We're Talking Sports Ep. 24 - John Wilfert

Channel: Live The Dream Media

Transcript

Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

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[1:14] >> Yeah.

[1:17] CRANK IT UP

[1:18] LOUD. WE'RE COMING IN HOT.

[1:22] WE'RE IN AND RUNNING, READY TO GIVE IT

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[1:29] AND I BET YOU FLASH

[1:31] NBA FLASH,

[1:32] AND THEY'LL BE IN A ROAR.

[1:34] EVERY WEEK

[1:36] WE KICK

[1:38] DOWN THE DOOR.

[1:41] WE'RE TALKING SPORTS.

[1:42] >> HEY.

[1:42] >> WITH THE REAL AND RAW.

[1:44] >> WE'RE TALKING SPORTS.

[1:45] >> YEAH,

[1:46] ALL NIGHT LONG. FROM THE GRIDIRON

[1:49] TO THE hardwood fire, WE BREAK IT DOWN

[1:51] LOUDER,

[1:52] TAKE IT HIGHER.

[1:55] WE'RE

[1:56] SPORTS.

[2:00] >> ALL RIGHT. WELCOME TO another edition of

[2:03] We're Talking Sports with Will and Ron.

[2:05] >> Good morning.

[2:06] >> Here with my good friend Ron.

[2:08] >> Yeah.

[2:08] >> How are you, bud?

[2:09] >> I'm doing good.

[2:09] >> Yeah, long time no see.

[2:10] >> Yeah, yeah.

[2:11] >> Yeah. You look different for some

[2:13] reason.

[2:13] >> Oh, yeah?

[2:13] >> Yeah.

[2:14] >> I'm relaxed. I'm in the the co-pilot

[2:16] chair.

[2:17] >> chair?

[2:17] >> Yeah.

[2:18] >> Yeah, you're just enjoying the ride and

[2:19] >> Just enjoying the ride, yeah. I don't

[2:21] have to think about anything or

[2:23] >> Yeah. Yeah, so before we introduce our

[2:25] guest here, I just want to say

[2:27] um take a a moment of silence because

[2:29] today may be my last

[2:33] baseball season day.

[2:34] >> Yeah, yeah.

[2:36] >> Yeah, yep. Today my Dodgers may be

[2:38] swept.

[2:39] >> Yeah.

[2:40] >> Swept. I hope not.

[2:41] >> Swept. Swept, yeah. Swept Milwaukee.

[2:44] >> Okay.

[2:44] >> So, you know, what was I'm I'm hoping

[2:46] not.

[2:47] >> Okay.

[2:48] >> we don't get swept and we could take at

[2:49] least today's game and maybe one more.

[2:52] >> Okay.

[2:52] >> But, you know, I'm I'm

[2:56] >> I've got a little tear.

[2:58] >> Yeah.

[2:58] >> You might be on vacation after this.

[3:00] >> Yeah, that's what you're saying.

[3:01] >> I may have to start watching that

[3:02] football stuff now.

[3:04] >> Well, that's good. Yeah. Now, we'll

[3:06] we'll have something to talk about.

[3:08] >> have something to talk about. Now, we

[3:09] can do a real a real sports podcast.

[3:11] >> There you go, yeah.

[3:12] >> Yeah.

[3:13] >> Yeah. Hey, speaking of real sports

[3:15] podcast,

[3:16] we got a guy here who could probably

[3:18] just host his own his own show

[3:20] somewhere, you know?

[3:21] >> Yeah, yeah.

[3:22] >> Yeah.

[3:23] >> He's a good guy to have on.

[3:24] >> He is, you know, we we refer to him as

[3:25] coach.

[3:26] >> Mhm.

[3:27] >> Um coach John as a matter of fact.

[3:28] Coach, welcome to the program.

[3:30] >> Well, thank you so much and thanks for

[3:31] the introduction. I don't know if I need

[3:32] to pay you now to be my agent or pay you

[3:34] later, but anyhow, I enjoy the

[3:36] introduction and I always enjoy your

[3:37] show and it's always a lot of fun.

[3:39] >> Well, you know, I prefer you pay me now.

[3:40] >> Okay. That's always insurance guys. They

[3:42] want the money up front, right? And then

[3:44] the deductible comes later.

[3:46] >> Right. Absolutely, yeah.

[3:48] Yes, sir.

[3:49] >> You know how he works, yeah.

[3:50] >> I know exactly how insurance people

[3:51] work. They're all the same. They want

[3:53] the money up front and then you never

[3:54] see them when there's ever a problem.

[3:56] >> You know what? You could see me all the

[3:57] time.

[3:57] >> No, I see you. You're one of the good

[3:59] guys. We like you because you're

[4:00] actually around when we do need help.

[4:02] And we appreciate that.

[4:04] >> Well, thank you for the kind words.

[4:05] We're even now.

[4:06] >> Okay, we're even. We're even. Okay.

[4:08] >> There'll be no more discussions.

[4:08] >> have you can have your agent talk to my

[4:10] agent and we'll see what we can get

[4:11] done.

[4:11] >> Well, we'll we'll we'll see about that.

[4:13] Yeah, but hey, thanks for joining us

[4:14] again as as you know

[4:16] a real friend of the program.

[4:18] >> Mhm.

[4:18] >> Um

[4:19] >> Yeah.

[4:19] >> you know, you covered for me a couple

[4:20] weeks ago when I was out. Uh

[4:22] So yeah.

[4:23] >> I enjoyed it. I don't know if I can

[4:24] cover for you, but I definitely stepped

[4:26] in and tried. So that's for sure. But I

[4:27] do feel your pain tonight a little bit

[4:29] with the Dodgers, but we are at home. So

[4:31] we're hoping that maybe you know that

[4:33] 0-3 we can get on the win column and

[4:35] kind of get on

[4:36] >> home last night, too. So

[4:37] >> Yeah, that that didn't quite turn out

[4:39] the way we wanted, but uh

[4:40] >> the first pitch of the game is a home

[4:41] run

[4:42] >> Oh, yeah. That doesn't That doesn't

[4:44] happen very often, but yeah, that's not

[4:45] the exactly the way you want to start a

[4:47] game is throwing the first pitch. I

[4:49] don't know I think maybe he should have

[4:50] warmed up a little bit more.

[4:51] >> I I I think he probably just should have

[4:53] thrown it down the middle. You know,

[4:55] that's what I'm thinking. A fastball

[4:57] down the middle probably isn't the best

[4:58] pitch to open the

[5:00] >> I don't think you're going to see that

[5:01] tonight. I think the first pitch

[5:02] probably going to be a curveball slider

[5:03] or something inside, but it's not going

[5:05] to be a fastball down the middle.

[5:06] >> it's something high and tight, you know.

[5:09] Just something right inside that's going

[5:10] to, you know, make them duck or

[5:12] something. Just to

[5:12] >> Yeah, put a little fear back into them.

[5:14] I don't think that they're I don't think

[5:15] their batters are actually fearing the

[5:17] pitching right now at all. And we

[5:18] obviously have slow bats. So we got to

[5:21] do something to kind of get things

[5:23] rolling in our direction. So think maybe

[5:25] a little few inside pitches to get back

[5:27] them off a little bit.

[5:28] >> sorry. Hold on one second. Ron, we're

[5:29] talking baseball right now.

[5:30] >> Oh.

[5:31] >> Just so you Just so you know, we're

[5:32] talking baseball.

[5:33] >> I I didn't understand anything, yeah. I

[5:35] thought you still talking about

[5:36] insurance or something.

[5:37] >> Foreign language, I know.

[5:39] >> No, yeah. So we'll see how today's game

[5:40] go. I mean, it's uh

[5:42] you know, there's been a lot of

[5:44] a lot of talk about, you know, cuz

[5:46] Ohtani's obviously been struggling big

[5:48] >> big time. I mean, you know, he's hurt.

[5:50] >> You know, he's

[5:51] >> He's hurt. I think that people don't

[5:52] understand that. They're trying to

[5:53] They're professional athletes and they

[5:54] try to play through it, but they you

[5:56] know, they're still nagging injuries and

[5:57] things that that affect you and and I

[5:59] don't know if everybody always

[6:00] understands that.

[6:01] >> Right. And everyone's calling that, "Why

[6:03] why aren't they benching him? Why aren't

[6:05] they, you know, I mean, how do you bench

[6:06] somebody like that though?" You know

[6:07] what I'm saying?

[6:07] >> know if you can bench somebody. First of

[6:09] all, a lot of people pay, first of all,

[6:10] to come see him and so that's part of

[6:12] it. Back in like when Michael Jordan was

[6:14] playing and you know, even when there's

[6:15] games when he wasn't feeling well,

[6:17] they'd still put him in to play because,

[6:19] you know, people want to pay a lot of

[6:20] money for those tickets. They want to

[6:21] see him, but also, he's still probably

[6:24] hurt. He's still probably better than a

[6:25] lot of guys. So, you got to think about

[6:27] what's best. I mean, obviously you don't

[6:29] want to jeopardize

[6:30] a season-ending injury or anything like

[6:32] that, but if it's a nagging injury and

[6:34] they can play through it, you know,

[6:35] sometimes it's worth it to try to put

[6:37] them out there and let them see what

[6:37] they can do because they do have

[6:39] explosive power. It only takes one or

[6:41] two swings of the bat and bang, you you

[6:43] you know, you got two three four runs on

[6:45] the board.

[6:45] >> And that could change the series.

[6:46] >> Yeah, that changes it. A little momentum

[6:48] here and there is is you know,

[6:50] baseball's a game of all all sports are

[6:51] game of momentum.

[6:52] >> Yeah.

[6:52] >> And so you just got to get a swing here

[6:54] or there and, you know, somebody throws

[6:55] a softy up there to the plate and he

[6:57] whacks it out of there with a couple

[6:58] guys on base and you never know what's

[6:59] going to happen after that.

[7:01] >> Yeah, no, I got you. All right, let's

[7:02] include Ron in the conversation.

[7:04] >> I'm enjoying the conversation.

[7:05] >> go to Should we go to football then? Or

[7:07] I mean, what's like What's great about

[7:08] this time of year is you got you got the

[7:11] WNBA finals going on. You got the NBA

[7:13] starting. Got

[7:15] uh you got the hockey season going. You

[7:16] got baseball going and you got the NFL.

[7:18] >> Yeah.

[7:18] >> So, you got all six things going on

[7:20] right now. This is the only time of year

[7:21] right now

[7:22] and college football, which is yeah, I

[7:24] call college football. I mean, college

[7:25] football is just off the chart

[7:27] >> Yeah.

[7:27] >> I mean, you know, the rivalry games that

[7:30] are coming up, the you know, the

[7:31] notoriety, the TV exposure. I mean, just

[7:34] good games. You know, early in the

[7:35] season you got, you know, you got the

[7:37] ABC team, Northwest Directional team

[7:39] playing Alabama, but now you got Georgia

[7:41] versus Alabama. You got some good games

[7:43] You got conference games are solid, so

[7:45] yeah, we love it.

[7:46] >> This is the time of year when the the

[7:48] the college football

[7:51] games are like you want to watch them.

[7:53] >> Yeah.

[7:53] >> And the problem is that you want to

[7:54] watch all of them. And when they're

[7:56] playing against each other, you need one

[7:58] of those multi-screen TVs,

[7:59] >> Right. Yeah.

[8:00] >> to try and watch that because there's

[8:02] some really good games happening.

[8:03] >> Sure. Oh, there's some great games. And

[8:04] like you said, multi-screen TVs, that's

[8:06] why I think a lot of people go to the

[8:07] bars cuz they can see like seven

[8:08] different TVs and things like that

[8:10] because they just, you know, there's too

[8:11] many great plays going on all at one

[8:13] time, you know, with too many good

[8:14] teams. I mean, you got 20, 25 really

[8:17] talented teams that are are fighting for

[8:19] 12 spots to get into the playoffs this

[8:21] year. It's going to be interesting cuz

[8:22] that's the first time we're uh

[8:24] >> Let's talk about that. Let's talk about

[8:25] the playoffs.

[8:25] >> Yeah, 12-team tournament playoffs. So, I

[8:27] don't know who you guys think are going

[8:28] to get in, but uh I am hoping our

[8:30] Wildcats can get in there.

[8:31] >> Yeah, that would be great.

[8:32] >> That'd be really good, yeah.

[8:33] >> You know, they got two opportunities.

[8:34] They can either go in as a There's you

[8:36] know, they take the they take the

[8:37] conference winners

[8:39] >> Mhm.

[8:39] >> and then they take the best at-large

[8:41] non-conference power team, and then that

[8:43] makes up that makes up a part of it. And

[8:45] then the other s- those That's five, and

[8:47] then the other seven are are drafted.

[8:49] They got a committee now that drafts

[8:51] basically the other seven teams. So,

[8:53] there'll be 12 teams going to the

[8:55] playoffs. And uh that's going to be kind

[8:57] of interesting cuz this is the first

[8:59] year that they're going to use some of

[9:01] the bowl games as uh opportunities for

[9:03] these teams to play at. Obviously, the

[9:05] first four teams, I don't know how well

[9:07] you guys know the playoff system yet,

[9:08] but

[9:09] >> It just came out.

[9:10] >> four teams are all going to get byes.

[9:12] So, whoever However the seeding

[9:13] committee, the NCAA tournament committee

[9:15] decides the first four teams are, they

[9:18] will get a bye in the first round, and

[9:20] then teams five through 12 will play

[9:22] each other. And five through 12 will

[9:24] play each other at the home site, the

[9:25] higher team's home site. So, seed number

[9:27] five, six, seven, and eight will all

[9:30] have home games against obviously five

[9:32] will play 12,

[9:34] >> Yeah.

[9:34] >> you know, six will play 11, seven

[9:36] >> cool. Yeah, that's an opportunity to

[9:38] have another home game.

[9:39] >> Yeah, it's a great opportunity for

[9:40] another home game. And and I think you

[9:42] know, it's kind of they took a little

[9:43] bit of the basketball, you know,

[9:44] philosophy with March Madness and they

[9:46] kind of incorporated a little bit with

[9:47] football. So, yeah, I I'm excited. I

[9:49] think this is the first time we're

[9:50] really going to have a chance to say

[9:52] we've gotten, you know, we went through

[9:53] an actual playoff system that was really

[9:55] legit with a lot of good teams in it cuz

[9:57] you know,

[9:58] >> we've had four in the past, but this

[10:00] time we got 12 really good teams. I'm

[10:01] sure there's going to be arguments just

[10:03] like even like in basketball when you

[10:04] get 68 teams, you know, there's still

[10:06] those 60 69, 70, 71, 72, 73 that are all

[10:10] arguing that they should be in.

[10:11] >> Sure.

[10:11] >> We're going to have number 13, 14, 15 to

[10:13] 25 still arguing that they should be in.

[10:15] >> yeah.

[10:16] >> But they're going to use the bowl games,

[10:18] um, obviously to, uh, for the teams that

[10:22] not the first round. The first round,

[10:23] like I said, the first round games will

[10:24] all be at the home team's site. But then

[10:27] they're going to use the Peach, the

[10:28] Orange, and the Rose Bowl. And those top

[10:31] four teams, the number one team will get

[10:32] to pick their location of where they

[10:34] want to play. Number two will get to

[10:35] pick their spot. Number three will get

[10:36] to pick their spot. Number four will get

[10:38] to

[10:38] >> That's really different that they

[10:38] actually get to pick.

[10:39] >> Yeah, that's going to be interesting how

[10:41] that turns out because obviously

[10:43] location, I mean, you know, um, you

[10:46] location has a little bit to do with it,

[10:47] I would think. Obviously, if you're a

[10:48] West Coast team, I would think you'd

[10:50] probably want to play in the Rose Bowl,

[10:51] you know.

[10:52] >> Yeah.

[10:52] >> If you're from Atlanta or Georgia, you

[10:54] probably want to play

[10:55] >> in the Peach Bowl.

[10:55] >> Peach Bowl probably. So, yeah, so

[10:57] there's a little bit of that going on, I

[10:59] think, you know. So, we'll see how the

[11:00] dynamics all play out, but

[11:02] >> Right.

[11:02] >> what an exciting time of year this year

[11:04] right now with all the sports going on

[11:06] and like you said, football right now is

[11:07] just off the chart with the great games

[11:09] that are going on out there.

[11:10] >> Yeah, I don't even know, like, who to

[11:12] watch.

[11:14] >> Well, you watch them all. That's the

[11:15] thing is you get consumed by all of

[11:17] them.

[11:17] >> Mhm.

[11:18] >> Yeah, absolutely. And you start clicking

[11:19] through and okay, in that back channel

[11:22] to see what, you know, what the other

[11:24] team is doing and yeah, there's nothing

[11:26] I mean, there's nothing like college

[11:27] football.

[11:28] >> Oh, yeah.

[11:28] >> Love it.

[11:29] >> Yeah, that that is It's great, you know.

[11:30] >> Yeah.

[11:31] >> But uh, so let's talk a little bit about

[11:33] um

[11:34] uh of A football, man. So, they had a

[11:36] great game last week, right?

[11:37] >> did. They did, yeah.

[11:39] >> Yeah. Uh you were able to see the game?

[11:40] >> I wasn't able to see the game, and I I

[11:43] actually I didn't record it. I was going

[11:44] to record it, and I just didn't. So,

[11:46] >> Okay.

[11:46] >> yeah.

[11:47] >> So, like me, you caught the highlights.

[11:48] >> Saw some highlights, yeah. Listen some

[11:50] stuff, read some stuff, but yeah. Yeah,

[11:52] what a offensive output that they had.

[11:54] >> Yeah, that that was crazy when I when I

[11:56] checked into it at uh

[11:58] you know, just before the half, I was

[12:00] like, "Wow."

[12:00] >> Yeah.

[12:02] >> They uh they were just

[12:03] >> just exploded, yeah.

[12:05] >> Yeah. So, um Coach John, I know that

[12:07] you're you know, you really studied this

[12:09] game and

[12:09] >> you're exactly right. I think you hit

[12:11] the nail on the head. I mean, we're

[12:12] really explosive offense. We have a lot

[12:14] of Noah can really Noah creates a

[12:16] problem for a lot of teams because you

[12:18] can't just blitz him because he's got

[12:20] speed, he can run. We've got speed on

[12:22] the outside with our receivers, so it

[12:24] makes it really tough for teams to

[12:26] decide what they're going to do. So, our

[12:27] offense of explosiveness through the

[12:29] passing game is off the charts. And one

[12:31] of the things I think that makes us

[12:33] really, really competitive this year

[12:35] compared to years in the past is our

[12:38] third down efficiency this year is

[12:40] almost 60-some percent. So, we're we're

[12:43] killing it when it comes down to third

[12:44] down conversion. So, um we're holding

[12:47] our opponents to under 40%, and we're

[12:50] we're over 60, almost 65%

[12:53] >> Wow.

[12:53] >> down conversion. So, that's a lot of

[12:55] good play calling, plus that's also

[12:56] putting us in probably good situations.

[12:59] A third and three is a lot different

[13:00] than a third and 10

[13:01] >> Exactly. If you can

[13:02] have a manageable

[13:03] >> We can have a manageable yards and down

[13:06] situation, it obviously makes it a lot

[13:08] better. But, our explosiveness on

[13:10] offense, I mean, we're averaging 35.7

[13:12] points per game, and we're only you

[13:14] know, we're giving up 19. So, and you

[13:17] know, Danny Gonzales on the defense,

[13:19] they've made a lot of adjustments. If

[13:20] you look at our stats over the last, you

[13:23] know, all the games so far this year,

[13:25] you know, he's very rarely let a team

[13:27] even score a touchdown in the second

[13:28] half. So, I think they've only scored

[13:30] one touchdown against us in the second

[13:32] half. I mean, he's made adjustments at

[13:33] halftime, and I think that's a lot of

[13:35] credit to our coaching staff. Our

[13:36] coaching staff has really made some

[13:38] adjustments and everything. We've kind

[13:40] of started out slow sometimes, you know,

[13:41] even even with Northern Illinois, we

[13:44] kind of got behind early, and we we've

[13:46] started out slow in a couple games. And

[13:48] then we've obviously, you know, kind of

[13:49] figured things out. We've made

[13:51] adjustments. Halftime has come along,

[13:53] and then we've just turned the

[13:54] afterburners on second half and kind of

[13:56] with our explosive offense and the

[13:57] ability to pass now. It's going to be a

[13:59] little bit different against Iowa State

[14:01] cuz they're kind of a run team. So,

[14:02] we're going to have to be able to stop

[14:03] them because, you know, obviously, when

[14:05] you're dealing with run teams, you you

[14:07] give up a little bit more time of

[14:09] possession, and so that's the problem.

[14:11] So, we don't want our defense out there

[14:13] long periods of time to wear out and

[14:15] things like that. So, it's going to be

[14:16] our offense

[14:17] basically passing game against their

[14:19] running game. So,

[14:20] >> Yeah. So, you know, you talk about the

[14:23] Arizona's passing game.

[14:25] But, they have a pretty good running

[14:27] game as well.

[14:28] >> Yeah, we do. I mean, we're not we're not

[14:29] shabby in that category at all. I mean,

[14:32] you know, we're we're we're we're able

[14:33] to hold our own for sure, but it really

[14:36] comes down to our passing game that

[14:37] opens up our running game. So, but yeah,

[14:40] I agree with you. Our our running game

[14:42] is good, too, and and so, you know,

[14:44] that's what makes us so good. That's why

[14:45] we're five and one, and we're two and

[14:46] one in the Big 12, and you know,

[14:48] obviously, you know, we had a loss to

[14:49] BYU, and we still got we still got a

[14:51] couple tough games. This Iowa State team

[14:53] was really good at the beginning of the

[14:54] year. I mean, they're three and three

[14:55] right now, but they were they were

[14:57] picked pretty high at the beginning of

[14:59] the year, and we still got a couple

[15:00] tough ones left, you know, we still got

[15:01] some top 20 teams we still got to play,

[15:03] you know, we still we still got Utah on

[15:05] the schedule, Texas Tech on the

[15:07] schedule, and then you never know what's

[15:09] going to happen on a rivalry game with

[15:10] ASU. I mean, those are always, you know,

[15:12] pick 'em games.

[15:13] >> don't count.

[15:14] >> in those games don't count at all.

[15:16] >> Yeah.

[15:16] >> We are playing that one at home this

[15:18] year, though.

[15:18] >> We are.

[15:18] >> That has helped. There's no doubt. I

[15:20] love it, and you know, it doesn't mean

[15:21] that there's not going to be a bunch of

[15:23] ASU fans in there.

[15:24] >> crowd

[15:25] >> Let's let's talk a little bit about that

[15:27] home field advantage that we should

[15:28] have, um, coach.

[15:29] >> Mhm.

[15:30] >> Um

[15:31] you know, I've gone to a couple of

[15:32] games, you know, that Ron's invited me

[15:34] to and uh

[15:36] you know, one thing I've noticed is that

[15:38] the fans here in Tucson don't seem to

[15:40] really represent that well.

[15:42] >> Well, I think yeah, I don't know what it

[15:45] is. I know coach is really trying to get

[15:47] a lot of fans out there and we're we're

[15:49] fourth or fifth overall in the Big 12 in

[15:51] attendance. So, we're averaging I I

[15:53] looked it up last night about 42,000 or

[15:56] something like that. Our stadium holds

[15:57] about 50, a little over 50. So,

[15:59] obviously we'd like to see it packed,

[16:01] but um I think a little bit of that is

[16:03] you know, we're so used to like in

[16:05] basketball winning that we don't

[16:07] sometimes get so excited about I mean

[16:10] we're just in basketball we're our

[16:11] tradition has just been winning and we

[16:12] get a lot of older gray-haired people

[16:14] sometimes that come to the game and I

[16:16] think they're just used to like, you

[16:18] know, the golf clap, you know, you they

[16:20] you they're they're really where where

[16:21] you get, you know, some people that are

[16:23] really excited, they have a tendency to

[16:25] jump up and down and scream and yell.

[16:26] But our atmosphere, I went to the last

[16:28] game, I was sitting uh about four or

[16:30] five rows up on on the home side um at

[16:33] this last game at home and I'll tell you

[16:35] I did see a lot of people start to get

[16:37] really excited. So, I'm hoping some of

[16:38] that energy and synergy is coming back

[16:40] because we could really use it against

[16:42] Iowa State. if we can make this a tough

[16:44] tough tough place to play, you know, we

[16:46] get it's going to help. It help the kids

[16:47] want to kids want that. Kids want to

[16:49] When they recruit want to come here, you

[16:51] know, when they come here on a

[16:52] recruiting trip cuz you know, there's

[16:53] going to be kids here the next few home

[16:55] games, recruit recruits and everything,

[16:57] they're going to want to see how our

[16:58] fans react and I tell you, we do have

[17:00] great fans and we've had great fans for

[17:02] years and years and years. We just got

[17:04] to get them out there and and kind of

[17:05] get that excitement going.

[17:06] >> Yeah. Yeah. And as far as like the the

[17:08] student body there

[17:10] >> Oh.

[17:11] >> Yeah.

[17:11] >> You know, you know, I

[17:14] years ago, I used to go to you know, I

[17:17] lived in Austin and I used to go to

[17:18] Texas games.

[17:19] >> Yeah.

[17:19] >> And I mean the student that'd be more

[17:21] students there than probably, you know,

[17:25] parents, you know, students and and then

[17:26] parents, stuff like that.

[17:28] >> Yeah.

[17:28] >> You know, here you don't see like the

[17:30] student section isn't a big section.

[17:33] >> No, it's not and I don't know why that

[17:36] is. I guess

[17:37] um you know, we have so many things to

[17:39] do. We're not the only only thing going

[17:41] on for students. I mean obviously, you

[17:44] know, they have they have um hiking and

[17:45] biking outdoor activities, things like

[17:47] that. Um we also have a tendency because

[17:50] of the weather, we play a lot of late

[17:52] night games and students have a tendency

[17:55] to pre-party and so that I think they

[17:57] start with good intentions of part

[17:58] pre-partying and

[18:00] then they don't make it. I think it's

[18:01] part of it. So, you know, because of the

[18:03] weather situation,

[18:03] >> I

[18:05] don't know why this is a great question.

[18:07] Well, I don't know why we don't take

[18:08] more advantage. Um we practice in the

[18:10] heat all the time. You know, you talk

[18:12] about teams that, you know, the Boston

[18:13] Garden back in the day, they would turn

[18:15] the heat up in there. They would do

[18:17] things for home field advantage. We

[18:18] absolutely do nothing to try to Now,

[18:21] part of that is for our fans because if

[18:22] you play an afternoon game in 110°

[18:25] weather, some of our fans probably

[18:26] aren't going to show up. So, I I kind of

[18:29] get both sides of it, but for a player's

[18:30] perspective, what a home field advantage

[18:33] if we're practicing every day at 3:00,

[18:35] 4:00 in the afternoon in the heat,

[18:37] >> Right.

[18:37] >> we could definitely you play a team

[18:39] from, you know, way up north and they're

[18:41] not used to that heat. They come in here

[18:43] and play a 1:00 game.

[18:45] >> Yeah.

[18:45] >> They're going to be like gasping and

[18:46] they're going to be sweating and you

[18:48] know, that's a huge home home field

[18:50] advantage. But then again, as from an AD

[18:52] perspective, what are you doing to your

[18:54] fans, you know, how many fans want to

[18:56] want to Now, I I worked at I worked at

[18:59] Washington State and was in their

[19:00] athletic department. We had to play

[19:02] afternoon games because our students

[19:04] would absolutely party way too hard and

[19:06] if we played a night game, we had way

[19:07] too many arrests and problems like that.

[19:09] So, so there's a kind of a balance that

[19:11] have to kind of really think about that.

[19:13] I mean, I don't think the average person

[19:15] thinks about all the dynamics that go

[19:17] into that because I mean, there's some

[19:18] advantages to playing an afternoon game

[19:20] in the heat, but you know, for your

[19:21] fans' perspective, that's maybe not

[19:23] ideal. But you play a night game and

[19:25] then you run into the student

[19:27] perspective where they have a tendency

[19:28] to have too much fun before the game and

[19:30] then not show up. So, there's a little

[19:32] bit of a dynamics on both sides.

[19:34] >> Yeah.

[19:35] >> Well, that's interesting.

[19:35] >> Yeah.

[19:36] >> Yeah.

[19:37] Yeah. I mean,

[19:37] >> I'm sure they've done some research.

[19:39] >> They have. I mean, a lot of people We

[19:40] did a lot of research when I was at

[19:41] Washington State because you know, like

[19:43] I said, we we wanted to have night

[19:45] games, but we just found out there was

[19:46] just too many police reports and arrests

[19:49] and things like that because there was

[19:50] just too much time for those kids to

[19:52] >> anything else to do in Pullman?

[19:53] >> Yeah, there's nothing else to do in

[19:54] Pullman. You are right about that. There

[19:56] was not a lot to do in Pullman. So, here

[19:58] they got a lot more options. It's a lot

[20:00] It's a lot different.

[20:01] >> There is a lot to do in Austin, too.

[20:03] >> Yeah.

[20:03] >> You know, I mean, there there is a lot

[20:05] to do in Austin, but it just seems like

[20:07] and even even even now, you you see in

[20:09] in maybe it's just the illusion of how

[20:11] they're shooting the the the TV shots,

[20:14] but you know, when you see like the

[20:15] College Game Day,

[20:17] >> Mhm.

[20:17] >> you know, and they're doing you know,

[20:19] they're they're before the games,

[20:21] they're you know, there seem to be a lot

[20:22] of

[20:23] >> thousands

[20:24] >> of people out there, right?

[20:25] >> And then also during the games and they

[20:27] they show you know, the stadium. I mean,

[20:29] it's just packed. You know, they do the

[20:31] up close up close stuff of the of the

[20:33] student body and they're they're all

[20:35] just going crazy. They're in face paint.

[20:37] They're in you know, in their colors,

[20:40] you know,

[20:41] >> Right.

[20:41] >> I'd love to see Arizona like that.

[20:43] >> Oh, yeah.

[20:44] >> to see that.

[20:45] >> But here, Will, think about this, too,

[20:46] okay? So, I mean, you take Texas, okay?

[20:48] Who'd they play in the preseason? They

[20:50] played Ohio State, right? We're playing

[20:52] like an NAU and some schools like that.

[20:55] And we're doing it obviously because

[20:56] we're not quite at that level yet. So,

[20:58] we Coaches are scared to lose a bunch of

[21:00] non-conference games because you're

[21:02] going to It's going to affect your, you

[21:04] know, whether you keep your job, a lot

[21:05] of different factors. So, there's a lot

[21:07] of things that go into that because, you

[21:10] know, I Austin I don't think, you know,

[21:12] Steve's going to be worried about losing

[21:13] his job at Texas if he loses a

[21:15] non-conference game or even, you know,

[21:17] that type of thing because he's still,

[21:18] you know, a national powerhouse team.

[21:20] Now, he's taking some heat right now

[21:21] from losing to Oklahoma this last week,

[21:23] but but, you know, I mean, if had he

[21:26] lost to Ohio State, lost to Oklahoma,

[21:29] he'd be taking a lot more heat. So, I

[21:31] think who you play in the preseason has

[21:33] something to do with that, too. I don't

[21:34] know how many people, you know, are even

[21:37] knew what Northern Illinois' nickname

[21:39] was and where they're located. You know

[21:41] much of anything about it. So, so it's

[21:43] hard to get fans excited about something

[21:46] they don't know something about. Does

[21:47] that make sense? I mean, if you're

[21:48] playing Ohio State, I mean,

[21:50] you're Are you calling Are you calling

[21:52] them The Ohio State or are you calling

[21:54] them Ohio State based on, you know, your

[21:56] background and things like that, right?

[21:58] So, there's a big difference in in in

[22:00] preseason and who you're playing. Now,

[22:01] sometimes we have to pay teams to come

[22:03] in here and play us because we you know,

[22:05] we need wins and then the Board of

[22:06] Regents, which is great and has done a

[22:09] phenomenal job, but we're required to

[22:11] play NAU every other year. So, there's

[22:13] one game right there that, you know, I

[22:15] don't know how much our fans are going

[22:17] to get excited about, you know, watching

[22:19] us play NAU. Now, NAU did beat us a few

[22:21] years ago.

[22:22] >> They did. They did.

[22:24] I was there. Yeah.

[22:25] >> Yeah, and so it does happen, but but I

[22:28] don't know I think to your point, Will,

[22:29] I think, you know, University of Texas

[22:31] is playing people that are, you know,

[22:33] household names and Arizona maybe

[22:35] playing like NAU and

[22:36] >> All right. So, so what big names do we

[22:38] have coming into town?

[22:40] >> Well, the rest of the teams are

[22:41] conference games.

[22:42] >> games now. So, we have conference the

[22:44] rest of the way. I mean, we still have

[22:45] some great conference opponents. We got

[22:47] Iowa State coming up. We got a bye this

[22:48] week. Then we got Iowa State coming up,

[22:50] but we still got Utah who's ranked in

[22:52] the top 10 20 and we still got we still

[22:55] got Texas Tech who's loaded and so we

[22:58] still got some tough ones at home. I

[23:00] mean, Texas Tech is on

[23:01] Excuse me, Texas Tech is on the road but

[23:04] um but yeah, we still got some tough

[23:06] ones. That's for sure.

[23:07] >> Okay.

[23:07] >> Yeah, we have TCU coming up.

[23:09] >> TCU, yeah.

[23:10] >> Um

[23:11] Do we have Baylor at home? I'm not sure.

[23:13] >> No, I don't think we have Baylor. I have

[23:14] to look real quick but I

[23:17] but we still got you know, we still got

[23:18] Arizona State, we got TCU, we got Utah

[23:21] and we got Texas Tech and Texas Tech and

[23:24] Utah like I said before were they're

[23:26] both ranked and then obviously you throw

[23:27] out the rankings anytime you play ASU

[23:30] because you know, it's just a rivalry.

[23:31] >> So I guess my next question would be

[23:32] then during rivalry game.

[23:35] >> Sure.

[23:35] >> ASU.

[23:37] I I have not been to

[23:38] >> Uh stadium will be full.

[23:39] >> The stadium will be packed.

[23:41] Unfortunately part is we can't control

[23:44] all the tickets in that situation. So

[23:46] there are and in those situations okay,

[23:49] we would probably sell it out by

[23:50] ourselves but unfortunately a lot of ASU

[23:52] people come down by our tickets.

[23:54] >> That's That's fine. That's You still

[23:56] should have the majority of you know

[23:58] >> Yeah, yeah, we'll have we'll have

[23:59] majority people and they'll be going

[24:01] crazy and it'll be the atmosphere for

[24:02] that game is unbelievable. That's That's

[24:04] the atmosphere like you're talking about

[24:06] like Texas

[24:07] >> what that's what I would that's what I

[24:08] would love to see

[24:10] every game, you know. I mean regardless

[24:12] of who you're playing to get

[24:14] Don't get excited for who they're

[24:15] playing. Get excited for your team.

[24:17] >> Yeah, I agree but remember also ASU's

[24:19] bringing down probably 5 6 7 8,000

[24:22] people and if we're averaging 43 and

[24:24] they're bringing seven that fills our

[24:26] stadium where you play NAU or NIU

[24:30] >> Northern Illinois whatever it is.

[24:32] >> You know, they're only bringing like 200

[24:33] people, you know.

[24:34] >> Yeah, but

[24:35] from what I've seen and again you the

[24:37] average you said is how much is their

[24:39] attendance?

[24:39] >> We're averaging about 43,000 I think

[24:41] right now.

[24:41] >> is that paid attendance or that actually

[24:43] showing up?

[24:43] >> I don't know that.

[24:44] >> You know, that's paid attendance. That's

[24:46] not what's actually showing up. I see

[24:49] in these games that I've gone to I've

[24:51] seen a lot of empty seats.

[24:53] >> You do. You have a lot of corporate

[24:54] tickets that don't get filled all the

[24:55] time.

[24:56] >> Correct. And you have students that come

[24:57] for the first, you know, quarter. I

[24:59] watch the student section and they'll

[25:00] come for the first quarter and then

[25:01] they're gone.

[25:02] >> Yeah.

[25:02] >> You know, I mean,

[25:04] the AD a few year burns and live and

[25:05] good, those guys have tried to do some

[25:07] things to they give away incentives now

[25:08] for the students if they stay till the

[25:10] >> to have fourth quarter incentives, yeah.

[25:11] >> incentives where they give them, you

[25:13] know, Walkman, iPads, all these things,

[25:15] but, you know, it still doesn't keep

[25:16] them from it just still doesn't keep

[25:18] them from partying and leaving early.

[25:20] >> Yeah.

[25:21] >> Yeah.

[25:21] >> Well, that's a shame.

[25:22] >> It is a shame.

[25:23] >> It is.

[25:23] >> Because, you know, you want those kids

[25:25] to have an environment to play. As an

[25:27] athlete and a former player, I loved a

[25:29] full house. I didn't care if I was

[25:30] playing on the road or at home, I loved

[25:32] a full house. That the excitement is

[25:34] there, the enthusiasm there. We're we're

[25:36] able to also, I think one of the things

[25:38] that's that's different is some remember

[25:40] right now, sometimes even our our games

[25:42] on TV sometimes are on like Peacock and

[25:45] on on different channels. So, sometimes

[25:47] it's hard for people to follow us and

[25:49] get to know our players and everything

[25:51] when you're when you you maybe you don't

[25:53] have the Peacock channel. When we used

[25:54] to have

[25:55] >> Yeah.

[25:55] >> you're on ABC, NBC, CBS, ESPN, you know,

[25:58] like Texas is on almost every week on

[26:00] ESPN. All the alumni guys can follow

[26:03] Everybody knows who their players are

[26:04] cuz they can see them every week.

[26:06] >> Yeah.

[26:06] >> We have a different thing with our with

[26:08] our TV package and we get, you know,

[26:10] we're sometimes we're on Peacock. Like I

[26:12] I had a hard time I had to go to one of

[26:13] the bars one time to watch the game cuz

[26:14] I was like I didn't even have that

[26:16] channel.

[26:16] >> Yeah.

[26:16] >> And so that makes a big difference where

[26:18] in Texas every one of their games is on

[26:20] a national channel.

[26:21] >> Yeah.

[26:22] >> So, that makes a little bit of a

[26:23] difference because once the familiarity

[26:25] Once you get to know, you know, the

[26:27] running backs and the wide receivers

[26:29] >> Start cheering for them more, yeah.

[26:30] >> You feel that you feel that you feel

[26:32] that impact with them and you feel that

[26:33] emotional attachment to that person.

[26:35] >> Right.

[26:36] >> And we don't necessarily always have

[26:37] that because we're not always on

[26:39] national TV. So, basketball does cuz

[26:41] they they get quite a few national TV

[26:43] games and people and there's just more

[26:44] games. That's the other thing,

[26:46] basketball has more games, so.

[26:47] >> All right.

[26:48] >> Cool. Well, we're going to take a break

[26:49] right now and then when we come back

[26:51] we're going to switch over to the

[26:53] the basketball that we're talking about

[26:54] here. All right. All right, we'll be

[26:56] right back.

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[29:38] >> All right, welcome back to We're Talking

[29:39] Sports with Will and Ron. Now, we're

[29:41] talking with our good buddy here Coach

[29:43] John.

[29:44] And who pretty much knows everything U

[29:48] of A.

[29:48] >> Yeah.

[29:49] >> Right? And college

[29:50] >> about everything.

[29:51] >> I don't know. I wish you guys were

[29:53] right, but I tell you what, I'll pay you

[29:54] each later, so that's for sure.

[29:56] >> Excellent. The plan is working, Will.

[29:58] >> We're further than now.

[29:59] >> Like I said,

[30:00] I know insurance guys want the money

[30:02] right now. I get it. I get it.

[30:03] >> Absolutely, yeah. Yeah, so coach, let's

[30:05] turn this a little bit over here to some

[30:07] U of A basketball.

[30:09] Um you know, the preseason has started.

[30:11] >> Yeah, we started off. We had a big win

[30:13] against San Francisco the other night.

[30:15] Obviously, a lot of young new faces that

[30:16] are out there and Tommy's done a great

[30:19] job of kind of blending the old and the

[30:21] new and I don't think you're going to

[30:23] see I mean, we're preseason number four

[30:26] right now. So, I think, you know, people

[30:28] are going to be pretty excited off after

[30:30] going to the final four last year and

[30:32] all the kids that are back this year and

[30:33] the new guys that are coming in. The

[30:35] guard play this year was phenomenal the

[30:36] other night against San Francisco. So,

[30:38] >> Oh, yeah.

[30:38] >> I think you know, our our athleticism

[30:42] our and our ability is there. Now,

[30:45] whether or not we gel at the right time,

[30:46] we you know, basketball is a long

[30:48] season, so you got to worry about

[30:49] injuries and and that type of thing, but

[30:51] Tommy has done just a phenomenal job

[30:54] ever since he's got here about building

[30:56] that program and I mean, he's kind of

[30:58] been able to blend, you know,

[31:00] international players with American

[31:01] players with, you know, just the right

[31:03] combination of kids to make the right

[31:05] things happen.

[31:06] >> Yeah.

[31:06] >> Okay. And from what I heard

[31:08] last week is that we lost a couple of

[31:10] recruits. Is that

[31:12] >> Well, I mean, you always lose recruits,

[31:14] you know, I mean, you know, you always

[31:16] lose some guys, you always gain some

[31:18] guys, you know, I don't know if I take a

[31:20] lot of stock in that cuz I don't know,

[31:22] you know, one kid affects two or three

[31:24] other kids sometimes and so I mean,

[31:26] Tommy knows what he wants. He usually

[31:28] gets what he wants, so I'm not too

[31:30] concerned about, you know, anything like

[31:32] that, especially nowadays with, you

[31:34] know, the transfer portal. So, you know,

[31:36] before when you were basically relying

[31:38] on high school kids, you know, if you

[31:40] lost one, then it was tough because, you

[31:42] know, but now with the way the transfer

[31:44] portal A lot of times people don't even

[31:45] start recruiting until season's over

[31:47] with and the transfer portal portal

[31:49] opens up and then they start going and

[31:50] getting, you know, fifth-year kids. And

[31:53] and this is the biggest difference and

[31:54] this is what this is what college

[31:55] basketball has to be a little bit leery

[31:57] of now is the fact that, you know, kids

[31:59] are there for five, six years and you're

[32:01] got a 23, 24-year-old now playing

[32:04] against an 18-year-old. So, there's a

[32:06] big difference in strength and size when

[32:08] you're talking about six, seven, eight

[32:10] years at that year at that level at that

[32:12] age because the development is just so

[32:14] much different.

[32:15] >> Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, when when's the

[32:17] season starting? When when's

[32:19] >> Well, they've already started. They play

[32:20] Samford

[32:20] >> talking about the the regular season.

[32:22] >> Oh, the regular season won't start until

[32:24] I think our first game is in January. We

[32:26] may have a not

[32:27] >> Well, the conference. That's the

[32:28] conference

[32:28] >> game.

[32:29] >> I mean, the the regular season starts

[32:31] I'm thinking about 2 weeks.

[32:33] >> Yeah. Yeah, we have these exhibition

[32:35] games and then I think we start in

[32:37] about, yeah, probably not. Usually it's

[32:39] at the end of this month.

[32:40] >> usually a tournament that starts the

[32:42] >> No, I mean we we go to some tournaments

[32:44] sometimes like the Maui Classic and

[32:46] things like that.

[32:47] >> thinking about. I know they've gone to

[32:48] Hawaii.

[32:48] >> But yeah, but they aren't they aren't

[32:49] always at the beginning of the season.

[32:50] Sometimes those are usually based around

[32:53] Thanksgiving and Christmas because those

[32:55] tournaments they want to make sure the

[32:56] kids don't miss class. So a lot of those

[32:58] tournaments are based around

[33:00] um the non-class time for kids. So it's

[33:04] not necessarily. There is always a

[33:05] kickoff tournament with one or two

[33:07] teams, but the ones that we go to are

[33:09] usually the Maui Invitational, which I

[33:11] believe we're playing in this year.

[33:13] >> It's usually every four years that we go

[33:14] to it.

[33:15] >> Yeah, you get an exemption tournament.

[33:16] The way it works is you get an exemption

[33:18] tournament every four years and you can

[33:20] go to basically like the Maui Classic.

[33:22] It used to be the Great Alaskan

[33:23] Shootout, the Vegas tournament.

[33:25] >> counts like one game, right?

[33:26] >> game for yeah, yeah.

[33:28] >> you play three or four games.

[33:30] >> they don't know how many you're going to

[33:31] play because it's winners move on and so

[33:33] they don't want to penalize you. So it

[33:34] just counts as one game on your

[33:36] schedule, but you might end up playing

[33:37] four games, you know.

[33:39] So but yeah, those tournaments are

[33:40] usually based around Thanksgiving and

[33:43] Christmas so that there's less classes

[33:46] missed and things like that. So the real

[33:48] tournaments, a lot of those are based

[33:50] around that. Nowadays what you're

[33:51] looking at and you're seeing a lot of,

[33:53] which is completely different than in

[33:55] the past, is tournaments are now

[33:56] providing schools NIL money. So the

[33:59] winning teams now are starting to

[34:01] collect money. So each player on the

[34:03] team now may collect, you know, 25, 50,

[34:07] 100, 200,000 dollars based on the pot of

[34:10] what they're collecting and you never

[34:11] used to see that. So it's different. The

[34:13] Vegas tournament, which is a big one, is

[34:16] run that way and so there's more and

[34:17] more teams trying to get into that to do

[34:20] that. So because obviously coaches are

[34:22] like, "Hey, we'll go play in a

[34:23] tournament where my kid can make, you

[34:25] know, because that's a selling point for

[34:26] a recruit. Hey, you know, you you might

[34:28] be a a bench player and you might not be

[34:30] getting paid a lot of NIL money, but if

[34:32] we go to this tournament, we play in it,

[34:33] we win it, every kid gets a minimum

[34:35] amount of whatever XYZ 50,000, 100,000,

[34:38] whatever it is.

[34:39] So, there's some There's some Coaches

[34:41] now have a lot more things they have to

[34:43] think about, you know, back in the past,

[34:45] you know, they were always worried about

[34:46] their press conferences, they were

[34:47] always worried about, you know, all the

[34:49] off-the-court things, but now they got

[34:50] the off-the-court things with money

[34:52] involved for players. What are they

[34:53] doing to help their players? Cuz they're

[34:55] not doing something to generate money

[34:57] for their players nowadays, you know,

[34:58] they're probably going to end up losing

[34:59] their player. They're going to jump in

[35:01] the transfer portal. There's no loyalty,

[35:02] which I I'm not a big fan of because I

[35:04] I'm more of a fan of loyalty and in

[35:06] college sports and things like that, but

[35:09] I also understand free enterprise, and

[35:11] you can't really penalize a kid, you

[35:13] know, that's has an opportunity to make

[35:15] money. I mean, we all kind of would

[35:17] probably jump at the opportunity to make

[35:18] more money and that type of thing. So, I

[35:20] think there needs to be some kind of

[35:22] balance in there between, you know, some

[35:23] loyalty with a school and the program

[35:26] and the money aspect of

[35:27] >> Right. I agree with you, yeah.

[35:29] >> Is there

[35:30] This may be a crazy question, but

[35:32] on NIL money, is there any type of cap

[35:34] on that?

[35:35] >> No, and that's that that I think is

[35:37] going to become a problem at some point

[35:39] because you're going to end up with the

[35:40] haves and the have-nots. Like, the

[35:41] University of Texas got like an

[35:42] unlimited budget. I mean, I mean, they

[35:44] can go do whatever they want. In our

[35:46] conference, believe it or not, um for

[35:48] football, I did look this up the other

[35:49] day, I think we're paying about 21, 22

[35:52] million dollars for our football NIL

[35:54] money and stuff like that, of which, you

[35:56] know, every school has a certain amount

[35:58] that they get. I don't don't quote me on

[35:59] this, but I believe it's like 12 or

[36:01] 14,000, 16,000, something 16 million or

[36:03] something like that that the school can

[36:04] give out. Then, the boosters can

[36:06] obviously go on or they or the NIL,

[36:10] whoever your NIL representative for your

[36:12] colleges can can monitor and give out

[36:14] more.

[36:15] >> So, that initial money is shared money

[36:16] through the conference, right? It's

[36:18] pretty much

[36:19] >> I'm assuming they get it through

[36:20] probably the TV. I don't the I I'm not

[36:22] sure exactly how it comes in.

[36:23] >> I think it's the TV contracts through

[36:25] the conference, and then the conference

[36:27] distributes that money.

[36:28] >> Well, it goes to the college and then

[36:29] the college kind of distributes it

[36:31] however they want. So, the college, the

[36:33] AD decides, but there's a cap on how

[36:35] much the school can do. There's not a

[36:37] cap on how much the players can do. But,

[36:40] outside money can come in and and

[36:42] basically, you know, offset whatever you

[36:44] want. I mean, like I said, I think we're

[36:46] at 22, 24 million, something like that

[36:48] for football. But, you look at schools

[36:50] like Texas Tech. Now, they have a really

[36:53] I was in West Texas. I was an AD in West

[36:56] Texas. They have a They have a really

[36:58] profound booster in the oil field that

[37:01] gives a lot of money. And so, their

[37:03] their football program, I think, is more

[37:05] like around the $38, $40 million mark.

[37:09] So, there's a big difference when you're

[37:10] talking $40 million in your program from

[37:12] NIL money and 20 22, $24 million in your

[37:16] program for NIL money. I mean,

[37:18] everybody, you know, I don't even know

[37:19] what Texas is, but you think about Texas

[37:22] and and obviously Nike with Oklahoma

[37:25] and, you know, you look at Oklahoma

[37:27] State's made a big run and I'm assuming

[37:28] some of that's Boone Pickens' money

[37:30] there now at at Oklahoma State and I

[37:32] think that's one of the reasons. I mean,

[37:33] they beat Oregon, you know, and they're

[37:35] they're they're a tough opponent, you

[37:36] know. So, I mean, they're going to be

[37:38] they're they're they're going to be

[37:39] really good this year with, you know, we

[37:41] got we're going to Luckily, we don't

[37:42] play them, but

[37:43] you know, they're going to be tough in

[37:44] our conference, too.

[37:46] >> It's got to be tough for some of the

[37:47] smaller schools.

[37:48] >> Oh, very tough.

[37:49] >> It's going to be really tough for the

[37:50] small schools, especially if they're

[37:51] trying to compete with the big schools.

[37:52] They're not going to be able to. They

[37:53] just don't have the budgets resources.

[37:55] Now, they're going to be in the same

[37:56] boat as all the other small schools

[37:58] though. You're still competing with

[37:59] people on your level. So, you know, a

[38:01] MAC school or a WAC school or or, you

[38:03] know, those types of conferences, you're

[38:05] still competing with people in your

[38:06] conference, but you're surely not going

[38:08] to be able to compete with the power,

[38:10] you know, the power conferences.

[38:11] >> Yeah. Yeah.

[38:13] >> Yeah, exactly. I mean,

[38:16] and I'm hoping that there'll be some

[38:17] kind of cap on there, you know, just to

[38:20] level out the playing field a little

[38:21] bit, you

[38:22] >> Well, and I think you need Here's the

[38:24] other thing. I mean, I was a college

[38:25] athletic director. Here's the other

[38:26] thing you got to kind of think about. I

[38:27] mean, you're putting all this money into

[38:29] football, but you know, what are what

[38:30] are the baseball kids think and what do

[38:32] they think what do the girls softball

[38:34] and what does, you know, track and field

[38:36] think and you swimming and diving and

[38:38] all that kind of

[38:38] >> what we call non-revenue sports.

[38:40] >> Olympic sports. Yeah. So, I mean, you

[38:42] know, is it fair for a a basketball guy

[38:44] to walk or or basketball or football guy

[38:47] to have, you know, have a $1 million

[38:48] contract and the the top Olympic swimmer

[38:52] who's representing us in the Olympics is

[38:54] making, you know, 20 grand?

[38:57] >> Right. And exactly.

[38:58] >> or maybe not even that much. They may

[38:59] not I don't even know. They may not even

[39:01] get paid. Some of the sports You can't

[39:02] pay everybody.

[39:03] >> But some of the argument is that, you

[39:05] know, they're again, you know,

[39:07] the football team's bringing in money.

[39:09] The you know, the

[39:10] >> No doubt.

[39:10] >> is bringing in money, you know, so

[39:12] >> There's no doubt about it. I think you

[39:14] have to look at supply and demand in

[39:15] everything you do. I mean, that's always

[39:17] but you also have to think about like

[39:20] Title IX cuz I mean, think about this. I

[39:22] mean, so supply and demand. So, an NBA

[39:25] game, you know, is packed and those guys

[39:27] are making millions of dollars, but the

[39:29] WNBA until just this last year, the cap

[39:32] was like 75,000 or something like that.

[39:35] Now, it's not that now. I mean, even

[39:37] like Sophie Cunningham and some of these

[39:38] players are making 600, 700 million

[39:40] dollars now, but but you know, I mean,

[39:43] can you overspend? I mean, what happens

[39:45] when there's not enough money? I mean,

[39:47] you know, the right now most schools, I

[39:50] don't know of all, but most schools lose

[39:53] money in women's sports. So, you know,

[39:56] if you're you're looking at it a college

[39:58] if you're a college and you're a college

[39:59] athletic director, you can't get rid of

[40:01] women's sports. You need women's sports.

[40:03] You need that. You have to have that.

[40:05] And Title IX has protected that and

[40:07] that's a great thing. But you probably

[40:10] can't pay them the same amount. Like you

[40:13] said, it has to it has to balance itself

[40:15] out. But but from an economic

[40:18] standpoint, I mean,

[40:19] you know, if you're just looking at

[40:21] dollars and cents, you would end up

[40:22] losing a lot of sports. And I know, you

[40:24] know, like wrestling and like some of

[40:26] those, you know, soccer, soccer, beach

[40:28] volleyball, some of those some of those

[40:29] sports would be gone. And I know I think

[40:32] you need those sports and you need that

[40:33] atmosphere and you need those

[40:35] opportunities for kids. But, you know,

[40:37] if you're looking from a dollar and

[40:38] cents standpoint, you'd probably if you

[40:40] looked at a budget-wise, I I I looked I

[40:42] haven't looked in the last year or two,

[40:44] but a couple years ago I looked, I mean,

[40:46] a lot of schools are losing two, three,

[40:47] four million dollars on women's sports.

[40:49] that mean you just need to get rid of

[40:50] them? No, it just means you supplement

[40:52] it with football, you supplement it with

[40:54] basketball, you supplement it with the

[40:56] school budget or fundraising or other

[40:57] things cuz those kids deserve an

[40:59] opportunity just like everybody else.

[41:01] >> Oh, yeah, definitely.

[41:03] Yeah, well, that that's crazy. But, um

[41:05] All right, so we were talking about

[41:07] basketball.

[41:09] >> We are talking about basketball. And

[41:10] I'll tell you, we're going to be really

[41:11] good. Like I said, you know, I I we're

[41:13] fourth right now. We're we're playing

[41:15] preseason number four and and there's no

[41:17] reason why we shouldn't be. I mean, we

[41:18] have a we have a chance to win it all.

[41:20] And and our atmosphere, back to your

[41:23] question in basketball, is slightly

[41:25] different than our atmosphere in

[41:27] football. And that's partly because, but

[41:30] if you look back, there was a guy by the

[41:32] name of Lute Olson, you know, who

[41:33] created that. Because I mean, back

[41:35] before Lute, back when Frank Snowden was

[41:37] here, I I don't think I wasn't I wasn't

[41:40] around, but I I believe, from what I

[41:42] hear, you guys only had sometimes as

[41:44] many as two or three 4,000 people in the

[41:46] stadium. Um I wasn't I wasn't here and I

[41:48] didn't

[41:48] >> It was easy to go buy a ticket, just

[41:50] walk up and buy a ticket for five bucks

[41:51] or whatever.

[41:52] >> And Lute kind of changed all that, you

[41:54] know. And so, and like I said, and and

[41:56] my brother Ryan was on his staff for a

[41:58] number of years and did a great job and

[42:01] still does the radio, but

[42:02] um you know, Lute kind of changed all

[42:04] that when he came here. He created the

[42:06] atmosphere. And I think we're in that

[42:07] stage with football. I think Burnett's

[42:09] doing the same thing in football. I

[42:10] think it's going to take a year or two,

[42:12] but if we start getting where we're

[42:13] competitive and we're winning conference

[42:15] championships, people are going to show

[42:16] up. Tucson's a town of winners, and they

[42:19] will show up. Even like you take women's

[42:21] softball. I mean, Mike Candrea has built

[42:23] women's softball there at the U of A,

[42:25] and they show up. Those people they show

[42:27] up for they had to they redid the

[42:28] stadium. They've redone a lot of things

[42:30] with women's softball right now. Um the

[42:32] facilities are amazing, but and they did

[42:34] and they started doing that when Lou was

[42:35] here. I think if Brennan does the same

[42:37] thing over time and we get to where

[42:39] we're into a you know, we're we're

[42:41] finalists for the you know, big 12

[42:43] championship a couple of years in a row,

[42:44] I think you're going to see

[42:46] the stadium packed. I think you're going

[42:47] to see the atmosphere. I think people

[42:49] will start to make it. But I I think we

[42:51] got to get ourselves on national TV, and

[42:52] we got to figure out the TV thing so

[42:54] everybody can see us all the time. And

[42:57] >> Yeah, 8:00 our time doesn't get us on

[42:59] national TV.

[43:00] >> Yeah, 8:00 our time remember it's 11:00

[43:02] on the East Coast, and so it it hurts in

[43:05] recruiting, too. I mean, it's fine for

[43:06] the West Coast, but when you're starting

[43:07] to recruit a kid out of Indianapolis or

[43:10] out of, you know, New Jersey or even

[43:12] Texas, you know, an hour 2 hours ahead,

[43:15] you know, those kids it's 10:00 at

[43:16] night. Now, they may watch your first

[43:18] half until midnight, but you know, if

[43:19] they're going to church on Sunday, you

[43:21] know, they they're they're not staying

[43:22] up till 2:00 in the morning to watch

[43:24] this.

[43:24] >> Right. Exactly.

[43:25] >> You know,

[43:26] so so a lot of it has to do with the

[43:28] atmosphere, but our basketball

[43:30] atmosphere will is is unmatched. I mean,

[43:33] McKale Center is an unbelievable place

[43:35] to play.

[43:37] >> Have you guys had a chance to look at

[43:38] the basketball schedule yet?

[43:40] >> I have not seen much of it. Just glanced

[43:43] at it.

[43:43] >> yeah. Just glanced at it pretty much,

[43:45] yeah.

[43:45] >> All right. Well, we'll get to the

[43:46] basketball schedule uh next time.

[43:48] >> Okay.

[43:49] >> We'll we'll we'll break down their

[43:50] actual schedule next time. We have coach

[43:51] Olson.

[43:52] >> Yeah, I'll be glad to. One of the things

[43:54] I think that uh

[43:55] we're talking about atmosphere, I mean,

[43:57] Arizona basketball, I mean, our do

[43:59] students do stay in basketball. Stay Our

[44:01] students stay. Now, where we run into a

[44:04] little bit of a of a of I wouldn't even

[44:06] say it's a problem, but maybe

[44:08] economically, which is a little bit

[44:10] different, is the fact that we, you

[44:12] know, we have to make money. University

[44:14] of Arizona needs to Athletics is

[44:16] self-sufficient and does not receive,

[44:18] you know, college funding. So, we have

[44:20] to we have to make money, so we sell our

[44:23] sideline seats for a lot of money. Where

[44:25] if you're going to Duke, and first of

[44:27] all, I've been to Duke, and it's like

[44:29] people don't understand, that's

[44:30] literally a high school gymnasium. It's

[44:32] not that nice. And they got bleacher

[44:34] seating and everything else. And they've

[44:36] got students that basically stand on the

[44:39] sidelines. And the reason they're able

[44:41] to do that though is Duke is so well

[44:43] endowed and they have so much money that

[44:45] they yeah, they don't need to

[44:47] necessarily try to generate every dollar

[44:50] out of out of tickets like we do. And

[44:53] believe it not, Duke's arena I don't

[44:55] even know what it holds. It's less than

[44:56] 10,000 people though.

[44:58] Yeah, it's small. It's really small. And

[45:01] and people if you walked in there and

[45:02] compared their arena to anybody else's

[45:04] arena in the country, you go, how in the

[45:05] world Mike Krzyzewski win all these

[45:08] national championships? But, you know

[45:10] what? It's called Mike Krzyzewski. Why

[45:12] why haven't they like built a new

[45:14] stadium for them? I think it's they just

[45:15] like that tradition and it's old school

[45:18] and they just they've done well and they

[45:19] don't seem to need to want to do that. I

[45:21] don't know. I maybe Shire might might

[45:24] decide he wants to do it, but when

[45:25] Krzyzewski was there, he just like

[45:28] he just likes like the things the way he

[45:29] liked them. But, you know, Luke created

[45:32] an atmosphere at Arizona that's

[45:33] unbelievable. And people, you know, we

[45:35] need to be super thankful and we have

[45:37] that statue for him out in front of the

[45:39] Hall of Champions, but I mean, he's

[45:42] really put us on the map and he did a

[45:44] phenomenal job. And Tommy is

[45:46] was That's an amazing deal. Yeah, Tommy

[45:49] was a great get. And Tommy fits us. He's

[45:51] the right guy for our culture, for our

[45:55] environment, and he loves Tucson. I

[45:56] mean, he had chance last year. I mean,

[45:58] you heard the rumors. I don't I I don't

[46:00] know, you know, how true they are, but

[46:02] you know, I'm I heard North Carolina was

[46:03] recruiting him. I heard all these people

[46:05] were kind of getting him and we finally

[46:07] stepped in and said, "Hey, we we don't

[46:10] want to lose him."

[46:11] >> Right.

[46:11] >> And I think now he reports directly to

[46:13] the president and or the vice president

[46:15] of finances or something like that and

[46:17] you know, so he's got some power now and

[46:19] he's able to do some things. So, you

[46:21] know, I think you're going to see some

[46:22] things happen because obviously, you

[46:24] know, he knows what he wants and he's

[46:26] developed a good program and he and he's

[46:28] continuing to do great things and we're

[46:30] going to you know, like I said, last

[46:31] year was a final four appearance and

[46:32] this year we're ranked preseason in top

[46:34] four. So, he must be doing something and

[46:36] he's he's got he's got the right staff

[46:38] and the right people in place and you

[46:40] know, he's got some die-hard guys. Jack

[46:42] Murphy on his staff has been here and

[46:44] Jack was, you know, I I've known Jack

[46:46] for a long, long time coming out of Las

[46:48] Vegas and and uh you know, he was he was

[46:50] a a manager um for Lou and those guys

[46:54] >> was Yeah, and then he was the

[46:55] head coach at NAU

[46:56] >> Yeah, he was in NAIA. Yeah, he left here

[46:58] when he was on he was with Lou and then

[47:00] he went to the Denver Nuggets for a

[47:02] while and then he went with Josh Pastner

[47:04] to Memphis and then he got the head job

[47:07] um you know, at NAU

[47:09] and then

[47:10] um he actually, you know, got married to

[47:12] Jim Livengood's daughter.

[47:13] >> Oh, really?

[47:14] >> Uh yeah, and they have twins and stuff.

[47:16] So, but yeah, I mean and Tommy's created

[47:19] a culture, a family culture, which is

[47:21] just something that is amazing in

[47:23] college sports nowadays and people love

[47:25] Tommy and he's just a down-to-earth guy

[47:28] and you don't ever see him get, you

[47:29] know, crazy or too animated. Now, he's

[47:32] passionate

[47:33] >> Yeah.

[47:33] >> but he's not he doesn't he's not one of

[47:35] those coaches going to rip off his

[47:36] jacket, throw it up and down. You know,

[47:38] and Tucson wants that.

[47:39] >> on the court.

[47:39] >> No, I don't think I don't think he's

[47:41] going to throw any chairs. Speaking of

[47:43] which, uh I will tell you one story. I I

[47:46] when I was playing at Washington State,

[47:47] we did play Bob Knight and we were back

[47:50] there and and it was a couple years

[47:52] after the chair throwing incident and

[47:54] everything and and uh in there doing our

[47:57] our our pregame uh the day before and

[48:00] everything. We were going walk-throughs

[48:01] and all that and I was laying I happen

[48:03] to be sitting right there like

[48:04] stretching on the floor right next to

[48:06] where that chair was thrown and I was

[48:08] looking on underneath the chairs and I

[48:10] noticed they had run a cable underneath

[48:12] them and they had locked them all

[48:14] together. And so I noticed there was no

[48:17] way that that he was going to be able to

[48:19] throw one again. So um yeah, when I was

[48:21] stretching one day that was one of the

[48:22] things I I'll never forget. I was right

[48:24] over there uh stretching and I saw the

[48:26] cable lock locked them all the chairs

[48:29] together.

[48:29] >> I wonder if all the other arenas had to

[48:31] do it, too.

[48:32] Wherever he was going to go play at, you

[48:34] know, whatever game that

[48:34] >> Well, if you remember if you remember

[48:37] the chair he had, it was like a regular

[48:38] chair and nowadays they have they

[48:41] Yeah, it was a No, it wasn't a fold-up

[48:42] chair. It was just a regular chair. But

[48:45] nowadays they have the nice fold-up

[48:46] chairs and they link on the sides. They

[48:48] hook on the sides. So it would be a

[48:50] little bit harder to do, but I but they

[48:53] ran a cable through there and locked it.

[48:55] So there was no way he was going to be

[48:56] able to do that again.

[48:58] >> Man.

[48:58] >> That's crazy. All right, we need to take

[49:00] our final break. We will be back in a

[49:02] few minutes and we'll get a little bit

[49:03] more into it for our final segment. All

[49:06] right, we'll be right back.

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[51:45] >> All right, we are back here We're

[51:48] Talking Sports with Will and Ron. Check

[51:50] us out every Thursday at 10:00 a.m.

[51:54] We're here with Coach John. We're

[51:55] talking a little bit about uh all kinds

[51:57] of different sports.

[51:58] >> Everything. You name it. We're talking

[52:00] about it. I I tell you it's exciting.

[52:01] Like I said, this time of year is just

[52:04] one of my favorite times of year cuz

[52:05] everything is going on. But, you know

[52:07] what? Let's talk a little bit about one

[52:09] of our own locals that's doing really

[52:11] well in the NFL.

[52:12] >> Right.

[52:14] >> Bijan Robinson, local kid here from

[52:16] >> Yeah.

[52:16] >> uh South Point

[52:17] >> and uh went on and played at the

[52:19] University of Texas. Believe it or not,

[52:21] leading the NFL in rushing right now.

[52:22] >> Yeah, he is doing great. And he's such a

[52:24] great guy, too.

[52:25] >> Yeah, I don't know

[52:26] >> back to the community. I mean, he's he's

[52:28] a really good guy.

[52:29] >> I don't know him personally, but I know

[52:31] he came back here not too long ago and

[52:32] spoke at at South Point

[52:34] >> like 2 weeks ago, I believe.

[52:36] >> or 3 weeks ago. Yeah.

[52:37] >> And uh you know, it's just grew from

[52:39] what everybody told me. Um you know, I'm

[52:41] on the National Football Foundation

[52:43] board and Dell Arnego's on the Arizona

[52:45] board and he was telling us how great he

[52:47] was and everything else like that. But,

[52:49] I mean, you know, you think about a

[52:50] local kid like that that's just just,

[52:52] you know, he's leading the NFL right

[52:53] now. I mean, he's got basically he's got

[52:55] 580 yards. He's got four touchdowns.

[52:57] He's averaging 5.7 yards, which is third

[53:01] in the NFL and he's third in in

[53:03] attempts. He's got 102 carries right

[53:05] now. So,

[53:06] >> I mean, he's on track to uh you know,

[53:09] have an unbelievable year and obviously

[53:11] Atlanta needs him. But, uh you know,

[53:13] just great when you see local kids do

[53:15] well. It's really really exciting. So,

[53:17] >> Exactly.

[53:18] >> And I know you had some experiences from

[53:19] your sons

[53:20] >> Right. Right.

[53:21] >> against him and stuff.

[53:22] >> Yeah, my son was a sophomore when uh he

[53:23] was a senior.

[53:25] So, so they

[53:25] >> bet he looked like he was a man among

[53:27] boys.

[53:27] >> was amazing. He was amazing. Yeah, most

[53:29] games he didn't even need to play in the

[53:31] second half.

[53:32] >> Yeah, you know, when you're that good, I

[53:34] guess when you start blowing people out,

[53:36] you know, it probably hurts your

[53:37] statistics a little bit. But, but

[53:39] obviously I can't complain. He ended up

[53:41] winning up going to Will's school down

[53:43] there. We won't mention the name of it,

[53:44] but that state capital down there in

[53:47] Texas.

[53:47] >> Yeah.

[53:48] >> Yep.

[53:48] >> Hook 'em. Hook 'em, baby.

[53:50] >> Well, I don't know if you want to be

[53:51] saying hook 'em too much right now

[53:53] because the Sooners decided they wanted

[53:55] to put a little,

[53:56] you know, last-minute field goal kick on

[53:58] you guys that

[53:59] rocked the stadium.

[54:00] >> Yeah.

[54:01] >> That happens.

[54:02] >> Yeah. It happens.

[54:03] >> It does happen. But that's what

[54:05] >> I'm also a Cowboys fan, so you know.

[54:07] >> Yeah,

[54:08] but you know, I'm a Cowboys fan a little

[54:10] bit too and and and Dak Prescott's, you

[54:13] know, like fourth or fifth in the

[54:14] passing yards and you think that's

[54:15] great, but the reason he's fourth or

[54:17] fifth is because we're behind all the

[54:19] time and we're trying to catch up. So,

[54:22] you know, there's a reason sometimes

[54:23] statistics are the way they are.

[54:25] >> Yeah. Yeah.

[54:25] >> Yeah.

[54:26] >> Yep.

[54:26] >> Yeah. So, coach, we have about oh, about

[54:29] 5 minutes left here.

[54:30] Um let's talk a little bit about um

[54:34] you know, the passing of one of your

[54:35] good friends.

[54:36] >> Yeah, uh Frank Busch, uh who's a legend.

[54:39] I think there's probably, you know,

[54:41] there's a lot of great coaches that have

[54:43] come through the University of Arizona.

[54:45] Obviously, you look at guys like, you

[54:47] know, Dick Tomey, Lute Olson,

[54:50] um Mike Candrea.

[54:52] Um but one of the legends I think that's

[54:53] probably been under the radar a little

[54:55] bit is Frank Busch, you know. He was at

[54:58] the University of Arizona. He was a

[54:59] swimming and diving coach at the

[55:01] University of Arizona for 22 years from

[55:03] 1989 to 2011.

[55:06] >> Right.

[55:07] >> And

[55:08] um I had the opportunity and I to serve

[55:10] with him on the National Football

[55:12] Foundation board and I just I actually

[55:15] just had a meeting with him not too long

[55:17] ago on a Monday night and then we found

[55:19] out that he passed away that later that

[55:21] week and you know, it's just a

[55:23] devastating thing. I mean, you talk

[55:25] about a guy that was in shape, that

[55:27] cared about people, would do anything

[55:29] for kids and I think that's why he was

[55:31] such a successful coach is, you know, he

[55:33] just really cared about people and I

[55:35] mean, every every person that ever came

[55:37] in contact with him was just like, you

[55:40] know, just in awe of how much he cared

[55:42] about people. He He was so humble and he

[55:44] I mean, I don't think people realize I

[55:46] mean, he coached 34 different Olympic

[55:48] athletes and things like that. But when

[55:50] he was a assistant coach, so he was on

[55:53] the Olympic coaching staff for for 4

[55:55] years. In 2004 in Athens, Greece, 2008

[55:59] in Beijing, China, he was an assistant.

[56:01] But then he was kind of the director and

[56:03] national team director in London,

[56:05] England 2012 and then Rio,

[56:08] Brazil in 2016. And believe it or not,

[56:12] he coached 64 medalists in the US.

[56:16] So that's You think about that. 64

[56:18] people he helped coach win some kind of

[56:21] a medal. Gold,

[56:23] silver,

[56:24] >> Representing our country.

[56:24] >> representing our country. And I mean,

[56:26] that's just an amazing, amazing, amazing

[56:30] when you think about it. But I think

[56:31] what's even more amazing is just the

[56:33] fact that you know, he's just such a

[56:34] humble, genuine guy. I mean, he was on

[56:38] our Football Foundation and he he cared

[56:40] so much about football and the

[56:41] development of those youth kids and

[56:43] everything. And he would took We all get

[56:45] assigned schools and and he ended up

[56:47] with one of the schools up in Globe and

[56:48] he never complained. He just went up

[56:50] there, met with the coaching staff, did

[56:51] seminars, worked with the kids.

[56:53] >> Wow.

[56:54] >> Just did an amazing job. I don't know if

[56:57] I've ever met an individual that has had

[56:59] the passion and the care of sports and

[57:02] helping watching kids learn and develop

[57:04] and giving them opportunities. He's all

[57:06] about trying to give kids opportunities.

[57:08] Every one of our meetings that I sat in

[57:09] with him was always him caring about

[57:12] trying to give kids more opportunities.

[57:15] And sports is I'm very blessed. I had a

[57:17] great sports career. I was fortunate

[57:19] enough but I don't know where I'd be if

[57:20] I didn't have sports. And I was

[57:22] fortunate enough to go the basketball

[57:24] route but I mean, he was on our board

[57:25] for National Football and he shows up to

[57:27] Saturday games with little Peewees. He

[57:30] goes to the high school, you know,

[57:32] Friday night light games. He goes to

[57:34] Arizona Bowl. He He just volunteers and

[57:36] was involved in so many things and I

[57:38] just I I you know, just an amazing man.

[57:41] I mean, he coached people at the U of A.

[57:43] I you know, Amanda Beard. I mean, people

[57:45] know her and then Lacey John or or

[57:47] actually I guess it's Lacey Niemeier

[57:49] now, but

[57:50] um you know, just a lot of really good

[57:53] quality people he's coached and helped

[57:55] over the years, but to coach 64 Olympic

[57:59] medalists, that's just unheard of. And

[58:02] the 20 22 years at the University of

[58:04] Arizona. I mean, you talk about coaches

[58:06] and people and athletes that are all

[58:07] bouncing around, but I mean, you talk

[58:09] about loyalty. That That's real.

[58:11] >> stability for the program.

[58:12] >> Stability and I mean, we just haven't

[58:14] been like that since he's left. I mean,

[58:16] but I mean, you know, it's just amazing

[58:19] what a guy like that does. And that's

[58:21] true leadership in every aspect of the

[58:23] form and and that's true just genuine

[58:25] passion for watching and helping people

[58:27] grow and develop.

[58:28] >> Yeah. You got it, yeah.

[58:30] >> Awesome, man. That is awesome. Yeah.

[58:31] Well, Ron, we have 2 minutes. Let's do a

[58:33] real quick 2-minute drill.

[58:34] >> Okay. Sure.

[58:35] >> All right. Let's do our picks really

[58:37] fast. 2-minute drill.

[58:38] >> Do you have your picks or you didn't?

[58:40] >> Oh, yeah.

[58:42] Send it over to Ron.

[58:45] >> All right. Here we go. So, I got some

[58:48] real quick picks. We're going to go

[58:49] through them.

[58:50] Tonight, we have Seattle at Denver. I am

[58:52] picking that as my upset special. I am

[58:55] going with Denver.

[58:56] >> Ooh. I'm going with Seattle.

[58:57] >> And you're going with Seattle. All

[58:58] right. We have Houston at Jacksonville.

[59:02] That's in London. This is the second

[59:04] game in a row

[59:05] in London for Jacksonville. I am going

[59:07] with Jacksonville.

[59:08] >> I also have Jacksonville in that.

[59:10] >> All right. Chicago at Atlanta.

[59:12] I'm going with Atlanta.

[59:13] >> Yeah, I'm going with the dirty birds.

[59:14] >> All right. Go Bijan.

[59:17] We've got Baltimore at Cleveland. I'm

[59:19] going with Baltimore.

[59:20] >> I also want Baltimore.

[59:21] >> Uh Tennessee at Indian Indianapolis. I'm

[59:24] going with Indianapolis.

[59:25] >> Yeah, I chose Indianapolis as well.

[59:28] >> The Jets at New England Patriots. I have

[59:31] the Patriots.

[59:32] >> Yep, I got the Patriots as well.

[59:33] >> All right. We have the New Orleans

[59:35] Saints at the New York Football Giants.

[59:39] >> Yeah, I got the Giants.

[59:40] >> All right. So do I.

[59:42] Uh Carolina at Philadelphia.

[59:44] >> This tough one. Philadelphia at home.

[59:46] I'll tell you

[59:46] >> Okay, I'm going with Carolina. Sorry

[59:48] Kit, but I'm going with Carolina on this

[59:50] one.

[59:51] Uh we have Pittsburgh at Tampa Bay. I'm

[59:54] going with Tampa Bay.

[59:55] >> I want Tampa Bay.

[59:56] >> you know, maybe they uh found something

[59:59] in that last game, so.

[60:01] Arizona at the Rams.

[60:02] >> I got to go Rams.

[60:04] >> with Rams. I think that's a smart

[60:05] choice.

[60:06] >> Yep.

[60:06] >> The Chargers at Kansas City.

[60:08] >> Going Chiefs.

[60:09] >> Going Chiefs, yep.

[60:11] Buffalo at Las Vegas.

[60:13] >> You know, I'm going with the home team

[60:14] on this one. Just a gut feeling. I'm

[60:16] going with the Raiders.

[60:16] >> Okay, I'm I'm going with Buffalo. I I'm

[60:19] not a huge believer in Buffalo. They

[60:20] haven't They've been kind of uh not as

[60:23] dominant as in in prior years, but I'm

[60:25] going with Duff

[60:26] uh Buffalo on this one.

[60:27] >> Yeah, not Duffalo.

[60:28] >> Not Duffalo, yeah. Yeah. All right, we

[60:30] got Dallas at Green Bay.

[60:32] >> Oh, my heart hurts, but I'm going Green

[60:34] Bay.

[60:34] >> I'm going Green Bay, too.

[60:37] And then Monday Night Football, we have

[60:39] Washington at San Francisco.

[60:43] >> Oh, let's see. I'm going to go with the

[60:45] Uh

[60:46] I got to go 49ers.

[60:47] >> All right. That's I I love when you say

[60:49] that. Going with the 49ers. All right.

[60:53] >> My question is who's winning this out of

[60:55] If we got a tally for the year so far.

[60:57] >> So who Who calculates at the end of the

[60:59] year?

[60:59] >> Oh, you're not telling You're not giving

[61:00] out the secrets until the end.

[61:01] >> Not yet. No, we've uh

[61:02] >> I think we gave it out a couple weeks

[61:04] ago what what we did the prior week, but

[61:06] >> This past week we haven't tallied it up,

[61:08] but but we both did really bad.

[61:11] >> So in other words, we don't want to be

[61:13] using you for our booking lines. Is that

[61:14] what you're telling us?

[61:15] >> All right.

[61:16] >> Anyways, we are out of time, gentlemen.

[61:18] Thank you very much, uh coach. It's

[61:20] always a pleasure having you here,

[61:21] buddy.

[61:21] >> It's always a pleasure to you in here

[61:23] soon again so we can finish talking some

[61:25] uh UofA basketball, okay?

[61:26] >> Love to. Love to talk UofA basketball

[61:28] and like I said, excited about their

[61:30] football game coming up against Iowa

[61:31] State. I hope to get the fans out there

[61:34] in 2 weeks at Casino Del Sol Stadium and

[61:36] let's talk some basketball next time I

[61:38] come.

[61:38] >> Absolutely. All right, we will see you

[61:40] next week next on Thursday 10:00 a.m.

[61:42] where our guest will be coach Sam

[61:44] Gelardi, the Sahuarita High School

[61:47] baseball coach.

[61:48] >> Nice.

[61:48] >> We'll have him in in studio.

[61:50] >> Very good.

[61:50] >> Somebody other than Tucson High? Yes,

[61:52] somebody other than Tucson High. All

[61:53] right, everybody