than anything,
because, like I said, theyall of a sudden had their full roster.
They played like it, and uh, they got some you just wonder
they got Spencer Jones, Brandon Angel. I mean, these Michael Jones,
these guys have been around. Andthen the Skoyanovitch kid that they got what

(34:25):
a tremendous freshman. They've got sometalent. And I'm not going to sit
here and explain why they lost someof their games. They they have lost,
but they're good enough to win alot right now. I tell you
what, if they play like anythinglike that the rest of the season,
they're going to be right there inthe end. I say, bringing back
the loot Montgomery days, those greatgames. Let's see those games again.

(34:47):
Thank you, Brian. All Right, thanks guys, those Stanford games were
fantastic back in the day. Uh, not so much prayers out of this
weekend, but good stuff. Let'stalk about that because when we come back,
the flaws that we kind of jokedabout or not talked about, you
know, what's wrong, what's whatcould be wrong with his team? Before
they went into this, we wekind of didn't really we didn't really know

(35:10):
until you see it. And Ithink I think we have an idea now.
Yeah, and Tommy, he wasvery very upfront. But our guard
defense is our perimeter defense is terrible, and we have to fix that.
They kicked that they kicked All right, we'll be right back and we'll kick
this one around. Let's kick around. Check around. If you're an Arizona

(35:32):
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(39:36):
at the Arizona Bowl dot com.Steve Rivera and Jacin Salez they have their
eye on the ball on Tucson SportsBig Chef, Fox Sports fourteen to fifty
streaming live. I'm the iHeartRadio.Wap Hey. Welcome back to you on
the buck here on Fox Sports fourteenfifty, om Sie Rivera. He's Jaginsaw

(39:57):
School. About fourteen minutes left becausewhen it calls be able to open line.
Please call us back or call usand see what we have to respond
to. Five years there are fourone, six seventy four. Yeah,
welcome to the new year. Happyeverybody, good to be back. Could
I missed the place? You did? I did? I missed you?
Steve? Resolution was what does notlie? I'll tell you what I will

(40:21):
say this. Though we did Disneylandfor three days, it was a grind.
Yeah, Ryan, did you stayon on site and still across the
street. Here's here's the here's likenot not that anybody needs to hear this.
When I graduated from high school,so I'm still seventeen years old,
I talked my parents into letting mego on a trip to California with a

(40:44):
friend of mine instead of and Isaid, I'll pay for it instead of
you guys paying for me to goon the senior trip which went to Disneyland,
and it's just an overnight thing,you know, with the whole senior
class. He said, if youlet me go, I'll pay for it
myself for my mom. Unadvice.Lea said, okay, And so a
friend of mine and I were seventeenyear old kids, just jumped in the

(41:04):
car and went and spent the weekin Disney. Well, we stayed at
this Howard Johnson's right across the streetfrom Disneyland, nineteen seventy seven. That's
where we stayed last week. Same. Oh, really it was cool.
Was cool. It was It's beenit's been upgraded the number of times,
so it wasn't. Really I wasexpected to go in there and see like
crack toilets and stuff. It wasreally nice. It was very nice.

(41:25):
So give it up to the wholetime. That's the lack. In fact,
that would have been forty six HowardJohnson and it's still a Howard Johnson
still. The last time I stayedat the Howard Johnson and we stayed at
this one. It was great.So let's take this call. Hi,
you're on the air and I onthe ball. What's up? Nico n

(41:46):
hey Man New year's man, havea new year, Nicko, what's your
resolution? Make it clean? Please? Hey man, I got engaged.
Oh you know, come on,did you really? Hey man? There
comes a point in a man's life. Man, Now she doesn't know about

(42:08):
that. I know you're lying,and you gotta be lying. Hey man,
you believe what you want to believeexactly. I don't believe you.
What's up? Hey? I wantto talk about the Alamo. Go ahead,
go ahead. That was a greatwin. It was a roller coaster,
man. But did you think theywere going to pull it off beginning

(42:28):
the fourth quarter? I don't know, not really. My dad went to
sleep. He bailed on him thathe gave up. He thought he was
jinxing him, so he went tobed. Well didn't, we didn't.
So they pulled it out. Itwas a great win. And talking about

(42:50):
let downs, I could see itlet down coming in what way the next
year? Yeah? Well see that'sa fan. That's a fan. Yeah,
seen it too many times. Well, not only that, you're going
to a new conference. You gottafigure that out. See, I think
that that's a favorable thing. Ithink, yeah, I think it helps
because I think, you know,we've gotten rid of usc Washington, Oregon.

(43:12):
They're all gone, let's go,let's go play some other guys and
that we can be No, Iget that, but I mean, like
you got to find new hotels andoh you'uring different time zones and stuff.
Yeah. I don't know that I'mgoing on any of those road trips.
The only one. I again,I could see myself going to Colorado.
I can see himself even going tob Yu, even though I hate those
people. Just go there again.And that's about it. And I don't

(43:38):
go to su I mean, it'snot a sexy it's not a sexy thing,
especially in the middle of winter inthose places. I mean, no,
Orlandos good. Well, outside ofthat, it's really far. That's
far. Yeah, come on,Nico, did you really get engaged?
No way, there's no way hedid. You've never even introduce to her.

(44:00):
What the hell? Man, Youguys don't need to know my private
A bunch of product. When whendid you meet this girl? I met
her in high school? Oh he'sbeen in high school. He's okay,
Well, congratulations, congratulations Nico.That's the Steve Berbara approach. Bring her

(44:22):
around next football season. Hey man, we you gotta take it easy,
all, thank you, right,thank you. She's gonna be around for
football season. We had that init. I don't I don't think he's
told us with it. Okay,so what about speaking of speaking of flaws

(44:42):
flaws? Well, you know,okay, when when we saw when we
saw that show its face in thePurdue game, you thought, okay,
those two guys just went off andright, yeah, and you gave him
credit for that. Well then theseguys go off in the Florida Atlantic,
you go, okay, you knowthat was a little different. Couple guys
scored a bunch of But now this, I'm like, okay, that's there.

(45:07):
That's their flaw. And it's abig flaw, right because you're if
you're gonna give up points three games, shot three points at a time,
that it's a problem. Sure.Sure reminded me in a different way.
Arizona nineteen ninety eight. Okay,you have Bibbie, you have Dickerson,
you know Jason Terry, you haveMiles Simon. Offensively, one guy goes
down, you got another guy tostep up and do well. If two

(45:28):
guys go down, you still havetwo of the dudes are gonna step up.
In Utah, everybody writing down andso far they have this is this
is a good backcourt, right,strong backcourt with four or five dudes,
right, but they're not playing thedefense they need to play offensively, they're
fine. Well, I don't Boswell'snot doing he hasn't played well in several
He's gonna play better. Yeah,and then the backups, you know,

(45:51):
are capable. But then again,you you have a love who's kind of
taking over, right because he hasto. He has to. We'll see
if he not all the time hehas to, We'll see how that moves
forward. Right. You know.Here, here's the thing is that what
I think Tommy is a as acoach who will wreck. I mean if
we recognize it. He recognizes itand he said it. I mean he
said, our perimeter defense has beenterrible. We've got to do better with

(46:15):
that. And you know, andso if it's got his attention, well,
the good thing is I think defenseis fixable because you've got to be
more aggressive. You got to beget up on them and be better.
And you look and you look forit. You look for matchups and things
like that. You know, defensivelythat can that can help you do that.
Let's take this call. Hi,you're on the AAR and I on
the ball. Hey, it's Richard. You guys, Richard, Hey,

(46:37):
I want to say congratulations to Nicoabout getting engaged. We're all invited to
the wedding and Nico whatever. Youdon't listen to Steve too much. We
can tell about marriage exactly. He'snot. It takes one to know one
though. Yes, I mean,I listen, Steve. I've been done

(46:57):
more times in the local trash.Can you know we're not talking dumping here,
Richard, We're not talking How aboutthem sooner? So how about how
about that game? That was agreat game, man, That was a
heavyweight battle and I loved it.I mean I was very happy for Tucson
and you know that that we wonhere and I thought it was a win
win because you know Arizona one.Yeah, but the Sooners look hopeful.

(47:22):
I think Jackson Arnold ended up beinga really good quarterback. He will be
good. He impressed me. Imean the interceptions and the fumble and the
whole bit, those were you youchalk those up to a guy who started
for the first time and you know, made some mistakes. But he looks
like he's going to be good.Yeah, I think so too. So
we're I'm hopeful for the future.Headed to the SEC which is a drag,

(47:44):
but you know, we gotta go. Let's roll with the punches there
on that. You you followed theBig twelve a lot, right, right,
Richard, follow lot? Steve's theBig twelve? Yes? What what
is Arizona minus the Powers? Oklahomaand the other one? But what is
what can they expect? Well?You know, I think you know,

(48:07):
one of my buddies who lives backthere, is pretty knowledgeable as kids played
college sports. You know, hisfirst inclination right now is Utah Cameron Rising
is healthy, and then he likes, uh, he likes maybe like the
Holcoma State or and you know,and then Arizona right in there. You
know he's he's in press with Arizonaand that sort of thing. Yeah,

(48:30):
I think that's accurated, right,Yeah, did you stay there? Now?
Well, somebody posted a graphic ofa projected twelve team bracket for next
year and had Arizona as a foresee. Yeah, I think that was misread
in a couple of different ways.They had him as a four seat or
that would have been the case goingin this year. It was because because

(48:51):
have you wrote that? And theygot all over him said no, no,
no, it was a projection.Did you listen to it? You
had to listen to it. Ididn't hear it. I just saw the
graph. I saw the graph.I think he had he talked about it
in the other way. Yeah,so I don't know what. I don't.
I saw it, but I'm notsure. Have you guys me let
me ask you this. Have youlooked at that schedule next year? Because

(49:14):
it's very strange. What's going onif all these with the changes, but
Arizona's going to play their last fourgames on the road, right right?
I saw that today because of myother job and because it's very top heavy
at home and very bottom heavy onthe road. I don't know how accurate
that is, because maybe it's justplaceholders. But I saw the same thing

(49:34):
Richard, and it was kind ofstrange. And the a issue game was
the fourth one or fifth one inthe on the schedule. I know it.
It's weird. It's weird. Ibe I think that's a disadvantage having
those last four games on the road. With no question. I don't think
about it. I don't go onso I don't think it's still Arizona's a
great team. Man. I lovethat. One final comment since we're ending

(49:55):
the football a year and I hateto see it happen, but Michael Pana
Penny should have won the Houston Trophy. There's just no question about it.
Dude, don't get me started.Don't get j because of regionality, I
guess that's question that led the countryin passing. He's got the most yards,
he's fourteen and oh yeah, soanyway, that's my final comment.

(50:17):
Washington. Yeah, I'm seriously rootingfor him. And yeah, in Washington
because he didn't pile up one hundredyards rushing against Savannah State or whoever the
hell Jane Daniels had to play against. I'm really upset about that. Come
on, anyway, good luck againstMichigan. All right, thanks Richard,
Thanks guys. I don't think theyset the dates. Well, you just

(50:40):
said they have for the first three. The first three, yes, those
are the not so you're gonna tellme that the rest of them registers.
They've not said. They've just saidwho they're playing. They've not set dates.
So they just put them like that, right, They just you know,
they just didn't like you think thator you know that. I'm pretty
sure of that because we were lookingat that today for something that's going on
in September. Yeah, so weused the first three, right, that

(51:01):
are probably set right right. Thefirst three games are set, and that's
that's always the case. They getthe non conference game set New Mexico Northern
Arizona Kansas State, which they keptas a as a you know, even
though they're in the Big twelve,they've kept it. But it'll be it'll
be a non conference game. Wellafter that, it's it's to be now.
Yeah. No, and I thoughtthat too when I was looking at

(51:22):
for our other stuff el for uh, well have you have you are?
One of the fact checkers said theydon't have the schedule out the schedule they've
they've just said they we know whoArizona is playing, just outside of the
first three. Because we know whothey're playing, they just haven't set the
dates. The case stated the thirdgame. I think here's the third game,
because that was that's been on theschedule for okay quite a while.

(51:44):
Yeah, and because remember we askedDave he Key when when when they went
into the big pubs, what areyou gonna do? With the Kansas State
game, and at that time hesaid, I don't know. Yeah,
so I was assuming the other schedulesare out. This should be out pretty
soon some I don't know. Idon't know, not times or anything,
but just the dates that they're goingto be playing. Because you think that

(52:05):
Colorado's coming. No, definitely,not times. That doesn't happen at the
week out. But I'm talking aboutthe season when the season is actually you
know, finalized in terms of days. Yeah, let me see. I'm
looking up to the Big Ten realquick. We'ly got about a minute twelve.
I mean, I'm looking up theBig Ten to see if they've announced
the actual uh you know, thedates that they're playing. Oh yeah,

(52:28):
yeah. The Big Ten has itsdates out. The Big twelve does not.
I think this is great. It'sgreat radio. Okay, just go
ahead. We got a couple ofseconds left. So it'll be out at
some point soon, I hope,hope. Yeah. Here's there's a scheduling
matrix, but I don't think ithas dates on it yet. Yeah.

(52:52):
I found it this. I sawthe same one that Richard was talking about.
Uh, and uh, I foundit kind of strange because there's a
lot of home games early but awaygames late. Yeah, so that makes
sense. Yeah, it just hashome and away. That's it. That's
all we got. That's that's fromthe Big Twelve Conference website. Okay,
all right, man, let's getout of here, Steve, Okay,
we'll see tomorrow. All right,we'll be back tomorrow. We'll have some

(53:13):
more stuff for you and we'll getready for that Colorado game. So be
sure to come back tomorrow