Thursday, April 24, Hour 2

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is I on the Ball on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
Want to take part in the show? Call up Steve
now went five to two oh four one, six seventy
four forty.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hey, welcome back to I on the ballground Fox Sports
fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera in today with me is
Ryan Hansen. Now we got Kobe with breaking news.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
This is I on the Ball, Breaking news on Fox
Sports fourteen fifty five.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
Star USC basketball re crew Elijah Renas is in an
induced coma following a serious car crash early Thursday morning
in Los Angeles. The eighteen year olds on A former
NBA star, Gilbert Arenas, is in stable condition and initial
reports indicating no broken bones.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
There's so many connections to UA, right right, Gilbert pat
Here was a star, a pain in the next star
to many of us. He does the same thing now today.
He talks crazy, and he talked crazy back then. Luke
was cringeing all the time. Oh what is he gonna say?
But yeah, and his son was a recruit here.

Speaker 4 (01:00):
Yeah, And I know a lot of fans were hoping
that he would continue that tradition and bring his talents
to McHale Center. But gosh, We just wish him the
very very best and hope that he is there's a
speedy recovery. And it sounds like, as Kobe mentioned, no
broken bones, so hopefully that is a speedy recovery. But
you mentioned Gilbert, Who would have thought that that guy

(01:21):
would be paid now for his comments on life? Well,
and he's got a very very popular podcast that's very
funny about life.

Speaker 5 (01:30):
Because yeah, let me hold on.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
I gotta watch this because Gilbert's gonna say something what
I should do. Yeah, Yeah, he's one of the last
guys I would listen to for life.

Speaker 5 (01:38):
Yeah, when you.

Speaker 4 (01:38):
Think about the media careers of many of our players,
you know, Richard and Gilbert would be non stop talking
on the bus and it was unbelievable to try to
get a word in edgewise. Scroll back a couple of
years earlier than that, you couldn't get a word in
edgewise if you were on the bus with CORYL. Williams
and Reggie Geary. Those two guys have you know, burgeoning media.

(02:00):
And I'm sure back in the day, I wasn't on
the bus, but you go way back. I'm sure Tom
Tolbert was another guy who had had everybody's ears burning.
When it was on the bus, Steak and.

Speaker 5 (02:11):
Steve was doing his thing too.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
I'm sure Steve was stelling Tom's shut up, Tom, shut up,
enough of your bs.

Speaker 4 (02:16):
Channing fryeh Channing Fry, another very thoughtful guy. And then
really watch him on the NBA channel. He's he's blown up.
And obviously he and Richard with their podcast, all.

Speaker 5 (02:27):
The story has been.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
People could tell when Gilbert and Jean and all these
guys were and Richard, you know, obviously it was a
casid characters. Like you said earlier, it was a fun group.
It was a heck of a talented group. Twenty four
years twenty five years removed from then. Crazy to think.

Speaker 4 (02:45):
And that is one of the one of the things
as an Arizona basketball fan that I know rubs a
lot of locals is the lack of a Final four.
And it is it's kind of the the bad part
to me of college basketball. As you are, you're graded
by final four, yeah, and really not much else, unfortunately.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
And in matters in March, maybe matters in March, and
you have a lot of stuff maybe yeah, okay, we'll
go back to that. But I tell you that those
times because Jay and I went back and forth blue Blood,
blue Blood, blue No, it's not and you got you
got it because I've asked you that too. Uh, twenty
quarter of a century moved from a final four a
few final fours. It had that. It's a good program

(03:24):
with a good history. The blue Blood's that's a little different.

Speaker 4 (03:27):
Yeah, blue Blood puts you on a different stratosphere. And
you have to and I think we talked about this.
For me, blue Blood is not just final fours in
the last twenty five years. There has to be a championship,
at least one championship in there to be a modern
day blue Blood. So that list is pretty finite. And
I think, you know, you do have to ask a question.
Let's ask this one. Has Florida now become a modern

(03:49):
day blue Blood because three national titles, multiple final fours.

Speaker 5 (03:54):
In the last twenty years. What in the last twenty years? Yeah,
well then Vanova, Yukon.

Speaker 4 (04:00):
Clearly, North Carolina, Kentucky, Kansas because of the number of
of wins. But also they have championships, the Duke at
the very least the new the new version or.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
The gen Z or whatever genuine to put it. Blue
Blood's Yeah.

Speaker 5 (04:13):
New Vague.

Speaker 4 (04:13):
I I agree. I think you have to put Florida
in that mix now with this title and with a
different coach, and remove from that back to back. I'm
not saying that that wasn't hard and that they shouldn't
get praise for that, but I think they're New Vague
blue blood.

Speaker 5 (04:26):
Yeah, no, I agree with you.

Speaker 3 (04:28):
Evan Mobley named Defensive Player of the Year, becoming first
player in Cavaliers history to win the award.

Speaker 5 (04:34):
How about that? Is Luke still right there? Right? Luke's
an assistant.

Speaker 4 (04:38):
No, he's with the Pistons, So he moved to the
Biston Pistols. Yeah, he was with Cleveland for a while,
but now he's he's with Uh. I can't remember the Pistons.
Bernie Bickerstaff, who when he was coming out of kind
of coming out of the U of A Bickerstaff was
was that same same age. But by interesting note, Evan Mobley,

(04:58):
UH think of us and watching him and his brother play,
I think we all saw what is now coming to
Fruition and the NBA. That guy is an exceptional talent,
had all the physical tools, great high IQ and a
great recognition for him.

Speaker 3 (05:14):
Arizona wide receiver to Tario McMillan is firing back at
Todd McShay. After the ESPN analysts questioned his work ethic,
McMillan defended himself, saying, they tripping. I feel like just
turn the tape on and it speaks for itself.

Speaker 5 (05:28):
They tripping. They probably be tripping.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
Yeah, I think it's I think that McShay was more
of the messenger.

Speaker 5 (05:34):
He's in this business, right, he.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
Talked to a couple or three people or whatever, and
that's the message they were giving him.

Speaker 5 (05:41):
So then he's talking about it. Right.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
The question is who are those people he were talking about?
Are they legit? Are they credible? Are they all these things?

Speaker 4 (05:51):
I love the dynamic now, Steve, of the relationship that
athletes and the media have now because back when you
were covering the team, very rarely would you have a
clap back from an athlete, professional or college or otherwise.

Speaker 5 (06:05):
They did.

Speaker 4 (06:06):
Now they're the platform that these athletes have through their
own social media that may have more followers than some
of the experts even have to be able to voice
their concerns what they feel about things. I do think
when we talk so much about the changes in athletics
and sports and a lot of it's a negative tonality.
I actually think that's a great thing for me as

(06:26):
a fan. I love hearing actual response. What does he
really feel about that? I think that's entertainment from me.
Who did he tell that to her? Who did he
tell that to ESPN?

Speaker 2 (06:36):
Probably somebody, Yeah, because that was a big deal yesterday
when he was talking about it. And I don't know
McShay or whatever, but he's saying this, it's through other people,
because he's not just saying this.

Speaker 5 (06:47):
Somebody else is telling him.

Speaker 3 (06:49):
Arizona men's basketball as system Steve Robinson has announced his
retirement after four seasons with the Wildcats and over four
decades in the game. Longtime Roy Williams assistant guide Arizona
to multiple Patch twelve titles and Sweet sixteen or on.

Speaker 5 (07:03):
You knew him right now.

Speaker 2 (07:05):
In fact, I think you introduced me to him in
Vegas one of the trips, knowing that I'm not as
close as I used to be with the teams.

Speaker 5 (07:12):
But to me, he came off as like a soothsayer.

Speaker 2 (07:15):
A bright mind, or you know, the the right hand
man to be a calming voice.

Speaker 5 (07:21):
I could get out, I.

Speaker 4 (07:22):
Could doubt a sage. You know that wise word to
talk to Tommy and players. He had an incredible relationship
with the players, and that's as an assistant coach, that's
very important for you. I've I've known coach Rob back
to his head coaching days when he was at Florida
State and Arizona played a couple of Series Cample games
with Florida State. I helped negotiate those contracts, so I

(07:44):
have conversations with the Biby years with him. That was
the Biby years that we we went back there, So
I did. I did know him then, not as much
and as close as I do know him now and
his interactions. I think it was a great hire for Tommy.
It was for a brand new head coach, and Tommy
Lloyd he needed that. Wise maybe seasoned veteran who has

(08:04):
sat in that seat knows the pressures, knows what it takes,
but can take it from a little bit of a
different perspective. So that will be a loss to Arizona
basketball from that standpoint. But I believe coach Lloyd. I
believe in him very well. I think Arizona will come
out of this better for it long term. When you
look at what a new coach can bring that can
get out on the road and recruit, bring a younger

(08:27):
maybe voice to where Tommy's at now. And I believe
Tommy's got somebody lined up that Arizona fans will be
very happy with.

Speaker 3 (08:34):
The Arizona Wildcuts baseball team are twenty nine to eleven
and they're sitting in a three way tie for second
in the Big Twelve as they hit the road for
a three game set in Lubbock.

Speaker 2 (08:44):
Yeah, they beat Arlington, was it last night? I think
they'd be there, yes here.

Speaker 4 (08:49):
How about that program doing really good work? And so
Summerhill comes back after a seventeen game injury that kept
him out of the lineup, sees his first pitch, takes
it yard. Yeah, goes home run on the first pitch
he's seen in seventeen games.

Speaker 5 (09:06):
How fun is that?

Speaker 4 (09:07):
Obviously for Arizona baseball, but what a talent to be
able to do that. Exciting times for Chip Hale and
the Arizona baseball.

Speaker 5 (09:14):
Well, they've said that he's the difference or he helps
make a difference.

Speaker 3 (09:16):
So right away, a Kobe Bryant Lakers jersey from his
rookie season just sold for seven million dollars at South
dvis and is the most ever paid for a Brian collectible,
and Rinks is the fourth highest price ever for a game.

Speaker 5 (09:30):
More sports jersey, what's your what's your prize possession? Wow?
What's your price position?

Speaker 4 (09:36):
From the sports memorabilia standpoys?

Speaker 2 (09:38):
And then something you I don't want a price on it,
just something you would not give up.

Speaker 4 (09:43):
I have a bench chair from the nineteen ninety seven
National champion and so as as a member of that
team we were.

Speaker 5 (09:50):
Getting from Minnesota from Indianapolis.

Speaker 4 (09:54):
Yeah, so I have a bench chair from the two
thousand and one year?

Speaker 5 (09:56):
Was it a chair chair? How was it folding chair?
Okay o?

Speaker 4 (09:59):
Yeah, that had the on the past the logo on
the back white chairs. So that would be one that
hey you couldn't you can't buy.

Speaker 5 (10:05):
Those chairs, right? So I did not.

Speaker 4 (10:07):
It's just it's you can still have it signed, well
signed by who?

Speaker 5 (10:11):
But the guys up paid on the team.

Speaker 4 (10:12):
I guess if not having loot on it probably would
is the big miss there. That was probably my my
price position. I'm not a big sports memorabilia guy. I think,
I think, and I'm blessed and so don't take this
the wrong way. But when you're a part of the
team like I was, and you know the players as individuals.

Speaker 5 (10:30):
The memorabilia of a game.

Speaker 4 (10:31):
Warn jersey by one of the Arizona players or an
autograph just doesn't mean as much to me. And I'm
just I'm curious the sports memorabilia world. That's incredible that
they're still getting that much money in the sports memorabilia.
But Kobe is on a different level.

Speaker 3 (10:48):
So Door Sanders worries about getting drafted, they they well
call it one second, I'm.

Speaker 5 (10:59):
Gonna have to give you. Are you gonna take your
money back?

Speaker 3 (11:02):
There was big Shoud Door sin Shad Door Sanders now
projected to go twenty one in the NFL draft, as
he was projected to go second just two months ago.

Speaker 5 (11:10):
Yeah. See who do you believe? Right?

Speaker 2 (11:14):
I dealt with this when they was doing the NBA
with the guys, when Miles was coming out, Dickerson and
Bibbie and all these guys, people say this, see that.
And Gilbert Gilbert was a first round guy. He didn't
come out first round. He was the second round. Yeah,
slipped to the second round. What's interesting in some stories
from the past is all of those guys there would
be agent runners, but there would also be NBA inside

(11:38):
staff members that would make calls to the athletic trainer.
I know Justin Kokowski today is getting calls probably about
Caleb Love and what type of person he is off
the court in the training room. You did, so those
things all factor in. And I'm not saying that this
is what should do. It's happening to him, but just

(11:59):
in general, when you look at the players, the money
that's being thrown out, those franchises have to do their
due diligence and it's every single person that they're talking to,
and boyd, what an amazing change for that guy to
go from but potentially the second pick to late first round.

Speaker 5 (12:14):
What a change.

Speaker 4 (12:14):
Hey, question retired Jersey at Colorado Sanders and Travis Hunter. Yes, no, No,
for need for either one or not not right away.
You rethink it maybe Hunter down the road, but no,
especially when you had who's the quarterback from the back
in the day, Stewart Stewart, There's been a few others.

Speaker 5 (12:37):
No, No.

Speaker 4 (12:38):
I thought that was an interesting take to see those
Jersey retirements, Like you said this quickly and maybe if ever.

Speaker 5 (12:47):
Even twelve was a quarterback. But hey, my dad is
not the coach.

Speaker 3 (12:53):
Miami quarterback Kim Ward is now a minus twenty thousand
favorite to be the first pick in the NFL Draft
from a seven to one long shot in November leap
dropping both shad Or Sanders and Travis Hunter.

Speaker 2 (13:05):
Yeah, that would have been a nice bed back in
the day. Talented, right, and kind of is one of
those quarterbacks of today who can do a lot of
different things side arm blah blah blah.

Speaker 4 (13:14):
Did you think he was He was going to be
potentially the first pick quarterback to pick in the NFL
draft when he was at Washington.

Speaker 2 (13:20):
So no, obviously talented. But next year, I guess what
we'll know. We'll know something from some other place, right
because oh he's got he moved up to another school
blah blah blah, and now he's this guy.

Speaker 5 (13:33):
It's who you played for, who you play with and projecting.

Speaker 4 (13:36):
I think that might be the most difficult projection in
all of professional sports.

Speaker 5 (13:41):
His quarterback at the NFL level where you look at
you know.

Speaker 4 (13:43):
Trevor Lawrence is not exactly lighting the world on fire,
and everyone tapped him at seven generational as generational, right,
So that is a very difficult evaluation. Is who can
you project to be the next great The.

Speaker 2 (13:56):
Guy that I really loved the year before was Nick's
just loved to at Oregon, and Pennix was the guy
at Washington, and I still loved both, obviously very good.
Washington was the better team, but Bo had and he
was older, right, he was older. Uh, and you can't
teach older, you know. And he was and he was
fantastic at Dender And we'll see how good Panix will be.

Speaker 3 (14:17):
So that is it for today's breaking news.

Speaker 5 (14:21):
Okay, did we have anything else going on? Well, we're
gonna talk about.

Speaker 4 (14:26):
We're clos wanted to make sure we hit Elijah Renas
so that we gave Oh yeah, right, props there.

Speaker 5 (14:31):
I know for sure that was a topic.

Speaker 2 (14:32):
Yeah, we were talking about maybe Kenrea Yadiera.

Speaker 5 (14:36):
We're gonna Mike.

Speaker 2 (14:36):
We're gonna have Mike, We're gonna have John Feena here
in a little bit. Just what flow is transferring? Oh yeah,
justin flow another characterstic characters?

Speaker 5 (14:45):
Right? I remember, And I texted Jay.

Speaker 2 (14:48):
Last night when it came out, because when he came
out for the first time to talk to the media
and he's looking like this Adonis. Holy crap, and Jay,
Jay and his look good played good way you know,
flow comes out, he says, he Texas says. Back then,
he says, Arizona never got guys that look like this, right,
they just didn't human specimen, a five star guy and

(15:09):
kind of like a crazy, crazy football player, and then
he just didn't develop the way they liked.

Speaker 5 (15:15):
He hasn't developed under three coaches now, right.

Speaker 4 (15:17):
And so my question to you is, outside of Justin Flow,
most hyped Arizona football player that didn't pan out.

Speaker 2 (15:24):
Well, there's the kid and I forget his name all
the time Stoops defensive end JC transfer. Oh yeah, Holmes Holmes,
Lewis Holmes. That would be one for sure.

Speaker 5 (15:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (15:36):
The hype was out of this world for him.

Speaker 5 (15:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (15:41):
Yeah, And I don't think he did he ever take
a snap in the NFL.

Speaker 2 (15:44):
I don't think so. I don't think so. So along
those lines, maybe one in one A. Yeah, there could
be others.

Speaker 4 (15:51):
Yeah, that's definitely a recency bias for Justin Flow, which
is too bad because, like you said, all the physical
tools in the world and just wasn't able to make
the contributions that we all expected, or at least what
was hyped up.

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Speaker 1 (21:07):
Streaming live on the Ihearts Radio while this is I
on the Ball with Steve Rivera on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen.

Speaker 2 (21:17):
Hey, welcome back to I on the Ball here on
Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, and with me
today is Ryan Hanson. Now on the phone.

Speaker 5 (21:23):
We have former you.

Speaker 2 (21:23):
Of a football star back in the day, John Fina.

Speaker 5 (21:27):
How are you John? I'm doing really well.

Speaker 13 (21:30):
How are you, fellas?

Speaker 5 (21:31):
We're doing fine. Thank you.

Speaker 2 (21:33):
I wanted to have you on to take us back
for a number of things. Just take us back to
when you were out of you of a you had
the chance to get drafted. How are you feeling. I
think we've already had this discussion of time or two.
How are you feeling? And where did you end up
staying to get a call?

Speaker 14 (21:51):
Yeah, so you know, my draft journey was a little
bit different, I think than the guys that you look
at on the screen today who are expecting to get
drafted in the first round. I was not very well.
I guess known about right. I was kind of a sleeper.
I just I performed really well in a couple of games,
in particular against some pretty high level competition. I went

(22:13):
to the Shrine game and did well there, and then
I had a really good combine. So it's not like
today where you have so much media looking at so
many players every day, every jump, every run, every lift,
So you didn't see people moving up and down the
board or holding a place high on the board.

Speaker 13 (22:35):
As you do today. So you know, I actually.

Speaker 14 (22:38):
Signed up with my agent because I drove to Phoenix
and knocked on the door.

Speaker 13 (22:42):
And said, hey, I think I might need representation, and
they more or less said.

Speaker 5 (22:46):
Who are you?

Speaker 14 (22:47):
And you know, I, along with about twenty five other
guys in their draft class, we had the big party
the night before.

Speaker 5 (22:55):
We went to a ballroom the.

Speaker 14 (22:56):
Next day and we just you know, we sat around
in a big ball room watching the draft on the TV.
And I was fortunate, you know, I got that call
early on, and it was.

Speaker 13 (23:10):
It was an incredible feeling, and just.

Speaker 14 (23:12):
From at the beginning thinking I would be maybe a
fourth round pick, maybe a third round pick.

Speaker 13 (23:19):
Just to have the type of response that.

Speaker 14 (23:23):
I was getting post Combine from coaches and scouts, you know,
really kind of notted me up.

Speaker 5 (23:29):
A little bit.

Speaker 14 (23:29):
But going in the first round was a little unexpected
and one of the one of the highlights of my life.

Speaker 4 (23:36):
Hey, John, this is Ryan Hanson. Great talking to a
outstanding Tucson great. We love having you on. I'm thinking
back to your draft and, like you said, the draft
now a little bit different. In and around that time,
were you getting word that teams liked you in and around.
Ultimately you went to the Bills. But were there other
teams that you heard that really liked you and thought

(23:57):
me you thought maybe you would get drafted by one
of those teams.

Speaker 14 (24:02):
Yeah, so you know kind of what I was just
talking about. People didn't really know anything about me and
the public sphere and the media sphere. But before the draft,
I took trips to Seattle and Denver and had a
lot of conversations with not necessarily the Buffalo Bills, though
the scout came out here, but I had a number

(24:23):
of conversations with various teams, so that didn't get reported
on like it does now. Right, you got the thirty visits,
so every team sort of has to declare who's coming
in for the thirty visits.

Speaker 5 (24:36):
It wasn't like that back then.

Speaker 13 (24:38):
So I had.

Speaker 14 (24:39):
About five or six teams, including Bill Belichick at the
Cleveland Browns at the time where I thought I likely
could sneak into the second round from the third. But
as a draft laid out, Detroit picked before Buffalo, and
that Robert Porchet was still available. You know that I

(25:02):
think the Bills would have taken Robert as a defensive end.
But when Detroit took him. I was next on their
big board and fortunately got drafted to the Buffalo Bills.

Speaker 2 (25:12):
So so I know you have known you when I
covered you back in that time, and you were very
talented obviously offensive lineman. What do you think eventually sold them?
Because I think you're acumen, you're smart, and your IQ
helped you become a first rounder.

Speaker 14 (25:29):
Two wow, man, you know I gotta like Venmo. You
twenty bucks, right, I mean for such nice things to
me on a regular basis. You know, it's there are
three components to being a serviceable offensive lineman. And you know,
as you know, I have two sons who one is

(25:51):
in his sixth year at Duke right and then Roman
is going to Duke in June and he'll be on
the football team, and I tell him, you know, there's
three things that you must do as an offensive lineman
to get on the field and stay on the field.
And number one is don't have any mental errors, okay,
because we can't help you if you're not even willing

(26:12):
to block the right damn person. Number two, don't hurt
the team. Eliminate, reduce penalties as much as you can.
No holding, no off sides. Those are the two biggies
for offensive linemens, don't commit penalties, don't make us go backwards.
And number three is stay off the ground. You're no

(26:33):
good to me on the ground. You can't block anybody.
So you know I was able to do those three things.

Speaker 5 (26:39):
You know.

Speaker 14 (26:39):
One, because I was an athlete, I would stay off
the ground. Two, I was smart enough to remember, you know,
because blocking schemes are pretty intricate, and defense is change
up fronts.

Speaker 5 (26:48):
All the time.

Speaker 14 (26:48):
When they move, your brain has to move. You got
to be on the right guy. And I was technique
solid things to guy like Pat Hill. And I was
able to, you know, resist from holding penalties. So you
know I had those three things in my favor. And
then as long as you can stay healthy and you
got a team that likes you, you could stick around.

Speaker 5 (27:07):
For quite a while.

Speaker 4 (27:09):
John, the differences in basketball between a center and a
big man and a guard, I have a pretty good
handle on the different mentality and the different expectations. Walk
me through, because I've heard these stories, the different expectations
of an offensive lineman versus a defensive lineman.

Speaker 5 (27:27):
And you just said it.

Speaker 4 (27:27):
You give up one sack, you have one holding penalty,
and you've had a horrible game as a defensive lineman.
If you get one sack, you're lauded as like you're
on the way to the Hall of Fame practically. So
walk me through that. Just that different dynamic.

Speaker 13 (27:42):
Well, you know what's interesting about that.

Speaker 14 (27:44):
Is, you know, that type of mentality.

Speaker 13 (27:47):
And offensive line and now they're a little.

Speaker 14 (27:49):
Bit more celebrity status. You know, it's a little bit
more exciting to talk about offensive linemen because there's so
much information out there. You got social media, you got
you know, guys like you doing a great job on
the radio, and people.

Speaker 5 (28:01):
Get talked about.

Speaker 14 (28:02):
Whereas this was the forgotten group. And because of that,
you know, you always had this edge of unappreciation, you
know to your sort of personality, your countenance. So the
offensive line rooms tend to be very very close, right,
it's all everybody jumps on the rope and polls and
nobody gets a lot of credit and we all had to.

Speaker 5 (28:24):
Really stick together.

Speaker 14 (28:25):
And beyond that, you talked about what the mentality. You know,
you don't see offensive linemen rolling in and out because
it's second and short or third and long, right, I mean,
these sobs are on the field sixty five to eighty
five plays a game, and the only break they get
is when they're on the sideline, right, So by the

(28:46):
end of the game, you're so damn tired you can't
even lift your arms anymore. And these defensive ends who
are rolling in defensive tackles coming out, I mean, they're
drinking Coca cola on the sideline, laughing it up.

Speaker 13 (28:57):
I could hardly.

Speaker 2 (28:57):
Catch my breath, so moved you when Dick decided to
move you from that side the ball to the offensive side.

Speaker 14 (29:04):
What do you think, Oh, I was upset, you know,
in that day and age. Unfortunately, my opinion of offensive
lineman wasn't very high, right because I didn't understand that mindset.
I always considered them to be, you know, just a
bunch of cry babies that you know you're holding your
whole You know, they'd accused defensive linemen all the time,

(29:27):
and yeah, I was.

Speaker 5 (29:30):
I was.

Speaker 13 (29:31):
I always thought that being.

Speaker 14 (29:33):
An offensive lineman was not an aggressive position, right, that
you were taking beatings rather than giving them.

Speaker 5 (29:40):
And it wasn't until I.

Speaker 14 (29:42):
Got thrust into that meeting room and understood the mindset
of the way offensive line and offensive line play is
coached in the belief system that I felt like, all right,
I might be skinny, I might be a little weak,
I might be uh, you know, misunderstanding all this technique
and stuff like that.

Speaker 5 (30:02):
But you know, these guys are pretty smart and they're tough, and.

Speaker 14 (30:07):
They stick together, and I think, you know, they kind
of like that marine mentality. Right, we're all gonna we're
all gonna run into the bullets together, and we're gonna
stand up for one another.

Speaker 13 (30:18):
Regardless of the circumstances.

Speaker 2 (30:19):
Let me ask you if I could so so at
one point in any at any point in your career,
and I'm sure you were close to Dick, tell me
did you kind of say to him at some point say,
you know, thank you.

Speaker 5 (30:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 14 (30:32):
I mean, I was really appreciative that Dick tomy. You know,
I was sort of the last roster spot as a
senior coming out of a South Point Catholic, and you know,
there are a lot of guys that were more highly
recruited and come to find out many years later that
it was between me and another guy for more or

(30:52):
less that final scholarship spot. And if you remember correctly,
it was that transition year when Dick first took the job,
and you know, I didn't know if I even had
a scholarship, So I was looking at Colorado State or
New Mexico as my best options at the time. And
I was fortunate and they came out, watched me play

(31:13):
basketball and felt like I was athletic enough, energetic enough,
hard working enough that they continue to extend that scholarship
that Larry Smith initially offered.

Speaker 4 (31:25):
Hey John in the Nil era, now that we see,
just a funny question thinking back to your time, if
the nil was a thing, would you have gone after
funds or support from dirt Bags, Lucky Wishbone or Egs.
Which local Tucson favorite would you have gone to?

Speaker 5 (31:42):
Quickly? In first, well, I was about to rip into.

Speaker 14 (31:46):
Your rhino because I have this Nil conversation probably about
five times a week, and people don't like my opinions
in a lot of cases. But you know, opinions are like,
you know what, everybody's got one right. But I would
I would think that, you know, without you know, damaging
my sterling reputation, I might have gone for dirt Bags

(32:07):
followed by Eg's And no, I mean, I love, I
love the idea of the Lucky Wishbone, but I tend
not to dine there very often.

Speaker 5 (32:17):
At least not now at our age. Right, it's just.

Speaker 2 (32:19):
So, so you gave us your list, but give us
your NIL philosophy.

Speaker 13 (32:26):
Well, I think a lot of people are upset, right.

Speaker 5 (32:28):
They don't like.

Speaker 14 (32:28):
How players are moving around with the portal, they don't
like go out. They're not amateurs anymore. And you know
my response to that is, so what I mean? The
NC two A had a captive labor pool forever, and
they mistreated, misvalued, and the pendulum was held way up
high on one side. And then finally right they came

(32:50):
together as players and obviously lawyers right, and that pendulum
swung and it swung hard. And this may not be
where nil and the portal remains and it is fluid
and it's changing all the time, but damn it all,
it's the right thing. Coaches could recruit you and a
year later get a great deal and move off to

(33:12):
Auburn or Oregon or wherever the hell they want to go.

Speaker 5 (33:15):
And then you were stuck. That made no sense to me.

Speaker 14 (33:18):
And then when I see teammates who are from outside
of Arizona try to rub nickels together to get home
to see their families, right, guys that aren't living in
the greatest of places because the scholarship checks really weren't
sufficient enough.

Speaker 13 (33:34):
And now I hear your.

Speaker 14 (33:35):
Listeners out there right now screaming at their radios.

Speaker 13 (33:38):
You know, Oh, a bunch of pampered athletes and.

Speaker 5 (33:41):
All that bs.

Speaker 14 (33:42):
Well, I'll tell you, if you asked me twenty years ago,
I would have said, double.

Speaker 13 (33:47):
Or triple their scholarship checks. Let them buy insurance.

Speaker 14 (33:50):
From the rest of their life from the university that
they worked for, and give them fifteen hundred dollars into
an IRA, right, and do that across the board for
every athlete, and you.

Speaker 5 (34:00):
Wouldn't have had the.

Speaker 14 (34:01):
Pendulum swing so far. So I'm excited for these kids.
I think it's great opportunity. A lot of them, they
dedicate themselves to their sport. You don't recruit a kid
to a power for school unless they want to play.

Speaker 5 (34:13):
In the NFL. But those odds are so low, so they're.

Speaker 14 (34:16):
Focusing on their sport. They're trying to focus on academics
all at a maybe in parentheses there, but at least
in this situation, you could be a great college athlete
not make it in the NFL. But if you're smart, and.

Speaker 13 (34:29):
I'm not responsible for investing their money or taking.

Speaker 5 (34:32):
Care of it.

Speaker 14 (34:33):
At least they got a leg up in life for
a little while, right, And I think that is a
great thing for these kids to have that they're you know,
as a resource.

Speaker 2 (34:42):
I'm assuming your kids are benefiting from this as well,
and obviously going to a great school.

Speaker 14 (34:49):
Well, I mean, the great school is really the number
one thing, right or Bruno's taking great advantage of it.
He graduated from UCLA with a you know, a really
awesome great point average, and he's in the NBA program
at Duke.

Speaker 5 (35:04):
You know, that's that's first and foremost. Number two.

Speaker 14 (35:08):
He gets to continue to play left tackle. The UCLA
was toying with moving him inside. And the importance to
that is if Bruno has a chance in the NFL,
he's playing tackle now and.

Speaker 5 (35:19):
You can convert to.

Speaker 14 (35:20):
The inside center or guard, but you typically do not
see and I can't think of a single instance where
a guys played guard in college and moved out the
tackle in the NFL.

Speaker 13 (35:31):
And with respect to either of.

Speaker 14 (35:33):
My boys, nil opportunities. You know, it's not really a
place for me to, you know, go on the radio
and talk about if they chose to. I suggest you
send Bruno a text and ask if he'd like to
come out and talk about that.

Speaker 4 (35:45):
Yeah, well, I do find John, you made a great
point that I hadn't thought about until you mentioned it.
And that is the tight grip that the NCAA held
on this whole philosophic, philosophical idea of paying student athletes,
and they let it go so long because they just
could not relinquish control created to a certain degree, the

(36:06):
wild wild West that we are now starting to see
a little bit of some fences and some regulatory standards.
That would be my only thing about it. I'm with you, like,
if you can earn more money by changing jobs, then
go for it.

Speaker 5 (36:19):
It's the same opportunity here.

Speaker 4 (36:20):
If you can earn a better opportunity, a better life
for you by changing schools and changing from one school
to another because the NIL package is better, then that's
America to a certain degree. To me, like, go for it.
I don't want to hold you back if the money
is there. I just think there needs to be a
little bit more regulatory standards with contracts, and the professional
leagues have refined it where they've figured some things out.

(36:41):
What that looks like I don't know, but it still
feels a little too wide open spaces for me.

Speaker 14 (36:48):
Well, hey, I'm a disruptor, so I love it and
I don't disagree with you. But I'm not going to
run out griping about it. I'm going to let the
powers who are in control, you know, not that I'm one.

Speaker 5 (37:01):
Of them, figure it out. And I figure everything.

Speaker 14 (37:04):
You know, there's a regression to the mean, so that
will balance out some way somehow, But the opportunity would
never exist, and I love it. I look at it
the same way with the PAC twelve, right, I mean
that was a damn mercy killing. I mean, you want
to talk about a league that was just mismanaged and
run so poorly, and the PAC twelve network was absolute

(37:27):
garbage that when the PAC twelve went down, oh man,
I mean I thought I thought I was going to
be the guy in Old Yeller that took it out
to the woodshed and.

Speaker 13 (37:37):
Took care of business. I was so happy to see
that go away real quick.

Speaker 5 (37:43):
Are you still doing your podcast just during the season?

Speaker 14 (37:47):
Oh yeah, we're doing installments now at least once or
twice a week.

Speaker 13 (37:51):
It's the overreaction.

Speaker 14 (37:53):
Buffalo Sports Network live on YouTube. We do about four
shows during the season. Right now we're doing about two shows.
We're having a blast. It's me former teammate Jerry Ostrowsky
and Joe Miller, local Buffalo fan and legend nicknamed the.

Speaker 5 (38:07):
Voice because he's got a fantastic voice.

Speaker 14 (38:10):
We're having a great time with it. If anybody out
here listening.

Speaker 5 (38:13):
Is a Buffalo Bills fan, go to.

Speaker 14 (38:14):
YouTube search Overreaction Buffalo, please like and subscribe. We're having
an absolutely wonderful time doing it, picking up some sponsors,
and it's really brought me closer not just to the Buffalo.

Speaker 5 (38:28):
Bills, but to the game overall.

Speaker 14 (38:30):
And it gives me a chance, you know, instead of
just yelling at the TV, you know, I.

Speaker 5 (38:34):
Get to yell at you.

Speaker 13 (38:35):
I get to yell at Steven.

Speaker 5 (38:36):
Right up a little bit.

Speaker 4 (38:37):
Hey, what's the most what's the most what's the most
immediate need for the Buffalo Bills picking thirtieth today in
the in the first round.

Speaker 14 (38:46):
Well, look, we've we've gone over this on the podcast
a lot. You know, there's nothing out there in the media.
I think everybody really settles into it's either an impact player,
a defensive tackle or you know, a really really strong
zone cover corner. So both positions you could flip.

Speaker 5 (39:03):
A coin and they're semi related. Right.

Speaker 14 (39:05):
If you get somebody who can get up field on
the D line, then it takes a little pressure off
the corners. You get a lockdown corner or somebody who's
you know, doesn't make mistakes in the secondary, then you
get a little bit more time for the D line
to get there to get home.

Speaker 13 (39:22):
However, the Bills have ten draft picks, right.

Speaker 5 (39:25):
That's a lot. That's a lot of draft capital.

Speaker 14 (39:28):
Brandon Bean has done an extraordinary job identifying and developing
talent in rounds two through five. So another theory is
a lot of people say about this draft that's it's
loaded with starters but not stars. So maybe you back
out of that first round and you really flood the
zone in rounds two, three, and four and pick up

(39:51):
some of those guys that you think could be starters,
players and development guys to plug gaps a little bit
here and there. But let me tell you what I'm
really excited about the straft. I mean T mac Let's go, oh,
how great is that?

Speaker 13 (40:05):
I mean, I see him anywhere from.

Speaker 5 (40:08):
Ten to fourteen fifteen. I think it's just gonna be amazing.

Speaker 14 (40:11):
I'm gonna open my door and I'm gonna listen to
the entire Tucson.

Speaker 5 (40:15):
Community scream with joy when that kids picked. Can I
offer a suggestion for your podcast if you have you on?
Is that what it me? No?

Speaker 2 (40:24):
If you want to be good at it, just having
an opinion, it doesn't.

Speaker 13 (40:28):
You don't.

Speaker 5 (40:28):
It looks like you don't have an opinion on anything. No,
I don't. I don't.

Speaker 13 (40:32):
I don't have any opinions.

Speaker 5 (40:33):
You know the truth.

Speaker 8 (40:34):
I don't.

Speaker 14 (40:35):
I don't call the shots in a lot of areas
in my life. So this kind of gives me that
cathartic release. I get to say something, and you know,
people can't talk back to me. I just get to
say it out.

Speaker 5 (40:45):
Loud at the top of my lungs.

Speaker 2 (40:46):
Yes, great, Thank you. John has always appreciate you. Hey
end by the way, the twenty bucks just been living.

Speaker 5 (40:52):
Oh, thank you very much.

Speaker 13 (40:53):
I appreciate that.

Speaker 2 (40:54):
Take care John, you guys take care, great show. Thanks
for having me. John, one of the great guys, smart
dudes as we all know of. Let's take a break.
We're way over, so we have a little time on
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(41:16):
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the podcast on the iHeartRadio app just search.

Speaker 5 (44:45):
I on the Ball.

Speaker 2 (44:48):
Hey, welcome back to ilan about here on Fox Sports
fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, You Ryan Hanson. We get
Kobe finishing this off the end of the day. We
got about eight minutes. Very a little time, but it's
good to talk to John John Good Show with ca
Andre and Fina. I didn't realize. I know, I knew this.
I knew this because I covered this, But it's been

(45:09):
thirty five years probably since he was in the draft.
Right that he went late first round. I thought it
was my every second if I could remember quickly, but twenty.

Speaker 4 (45:16):
Seventh, Yeah, and some pretty incredible teams that he was
a part of there with.

Speaker 5 (45:20):
The very much so him and Glenn Parker.

Speaker 4 (45:22):
Right, you think about you know some of the teams
that didn't ultimately win it, but boy, the success that
they had is almost unmatched.

Speaker 5 (45:30):
And for him to be a part of all of
that run.

Speaker 2 (45:32):
Yeah, and there's no shame in finishing second. Although no
one remembers from finishing second, we do, and.

Speaker 5 (45:38):
They have a connection.

Speaker 4 (45:39):
I wanted to ask him, but I didn't know if
his and I'm sure he has a take, because like
you said, he is very opinionated, but just i'd be
curious people's thoughts on best Tucson High school football player
of all time.

Speaker 5 (45:49):
Oh yeah, he would have said that. He would have
been interested to hear him.

Speaker 2 (45:52):
Yeah, we talked about that every now and again with
Jay and Javier kind of knows too. I don't know
the history, but there's been a few of them. There's
been a vision's pretty damn good.

Speaker 4 (46:00):
Well, and his story is still unfolding right when you
think of where he's at. But a friend of mine
ran into Michael Bates recently. Yes, so another guy that
maybe sometimes falls through the cracks. But what a talented
family that was.

Speaker 2 (46:13):
I've tried to give him on too. He's a hard
man to find.

Speaker 5 (46:17):
He was huge.

Speaker 2 (46:18):
I think he's lost a lot of weight to get
some but yeah, he'd be a great guest too.

Speaker 4 (46:23):
Speaking of Tucson greats, I wanted your take on this one.
Becky Burke, new women's basketball coach, decides to hire Julie Hairgrove,
Julie Brazi Hairgrove, loud Olsen's granddaughter, maybe arguably the best
women's basketball high school player in Tucson history. To me,
I have a great relationship with Julie. I think it's
an incredibly great hire because of her Phoenix Mercury experience.

(46:46):
She's got WNBA experience. A great coach obviously, the connection
to the community will will help her get started, but
the coaching side will be tremendous from her. What's your
take on bringing Julie back.

Speaker 2 (46:57):
No, fantastic, fantastic get. Don't know if she had to
convince her to do it or not, but it's a
fantastic get. I think that people wanted her originally to
be the coach before Dia, right. I think their name
was mentioned there. No, no fantastic. In fact, someone texted
me or put it on Twitter. Am I going to
get both of them on soon, you know, to talk

(47:17):
about the situation.

Speaker 4 (47:18):
I think you should, and I think they'd be great
to Yeah, I agree to. I think Julie will be
wonderful because she is a competitor. I think she'll fit
right in with Becky if that's the one thing that
I came away so impressed with Coach Burke's press conference
and then the things she said, yeah, that she's not
going to be outworked, She's going to be a competitor,
and I love hearing.

Speaker 2 (47:38):
Well, you don't become who you become by you know. Okay,
you know we lost, but you know, no, you care
because you care about not losing. Let me ask you
because we talked about this maybe with Dave Silver, who
will be on with me tomorrow. You've covered the basketball
and you know history before that, and I said that,
when was the last time Arizona had a bad basketball?

Speaker 5 (48:00):
You ever said Arizona it was not going to be
very good in your time? Can you?

Speaker 2 (48:06):
Which was like the team that kind of didn't didn't
do it for you that I.

Speaker 4 (48:13):
Thought would do it? Maybe No, no, that didn't like
you saying very good.

Speaker 2 (48:17):
I've never I can't remember me saying, oh, how's the
team in the summer, how's the team going to be
it's as they're going to be good, and they were good.
Maybe the end of the Shawn's teams were kind of
you know, you don't know his first team.

Speaker 4 (48:31):
His first team is probably where I was going to
go to because you knew, and this.

Speaker 5 (48:34):
Is a story.

Speaker 4 (48:35):
So I was in the athletics department at the time,
and I was overseeing. This is two thousand and nine,
so I was in the fundraising area. But I was
one of the few at the time that had the
Loudelsen experience. And when Shawn got hired. The day he
got hired, Brian Jefferies was out of town, and I
actually facilitated as the mc oh yeah for Shawn Miller's

(48:56):
opening press conference in McHale And so I was in
the locker room and Sean came in. So I was
one of the first people that he met in Tucson
that when he got hired. And the first question he
asked me was is Chase Buddinger and Jordan Hill are
they going to stay? Because they were, you know, sure
making their way to the NBA. And I said, I
don't think so, I think they're gone. So you knew

(49:16):
at that moment, you know, Nick Wise coming back and
then it was going to be a slew of new
talent and some freshmen that we're going to have to
carry that new torch. You knew that that was going
to be a step down in talent, mainly because of
the youthfulness of the talent, and it was unproven, so
you kind of knew that that team was probably not
going to make the tournament, which they didn't. So that

(49:37):
was probably a team that you knew going in, Yeah,
this is probably not going to be at the standard
of what Arizona basketball has become.

Speaker 5 (49:45):
What were you How old were you in eighty three?
Eighty four? Oh, I was really young, so eighty four.

Speaker 2 (49:49):
I was ten, so eighty four and you but you
had a love I'm sure already for sure, especially maybe
not a love under Lindsay, but under Loot when he started,
you know, doing really well.

Speaker 4 (49:58):
And those who want to talk about some funny story.
So Julie Brasei's mom was my pe teacher in third grade,
and so Lute's first year, I actually came down to
games when lout had just got it started. So that
was really when the love affairs started to Yeah, and
you could get a ticket, no problem. Oh, you could
be two, rose up from the bench and and you
remember the opening Prescott put your tickets.

Speaker 2 (50:20):
Now, her name I forget because she was a teacher
at where my son was going, my oldest.

Speaker 5 (50:24):
Jody Brasi No, no, yeah, but I thought was the
other one. Jody was was a teacher.

Speaker 4 (50:32):
Jo Jody was the teacher that became a principal, Vicky.

Speaker 5 (50:36):
That's what that remained.

Speaker 4 (50:37):
Yeah, good, good, great family, the family, right right, Okay,
So yeah, so then after that first second year for
lut I mean, come on, he set the world on
fire here, uh until the near the end, you know,
and you know absent when that one year and and
uh dunlap and penal. Yeah, And that's what's maybe disappointing

(50:59):
for for me. It was the exit for him was
as ugly maybe the right word, because those two years
you thought he was going to coach, then he didn't,
and then you thought he was going to come back,
and then he didn't. So I think that might have
tarnished a little bit of his legacy immediately. I think
now people look back as they should, with awe and
reverence for what that man did for Arizona basketball. But

(51:22):
then to go back to your question, you look at
the sean years. Unfortunately, after the FBI scandal hit and
the type of player that was recruited immediately, you know,
during that COVID year, you just looked at the talent
level of those guys and it was not where it
needed to be. The point guard play was not where
it needed to be. You were getting some transfers early

(51:43):
at that time that were maybe a step down. So
I don't think you went into it thinking this was
a great Arizona.

Speaker 2 (51:49):
Basketll So you're talking when since luth started forty eighty three,
forty two, forty one years ago, Arizona has been very
fortunate to have forty years pretty good basketball, forty.

Speaker 5 (52:01):
Years of relevancy in college basketball. Right.

Speaker 4 (52:04):
It might not been national championship level teams, and.

Speaker 2 (52:06):
It doesn't make you the blue blood, but it makes
you a very good program.

Speaker 4 (52:10):
Oh and that to be able to have that sustainability
for four decades, I agree with you when we talk
blue bloods, it's the very elite of elite.

Speaker 5 (52:18):
I truly believe.

Speaker 4 (52:19):
When you look at all of what Arizona basketball has done,
all the wins, the nca tournament runs, the NBA players
that it produced, the high level talent, the home court
winning streaks, the dominance of McHale. You look at that
and the championships that have been won at the conference level,
it's not it's not act like, that's not a feat.
Those those are tough things to do in Arizona. To

(52:41):
be consistently at that championship level at the conference, be
at the Pac ten, Pac twelve, now Big twelve.

Speaker 5 (52:47):
You know Arizona is right on the edge. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (52:50):
With that on the good side, we'll go. Thank you
Ryel for showing up. Anytime you don't want to go
to work, just let me know I got some time come.

Speaker 5 (52:59):
Thanks for on. It was great to have you. Thank you,
Thank you Kobe. We'll talk you guys tomorrow