Bear Down Wildcats

TheCatInTheHat

Was the shot altered? That's what I kind of thought, that someone got a fingertip on it. I didn't DVR the game, and it was on ESPN, so I guess there'll be none of the constant replays on Pac-12 Arizona, which is what I was waiting for to respond. But my impression was that Akinjo went up pretty hig...

TheCatInTheHat

ASU has been camped out over the line trying to control the narrative about their school and athletics programs for many decades. The Phoenix sports media have always been willing lapdogs, so it's no surprise this season when every preview of an anticipated difficult road game or every game story of...

TheCatInTheHat

So after the loss at Louisville, some Duke student reporter asked him the perfectly reasonable and innocuous question: "What are the next steps now, Coach?" And K starts to grill him, asking him what his major is. The kid is stunned and doesn't reply, so K presses with: "What's your hardest class?" ...

TheCatInTheHat

It's kind of weird. There's a part of me that feels like justice was served in that Akinjo didn't get a game-winning assist when he was caught in-between and just managed to pull off an odd and somewhat lucky play. (Like, what if the high arching short-shot "pass" ate up too much time and the buzzer...

TheCatInTheHat

Today on radio they said that illegal screen call on AZTU was wrong because he actually hit Akinjo not Martin. Also, does everyone think Akinjo was shooting or passing? To me, it looked like he started to shoot then saw ASTU and passed it The official scorer had it as a missed shot and an offensive...

TheCatInTheHat

Hurley's always been a total baby. Martin has made an entire college career out of initiating contact with a defensive player and then doing his Sarah Bernhardt impression to get his free throws. Not sure how well that'll go over in Italy, or wherever he winds up playing. https://i.imgur.com/9K5L9x0...

TheCatInTheHat

Merkin you are exactly right. It was Remy flopping around and not getting back that forced someone to cover James and allowed a layup. I didn't hear him complain about the call on us that GAVE them the ball in the first place. This aint Duke where ever call goes in your favor bitch. They will be re...

TheCatInTheHat

The officiating was completely one-sided in his favor, but Hurley wanted the game handed to him even MORE at the aptly-named charity stripe? Unreal. What a putz. And other than one guy who's a tough one-on-one matchup and a few good outside shooters, I don't see any amazingly well-coached team from ...

TheCatInTheHat

Look at the local sportscasters in the Tucson market. Are any of them remotely decent? Do any of them produce any kind of relevant content that isn't already available online. Do they ever break stories? They are all irrelevant. All of them. Well, this calls for a question of what constitutes decen...

TheCatInTheHat

So Hansen wrote a long column on how great it is to have Bobby Hurley in the league and how he's prayed for somebody colorful to write about. I'm reminded of some of the dialogue in My Cousin Vinny - Judge: "That is a lucid, intelligent, well thought-out objection." Vinny: "Thank you, Your Honor." J...

TheCatInTheHat

For anybody unfamiliar with ASU, as they've had some games cancelled, here's what they look like in advance of our game Thursday: #1 Remy Martin 6-0 SR 16.5 PPG [/u] .216 3% .870 FT% 2.6 RPG 33/16 A/TO 10 STL #13 Josh Christopher 6-5 FR 16.5 PPG [/u] .243 3% .857 FT% 5.3 RPG 15/16 A/TO 14 STL #11 A...

TheCatInTheHat

So I'm looking for a ballgame to watch, and I see St. Joseph's at LaSalle, and I think "perfect, I'll root against that jerk coach at St. Joe's in a road game." And then I turn it on and he's not on the sideline, so I have to start Googling on my phone. You may recall many moons ago the incident wit...

TheCatInTheHat

Yep. Every one of their bigs except Bagley.

TheCatInTheHat

Well, now the Oregon State women's team just lost big to our gals after not playing for a long time due to Covid, so I guess Kelly can pretend to be upset about that. It's good to have a cause...or at least a hobby.

TheCatInTheHat

For anybody unfamiliar with ASU, as they've had some games cancelled, here's what they look like in advance of our game Thursday: #1 Remy Martin 6-0 SR 16.5 PPG [/u] .216 3% .870 FT% 2.6 RPG 33/16 A/TO 10 STL #13 Josh Christopher 6-5 FR 16.5 PPG [/u] .243 3% .857 FT% 5.3 RPG 15/16 A/TO 14 STL #11 Al...

TheCatInTheHat

I watched my first ASU basketball game last night to familiarize myself with their team in advance of our game in Tempe this Thursday. I gather with no fans in attendance, we won't get their always-classy display with the shower curtain and pasty/flabby students jumping out, twerking, and otherwise ...

TheCatInTheHat

Well, you get spoiled. When you get to 7-4 with an occasional 9-2, but still occasionally get blown out with a defense-oriented team, human nature dictates that you now want 8-3 with an occasional 10-1 and no blow-outs with a little more offense. Making a horrific hire at that point is a different i...

TheCatInTheHat

Yeah, if the Pac-12 followed his advice, OSU wouldn't have gotten that win. I guess it doesn't matter in a rivalry game, but I'd still rather not play a team coming off a loss. It's funny, though. Some media types fall for the ASU hype machine time after time, with somebody in the pre-season predict...

TheCatInTheHat

It obviously will depend on the effectiveness of the starters and closer, as a lot of bodies with no standouts isn't so helpful, but it doesn't sound like that's the case this season. We've had teams with a couple of future major league pitchers, but not much behind them, but this year may really be...

TheCatInTheHat

Seems hard enough to graduate from HS, immediately start the first semester of your freshman year in college late, start practicing with the college team in mid-season with no chance to hit the weights or learn the plays, and also be expected to be an immediate contributor. Also could be a team chem...

TheCatInTheHat

I think for a number of media types these days, they either have it pushed on them, or they feel a self-imposed need to issue "hot takes" on their twitter accounts trying to appear contemporary and relevant. So, you make your little crusading statement in the form of an asinine "question", and then ...

TheCatInTheHat

What a dick. Not sure if he thinks he can make a name for himself as Mr. Adversarial, or what. That's straight out of that scene with the weasel at the beginning of Young Frankenstein : "Dr. FRONKENsteen...isn't it TRUE that your grandfather...?" Yeah, so we'll volunteer to be the only team in the c...

TheCatInTheHat

And scratch any thought of Mykee Irving, as he's in the transfer portal.

TheCatInTheHat

Love how ESPN stuck around for the drum and counted out the 9 wins. Adia doesn't seem to need the help, but there's a recruiting video for her.

TheCatInTheHat

So it's #11 Arizona hosting #10 Oregon in prime time on the east coast on ESPN. Oregon has beaten 3 teams by 20, Colorado by 30, Utah by 40, and Cal by 60. They squeaked by WSU on the road by 4, lost by 2 to UCLA, and they lost at #1 Stanford by 13. After all of Sabrina Ionescu's cheap histrionics a...

TheCatInTheHat

After what we've been through, a healthy dose of skepticism is reasonable. There was a lot of vitriol when Fisch was hired, and his social media stuff, the staff hires, and the community outreach seem to have turned that around, which is fine. One classic mistake when hiring a coach is to just get t...

TheCatInTheHat

I notice you don't list WR Majon Wright on your 2 deep. I'm guessing that he leads the team in receptions next year. WR has all of a sudden become quite deep. Lots of options, but no great player that requires double teaming. I think Wright has more upside than anyone though. Yeah, at a number of p...

TheCatInTheHat

This is based on announcements to date of people coming back, and the absence of announcements of others who might still leave. If anybody has any inside info about personnel, I'd like to hear it. Obviously, we're still waiting to hear about incoming players from the transfer portal. Note that until...

TheCatInTheHat

My view is that if somebody has a great life and manages to stay reasonably healthy and active up to about 85, it really should be a celebration of their life. So, based on that, Tommy got to "taste the fruits of victory" for about 8 years of overtime. Certainly close friends and family members left...

TheCatInTheHat

Nothing new here. Column one week forecasting disaster for not hiring San Jose's coach, and the following week, the needle wildly swings in the opposite direction because of the assistant coach hires, particularly of a Polynesian TE coach, Jordan PaoPao, from whom Greg may think he can get scoops. I...

TheCatInTheHat

As per usual, Michael Lev with a great job on this. So about half of the seniors who have an opportunity to return for another season have chosen to do so. Offense: C Josh McCauley TE Bryce Wolma WR Thomas Reid You'd like to keep all of them, but of the remaining group, I'd most want WR/KR Tayvian C...

TheCatInTheHat

I'd love to see somebody check his personal financial statements. Every outside observer seems to conclude that it's hard to believe anybody would make the decisions he makes if they were purely following logic or sound business practices. Never thought I'd say I miss naive old Tom Hansen, but I gue...

TheCatInTheHat

So my understanding is that everybody gets a mulligan for 2020...meaning that if you're a senior in terms of eligibility this school year, you can still return and play next year as a grad student, or whatever. For us, we've got potentially 8 on our two-deep offense and 8 on our two-deep defense (th...

TheCatInTheHat

Greg Wilner, that is. So he predictably foretold death by giant meteor due to the out-of-the-box hiring of Fisch and the unforgiveable sin of not hiring Brennan. But what I thought was interesting was the strategic avoidance of writing about the performance of his chosen savior's team in the Arizona...

TheCatInTheHat

One thing I've never understood is why the media (newspapers in particular), insist on providing free publicity when some company slaps it's name on an event. The Rose Bowl, in the 3 out of 4 years where there's a likely Pac-12/Big Ten matchup in an historic stadium at a classic setting in Pasadena,...

TheCatInTheHat

OK, the inseperable Greg Wilner (sic intentional) don't like the Fisch hire. My initial reaction was not positive, either. Just like in 2017, I wanted what appeared to be the safe pick. This time it was Brennan, and last time it appeared to be Sumlin, while we mocked Herm Edwards, which turned out t...

TheCatInTheHat

Stanford has some experience and did a good job, as detailed previously. Meanwhile, we once again are plugging in a lot of relatively inexperienced parts who will improve over the course of the season. That said, the on-going permanent officiating fiasco in the Pac-12 is unreal. I would seriously ra...

TheCatInTheHat

#6 Cats dismantle Utah to complete the sweep and go 6-0. Next up, a Wednesday tussle with Idaho at McKale, followed by the Bay Area schools after the break. I've got to believe the New Year's Day game against #1 Stanford (rematch of our win last year at McKale) will at least be on Pac-12 Network.

TheCatInTheHat

Okay, somebody please explain this to me. I **thought** that to be eligible for a non-semifinal CFP designated bowl berth, you had to be in the top 12 or whatever in the CFP rankings. And Oregon is #25. Is it an automatic berth for all P5 conference champs, regardless of ranking? Or did they issue a...

TheCatInTheHat

After the teams that have opted out, you have: Colorado 4-1 Washington 3-1 Oregon 4-2 And it works out with three slots for Pac-12 teams against the Big XII and SEC. We'll have to wait to see the match-ups. Maybe not terribly thrilling, but the Pac-12 will still continue through the holiday bowl sea...

TheCatInTheHat

Here's a summary of select bowls (all time MST): 12/22-Boca Raton: Central Florida/BYU 5 pm ESPN 12/26-Phoenix: Pac-12/Big XII 8:15 pm ESPN 12/29-Orlando: ACC/Big XII 3:30 pm ESPN 12/29-San Antonio: Pac-12/Big XII 7 pm ESPN 12/30-Charlotte: ACC/Big Ten 10 am ESPN 12/30-Nashville: Big Ten/SEC 1:30 pm...

TheCatInTheHat

The Cats got off to a slow shooting start on the road, and Colorado jumped out to an early lead, before Arizona chipped away at it and eventually took the lead. Colorado was banging and grabbing like mad and kind of banking on the refs assigned to their home court not calling all of it, which was a ...

TheCatInTheHat

After the 15 signings (without a coach), I've been looking over our roster. It's easy to wave a hand and dismiss it because of the winless record and blowout by ASU. But, it's also a roster that was within a few slightly longer fingers of an interception and beating USC. I'm not sure what the circum...

TheCatInTheHat

He just wrote a column a day or two ago suggesting Bruschi, and he either contacted him for comment, or somebody else did because of the column. Much ado about nothing.

TheCatInTheHat

I don't think it's happening this time around, but there's a mistake that seems to be made way too often. Some AD looks at the top couple of booster/alumni complaints about the coach he just fired, and he seems to focus primarily on hiring the opposite to "fix" that. The prime example I can think of...

TheCatInTheHat

I also question how much recruiting he actually does. What does recruiting to a military academy actually look like? I'm sure it is hard but just because you're limited on the guys that want to go to an academy. I was under the assumption that the players are at least interested in the military abo...

TheCatInTheHat

Former Star basketball writer Jon Wilner wrote a column, which was mostly an opportunity for him to say what a bad football job this is. Then, he concluded that UArizona just HAS to "keep it in the family" and hire Brennan or Salave'a. (Not much of a news flash there, but at least he isn't claiming ...

TheCatInTheHat

When we lived in Chandler, Hamilton absolutely owned Chandler. That has completely flipped. When I lived in Tempe, the Mesa schools were just about unbeatable. And in Tucson, Vern Friedli at Amphi was kind of the king of the hill here. It's interesting how things shift over time. I'm happy for the ...

TheCatInTheHat

Ugh. This has been discussed in another thread, but I made the mistake of tuning in (briefly) yesterday afternoon, due to what I hoped would be the coaching discussion. As discussed earlier, I'm not a fan of Rich Herrera's approach, and I was reminded why. Of course there was no discussion about cha...

TheCatInTheHat

Reminds me of that old song. The rumor and speculation phase is a gold mine for some media types. "Sources tell me that unless things fall apart , a secret candidate has emerged who could turn out to be the front runner. Subscribe now to find out more." I can do that all day, and I've seen it more t...

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