Bear Down Wildcats

TheCatInTheHat

Brand new offense. But, Noah can work with him on it as much as they both want to, which is probably all that matters.

TheCatInTheHat

With all the DraftKings and FanDuels and odds with 800 numbers during commercial time-outs to bet on who will score next (saw that in a hockey game yesterday), I'm sure this is just the tip of the iceberg, so no room to gloat.

https://247sports.com/college/iowa-state/article/ncaa-disciplines-five ...

TheCatInTheHat

Not to be a broken record, but I like to look at line play, specifically on the defensive side.

It's a lot of fun when we've got high-level skill position guys, and it's a fact that you can win that way and overcome other team deficiencies. But when I look at Arizona's (P5/P4) football history, by ...

TheCatInTheHat

There's a lot to dislike about the current era of college football, but one difference from the traditional past is the instant impact of non-redshirting transfers and much less patience on the part of athletic administrations with coaching staffs. Whether or not anyone insists programs should build ...

TheCatInTheHat

You've got to be impressed by what Becky Burke has done. Adia Barnes left her a completely gutted program, and she re-built it with close to a full roster and a coaching staff in a matter of weeks. I didn't think she was likely to get any more impact bigs. Wrong, as she flipped 6-3 Ogheneruona ...

TheCatInTheHat

It seems like the odds of getting any kind of additional game-changing "bigs" at this point from the portal are pretty slim. The proven upperclassmen either want more wins or more NIL money, and we're not that destination. I'm sure there's a frenzy for the two remaining from Wisconsin and ...

TheCatInTheHat

After Adia ran things down and left the cupboard bare, Becky Burke essentially had to start a new program from scratch. Even Lute Olson in his first year inherited Brock Brunkhorst, Keith Jackson, Dave Haskin, Troy Cooke, and Ken Ensor. It was a terrible situation, but at least he had a few bodies ...

TheCatInTheHat

I've got the D-line as:
1s: DE Tre Smith, DT Leroy Palu, DT DeShawn McNight, DE Dominic Lolesio
2s: DE Chancellor Owens, DT Julian Savinea, DT Tiaoalii Savea, DE Malachi Bailey
With DE Eduwa Okundaye and DT Jarra Anderson (and formerly Johnson) as standouts behind them. Supposedly there are two JCs ...

TheCatInTheHat

This is where I miss the PAC12 network. The spring game would have been televised live and there would have been several re-runs.

I have seen very little actual coverage of the scrimmage.

I get the SEC and Big Ten networks, and I've seen little, compared to the past, in terms of spring ...

TheCatInTheHat

This is a multi-faceted discussion. First, such schools as Ohio St, Texas, Oklahoma, USC, and Nebraska will not do a traditional spring game out of concern for injuries. There's also the concern about big-pocketed schools scouting and "shopping" with their NIL money prior to the spring transfer ...

TheCatInTheHat

https://i.imgur.com/dnmQ75c.jpeg

Considering the loss of Summerhill, I'm pretty satisfied with how they've done. I'd love to wallop and sweep every team with a sub .500 league record, even on the road, but we're just not that dominant team. It was COLD in Provo, and they're obviously more used to ...

TheCatInTheHat

So we get to turn the page on the drama and Adia's expectation to be treated as one of the best, regardless of won/loss results. That said, if SMU really wants to back up a Brink's truck with big cash both for her and NIL funds for women's hoops, I'm sure she can turn them into at least a marginal ...

TheCatInTheHat

Time will tell. I realize it's unfair with a new offense and everything, but FWIW so far, you'd have to say Joe Salave'a's kicking ass.

TheCatInTheHat

We've been giving up a lot of sacks in spring scrimmages, and you have to note the absence of G Jordan Brown and T Rhino Tapa'atoutai with injuries. Meanwhile, we got a truckload of transfers on the D-line, and DT Chubba Maae played on both sides of the line in HS. So, all those factors probably ...

TheCatInTheHat

Guzman hitting into a DP at a bad time, but Mihalakis with the two-out walk-off single to bring in Walton from third. Cain went 3-3 with a triple and a couple of RBI. Bailey went 5.0 IP with 6H and 3 ER. Hicks went 4.0 IP with 3H and 1 ER.

TheCatInTheHat

https://i.imgur.com/wUWutOP.jpeg

Next up: A showdown at Hillenbrand with league-leading Texas Tech, in what could be a preview of the Big XII Tournament at the WCWS field at OKC. A sweep would bring us within one in the loss column. The Friday game will be on FS1, and the Saturday game on ESPNU ...

TheCatInTheHat

This, after she lost to NAU twice and GCU just in the past season? It may just be a rallying cry for the mid-majors who provide many non-conference games for P4 schools. Reap what you sow...

TheCatInTheHat

Regarding social media, of course many of the 5K or so who go to the games (net of the student section) because it's so much cheaper than the men's games are unhappy because they probably won't be getting an Aari & Cate team again anytime soon, if ever. But comments like 'they should pay her what ...

TheCatInTheHat

This will be her fourth stop, after Northwest Florida, Southern Miss, and Buffalo.

TheCatInTheHat

From my experiences on both sides of the media interaction thing, my advice in dealing with any negative narrative involving a large entity versus a disgruntled anybody is to stay silent and let the news cycle move on to the next bright shiny thing. We just cut our WBB coach's salary in half, and ...

TheCatInTheHat

Tucson has a lot of Notre Dame fans... when is the last time (if ever) we played the Irish? Seems to me that would be a big draw.

Notre Dame (4-1)
1/4/34 L 24-46 South Bend, Ind.
11/21/90 W 91-61 New York, N.Y.
12/21/93 W 98-79 Lahaina, Hawaii
11/24/99 W 76-60 New York, N.Y.
3/27/03 W 88 ...

TheCatInTheHat

I can understand Adia's view that she built things up, deserves being compensated at a high level, and blames the available NIL pool for all of her problems. There was also an issue of a cut-back of the occasional charter flights for tough travel circumstances that may have been a sore point. But I ...

TheCatInTheHat

I'm okay with it. 30-7 (against MAC-level competition), with a WNIT title, which are decent bona fides. She had a senior-dominated team, so I wouldn't expect much in Buffalo transfers (other than a decent shooting guard with two years left, if she comes.) The cupboard is basically bare now, so ...

TheCatInTheHat

It's an interesting situation. Top athletes (and their agents) like to say they're entertainers, and they should get paid like top entertainers in the film, TV, and music industries. In pro sports, you can open the books and look at team TV rights deals, paid admissions, seat licenses, apparel sales ...

TheCatInTheHat

FWIW, Jason Scheer goes fishing with the following laundry list of possibilities:

Oregon St HC Scott Rueck (I'd doubt it; He's a PNW guy who's been there a long time.)
Portland HC Mike Meek
UC Irvine HC Tamara Inoue
Utah Jazz AC Jason Terry
UConn AC Morgan Valley (She was an AC here. Not sure how ...

TheCatInTheHat

Scheer says Jason Terry has interest in the job. Clearly a home run hire but who knows if it can actually get done.

That would be a very interesting out-of-the-box approach that would make a splash. Maybe a little like Michael Cooper at USC, only at JT's alma mater. A lot of it is about ...

TheCatInTheHat

Assuming she wouldn't take our job, and then bail for her alma mater Stanford (which wouldn't necessarily think she'd be some automatic panacea for their post-VanDerveer life), I guess she'd be the obvious choice. Fairly near and similar climate to Vegas, but the big step up in income and Big XII ...

TheCatInTheHat

Sad ending in Tucson for one of our greatest WBB players and coaches. For the last few years, it's been troubling to hear about the issues she's obviously had with players. Maybe some of that reflected frustration with being unable to duplicate the success she had with Aari McDonald. Sometimes there ...

TheCatInTheHat

Very cool! Maddox Mihalakis with a HR, SB, and 4 RBI, Aaron Walton with a HR, Casey Hintz gets the win in relief, and Garrett Hicks gets a save. It was ASU's biggest crowd at Muni since moving there. And the Cats have clinched at least a tie in the regular season series, with two chances to win it ...

TheCatInTheHat

We're definitely in a funk without Summerhill. Without really looking into it, I was tempted to say GCU does really well in Tuesday games when we're saving our weekend pitchers. But, they've played a fairly tough schedule themselves. And the game was somewhat in doubt until they shelled Pluta in the ...

TheCatInTheHat

I think Bryant's got a little better hops. Wilkes did have that weird cross-over shot, like Dean Meminger. Unlike Meminger, he straightened it out just before releasing the ball. During the peak of his career, he averaged around 20 ppg and over 50%, mostly from range. Chick Hearn would call it ...

TheCatInTheHat

Never been a Stanford fan myself, for many reasons, but mostly due to even more colossal hypocrisy than most colleges surrounding athletics. More than likely somebody will search the internet for some dataset to refute it, but it seems to me that, pre-Harbaugh, Stanford football tended to coast ...

TheCatInTheHat

At the moment, they've got three guards in Paris, Swann, and Rolf, with Jah and Ross as "bigs", F Brooklyn Rhodes off the bench, and three gals with a history of knee problems. (At least, until somebody else hits the portal.) Adia is fully capable of recruiting transfer replacements, and her husband ...

TheCatInTheHat

UAEebs86 wrote: Sun Mar 23, 2025 12:27 pm West Virginia won Saturday 11 - 3

Yeah, I put in the score in T9 and typed in the stuff about ESPN+ and they had a very quick B9. Meant to say Cats Win, but I was rushing out the door. Wishful thinking.

TheCatInTheHat

And the Cats sweep! Gotta say, after all the crying about losing the P12 Network, I'd have to say we're better off with ESPN+. Yeah, you have to put up with the local homer announcers, but most of them aren't too bad. I've been able to see every football and men's and women's basketball game I ...

TheCatInTheHat

Injuries or not, losing twice in one year to NAU, when you even got a return game at McKale, is unacceptable. Geez, all I ever did was some (fill-in) coaching of 8th grade CYO-league basketball, and even I would have said, "get it down low, but do it quick, get up a shot or draw a foul, and give ...

TheCatInTheHat

No question it's disgusting, and it doesn't change the circumstances of the case, but students are uploading naked pictures of themselves into their university's on-line system? I guess they probably first ask themselves: what could possibly go wrong?

TheCatInTheHat

Don't remember, but Kim Mulkey left Baylor for LSU the same month we played Stanford in the title game in 2021, so you're probably right. Couldn't really see Adia particularly happy in Waco, but with enough money I guess you could tolerate anyplace and just go on vacation a lot.

TheCatInTheHat

Akron played 4 NCAA Tournament teams, going 2-2, which was the home/road split of those games, winning only at home. They also lost to 4 more teams, all on the road. My takeaway to the "they play fast" bit is that against better competition, they only put up big numbers in those 2 games that were at ...

TheCatInTheHat

I used to argue with a guy about injuries from too much hitting in practice. You just hate to hear that a key guy is lost from practicing, but if you "practice like you play", there's more chance in practice than in a game, because of more practice time than game time. His argument was that you can ...

TheCatInTheHat

TheCat wrote: Mon Mar 17, 2025 12:35 pm If any team gets hot from the outside they can beat anyone no matter the spread. Look no further than Oakland vs Kentucky last year and our boy TT.

Yeah, there's an AI-generated bracket that says after we beat Akron, Liberty beats Oregon, so all is well. (But then, Liberty beats us.)

TheCatInTheHat

Before moving, I had season tickets for 40 years. Near mid-court facing the benches, but because they were in the top deck and near the speakers, during the last few years of it, the recorded music alternating with non-stop PA commentary and sponsored contests was pretty blaring. Almost impossible ...

TheCatInTheHat

Yeah, they love to look for story line angles to attract viewers. Can't argue with their success, I guess.

Meanwhile, I caught some of the game yesterday where St. Francis punched their ticket...on a Tuesday. The underdog angle in the tourney is great, but there is quite an advantage to qualifying ...

TheCatInTheHat

Players get tied-up in an at-bat all the time. Sometimes it's with two outs and two strikes and ends an inning. But that's not the time to either lean on an ump on a 50/50 call, or say the failed AB was all his fault if it goes against you. It's the time to protect the plate and foul off the pitch ...

TheCatInTheHat

Fuck 'em to death. God almighty, do they ever have any class? And they have the nerve to make crap up to accuse us so maybe somebody believes it and they won't look so bad? It's way too late for that, guys...you have a massive body of work that's public knowledge. So Matt King gets thrown out ...

TheCatInTheHat

Since it's the only time we'll see ASU at Hi Corbett this year, guess I'll do a quick overview. Other than a couple of one-off wins over Austin Peay and UNLV, in three-game series, they swept Ohio St, and most recently Gonzaga, went 2-1 vs Oral Roberts, 1-1 at UCLA in their only road games to date ...

TheCatInTheHat

Hansen did a brief bit on Barnes in which he said Heeke bumped her to $1.2M right after generational talent Aari McDonald carried the team to the national title game, which made Adia the next big thing in the women's coaching ranks. She's way out in front of the next highest paid Big XII coach in ...

TheCatInTheHat

Love it!

TheCatInTheHat

Yeah, per your comments, if she's great, I don't see how we'd keep her if her alma mater with deep pockets and one of the best histories in women's college hoops called with an offer. Beyond that, she's never made it out of the first round of the NCAAs after winning the weak MWC, and she lost to ...

TheCatInTheHat

I saw that too and thought the exact same thing. He said "were Tucsonians ". I think he likes the lifestyle and the team.

Tucsonans. ;)

It's a funny thing about etymology. The Tucson Citizen stylebook used Tucsonians (I guess to sound like Bostonians), but it never got any traction or ...

Login • Register

Search found 1439 matches