Bear Down Wildcats

TheCatInTheHat

Didn't really go along with Lev's storyline, which infers that fans are being unrealistically demanding. I don't particularly care what kind of post-game speeches Chip makes; that's up to him. I do care whether our administration continues to emphasize baseball at least as much as Byrne did, that th...

TheCatInTheHat

To clarify on the "stand pat" comment; I'm talking about immediate contributors, and particularly when it comes to pitching. On a go-forward basis, I believe we generally need to field a team of upperclassmen, patching as needed with transfers, without the past stigma of arbitrary limits per the adm...

TheCatInTheHat

This won't be a unique take, by any means. Chip Hale is a nice guy (and a classmate, actually.) By all accounts, Dave Lawn is a nice guy. But there's the old Leo Durocher line about finishing last. It doesn't mean you have to be a ranting/raving a-hole all the time. But it does mean you can't be sof...

TheCatInTheHat

People always seem to go "wow...look at the upsets", or "hey...what a Cinderalla story", but they never seem to discuss what a piss-poor seeding job the committee does. Everybody loves Cinderella, and everybody loves feeling smart picking the annual 12/5 upset. But it seems to me (and I'm not going ...

TheCatInTheHat

With everything else going on, the baseball series at ASU kind of snuck up on us. After football and men's and women's basketball, no doubt they'll be desperate to beat us at something. They're 13-8/2-1 so far this season. In games of note, they swept San Diego St to open the season, then went 1-2 a...

TheCatInTheHat

https://i.imgur.com/GcTa44z.jpg God, when somebody's so dumb you don't even have to photoshop to make fun of them... So notwithstanding the brainwashed fanboy narrative among the rah-rah LA sports media and others, the real story line is that a senior-dominated and favored team playing in a conveni...

TheCatInTheHat

Ahh...that explains it. Thank you, I appreciate that.

TheCatInTheHat

In Spears' story on Caravallo, he didn't mention Leviticus Su'a on our list of recruits. Maybe I missed it somewhere, but I believe he's still listed as an Arizona commit and our top recruit.

TheCatInTheHat

Other than the understandable "oh, no" reaction, I've got a couple of different thoughts. As I said earlier, it looked like some chemistry problems on the team again this year. Adia may well be a Sean Miller recruiter/micro-manager; just note that there are a couple of different camps on CSM. Person...

TheCatInTheHat

Assuming a detailed recent scouting report is made available, that's an interesting story line. Players develop new wrinkles in their games from year to year, and coaches also make tweaks. Particularly coming from a team with a very similar system, the detailed scouting prepared for three separate g...

TheCatInTheHat

I assume most of us are anticipating Gonzaga's game tomorrow night. Drew Timme and the Zags are a class act. The scenario begs the question of how much Tommy Lloyd (who always seems to learn and do better in re-matches) will share in a scouting report with his mentor Mark Few. I assume there'll be a...

TheCatInTheHat

I actually hoped for a little more from Nnaji, especially after the Ware injury and Vonleh leaving. 4.4/3.2 is an okay start, but she had some pretty big recruiting credentials. By comparison, Cate was 11.8/6.8 her freshman year. Maya's in serious pre-med, and no argument from me about where the pri...

TheCatInTheHat

This is on player behavior. Trash-talking, gesturing, and the other crap have been ridiculous in the men's game for years. Unfortunately, it seems like the growth of the women's game means some of that garbage comes along for the ride. I love Cate Reese for her level of effort, for overcoming Type 1...

TheCatInTheHat

It looked to me like there were a few issues with team chemistry this season, maybe not as bad as last season with all the house cleaning, but still a bit problematic. A couple of curious things in the stats down the stretch, and I don't see how multiple players can let opponents just blow past them...

TheCatInTheHat

Wow Stanford just lost at home. Haven't not made the sweet 16 since 2007. First, this can't be true. The fabulous Pac-12 media geniuses were tweeting out highlights of Cameron Brink and Haley Jones all over the place. I wonder if Haley demonstrated her little fake mean girl smile after the loss. I ...

TheCatInTheHat

Where to begin? We lost a first round game (to what turns out to be a relatively decent and underseeded Sweet Sixteen team), and it's Viagra to ASU cockroaches. So they have a former mediocre little guard from suburban OC who couldn't get a better offer. Grab, push, shove, hide behind a bigger playe...

TheCatInTheHat

Just to be clear on the last part. You have to win your first game in a conference tournament, or I believe that'll hurt you in seeding. And this year, we sure didn't want to lose to ASU or UCLA after that. We always want to do as well as we can in the NCAAs. But our banged-up 7-man team this year w...

TheCatInTheHat

The comments by Robbins about Oregon really makes me want to beat a path to the B1G. If the B1G really values Oregon that highly then it’s an absolute that Oregon will be joining the B1G very soon. The only reason they might stay is the ease to the CFP. As for the PAC basketball tournament, I think...

TheCatInTheHat

Just a quickie, as I refuse to let the long laughed-at Hansen ever get the final word. He lamely tried to paint Princeton as some cash-strapped waif compared to Arizona, based on their respective reported hoops budgets. For perspective, Princeton has an endowment of $35.8 billion, compared to Arizon...

TheCatInTheHat

Frieder/Sendek/Hurley is as good as they can do. And even Wulk could never beat Billy McGill, Mel Daniels, Kresimir Cosic, or Bob Elliott for that matter, on their peak teams. He won in down WAC years when he had generational talent like Caldwell and Hollins, and even then face-planted in the Elite ...

TheCatInTheHat

I know this bullshit is just a tempest in a teapot. Butthurt in a Bruin. I think most of this is fan backlash from living in a very fanny-kissing LA media bubble and resenting having some bogus narratives exposed. Campbell leg-whips Larsson in front of a real student section, so the students natura...

TheCatInTheHat

Left shoulder dislocation, so pop it back in and soreness. Can be different degrees, obviously, but Kriisa played through his on his shooting arm, which clearly affected his shooting (left handed FT, etc.) The NBA scouting report says Bona has to work on his left hand, so I assume he's right handed....

TheCatInTheHat

Nice job ladies!!!

TheCatInTheHat

On the subject of the apple not falling far from the tree, there seems to be quite the polarization between those who think all octogenarians are timid and saintly, and those who've seen that there's a percentage of a-holes in every age and demographic, even if some don't realize their own limitatio...

TheCatInTheHat

Back home after the always delightful 4-hour drive. Well, if success is defined as distracting from failure by seizing on some other issue, even if blowing it out of proportion is required, then it was a successful Pac-12 championship game for UCLA fans. By any other measure, not so much. We stuck a...

TheCatInTheHat

Returning from post-game celebrations here in Vegas. A couple of facts of life that comes from more than Arizona fans is that ASU fans are a-holes, and UCLA fans are whiny bitches. Nobody should allow anyone to manipulate them into being put on the defensive from uncorroborated accusations by disgru...

TheCatInTheHat

This is for two sets of supposedly adult ASU fans. The first set was carefully dressed in brand-new, non-logo UCLA blue hats and shirts. But they bellowed every time ASU hit a three, whined about every call that went Arizona's way, and referred to ASU as "us." Little doubt, but way to represent and ...

TheCatInTheHat

Yeah, and I wonder what regional description he'd give if the Bay Area schools, Utah, and WSU and OSU had to join with the MWC to form the Mountain Pac. San Fran, Vegas, and Colorado Springs, but also Albuquerque, Laramie, Logan, and some other garden spots. And he could pose as the big expert on th...

TheCatInTheHat

Wilner writes about the league, so he has a following. But I never cared for him when he was at the Star; he's never lacked for ego. He likes to make little backhanded comments about UArizona and Tucson. I think it would be ironic if Arizona is instrumental in forcing the issue with what's left of t...

TheCatInTheHat

With today's results, next up we get a Stanford team that beat us in Palo Alto, but didn't have to play us in McKale. Then, if ASU beats USC, we'd get to play an ASU team after their greatest accomplishment in their hoops history, and completely negate it with a 1-2 season record and likely denying ...

TheCatInTheHat

I think Lloyd put it in the right perspective that we won lots of awards when we won big last year, and now the shoe's on the other foot. Best player shouldn't just be the best player on the top team, but that's how it seems to go too often. All that said, the size of the LA media has always tipped...

TheCatInTheHat

I think Lloyd put it in the right perspective that we won lots of awards when we won big last year, and now the shoe's on the other foot. Best player shouldn't just be the best player on the top team, but that's how it seems to go too often. All that said, the size of the LA media has always tipped ...

TheCatInTheHat

I hear a lot about an absolutely guaranteed soft landing spot in the Big XII held in perpetuity for us, but there's nothing that requires that premise to be accepted. I'm sure there are plenty of scenarios where they add teams and get to a number and mix they're happy with and adding Arizona for bas...

TheCatInTheHat

Well, of course, the Big Ten's LA schools will no longer be in that equation, and how much of the attraction of the Pac has been Arizona's success over UCLA football, basketball, baseball, and softball? Lots of build-up for USC football games, but they've usually whooped us at that, and beating them...

TheCatInTheHat

I thought we were a lot of the way there with CSM, but his offensive approach was pretty limited, and it's also hard to do in the world of P12 officiating without picking up some harmful regular season losses along the way. But...water under the bridge. Considering the three NBA losses and pre-seaso...

TheCatInTheHat

Probably some minority opinions here. We haven't played well for a while, like about since after that game when Zu's family came to see him. Meanwhile, I went to the ASU game. I've followed them a little bit this year, and I don't like 'em, but I recognize they start four good perimeter players who ...

TheCatInTheHat

BTW, Pascoe clarified where Cronin was coming from, and it's even worse than just being stupid or crazy; it's an unfounded malicious accusation. Heeke replaced UCLA's AD on the NCAA tournament committee, so that's why he thinks UCLA is projected to be sent east with preference to Arizona staying wes...

TheCatInTheHat

Haven't done one of these in a while, but here's "next up." ASU's coming off a decent win over Utah, and they could really use an upset win for whatever chance they have at the NCAAs. If the refs officiate two games, letting them get away with murder to "balance" the home court advantage and helping...

TheCatInTheHat

John Wooden would roll over in his grave watching the behavior of Cronin, Campbell, Bona, Etienne, and others in representing the program he built up. But, they're "LA's College Basketball Team", so the sycophantic local media dutifully erase all blemishes and follow whatever narrative UCLA prefers....

TheCatInTheHat

Ugh. Why in the wide world of sports would a coach give a flying fuck about sportscasters' guesses about NCAA seeding with three weeks still to play? Hint: the projections will not be close to 100% accurate when the actual games all play out. It's speculation for fan clicks and reads and ratings, ju...

TheCatInTheHat

That couldn't have gone any better. It was supposed to be about presumed #1 draft choice Chase Dollenger being un-hittable and #2 Tennessee overpowering Arizona. Instead, we were notably unimpressed, touched him for a Bullard birthday homer, and it was The Arizona Wildcats Show. I glanced at the Kno...

TheCatInTheHat

Are the refs going to screw us out of a win against Utah again? It sure looked like they tried. That thing in Salt Lake was really something, handing them victory from the jaws of defeat with two free throws on a no-call with 1 second left. And Utah cruised ever since. At halftime, Adia was asked a...

TheCatInTheHat

God. Colorado hasn't won in Tucson since 1965. To refresh everybody's memory, when Tad Boyle was hired away from Northern Colorado to CU in 2010, he tried to make the Buffs relevant by inventing a rivalry with Arizona. Just declare somebody as your rival, and I guess that's supposed to make you thei...

TheCatInTheHat

Michael Lev is the best at Arizona football and baseball coverage I've seen in 50 years, so that's probably all-time. Like to see anybody get ahead, but selfishly, I hope he hasn't been permanently promoted out of those beats to be sports editor. As to columnists, meh. If they have a decent sidebar ...

TheCatInTheHat

Good job, Buffs. And ASU: way to represent with your stupid 'curtain of twerkin'. Not just grotesquely tacky, but also completely ineffective.
And not just spontaneous student hi-jinks, but fully approved by the ASU administration. Stay classy.

TheCatInTheHat

BTW, the "Academic" argument is downright silly. The PAC12 is an ATHLETIC conference, NOT an academic conference. Professors/Researchers at the UA are free to collaborate with other Profs/Researchers at ANY university regardless of what athletic conference they belong to. Yeah, I remember when we m...

TheCatInTheHat

I hear you. My "logic" was to group teams in twos for the final rivalry weekend. Colorado, Oklahoma St, and Iowa St are the logical "orphans." But, you're right; based on geography, TT should go west to play Colorado, and Ok St can play ISU. It's only an academic exercise, but I just wanted to show ...

TheCatInTheHat

It seems there are few rules left these days (a global statement.) Based on that, and the fact that you can get away with all kinds of stuff in the margins of life, here's my thought on what might be a nice outcome. I don't really care about having any self-proclaimed lawyer or media consultant expl...

TheCatInTheHat

Just a bad set of circumstances. We were coming off the LA road sweep, with one less rest and prep day than usual because of ESPN, and then played the toughest opponent on our schedule when they were fired-up coming off a loss. We wanted to look good with the unusual high-profile TV situation for a ...

TheCatInTheHat

I hate Pac-12 officiating as much as anybody does. The very top handful of refs are adequate, and the league and its mouthpieces always point to their accolades when talking about league officiating. But there's a very quick and drastic drop-off from them, and the ones at the bottom are complete gar...

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