AZ Wildcats Podcast

Arizona Athletics' New Years Resolutions for 2025

Become a PHNX Diehard for just $4 a month! http://gophnx.com/intro-offer-youtube With the commitment of Bryce James, the reemergence of Caleb Love, the ceiling of Carter Bryant, the potential commitments from Koa Peat and Alijah Arenas, the addition of Seth Doege to Arizona football, and the beginning of the new calendar; Arizona fans have reason to feel hopeful for 2025. What are things we hope are different in the next 365 days? Join Damon Fairall and Kevin Thomas as they give their resolutions on the AZ Wildcats Podcast! An ALLCITY Network Production SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtube ALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports MERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-locker ALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of Phoenix PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ bet365: https://www.bet365.com/olp/open-account?affiliate=365_03330244 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and choose your offer! Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/ Empire Today: Schedule a free in-home estimate today! All listeners can receive a $350 OFF discount when they use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See https://empiretoday.com/phnx for details. Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Circle K: Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you! Branded Bills: Use code PHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 20% off your first order! Check out FOCO merch and collectibles and use promo code “PHNX10” for 10% off your order on all non Pre Order items. Rugged Road: Gear up for your next adventure with Rugged Road Coolers - Your ultimate outdoor companion! Head to http://ruggedroadoutdoors.pxf.io/ALLCITY and use code PHNX for 10% off! When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.

Duration:: 1h 7m
Broadcast on:: 03 Jan 2025
Audio Format:: other

Happy new year again, but this time we're going to resolve to do some things. And maybe co-opee taking a trip to the desert. We got more on this all in 30 seconds. Don't you go anywhere? It's the AZ Wildcats podcast. I'm your host, Damon Farrell, and I am, of course, with my guy, Kevin Thomas, on a beautiful Friday here. Happy Friday. From Ph and X HQ, how are you doing, Kevin? How are we chilling? I'm good. We're getting past the holiday season, Damon. There was a lot going on for everybody during this time of year. And I'm glad that we're in 2025, fresh, late January 3rd, ready to get after it for the next 12 months. Right, Damon? Absolutely. And hopefully, 2025 is a little bit better in store for us than 2024 did, just given the way that the season went for Arizona athletics there. And we got a big game coming up here against the Cincinnati Bearcats. And we're going to get into that later in the show here. But only would be right, I think, to start things off with Bryce James, his commitment to Arizona, his commitment to the Wildcats, his commitment to Tommy Lloyd, and just kind of what that means for the program overall. Yeah. I mean, we were pumped about it on the emergency pod. If you haven't checked that out, go back and check out when me and Damon had to say about Bryce James' commitment. But first of all, I want to, you know, start it off top by, this is a huge deal for Arizona athletics. I know a lot of people online are saying that, well, if you look at his stats, if you look at his star ranking, if you look at this, if his name was Bryce Johnson, he wouldn't be here. But his name is not Bryce Johnson. It's Bryce James. And and, you know, he's coming to Arizona and it's going to is only going to help the program. Damon, we were talking about a pre show that yes, we know that in the pizza jam, he played five games and average 5.6 points, 2.8 rebounds a block on 18% from the three, which are numbers that I venture to say are bad, but yet it's not just about the stats and when all that when it comes to recruiting, right? And we'll get into a little bit of that here in a second. But Damon, for those that didn't watch the emergency pod, what are your first impressions of Bryce James and what do you think he can bring to Arizona? Because I know it's a lot more than just his on court ability. Yeah. Absolutely. I, you know, I think that this commitment is a little bit deeper than, you know, what the surface level really portrays with Bryce James and obviously, you know, I think just with how polarizing LeBron James is in particular and how many people have like this just outright decided that they don't like the guy like from the moment they heard about him because they were big Michael Jordan fans or whatever, you know, those same people are the ones that are so anti Bryce James, right? Like, and I can understand the perspective of he's on Arizona caliber player at this moment in time. That makes sense to me. That's true. I'm a, you know, I've obviously been an Arizona basketball fan my entire life. We have a standard to uphold, right? Like we have, we are a, you know, a basketball program that has a pedigree and brings in blue chip type of recruits on a consistent basis, but college basketball is different these days, right? Like it's not the same that it used to be. It's not the Lutelson days. It's not the Sean Miller days, even it's, it's, you know, NIL, it's modern basketball. And, you know, a point that I heard saw make on the Michael and Madden is podcast, which makes sure you guys check that out. Is it 7 p.m. every Thursday? Is that the? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Kind of depends on Corey's schedule next week. It'd be Tuesday, but it's 7 p.m. Always 7 p.m. Always 7 p.m. Yeah. And so I made the point of like there's 15 scholarships now you don't have walk on. So like you can kind of treat Bryce James essentially as like a walk on of sorts. Like this is, this is just a really slow cook, developmental type of piece. And you're kidding yourself if you don't think that, you know, Tommy didn't discuss with LeBron and his family and Bryce what that role was going to be for him coming into this program. Like there was, there is a 0% chance that Tommy told him that he was going to play early on in his career. They know that Arizona knows that. And I think that that's, if as long as everyone's on the same page, it's a perfect marriage. Yeah. 1000%. And I think there is no if ands or buts about it. Everyone involved in that process, Bryce James, Tommy Lloyd, Murph, LeBron himself, Savannah James, everyone must be on the same page about the experience that Bryce is going to have when he comes to Arizona or else, or else he wouldn't be coming to Arizona. I think that's just flat out the case where we're going to play a clip from LeBron talking about Bryce's commitment here in a moment. But in that clip, he kind of references like, hey, like I obviously spoke to Tommy Lloyd, but this was, you know, Tommy Lloyd speaking to my son about what his role is going to be. And, and, you know, Bryce James obviously kind of vibed with that, that idea of whatever Tommy told him was the vision was going to be. And yeah, you don't, you don't bring a player like Bryce James here without doing your due diligence first to make sure this is not about to be a disgruntled child situation. If he doesn't play X amount of minutes and disgruntled family, really, right? Because that, I mean, I'd say even more than making Bryce James mad, you don't want to make LeBron mad. You don't want to make rich Paul mad. You don't want to make the whole agency of clutch mad because the reality of modern college basketball is that these high school kids are signed to agencies by the time that they get into college, you know, they're, their agencies are helping them with their NIL deals. So you have, you know, that that's the bridge that you don't want to burn. And I think that obviously this will only improve that upon that, that process. Like, like I said, Tommy didn't tell LeBron and Bryce that he was going to play a lot early on. Like, I think that this relationship that's cultivating with clutch is only a positive thing. Yeah. 1000%. You spoke to the relationship with clutch. It is no stranger to LeBron and Rich Paul's little, little company they got going on over there. We know that Fofida and TMac are just some of the clients that clutch has had that have graced the U of A grounds, we'll say. But yeah, I think that the big, the big fish in the clutch pond that I want to talk about here is Coa Pete Damon. We talk about what the Bryce James commitment come in for Arizona in off the court broader sense, players are going to want to come play for Arizona if they're seeing a bunch of promotion and good PR for Arizona. And if they think that they can, you know, maybe meet up with their hero LeBron and get coaching from him at some point, they're all intangible things that will contribute to this being a positive thing for Arizona. If you're, if you're using your 15th scholarship to bring on a player who might bring on to two or, or, or, you know, who knows how many four and five star guys down the road, you know, just based off of the domino effect that he started by coming here, that could be bigger for Arizona than anything. If you, if you can secure Coa Pete and then Brayden Burries or Elijah Arenas based off of this, I think you've done a great job with that 15 scholarship that on other teams is getting totally forgotten about. Yeah. I mean, it's just, it's like any other situation where there's like a, you know, a coaches son that, you know, or a, you know, a brother of a, of a player that you want. Like I remember when Arizona was recruiting Justin Flo, obviously who was a kind of a big time transfer, hasn't really panned out as well as you would have hoped. Sorry, Erica. Sorry. His brother. Yeah. Sorry about that Erica. His brother, his younger brother was also kind of in the fold for transferring, didn't end up ever playing football again, but you know, he probably wasn't an Eric Arizona caliber player and Jed Fish in Arizona were recruiting him at the time because they were like, hey, it'll help us get this, this next guy in basketball. It's a little bit harder to do that. But now with these extra, you know, couple scholarships opening up, it's become a lot easier. And I think obviously you have a guy like Bryce James who doesn't need a big, uh, NIL package because from Arizona, I should say he brings, he brings sand to the beach. He will get his own NIL money and lots of it. Bronnie James had the highest NIL evaluation of any single collegiate athlete at his time there. Believe it was like Bronnie James, Livy Dunn, one, two, but, uh, Bryce James is going to be fine from an NIL standpoint, but the benefit here is that Arizona is not going to have to pay them out of their pockets for NIL because he's LeBron James's kid. We don't need it. Like they got money. We don't have to pay them for that. So like all of his, all of his NIL money is going to be personal NIL money, which is great. It only brings added exposure to his program and only ups the NIL purse for the other players on this team. Uh, overall, I think it's just a massive win for this program. And that's even despite, you know, with some of the struggles on the court or maybe concerns we have on the court that we've seen here, Kevin. Yeah. 1000%. You, you talked about kind of like the overall brand awareness, uh, factor of this that, you know, look at the opportunities that, that Arizona players have already gotten in, in the NIL. Uh, last year, Kyle and Boswell with the major TV streaming deal, no Fafita going with the inferior, uh, gas station hook up there. But, you know, these are still major brands that are already interested in the U of A and their players and the, and the commodities that they do have, uh, I'll say it like this, more casual Arizona fans are good for Arizona fans. Do you understand what I'm saying here? The more ticket sales, the more merch sales, the more season ticket holder sales, you can accumulate the more talent in this NIL era that you will be able to bring in. Uh, and I think that, that this is a really good day for Arizona athletics and we set it on the emergency pod or I said on the emergency pod, but this is just a great indicator, uh, for where the health of the Arizona basketball program is at nationally with these recruits. Yeah. I think that's a fair point. Obviously, Tommy has his, you know, finger on the pulse of what's going on within recruiting. Um, and you know, I think it's kind of been somewhat speculated, slash reported that, uh, it, this was kind of a recruitment that came from the James family side approaching Arizona rather than the other way around. Um, and as long as everyone's on the same page, like I mentioned earlier, I think that everything here should work out completely fine, uh, people get mad about like the circus per se. Like you mentioned earlier, I don't really understand what they're referring to. Like I'd love to be pointed in the direction of where the circus was and who the, you know, who was the ringleader? What the, what, who put on their big red shoes in the morning and their, and their rainbow wig. Like I, I, I, I, at USC with Ronnie, there was none of that stuff. Like I don't remember hearing anything that, to be honest, the, the most, the only story that really pops in my head that I remember from all of Brownie at USC was his heart problem that he had there. I was, I was literally, yeah, I, I, I've been meaning to talk about this thing. We were talking about a little bit pre-show, but the idea of the, of the James circus coming to town is completely ridiculous. There is no such thing as, as the James family circus, right? There was no circus. You said around Brownie, he was seemingly always a team first. We first kind of guy, uh, not really about, you know, being the biggest name in all of, of whatever or making all of it about him. He went through a traumatic near death experience and still didn't make it about him. I, what, what, I don't know, I don't know what people are seeing. It's, it's just like coded hate for the James family by saying, oh, their circus is going to be crazy. Oh, the attention they're going to give our, our program is so bad. I, I don't understand it's, it's a ridiculous notion, but I mean, if the circus is coming to town, Damon, can we, can we start with LeBron talking about U of A because he seems to be all in on, on backing the A and bearing down. And I don't think that this seems like a circus to me, Damon. Focus on the importance of the next time on Bryce, um, for sure. Yeah. What question was that in your household, what went in the decision and, uh, his direction? Well, it's his decision to make. And, uh, he went where he felt, um, comfortable, um, you know, a straight shooter, coach, coach, Lloyd, a straight shooter, gave him exactly what they believed in him or what they, they thought about him as a person, as a player. And, uh, we're happy to be a part of the Beardown community now, um, got some terrible friends, um, and Richard Jefferson and Chaney Fry, uh, that are alumnae, so not too excited about that. But other than that, we're excited to go to be a part of the Tucson community. I mean, you can, you can hear it there, Damon, he's, he's excited to be a part of the Tucson community. He's, he's trying to walk in with open arms, you know, he's excited. He's had RJ and Chaney Fry already probably in his ear, you know, telling them all the spots to go when he comes to town and things like that dirt bags, dirt bags, you know, we're going to get a LeBron James, their Jacks back in appearance from LeBron James is insane. I can't even imagine. But no, yeah, this is, that is not what the circus looks like, right? That is, that is a proud father who is happy to now support a new school because of his son's alliance with that school. Uh, yeah, Damon, how, how good does it feel for you to see LeBron James up in our school like that? Yeah. A couple of notes I have from that video, things that came to mind when he put on that hat, I mentioned it to Kevin while we were watching it, definitely thought that was going to be an Arizona hat. Like he pulls out that Ohio state hat, puts it straight on his head. I was totally expected just a beautiful branded bills Arizona hat there. Um, we'll get it. We'll get, we'll get out the ship. I'm son. We'll, we'll figure out. Absolutely. Yeah. We'll get to that. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, another thing that came to mind him saying he's excited to be a part of the Tucson community, him and his family. It's funny. I mean, they, they visit Tucson, the LeBron James family, like, you know, are they used to high class things, do they like expensive class, do they like expensive stuff? Do they, do they like living in nice areas? Yeah. Um, I don't know. Just something to think about, uh, you know, they obviously got the hell out of Cleveland as fast as possible. Went to Miami, went back to Cleveland said, all right, let's go. We did what we needed to do. Let's go to LA. Let's get some nice weather now coming to Tucson going to presumably spend a lot of time in Tucson excited to learn about how trash Tucson is from, you know, ASU fans, people up in Phoenix, uh, regarding, you know, LeBron and his family, probably buying like property in Tucson, honestly, I'm, I'm, I'm excited for those, for that, like, kind of, uh, uh, you know, polarization we have there, like, Oh, wow. Isn't Tucson such a dump also the most famous athlete in all of America just bought a home in Tucson. Yeah. It's going to be, it's going to be really hard for the Joe Schmoes and Phoenix that are like, yeah, Tucson, nothing to do down there. And then you got LeBron, you're going to have a great time and we know he's going to have a good time. Yeah. It's just, it's just, uh, people that own properties used on Paul McCartney, uh, Oprah LeBron, like it's just, it's a who's who. Yeah. It really is Tucson, the Hollywood of the Southwest, even though, you know, Hollywood can be in the West where we're going to take the south of the, of the, you know, you get what I'm saying here. That's what I'm hearing. That's what people are talking about. People are saying, uh, Edgar here says, no chance they go anywhere south the sixth street, uh, unless they want some of the best Mexican food they'll ever have in their entire life. Unless they want to be graced with some of the best Mexican food ever, then I would suggest do indeed, do indeed goes out the sixth street. Um, yeah. So I mean, those were just kind of my general reactions to that initially, but also, uh, just full disclosure. I mean, let's get into it. Like people that hate LeBron, I'm not, I'm not a LeBron guy. We know this Kevin. We know this about me. Like I full disclosure, everybody, I'm a Miami heat fan. One of his major flaws did LeBron, did LeBron win my franchise to championships? Yes, he did. Did he also walk out the door and leave us? Yes, he did. Was I upset about that? Absolutely. Uh, I have not liked him since. I also think that he seems like a really good dude. I think that he seems like a good dad. Like, I don't, I think this whole situation to me feels like, yeah, okay, uh, this is, you know, this is someone that we want in and around our program, even, even as a guy who's not the biggest LeBron fan, someone that hasn't wanted to, you know, necessarily be associated with LeBron and whatnot, I think that this is, this is nothing but a positive for Arizona. Yeah. I totally agree. And you know, I'm on the opposite side of that spectrum. I love LeBron James, uh, the basketball player, the philanthropist, the guy, uh, and it's definitely, uh, but that's what I'm saying. I do like LeBron the guy. That's exactly what I was just saying right now. I don't like him. I'm not even going to criticize the athlete because there's no reason to, he's the greatest of all time. I also agree. It's a lot of, it's a lot of people that hate joy that are reacting to this, that they are acting to this news that just don't want to smile, Damon. There's no reason not to smile at this news, in my opinion, but that's just me. Maybe I'm just rose color goggles. I don't know. But, uh, yeah, no, I'm excited for it and, and let's see what, let's see what it brings. Do you guys not like national attention? That's what I guess I would ask those people like, I feel like as Arizona fans, a lot of times we find ourselves in spots where we're complaining like, Hey, no one's talking about Arizona. They're not, they're not giving us the credit we deserve, right? And then we go ahead and we get this guy who's going to put us on like the, the limelight of the national scale. Like, I mean, the spotlight is shining straight at us. And these same people are going to be like, we don't want anything to do with it. I think that's crazy. And it just seems like a complete, uh, you know, you're, you're, it's so counterintuitive to what everyone complains about all the time anyways. Um, but yeah, I think overall Bryce James, positive for Arizona, going to help them, uh, when, when going after big time recruits, like co-opete, like we mentioned earlier, uh, like, uh, Braden Burries, like Elijah Arenas. So I mean, and that's the number eight, number 10 and number 15 players on the ESPN top 100 respectively there, um, do you, do you foresee a world Kevin where all three of these players could come to Arizona? Or do you think that it's more of like a co-opete in one of these guards type of type of situation? I think that Arizona could land all three. I think what's most likely is that they land co-opete in one of the guards. I think that we saw rumors on social media about co-opete getting a crystal ball today to Arizona. Um, the, the, the waves are, are rolling in that direction, it seems. But I think that if, if you do secure a co-opete, I, I think it's Elijah Arenas. I think, I think I have no insider info, obviously, but I would assume that that the Arenas name is going to play a huge role in Elijah Arenas coming to Arizona over a Brayden Burries. Um, and I think that if, if we, I'll say like this, we're, we're talking a lot about Arizona setting itself up for the future with recruiting for the future of NIL. Yeah. I think what better way to do that than to have a second generation Arenas and a, and a, a, the son of LeBron James at one point on the same roster. Yeah. So you set yourself up better than that, you know what I mean? Um, and so yeah, I think what's most likely is Elijah Arenas and co-opete. Um, but I do think it's possible, uh, that with the kind of, uh, brand name that Arizona has, they could secure all three and the momentum is going. Yeah. Absolutely. Brayden Burries, of course we mentioned on the, uh, emergency podcast we did, uh, plays on the strive for greatness, EYBL team with Bryce James. So obviously I think that they're pretty close there. Elijah Arenas from Southern California, co-opete, a clutch client. So there, there are connections with all of these top dogs that Arizona is recruiting here. Uh, these are probably the three guys that Arizona is, is putting the most effort into right now. As they should. Um, yeah. I mean, I, I think it, it really is just kind of a, uh, fun time to be an Arizona fan. I would say like co-opete, like you mentioned, Kevin, uh, crystal ball coming in, coming in on, on three, uh, maybe trending in the right direction there for Arizona. Um, but I just want to take this time, uh, to, uh, tell ASU fans, thank you for coming out on the co-opete recruitment. Uh, guys, uh, you know, I, I think it's, I think it's really cute, uh, that you wanted to dance with the big dogs a little bit there. Um, just know you'll never, you'll never be one of us. You'll never will be, uh, co-opete, he was never coming to ASU. Sorry that I have to be the bearer of bad news there. Um, yeah, just, I, I think it's, it's laughable. It's laughable. They thought that they could get in a one on one recruiting battle with big bro and they were going to come out victorious. Crazy stuff. Kevin. The, I, I immediately thought of the social media joke where it's the Aaron Rodgers waving the flag coming out of the tunnel that, that reminded me of ASU recruiting for, for Coa. Yeah, if, if, if, if Coa Pete ends up at Arizona, I think that, that should be a tweet that one of us make, but that is, that is neither here nor there. But yeah, no, that's a great point, Damon. And you're put shout out, shout out to the Sun Devils for at least showing up. Yeah. Thank you guys. Appreciate you. Uh, Edgar puts it in the chat here. Coa probably saw acquaintance in Santa not getting paid has been reported, uh, by Jason Sheer, uh, and by Chris Cartman over at two four seven sports, the U of A and the ASU guy that, um, of course, uh, the Netflix documentary, or was it Hulu, something like that, some streaming service documentary that was in the works for Bobby Hurley and the Sun Devils, fell through. So you, you have guys like Shannon, acquaintance, big time recruits, uh, that might not be seeing the money that they were promised necessarily. So we'll see how that plays out if they do indeed, maybe even return for a second year at ASU. I know. Queens is ineligible to go to the draft this year. So he will have to come back for a second college basketball season. Does that impact that decision? Um, we're going to find out, uh, but, you know, that me and Kevin will always be here to laugh at ASU, especially ASU basketball. Um, we got a little bit more. We got some Cincinnati preview coming up, uh, and we're going to talk about that next on the A.Z. Wildcats podcast. Let's talk a little empire today, Kevin, uh, empire today. I am currently sitting on some empire today wood flooring, uh, and man, does this, this stuff beautiful. They came in, they easy installed it. They showed us what it was going to look like beforehand, Kevin. They were like, Hey, uh, just so happens, we have this, this special system here at empire today where we can show you exactly, you take a picture of your, of like your room. They show you exactly what their flooring is going to look like in that room. Uh, so that yeah, so they don't just like lay it down and then all of a sudden you look at it and you go, Oh, I actually changed my mind. I don't like that. Um, not an empire today, empire today, uh, they're going to save you that hassle. They're quick. They're cheap. They're, you know, that they get the job done everything that you could possibly want from your foreign company. Uh, and of course, uh, they're going to help you out with that $350 off a new flooring today at empire today.com slash P H N X that's right guys, uh, head on over to empire. There are official foreign partner and, uh, yeah, those guys, I mean that they, no one knows foreign like empire. It's that simple. Uh, you want tile, you want wood, you want carpet, any of the above empire today. Well, Damon, uh, you're sitting on your empire flooring and behind you, I see we have some beautiful branded bills, hats. Now, if you want to elevate your brand, use branded bills, the perfect hardware and apparel to do just that, whether you need snapbacks, truckers, fittets, bees, or even teas, branded bills has you covered with performance and style, looking for some gear to make your brand stand apart from the crowd, branded bills as you covered with the best custom headwear. Start your order, uh, at their dedicated team, which will help you create the exact custom apparel that you need their partnerships with, of course, you have a and they also do charity work with ASU as well, uh, as a part of their campus collection, but they, the most important part is they are a homegrown company from right here in Arizona day and we love to support the soil. Uh, absolutely. And, uh, yeah, I mean, we talk about it all the time, branded bills literally the most comfortable headwear I have ever used in my entire life. You, you, you put that branded bills hat on and all of a sudden, it's like a glove, no matter what, every time it's like a glove. So check it out. Head to branded bills.com and use code PH and X for 20% off your first order, Damon. Branded bills, uh, the best hats out there, uh, like I told you, Kevin, you go to Mcales center, you go to Arizona stadium these days, they have whole boots of, uh, branded bills hats. And I just, I don't know. I think that's incredible. It is. You love, you love to see a good brand get out there and, and really succeed. What a place we've gotten to as a society, right? Like we're branded bills is just partnering with the University of Arizona. I, I don't know that this is, if it's true or not, maybe it is, but I'll tell you what, I haven't seen any branded bills, ASU partnerships, I mean, they have one. We kind of snuck it. It's, it's hidden. You know, they, I think the ASU, I mean, at the stadium though, oh, that's valid, it's valid, but hold on. I have another gripe here. I think the ASU crew is messing with our set Damon because I came in this morning and that you have a hat that sits right above your right shoulder, uh, was covered by that ASU hat that sits above the back of your head right now. That's absurd. I had to take it and toss it back there where you now see it, where it belongs in the background as just fodder to, to exist and, and fill up space, you know, uh, but yeah, what's, we gotta, we gotta get on to tree and Eric, they can't be messing with our set. It's disgusting and not okay. But while we're on the topic of disgusting and not okay, uh, this, uh, joke by A.Z. Wildcats fan in the chat is hilarious. Uh, they say ASU losing out on Coa Pete is their second worst missed targeting call of the week. I would say it's too soon, but I don't care that was, that's hilarious joke, uh, and they deserve it. So is this, is this a safe space, Kevin, always Damon, always a safe space. Okay. I'm going to go ahead and say it, say it. I don't think that was targeting. Okay. Is it safe space still? Yeah. I don't think it was targeting either. What's he supposed to do? Yeah. Yeah. Genuinely. Yeah. What's he supposed to do? I will say it looked really bad. They did look bad. Like the optics were not good. They did look bad, but I want to know how he's supposed to tackle. Yeah. Because listen, like, I don't, I don't mean to be this guy, but like they, that's how they teach you to tackle. When you play football, that is like, they tell you, head up, face mask, yep, right here front, like right, right in the front of the helmet, and that's where contact was made. And like, I just, I'll be honest, I don't, I don't think that you can call that targeting in that situation. And I think that like he got blown up. I feel bad for the guy. It's unfortunate for sure. It is. Absolutely. But I like, I'll tell you, like that, that post where Quinn Evers got picked off and that ASU safety just decapitated the Texas wide receiver. If that one's not targeting, then neither is that other one. That's where I'm at with it. We've established that I don't think the late game won against ASU was targeting before I say this, right? Yes. I also don't think the one that was uncalled against Texas was targeting either. If you look at the replay, it's clear shoulder to shoulder contact. I'm fine with consistency. I do think it was completely unnecessary by that, by that text, by the ASU safety there. I mean, he wasn't going for the ball. I totally want that. And he straight, he straight up, like it was a dangerous hit on the other one was like, like I think that that's just like a kind of a bang, bang football play like the running back turned his head around, unfortunately, right in the exact spot where he was going to get hit in the head, right? Yeah. And the, but the, the, that pass, like the receivers jumping up to catch the ball. And all of a sudden he gets like straight forearm shiver into his like deck area. The memory, the play had, had played itself out almost like this was like at the tail end of it, right? This was not like a, oh, I need to, I need to light him up so that he doesn't hold onto this pass. The pass has been deflected and like he takes another lunge into the guy. So yeah, I think that one was, was the more unnecessary of the two, but I think they were like, if you're going to call one, I'm fine with that, but like I think that they just need to call both of them. So, and, and also like where I'm at with it, like maybe, maybe this is my bias Arizona fan eyes, but I really felt like ASU was just getting every single call, every single break throughout that entire process. And then Texas gets one call and that's all everybody wants to talk about the entire time. That, I mean, like it wouldn't have been a comeback. I don't think if the ASU wasn't consistently getting calls throughout there, but that's fine. I mean, it was still one of the best college show ball games ever watched. I was just about to say it's unfortunate that that has been the prevailing narrative after the game of all the mistargeting. Was it targeting? Was it not? Did they miss it? Yeah. I mean, I've never seen it. Definitely. Like from an entertainment value standpoint, from a suspense standpoint, from what does it mean for these two schools? Like it was a lot going into that. Yeah. I mean, we, we, we hate the scum devils, but also I kind of respect credit where credit is to respect them for what they did this season and a great fight in the game that mattered most. No doubt. Look, I've been saying it's a U Kevin and all their U of A fans like there's a zero percent chance if we were in this circumstance that they, that ASU football was in this year that they would be taking the high road. Like a lot of U of A fans are saying, Hey, that was a really great season for you guys. Kenny's an incredibly likable coach, scats such a great player, Sam Levitt, what a story. Like all of that stuff. I think Arizona fans in general have been a little bit more accepting and kind of, you know, accrediting for that, uh, whereas if ASU fans, if we're in the same circumstance, there is a zero and I mean zero percent chance that they would be saying the same thing about how much they respect us and whatnot. But great season for ASU, um, unforgettable year for them for sure. Hopefully, hopefully they kind of keep falling off a cliff without scatting here. That's, that's what we need. Um, but let's get back into some basketball. Let's do it. Kevin, uh, we got Cincinnati tomorrow, uh, Cincinnati currently the number 16 ranked team in the country. Um, I think that they probably keep that ranking, Kevin, if they can win tomorrow, uh, and they probably drop out of the top 25 if they lose tomorrow, given that they lost earlier in the week to Kansas state. Um, so that'll be a little bit interesting. Um, what, how do you feel about Cincinnati in general? Like what, what are your thoughts on that team? It's another big 12 school man. They can defend their butt off and they're not really going to light you up on the scoreboard. Um, I, I mean, my keys to this one, I think we're going to get into more of the, the, the weeds of things. Some of these players that Arizona needs to be watching out for, but in terms of broad overarching terms, you got to turn Cincinnati over, uh, we're going to look here. Let's take a look at their overall season stats so far via Ken Palm. You see that record 10 and two with O and one in conference, uh, their offensive rating is 56th. So not bad, uh, but their defensive rating is really where they, they bring home the bacon, uh, top five in defensive rating with a 92.5 and their assist to turn over ratio is a 1.65, which is good for 21st in the nation, but 250 is a big number, Damon. Their strengths to schedule ranks 250th in the nation. Uh, yeah. Yeah. Cincinnati to me is a team that Arizona, to me, they kind of profile and not exactly the same, but they kind of profile in broad terms like a TCU where you're going to, you're going to, they're going to try to slow you down and you're going to have to fight back against that. Uh, in a one way to do that is turn them over. They had a season high 14 turnovers against K state in their loss, uh, that their first conference game. Um, and so yeah, I think if, if Arizona can, can turn them over, rebound the ball, uh, they should win this game, uh, I'm, I'm going to say it. They should win this game by like a, like a handful here, like a, like a maybe two handfuls, but yeah, let's, let's get into some of the X's and O's of the who's who. Yeah. You know, stats back up for a second, something that I wanted to know, um, they are 21st in the country out of three 64 and assist to turnover ratio. They're really good at not turning the ball over. I don't necessarily know that this comes from a place where they're getting a ton of assists. Kevin, uh, they don't really strike me as a big like ball movement, spread it around, run up and down type of team. I think they're very much like a slow, slow it down type of team, but, uh, that is his turnover ratio. I think it just goes to show that they really do keep hold of the basketball at a decently high clip. And one thing that they didn't do against Kansas state, uh, is take care of the basketball, uh, against Kansas state, uh, they turned the ball over here 15 times, um, which is, you know, significantly more than their season average, uh, 11 turnovers for Kansas state there. So they won that matchup. Arizona has had some problems with turnovers this season where, uh, you know, when you're playing a team, like an Oklahoma or, or, or whatnot, like those turnovers have been crushing to, you know, allowing the opposing team to get out to a big lead. I think that that could be a big, big factor here in this game, uh, who's taking care of the basketball and, and who's being sloppy with it. Yeah. 1000%. We need to see, uh, as fans, we need to be seeing an efficient Arizona offense, uh, against Cincinnati because I think that if Arizona can start this game in the first 10 minutes, uh, by not turning the ball over, pressuring Cincinnati, uh, forcing them to turnovers. But most importantly, I think the bigs are going to be pivotal in this game. Everyone's going to look at Caleb Love. Everyone's going to look at jizzle James, great name, name hall of fame coming soon. But, uh, yeah, I think that this is going to come down to the bigs, uh, skilings, a junior, uh, who is one of their best rebounders, he has been on a downward rebounding trend since he returned from injury. That is not the case on offense though. He's been kind of finding his rhythm since he returned from his injury there. Uh, you just don't want to see Arizona get out muscled. You have bedao go, uh, their big seven foot center down low. Uh, it's going to be huge to see what crevasse can do down there. And if he, if he, if he doesn't get bullied by, by, uh, bedao go and, and Mitchell, then I think Arizona has a good chance if they can rebound and turn over Cincinnati. Yeah. I think the bigs are going to be the X factor of pretty much the entire rest of the year, in my opinion, because you're playing in the big 12. It's a physical conference and you need, you know, physical type players to, to match up with that. What we've seen this far, I mean, I think as far as Toby, a walker, like his, his best trait is probably his physicality, right? Like he's, he's not particularly well rounded offensively. Like he's not providing much on that end, but he's going to rebound and he's going to be tough and give you some fouls and I think that that's a good fit in that circumstance. Uh, and then you have Henry V star who I think you, you're going to need to give you some offensive production if you want to be a successful team this year, uh, because I just don't think you're getting it out of Toby a walker. Like I don't think that that offensive production's coming. So you're going to need that scoring juice a little bit, just from Henry Vasar. And, uh, you know, without crevasse, like he was supposed to be kind of the post score of this year, um, it'll be interesting to see, uh, but yeah, I think that those big men are definitely just the X factor for the rest of the season going down. Yeah. And I think that if, I mean, we're going to, again, I kind of want to talk about some, some Cincinnati guys that I think Arizona needs to slow down. Yeah. Cause we do know the bigs are going to be an X factor. We know the guards got to show up. We know what the way he's got to do, but let's talk about Cincinnati. Now one of your favorite names in all of college basketball. Yeah. Seamos, look, yes. Great name. Unreal name. The Lithuanian wing is six foot eight, 225, but he's probably one of their better scores. Uh, and if, and they're offense, they're kind of a team. We're very familiar with this where as your best scorer goes, your team also goes with them. Uh, and as Seamos has not had some of his best games, that is when Cincinnati has also not had some of their best games. He shot two for six, uh, in their loss to case date with just four points. Yeah. And Jizzo James, another one of their, uh, best players here in their win over Xavier by just three points. He shot over 11, uh, and I, I tend to think that Arizona is a more quality team than Xavier. I think that if Arizona was, I think so, but I think if Arizona was in that situation, they probably also walk out there with a victory. My point here is you have to slow down their scores, uh, because as their, their team has shown in the past, uh, propensity to not pick up the slack when they're, when their best scores are not on. So I do think it's going to be a situation where it's going to come down to big 12, uh, basketball defense and rebounded. So that's, that's, that's my opinion on it. I think Arizona has to slow down the coceus, rebound the ball and, and, and lock in on their offense. Yeah. I mean, as you mentioned there, uh, Seamos Lococius, 0 for two from three, uh, in that Kansas state game, um, and their regular three point scorers were not the ones that were hitting threes in that game, uh, just some quick research before the show, um, they hit seven threes in the gaming against Kansas state, which is a pretty low number. Uh, and it, one was Day Day Thomas off the bench. You got four from Dan Scaling's junior and you got two from Dylan Mitchell, Dan Scaling's junior and Dylan Mitchell, those six threes that they hit matched their combined season total for three pointers prior to that game. Uh, so in 11 games prior to that game, uh, Dylan Mitchell and Dan Scaling's had a combined of six three pointers between them. They hit six three pointers in that game and they still lose, uh, you know, I, I think it bodes decent for Arizona's chances. You're not going to get those type of scoring, uh, outputs from three from a guy like Dylan Mitchell who shoots sub 30% a guy like Dan Scaling's who I believe also shoots sub 30% from three, um, good podcasting 30.4% from three, 27.7% from Dan Scaling's for his career. Uh, I just, I, those guys aren't going to, they might hit one, two, they're definitely not hitting six. I'll tell you that much. You can expect their best scores to up their production. You can expect, you know, some of their, their top scores from this game to lower that. We'll see if that evens out, but I do think it bodes decently well for Arizona's chances. I agree. And the, I was smiling during your, your wonderful smart take there, but because I was reminded of the fact that every game when we come into these games, like, Oh, well, they can't shoot. Oh, blah, blah, blah, blah. Right? Guess what ends up happening? A couple guys get hot and then after the game, we're talking about Arizona's three point defense. We don't need that. What I want to see is I want to see this team to shut them down from three, shut everybody up, prove you can defend the three and, and get out there and get it done, beat Cincinnati, have a huge victory on the road to start off conference play in your second game and continue on to West Virginia, where you will then hopefully be the team you've already played without their best player if he does not play. So I don't know, but I do, I do think that the, the road element of it all has not been really talked about enough yet, Arizona first big 12 conference road game. Cincinnati has won 11 straight home games at fifth, third arena. And I need to temper expectations there a little bit. It's not exactly the home court advantage that other teams in the big 12 might have. They went four and five in big 12 play last year at home. So while they currently are seven to no in their last, you know, or yeah, seven to no at home this year, both out of conference and such, we know that they have a propensity to fall off as the season goes on, especially at home. So I do feel like Arizona is not walking into a fog Allen. They're not walking into, you know, the camera crazies. This is going to be an environment that Arizona can win in and should win in. And yeah, I expect them to do so. Yeah, absolutely. one guy that I just want to make a quick note on that I think you definitely have to, you know, kind of kind of corral a little bit here is Dylan Mitchell. He's a power forward six foot eight to 10 junior out of Tampa, Florida 11.7 points per game, almost eight rebounds on 67% shooting. So extremely efficient shooting here for Cincinnati. And Mitchell was a top 10 recruit in the country. He was a five star. He's a guy, you know, who obviously has a ton of talent, went to Texas, was decent there, you know, maybe on paper, he's not the leading scorer for Texas. He is their most efficient player. And I think Arizona's maybe their weakest spot on their roster right now is that four spot, right? You got Trey Townsend, who hasn't looked incredibly physical, hasn't really been playing above the rim. Dylan Mitchell being a top 10 recruit. I mean, I'll be honest, I haven't watched a whole lot of Dylan Mitchell. I expect him to be a guy who is probably just has the athletic advantage over a Trey Townsend. Just given that, you know, pedigree and whatnot. And I think Trey Townsend is really going to have to step up and get some big rebounds in this game because that's been a problem all season. And if Arizona is going to be as good as we expect them to be before the season, Trey Townsend is going to have to be a player that actually provides some positives on the four because we have not seen a whole lot of that thus far this season. So you're going to talk about some New Year's resolutions for 2025 Arizona athletics, as well as recap a little bit more Cincinnati basketball preview right after this break on the AZ Wildcats podcast. All right, Kevin, it's time for a little bit of circle K. Oh, yeah, you mentioned. We happened to have a quarterback, Noah Fafida, who is sponsored to an inferior gas station. No, he's perfect. No, no, he's perfect. No, he's close, but he isn't. I just I think circle K just blows him out of the water. It's the best. If you live in Arizona, you know, you got to start circle K like within like a hundred feet of you in all directions. They got a world wide now. And of course, they got the cheapest gas, cheapest drinks, cheapest everything you could ask for. You can go ahead and scan that QR code, sign up for the inner circle rewards. If you're not signed up for inner circle rewards already, I have literally no idea what you're doing. You sell you save 25 cents per gallon on your first five Phillips, then after that you save three cents per gallon every time you fill up until it goes up to five cents when you become a premium member of the inner circle like I am like Kevin is like all our friends over here at a PHNX. Make sure that you sign up for the inner circle and take advantage of those member exclusive deals and discounts. I'm going to stop by. I'm going to grab some drinks, maybe a monster energy drink. They always got deals on those by two, get one free, whatnot, 79 cent polar pops. It is just the best place to go. So join the inner circle for free, download the circle K app today. Terms and conditions apply at participating locations, visit circle K dot com for details. You know, Damon, while you're a circle K, go ahead and get yourself a little neutral. How about that? Neutral. Keep it tasty too, son. This is a public service announcement for all of our hard seltzer lovers. You know, we love you and neutral loves you back. As neutral has arrived, made with simple ingredients like vodka, seltzer and real juice. Neutral tastes good, like real good, so good that you'll never want to drink another artificial tasting seltzer ever again in your entire life. They have a variety of flavors, including pineapple, my personal favorite, watermelon, black cherry, orange and much more. Nothing goes better than college basketball and a neutral, but also college football and neutral is a pretty good marriage as well. I don't know if, you know, bowl season if you're partaking in that, Damon, but you're interested in that kind of thing. Yeah, you know, if you're interested in fun and stuff like that, just, you know, neutral, keep it tasty. Enjoy response. We 2024 and hyzer Bush neutral flavored vodka and carbonation. St. Lewis was very shout out. St. Louis? Mm hmm. Is that any, any note on St. Louis? Interesting. I think my one note on St. Louis is that's probably one of the most underrated cities in the entire globe. So interesting. Nothing crazy. Are you from there? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I don't talk about it a lot. You know, I didn't know that. Yeah. Shout out everybody in the chat who's in here right now. We got Edgar, David, Erica, OC bodybuilders, Edgar. Thank you guys for watching. We appreciate you guys. Make sure you like this video. Subscribe to the channel if you haven't already. Always supports us. Absolutely. McDeath back the A. Always got it back to a Macbeth. No question. No question. And we're going to do some more backing of the A right now, Kevin. We have some New Year's resolutions to get to. Oh, yeah. But first, let's go ahead and just announce real quick. We're going to be doing a fun thing all season long. We're going to be doing a hall of names. Is that what you want to call it, Kevin? Hall of names is good. Yeah. Hall of names. Hall of fame is what we had talked about. Yeah. I think the hall of names, I think, is more dramatic. I think it is a little bit more dramatic. Yeah. We're going to take note of all of the best names we see in college basketball season, put them on a list. And then, at the end of the year, should we induct five Hall of Namer's or should we-- I think you get two a year. Two a year. And it's all this five a year. It's going to be an exclusive club. It doesn't be an exclusive club. It can't be one of these Hall of Fame's, Damon, that just lets anybody who played a certain amount of games and did a certain thing in. No, you've got to really earn. You know, Giselle James is going to be going up against some tough competition. I just think it's going to be tough when we look back at this list and we see Giselle James and he's not a part of what we want to do. Yeah. Maybe it's like a two-ballot situation. Yeah. Is he a first-ballot-all name? But yeah, no, I think that's a great idea. The Hall of Names is what we should do. Should we do a special category for Arizona opponents? Should we track the craziest name, the face of Arizona, in addition to just the craziest name in the country? Yeah, why not? Let's go ahead and do that. I like that. Just a little quick brainstorming process live on air with all of you folks. So we're going to keep that going throughout the season. Should be a good time. Seamos Locoches, Giselle James, two early candidates. Yes. Supreme Cook. That's good stuff out here. Supreme Cook. Whoa. Anybody in the chat, if you guys have names that you've come across, make sure you guys add us on Twitter, put it in the comments. Let us know what you think. I think it's going to be a little fun thing that we do all season long and we're going to do another fun thing right now. We got for each New Year's resolutions for Arizona athletics coming into next season. And Kevin, why don't you go ahead and start us off. All right. So my first New Year's resolution, I actually have two for not myself and then two for myself. So you know, you just got to spread the love here. My first New Year's resolution is that Arizona should market its players and staff properly this year. I think last year, there was a huge missed opportunity with Fafita and C-Mac and Brennan and this storyline that kind of took over Tucson for the greater part of a calendar year. I think that there were just many missed opportunities to get Fafita and Macmillan and Brennan in front of the people before the snowball kind of started the snowball. I think the public perception could have been different, not much different because the team performance was what it was. But I just really would love to see more fun stuff with the athletes and coaches that we love. Right? And yeah, that's my first one. I want to see more fun stuff with the team and coaches. Yeah. My first one is pretty simple, competent offensive coaching. That's my New Year's resolution. Can we feel the offense that plays at a collegiate level and doesn't play like a high school football? That's where I'm at. Every single offensive possession was the most, you know, obvious play calling of all time this entire season, run between the tackles, run between the tackles. Oh, it's third and seven. Fafita's being pressured. Hopefully he can escape the pressure and just chuck it and team acts down there somewhere and we'll get it first. Oh, third and 10. Let's run a funnel screen to the left out of shotgun. Yeah. Lots of screens, lots of, you know, kind of uninspiring inside runs like it just was so egregious to watch. I can't, I can't do that again this season. Seth Dagey, I'm on my hands and knees. I am praying to the heavens. Please sir, please fix this offense. That's all I care about this next season. That's number one for me. Easy number one. That one got dramatic. My number two kind of goes to in tandem with your number one, actually, I want to see Noah Fafita under the center more. I feel like we saw way too much shotgun Fafita. I would love to see Noah maybe get utilized in the way that an undersized quarterback should be utilized. And not like he's some six, four field field general because he is not that. Yeah, short and sweet with that one. I would love to see no Fafita under center more next year in the Seth Dagey offense. For sure. I'm going to skip ahead real quick just to keep it on the theme of offensive what we're doing right now. Less Sam Olson. That is, it's pretty simple. I don't want to go into it too much more, but do not need to see Sam Olson on the field for like 65% of offensive steps next year. We got to see a lot of Sam Olson this past year. He is a San Jose state all star, of course, as we know, I am over that experience. Sam Olson, please be second or third string tight end. Thank you very much. I'm going to keep it short and sweet on that one, Kevin. As you should, I think the, I think the point was clear with that one. But number three is I will not, I might do in the Bart Simpson, I will not overreact to Carter Bryant highlights, right? So like that block from last game, you know how bad I just want to like project Carter Bryant to just be like wemby or something stupid, like just something crazy. I just don't want to react and get my faith that, you know, in the next two months that Carter Bryant is going to have the amount of basketball growth that you have over the course of like 12 months. So I just don't, I want to temper my own expectations, but enjoy the ride with Carter Bryant and not get my expectations so high that I disappoint myself. For sure. And kind of in the same vein, I think it kind of matches up well. You don't want to overreact to Carter Bryant and like maybe the positives that get brought in or even the negatives, right? Like I think that that goes to show one thing, uh, Damon, you've gone into the, the abyss. Yeah. Absolutely. Go ahead and why don't we bring up those Cincinnati staff. I'll talk more a little bit about Cincinnati while I go also look and find Damon here in the studio. He just ran off on me. But, uh, actually, you know what, Damon, I'll talk about Cincinnati through the purview of my, uh, my New Year's resolutions because I will not waver in my faith for Caleb Love. That is my next New Year's resolution. I think we as fans are way too, uh, mere curial with our faith and Caleb Love too many temperature checks. We cannot have this many checkups with Caleb Love. We can't just after every game, like, where's Caleb, where's Caleb, uh, mentally and where he's at in his game. I think that Caleb Love is who Caleb Love is and we need to have faith and trust that, uh, Caleb Love will perform when it matters most. Now, I, you know, Damon brought up his Miami cell, uh, his Miami Heat fandom earlier. We have yet another rivalry with me and Damon dog behind the scenes, um, his Miami Heat fandom and my Boston Celtics fandom just do this all day, right? But I bring all that to bring up as a Celtics fan when Marcus Smart played for our team, right? There was a saying, we trust and believe in Marcus Smart, no matter what, he might have an awful game, but the, the real Celtics fans were on Twitter saying, we trust and love you Marcus Smart. That's how I feel about Caleb Love. You have to ride the waves with Caleb Love because you know, and you hope that when he isn't under the brightest lights, he's going to shine the brightest as well. And so this season I'm going to make it my resolution, not to waver in my faith for Caleb Love. I think it's fair, you know, when times are at their hardest and you really stop believing, you got, that's when you got to believe the most, Kevin, that's when you got to bear down and rely on love. It's like a, it's like a religion. We are, we are the, we are praying at the altar of Caleb Love and, uh, you know, when, when like I said, when things are, times are their toughest, that's when, you know, our, spirit doesn't waver the most. That's when we, we lock in and we say, Hey, Caleb Love, carry us to the promise land. Uh, kind of similar, I know I was in the middle of my, my whole spiel and when we had a little tech issue there, uh, you said you will not overreact to Carter Bryant. You're saying basically the same thing about Caleb Love, like stay wavering, unwavering, I should say lock in. Yeah. It's more of like, make sure I'm not like overreacting in the other way with Caleb Love. Kind of like two roads, a diversion, a yellow wood or whatever. Yeah. That's fair. Uh, mine is fairly similar with Tommy Lloyd. Um, I think when this team was five and five, there were a lot of people that were like, this is unacceptable. This is not Arizona basketball, blah, blah, blah, like, uh, you know, Tommy was obviously like a lot of late game losses. Uh, you know, team wasn't looking great. Um, he's still Tommy fricking Lloyd, man, like he's still that good. Uh, and I just, you know, I think that that's, that's kind of where we're out with him. Like he's one of the best coaches in the country. He'd be scooped up in a second if Arizona got rid of him. Believe in Tommy Lloyd, he's one of the best coaches we could possibly have. Uh, and I know that for a fact, he's going to take us to a final four, no doubt in my mind about that. Maybe not this year, but in general. Yes. I'm with you 1000%. I love Tommy Lloyd. I often tell my family members that I would trust Tommy Lloyd with my life. If I was in a life for death situation, you know, I love my mom, but I'm trusting in Tommy, you know, that's how much I love Tommy Lloyd. I would put my life in Tommy Lloyd's hands. Yeah. I would definitely put my school's basketball team in Tommy Lloyd's hand. So I'm with you on that, Damon. We cannot waver, but we are going to get to our last two resolutions, uh, after the outbreak. What were you going to say, Damon? Same thing. Let's go see. Simpatico. There we go. But yeah, right back after this break. Don't go anywhere. All right. Damon. Now, maybe we're Simpatico because, you know, we're just our chakras are aligning, you know, that cold cannabis just has us on the same wavelength. Uh, but our friends at cold cannabis are now available at your local truly with a variety of premium flour. Uh, but the best part about this is you get an exclusive exclusive strain at truly locations called magic marker. Now they've had magic marker around in this office. I've had magic marker. It's high quality product, uh, but in the valley has, and not just me, but the valley has masked for magic marker and it is back visit trueleaf.com to find the local shop near you or place an order and tell them pH and accent you. But we all know that great flowers are hard to find, Damon, uh, and luckily our friends at truly have been dropping absolutely fire here. Uh, we all know that they'd be dropping off all kinds of different packs here. I, I think a shipment is expected soon. I hope, uh, you know, but, uh, like I said, be sure to check out the new truly vocation opening in Maricopa just on January 11th. Get over to truly.com and find your local shop and place an order today. Yeah, of course. And, uh, we had a PHNX, uh, Sun Devils watch party over at Heel River resorts and casinos this weekend for the peach bull and, and just really, really heartbroken over what happened with those guys. Uh, I mean, that is just, that's just such a damn shame. It was such a damn shame what happened in that game, but it was lit out there. It was a packed house. People were going crazy. Of course, that comeback, uh, you know, that was probably best case scenario for us, Kevin. Just tons of momentum. So hyped, ripped it all away on that fourth and 13. Love that. Uh, and of course, love our friends over at Heel River resorts and casinos. They got four locations while they're as fast, loan view, Viva and Santian mountain. Uh, and they, that is the experience, uh, that is the best in the valley when it comes to, you know, you're gambling, you're casino experience. Uh, my favorite, of course, Wild Horse Pass, all kinds of restaurants. They got the biggest sports book casino in Arizona. Uh, you're gonna, you're not gonna want to miss it. Head on over to Wild Horse Pass location. We have our Arizona Cardinals watch parties there, uh, and, uh, of course, enter for your chance to win the ultimate Arizona Cardinals VIP experience, uh, where you'll get two tickets to the Niners Cardinals game coming up this Sunday, uh, on field pregame lunch at Morgan Athletic Hub, meet and greet with Big Red and cheerleaders, VIP stadium parking and a two night stay at Heel River resorts and casinos, Viva and more, enter for free at play@heel.com/cardinals. You do you at Heel River resorts and casinos visit play@heel.com for more details. Uh, of course, if you are watching with, with our friends over on Samsung, friends over on Fubu, any of our fast channels, we appreciate you. Head on over to go PHNX.com. The party continues. Uh, and we're gonna round out these final New Year's resolutions here, uh, that me and Kevin have come up with, um, Kevin, whose turn was it? I believe it was yours, Damon, because you went to in a row there. Yeah. Uh, my next one is say less stupid stuff. Let's think about what we say before we do it. Uh, first thing that popped into my head, you guys are going to love every minute of it. I don't want to hear some dumb stuff like that ever again out of Brent Brennan's mouth. Please let it, let's, let's hire like a publicist, let's write down all of our thoughts that we're going to say before we walk into a press conference. Let's rehearse it a little bit. No more of that because when all of our players and granted it has been fixed a little bit, Kevin. I mean, you know, you got Stukes and Dalton Johnson and you got some players come back. But when he says we're going to love every minute of it and then we have a max transfer exodus like top three in the country directly after that, I mean, it just looks so bad. It does. Uh, it everybody else in the country is laughing at us like, let's just, let's just think about what we say before we say it 1000% and the quote that first came to my mind that wasn't the one you already just read was when he was like talking about his player retention and was like, yeah, well, I think we're in a great spot with player retention. And I think, you know, we, we've had conversations and we know these guys and they know us and what we're capable of. And then boom, first day of everybody out. And now obviously we did get, like you said, some guys back, but it was in the moment when you're, you're listening to him speaking, you're like, have some self awareness. Yeah. Like have some, have some feel, you know what I mean? But yeah, I know I'm with you. It kind of goes hand in hand with my first resolution, like, is somebody in PR help this guy out? Like if you, if you don't want him going out there just winging it, then don't crazy. It's crazy take. But I don't know. Yeah, I'm with you on that, say less stupid stuff, keep it simple. Yeah. Keep it simple, stupid. Yeah. Yeah. Kiss it. Don't kill it. I'll also apply it to myself. You know, I don't always have the best filter in the world. So, you know, maybe we could, maybe we could, you know, put that, put that on, on us as well. I mean, maybe I was thinking of Brennan when I said it initially, but, you know, maybe I didn't have to call Jacob Gengaika a loser after he planted the pitchfork of the middle of the field. We could, we could have a little bit of filter on ourselves as well, you know? Yeah. No, I'm with you. It's the best resolution that either of us have came up with in general, because it actually applies to like everyday humans, because we have just been, we have just received two microphones. You and I. So we probably do, we have to say less stupid stuff and make sure that we are keeping it simple. But yeah, I'm a fighter man. Hey, you know, he's a combative dude. I am. I like to argue about sports. Anyone who knows Damon Dog is, no, he's the roughest, toughest scoundrel that ever done watch. I don't know about that. I'm really pretty soft and sweet on the inside when you get to know me. Yeah. That's the funniest thing. I think like obviously my like online persona is so argumentative and I fight with ASU fans and stuff all the time and, you know, some ASU fans know me on Twitter and they genuinely do not like me. Like they, they think I'm like a bad person because I argue with them about our rivalry. I promise you, I am not a bad guy, but it is kind of funny that like people are so fickle where like they get in like a sports argument with you and then they're just like, I hate him forever. Dude, that was like, that was like one of our first like arguments when I got hired here was like, you were like, dude, why don't you hate your rivals? And I was like, you know, that is, it's just sports, you know, is, and you were like, no, like you need to, you need to have some, I feel like you hate your rivals a little bit more now. I do when you started working here than you did prior to because you got to experience what ASU fans are like and what it's like being a U of A fan in this office. And so watching, watching rivalry games or just watching games of ASU with Eric Ruby is insufferable. It's awful. I love Eric Ruby, but it's like two minutes into the game and he's like, if you have A is playing, if something bad happens to you, if he's like, oh, game over, it was nice. It was nice. And then if something good or bad happens to ASU in the first five minutes of their game, it's like, we're so back. What was on that? What was on that talk about, you know, this, that love over saying it, no, no, no, it's like, oh, just my favorite thing is so much ball left. My favorite thing is when they're like, when they're like doing the whole like, are we better than Arizona after our rough start to the season? And then, and then I try to like make like a wager with them. And Eric's like, I'd be an idiot to take that. And you're like, you're the one that's saying, and then he's like, you would be an idiot to think that, like, you know what I mean, he's saying, like, oh, it's like, you said it. I didn't say it. You said it. Yeah. He's like, we're going to be the best offense in the country. And then you're like, well, let's make a bet. Like we're going to be better. And he's like, well, you'd be stupid to not think that anyway, but yeah. My next New Year's resolution, no more spying on our ex's Damon. None of that. It's 2025. The big 2025 can't be spying on jet fish no more, man. I'm over it. Dude. He had a bad year. Well, about Kyle and Boswell. Come on. I come on. I want to I want to root on Kyle and Boswell's downfall. Hey, man, not because of the kid, but mostly because Illinois fans. That's fair. They didn't have been kind of insufferable about it because they didn't go through it the way we went through it, right? And so like when when they're not when he leaves and then we're all like, okay, that's fine. And and Illinois fans are like, ah, don't you want him back? And we're like, no, really, James Bradley's really good. Yeah. But yeah, shout out my old roommate Miguel because Kylan's girlfriend is his sister. So yeah, we do have that overlap. But yeah, no, no more spying on the ex's. Can't do that. I don't really care what Jeff Fish is doing anymore. Like he had a bad year, like it is the team. It didn't work. It didn't work. He tried to leave and take everybody from us and it didn't work. It didn't happen. I will preface this by saying I think Washington is going to be pretty good next year. I think demand Williams is a really talented young quarterback and I think they they're going to bring in some solid transfers. They already got a couple that I've seen. That being said, I'm out on this one with Kevin. If you guys, whoever wants to be with Kevin and not not spy on the ex's, that's chill. But over here on this side, on this side of the Mac, on that, Kevin, you stay on that side of the Mac with your, with all your crew on this side of the Mac, we're spying on our ex's and we are pointing and laughing all season long at them whenever we get the opportunity. You might be pointing and laughing at Umar Bolo in a, in a dive bar at some point. I don't know. But Umar, sweet, sweet Umar, he doesn't deserve that. I didn't say anything. I just know that there's a location that you might find him. There's levels to this I'm saying though, like, like, yeah, yeah, like, Jed Fish, you are at the top of my hate list, you know, Kyle and Boswell, you were up there. Umar Bolo, you gave us, you know, you gave us three good, was it three great seasons, like, the bunch of double doubles, thought about coming back, went and got your bag elsewhere happy for you, man. I have no problem with Umar Bolo. There's levels to this game, Kevin. Grew out the hair. Yeah. He's, he's doing his thing. He's doing his thing, making his money. The fro. Yeah. Yeah, I love it. But yeah, that's all, that's all the ones I had, Damon. That's all the New Year's resolutions. I'll be making this year. No personal ones. None of that. Just Arizona related ones. Oh yeah. I'm not changing anything about myself. No, we are perfect specimen. No change is necessary. 100%. Also who's perfect. Everybody in this chat that joined in to watch this. We appreciate you guys. Thank you guys for tuning in. Make sure you like this video. If you have not already does wonders in terms of helping us stay stick around until after the show is no longer live and drop a comment that'll help out our algorithm. Drop a comment on, do you think that we will get co-opete or actually do you think that we will get all three of co-opete, Elijah, Rina's and Braden Burries. Is that realistic? Is it not? Let us know in the comments. Thank you guys for tuning in. I am at Damon Dog on Twitter. That is D A W G. My boy Kevin is at Kevo posts on Twitter and of course we are at PHNX underscore wild cats on all social media for our beat account. That's going to be the hub for any type of information that we get as Arizona fans. So you're going to be one following that account. Maybe turn those notifications on. You never know in Arizona land what's going on. So yeah. Thank you guys for watching this show. Like this video. Subscribe to this channel and we'll catch you next time. We'll catch you tomorrow for a post game show after we play the Cincinnati Bear Cats. I am Damon. That's Kevin and this is the A Z Wild Cats Podcast.