Seen and Heard on Paradise Island: Father-son radio swap, fan vacations and retro jerseys

PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas — Veteran Arizona radio analyst Ryan Hansen picked up a new play-by-play partner this week at the Battle 4 Atlantis, but it hardly seemed that way.

That’s because Hansen’s play-by-play partner was Brody Dryden, the son of longtime UA broadcaster Brian Jeffries.

The two had no issue figuring out how to share the microphone

“His cadence is almost identical to his dad’s,” Hansen said. “It feels very similar. We did talk briefly before the first broadcast about when I like to get in and get out, the rules of engagement, for lack of a better phrase.

“He understands that exceptionally well. He’s done an amazing job.”

Dryden went with the UA men’s basketball team to the Bahamas because Jeffries couldn’t get a flight home to Tucson in time to guarantee he would be able to work the UA-ASU football game Saturday.

Out of necessity, the father-son duo pulled off the reverse on Nov. 14 — Jeffries went with the UA basketball team to Wisconsin while Dryden covered the UA-Houston football game played the same evening.

The difference for Dryden in both cases has been working with another live person. While having experience working UA women’s basketball, baseball and soccer games, the Mountain View High School and UA grad typically calls those entire games by himself.

He doesn’t have to cut himself off, ever.

But there was something natural about working with Hansen that made it smooth for Dryden, too.

“Ryno has made things easy for me, and I’ve obviously listened to him and my dad for years,” Dryden said. “I think the transition from primarily doing solo basketball in my past, never having an analyst along with me, to now having another voice, has just made a huge difference.

“He adds way more to the broadcast than I can. So I’m super thankful for him.”

As it turns out, the only problem the two really had is that their station inside the Imperial Ballroom/Arena was along the baseline and about 18 inches below the raised floor, restricting their viewing of some key action and compromising their depth-level perception.

“We’ve called some crazy ones before,” Hansen said. “We’ve been up in the hockey press box before. We’ve been up top. At Madison Square Garden, we were up in the corner. During COVID, we were up in the corner at home games.

“I’ve called games with Brian in a lot of odd spots but I don’t recall ever being on the baseline off the court. It’s very challenging.”

Wildcat fan vacation

In his day job, Hansen is the chief operating officer of Bon Voyage Travel, which partly explains why he’s in the Bahamas this week. Hansen normally works home games and only the road games where he won’t miss the workweek, with former UA standout Reggie Geary handling those games.

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But for Thanksgiving week, Hansen came along while actually doing both jobs, since Bon Voyage was offering travel packages to attend Battle 4 Atlantis games.

Hansen said about 100 fans booked trips through his agency, with about half of them flying with the Wildcats on a chartered jet from Tucson on Sunday and the other half finding their own way to Nassau. The Wildcats appeared to have about 300-500 fans on hand overall, depending on the game.

UA athletic director Desiree Reed-Francois, who attended the Wildcats’ first two Atlantis games, said a brunch was held for donors on Monday with happy hour type gatherings held before each game.

Easy on the turkey

The Wildcats enjoyed a traditional Thanksgiving Day meal two years ago after winning the Maui Invitational, but there were a few problems doing so this week.

For one thing, Thanksgiving isn’t a thing in the Bahamas, though resorts catering to tourists of course have been providing them. Also, the Wildcats were actually playing on Thanksgiving and the day after, and digesting a heavy meal isn’t optimal for high-caliber athletic competition.

Also, the Wildcats lost to Oklahoma in their Thanksgiving Day game.

“We’re not doing a traditional Thanksgiving dinner,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said. “We’ll do that down the road.”

Jersey Guy

Sitting courtside opposite the UA bench all week, diehard UA fan Paul Volpe wore a different Wildcat jersey for each game.

For him, that was no problem. Volpe says he has a collection of 40 UA jerseys. This time, he wore an “At ’Em Arizona” jersey that UA wore in a 2016 Armed Forces Classic game at Honolulu, followed by a Tony Womack jersey on Thursday and a blue Steve Kerr No. 25 classic on Friday.

When he wasn’t watching the Wildcats this week, Volpe teamed with the wife of UA coach Lloyd, Chanelle, in a pickleball match against the wife of Gonzaga coach Mark Few and a Zags booster.

Quotable

“We’ve got to go back as a program and do some soul-searching within ourselves and figure out some real answers as to why we’re not being successful as we’d like to be.” — UA’s Lloyd

The big number

15 — Years since Arizona (3-4) had a losing record in men’s basketball, dating back to Sean Miller’s first season as UA’s coach in 2009-10. The Wildcats lost to Wisconsin, Vanderbilt, UNLV and Oklahoma over their first seven games that season.

— Bruce Pascoe