2020 Media Coverage Thread

[TheCatInTheHat]

I'm not going to even use his name, but there's a glorified copy editor at the Republic who apparently also has the job of tweaking all things UArizona, as that's the only time they allow him to write about anything. So, if there's anything about whether pro scouts rank Gunnell as a better drop-back prospect than ASU's QB (which from his perspective apparently is enough to incite some of their fans to riot), any academic casualty or out-bound transfer we suffer, or any off-hand rivalry comment by anybody on Twitter or a message board, he's your man; let's stir that pot. Sounds like it might be fun in theory, but in practice it turns out to be pretty weak sauce delivered with a moronic shit-eating grin. The point isn't to avoid reporting bad news; that's out there, and they have an arrangement with the Star to carry Lev and Pascoe on that beat. But, exclusively for bad news, they choose to unhook Mongo from his kennel. (And the first time he's clever will be the first time he's clever.) Can you imagine the LA Times employing somebody to scour the internet for any bad news or unkind comments involving USC vs. UCLA so he can breathlessly write some snarky paragraph about it? It would certainly be on-going employment during uncertain times for the media, but it wouldn't be what was formerly known as sports news. That's why you can follow people on Twitter and go to certain message boards if you're hungry for mud-slinging. Anyway, now endeth the sermon, but after ASU's collapse today with a 13-point lead and 4 minutes to go, he may have to go back to grammar clean-up, sweeping up the place, turning off the lights, and taking out the trash.

[TheCatInTheHat]

Didn't see it mentioned here anywhere, so I'll just throw out that our game at Washington on Nov. 21 will be at 6 pm Tucson time on FoX broadcast television (Ch. 11 in Tucson.)

[TheCatInTheHat]

I'm going to stick this in here, because I'm not going to do a media thread for each sport. So the Pac-12 media types voted UArizona hoops 5th. Fair enough guess. But Pascoe throws out that they're correctly picked the winner for the last five years or something. Well, great, but when there's often an overwhelming favorite, like an Arizona or an Oregon, that's not exactly much of an accomplishment. Since the local story is about our being picked 5th, how about an assessment of how accurately the heavily-California weighted Pac-12 media has been with the final overall order of finish? Not very well, I'd wager. It amounts to announcing our picked finish, then pumping up how good the pickers are, only that's not an established fact. For all we know, they're horrible at order of finish, or they've specifically gotten the 5th place finisher wrong for the last 15 years or so. Better to just list the picks and leave the mutual back-lathering alone.

[TheCatInTheHat]

They other day, I put on one of those endless P12N replays, which started out with a UArizona hoops game from last year, and then switched to one for ASU. This has bugged me for awhile. In the scene-setter, you show some of the surrounding geography, then some of the campus. So, for us, it's maybe the Catalinas, Sahuaro National Monument, the sun setting behind the Tucson Mtns, etc. For ASU, well there's basically buildings in Phoenix and maybe a golf course or something. But, they provide stock footage of Monument Valley, and P12N runs it! It's ridiculous. That's 330 miles away and has nothing to do with the area where ASU is located. You might as well show the Statue of Liberty. So, for us, hell...Rocky Point is 200 miles closer than that; maybe we should show pelicans flying over a beach at sunset.

[TheCatInTheHat]

Great to get the A Team and all that, and it was a well-produced game. But, I wish there was a little more effort by broadcasters, especially in a team's first game of the season, like ours, to wait-and-see. That's especially true when you've got a pretty special QB and an entirely new defensive staff and scheme. Instead, it's the narrative based on the previous year and what the so-called experts expect. And, of course, with the massive LA TV audience, one angle always seems to be, "what's WRONG with USC?" whenever they don't dominate, as though anybody really considers them anything like a legitimate playoff team. Everybody knows the answer is Clay Helton, and that they're talented and pretty good, but not great. But, when a team like Arizona puts forth a terrific effort and has a great chance to knock off a "talented and pretty good" team, harrumphing about USC failing to pound the ball more and pummeling them into submission (when they tried to some extent), is kind of a disservice to our players. It was a very good game, but it seemed like kind of a sniff whenever we did something, with the analysis focused on what USC did wrong. I'd expect that on a USC broadcast, but on a national broadcast, I'd expect a little more excitement about a potential upset. I understand that if we want any buzz, we have to actually break through, like Karl Dorrell has done (albeit against lesser teams) at Colorado.

[TheCatInTheHat]

Or should that be "the Republic moron?" Whatever. So Michael Lev, the Star's fine UArizona beat writer for football and baseball (formerly of the OC Register), writes his game story. Unfortunately, newspapers have an old fashioned approach where someone other than the writer comes up with the headline, which is often a point of contention. It's usually somebody a lot like the guy in the movie Office Space with the red stapler. So, he often works in some idiotic rhyme or pun and thinks it's brilliant and will attract more readers. In reality, it's usually stupid or even misleading, people roll their eyes, and then they read the story in spite of it. So, for the identical story, the Star goes with: "Arizona Wildcats fall just short in opener vs. No. 20 USC." Yep, that's what happened. They came from behind to tie and then take the lead, before their short-handed defense got worn down and was still only one inch from a game-winning interception. But in the Republic, it's "Arizona football FALTERS in final seconds vs. USC." "Falters" is a perjorative that infers somebody did something wrong, which is NOT what happened. If that was true, every NFL team that ever gives up a late score for a loss because the rules favor the offense screwed up horribly, which happens several times a week under what are known as "highlights." "Falters" is what happened the PREVIOUS week against USC, when ASU had a TWO-score lead with 4 minutes left, gave up a score, FAILED to recover an onside kick, and then gave up the winning score. But that was barely mentioned. Situation normal; sorry the dude's favorite team is sidelined for three weeks.

[TheCatInTheHat]

I've come to the conclusion that the reason you don't get the equivalent of Sports Illustrated photos in the local newspapers is that they tend to hire people who are photographers first and sports people second. Portfolios with lots of portraits with moody lighting, close-ups of orchids, and whimsical shots of small children. All nice enough. But for sports, while I'm not particularly any great shakes as a photographer, I at least know what I'm looking for. In football, I know that I need to take a somewhat wide shot, and I have to guess at the play and aim at the likely place a receiver will catch the ball. Then you need to zoom and crop and lighten as needed in post-prod. Similar in basketball. What absolutely doesn't work is to camp out in the end zone or under the basket and take an endless series of extreme close shots of pile-ups of bodies sweating and straining. You may be able to sell a few of those as showing some of the dramatic pain and effort of the game, but you're not remotely capturing the essence of say, a Michael Jordan. And a few of the easy shots of the crowd or teammates celebrating are fine, but more than one or two of those is cheating. I'm tired of the pile of bodies sweating and straining. In football, I want to see runners cutting, receivers making diving catches, QBs throwing deep, and safeties intercepting. I basketball, it's a graceful release on a three-point attempt, an athletic stretch to the rim on a drive, a blocked shot, and dribbling through traffic up the floor. I'm sure everybody has plenty of awards, but that's an industry thing, and it doesn't provide any license to do things the wrong way. If it's all some editor's fault for consistently picking the wrong shots, then shame on that person. But I'd think the sports editor would have input and control of the entire finished product and at least could steer things in the proper direction over time.

[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 characteristics for a new coach and any possible candidates, because he has no contacts or information. So his angle was "Before we can get to that, we have to do a post-mortem on what went wrong with Sumlin." Uh, no "we" don't...you just don't have anything and you're trying to waste time with the typical long-winded pontificating speech approach to get through another hour. So with "the phone lines packed" (maybe), he pushed his narrative. Callers understandably mentioned Sumlin's obvious lack of buy-in and motivation with all of the money he's swimming in. Nope; that's character assasination. He just should have gone crazy and gone entirely the JUCO route in recruiting, which is moronic. And, of course, everybody in Tucson is familiar with all of Sumlin's frequent comments about how much he and his wife Charlene and son Jackson just love it here. Because that's happened, oh...never. I assume their absolute invisibility means that neither of them ever moved here, which would tend to be at the least a distraction, and if nothing else, a lack of commitment to this little project we call Arizona Football. In any event, Herrera's got some competition on 1450 in the 3 o'clock hour. It would be nice if that was extended through to six.

[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 to be completely wrong. Pack journalists generally stick together on what "the smart money" says, because it's the safe bet and they can work in phrases like "my sources tell me", which generally means they're dreaming it up themselves, or they know "a guy" who's "close to the program," where that "guy" is likely a current or former media pal who shares their opinions on virtually everything, and who is "closer" by virtue of living in Tucson, which is certainly 800 miles "closer to the program" than somebody who lives in San Jose. Wilner-squared likes UArizona about as much as Larry Scott does, and I'm pretty sure this two-headed monster figured they'd have an "in" for interviews with San Jose Brent and are disappointed about that, if nothing else. Fisch doesn't have much choice but to try and sell the program to anybody and everybody. But, I don't see why he should bother with people who historically have been, and no doubt will continue to be, antagonistic about all things Arizona, regardless of how much their asses are kissed. In any event, Fisch may well turn out to be a relatively smooth-talking snake oil salesman who lines his pocket like Sumlin did before moving on. But, so far, at least he seems to be doing and saying all the right things, which Sumlin certainly didn't bother with. People love to pronounce instant judgments while hedging their bets, just in case. But, there's no alternative to being patient. We'll have to wait and see how Fisch's staff is constructed, how he recruits, and ultimately how his team plays. Fans will always be fans, so they can say whatever they want. But one constant is opinion writers in the sports media who stir the pot, at least maybe until there's some opportunity to gravy train (like write a book?) off a winning team.

[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, with the morning parade and the rest of it, is an exception. Everything associated with that is a nation-wide tradition. But, if you're talking about the Poulan Weed-Eater Bowl played on Shifty's Bail Bonds Field at Fast Eddie's Payday Loans Stadium, it's ridiculous. And the names change every couple of years. The only thing that matters is the matchup of teams playing in a bowl in a given city. So, just call it "the bowl in Shreveport", or "the Shreveport bowl." If the TV networks have some contractual obligation, tied-in with in-game TV commercials from the sponsor, so be it. They can shove the sponsor's name down everybody's throats all game long, which are good times to make a sandwich or go to the bathroom until play resumes. Note that this has nothing to do with the endless annual complaints that "there are too many bowl games." That's true, just like "there are too many college basketball games on TV." But, I don't begrudge alums of Nicholls St getting to watch them play Prairie View A&M. I just don't personally choose to watch it.

[UAEebs86]

Agree TCITH.

It's always been a personal pet peeve of mine that when I turn on a bowl game, I don't know where it's at unless I google it.

[Postmaster]

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 characteristics for a new coach and any possible candidates, because he has no contacts or information. So his angle was "Before we can get to that, we have to do a post-mortem on what went wrong with Sumlin." Uh, no "we" don't...you just don't have anything and you're trying to waste time with the typical long-winded pontificating speech approach to get through another hour. So with "the phone lines packed" (maybe), he pushed his narrative. Callers understandably mentioned Sumlin's obvious lack of buy-in and motivation with all of the money he's swimming in. Nope; that's character assasination. He just should have gone crazy and gone entirely the JUCO route in recruiting, which is moronic. And, of course, everybody in Tucson is familiar with all of Sumlin's frequent comments about how much he and his wife Charlene and son Jackson just love it here. Because that's happened, oh...never. I assume their absolute invisibility means that neither of them ever moved here, which would tend to be at the least a distraction, and if nothing else, a lack of commitment to this little project we call Arizona Football. In any event, Herrera's got some competition on 1450 in the 3 o'clock hour. It would be nice if that was extended through to six.

One of Sumlin’s kids is at Salpointe.
Other than that, you are spot on with Herrara.

Yesterday he rattled off every HS in San Diego so he could sound knowledgeable.
Blah.

[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 Bowl, because he was far too busy covering women's basketball. Understood that they had a Covid outbreak and were missing four or five players and a couple of coaches, so they get a mulligan for the loss. But, after all the hype, as a 10-point favorite on a neutral field against a Mid-America Conference team, I'd expect this versatile motivator of men to have at least avoided embarassment and managed to make the game competitive. And, under the circumstances, I'd think it would be worthy of a column with the angle of "well, maybe that guy wasn't the guaranteed solution." But, when you're Mr. Know-It-All, you never, ever do that. "Let's just move along now...nothing to see here...that's old news now...let's all just forget about it...hey, how about that softball team?"

[EastCoastCat]

Maybe it was the UofA field that cursed Brennan?

One of my New Year's resolutions in 2021 is to believe in voodoo.

[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'm not of the opinion that "balance" in reporting is achieved by such wild mood swings. That would be like having an adolescent daughter who goes between being angry and unhappy and over-the-top ecstatic on alternating days and saying it's okay because it balances out. Only the psychological diagnosis would be manic-depressive and you'd be advised to get her professional help, which would take the form of suggesting more of an even keel. Even if medication is required.

[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 making asses of themselves trying in vain to distract free throw shooters while mostly providing bad television content. But, I noticed that "CBH" coaches his players on the lane next to an opposing free throw shooter to flail their arms as though losing balance as a distraction. They did it twice. Per the 2020-21 rule book (free download) Rule 8, Section 5, Article 1.f: No opponent shall disconcert (e.g. taunt, bait, GESTURE, or delay) the free-thrower. (My caps added.) My reason for putting this in the media coverage thread is that the Pac-12 Network clearly has direction from Network President (cough!) Larry Scott to not show replays of always-horrific (you decide between incompetent and unethical) Pac-12 officiating. It's one of the main reasons instant replay was invented, but instead, we're treated to the last dunk or three-pointer as a "highlight." In any event, it'll be interesting Thursday to see "CBH" working the refs to not call the rules violations he teaches in practice, while we'll see to what extent television (whichever ESPN is assigned to cover the game) delves into analyzing the obvious officiating foul-ups.

[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 a tough loss seems to include the words "short-handed ASU." There doesn't seem to be a lot of research into any roster woes of the opposition to determine if they're 100% healthy and eligible, which seems to be pretty rare these days. But when those words are on the tips of the tongues of their coaches and hammered on as talking points in their media handouts, the parrots do what they do. You'd hope that such an infection wouldn't spread beyond the bubble of Maricopa County. But when you crank out as many "will work for peanuts" warm bodies as that school does in the less-technical fields, I guess it figures that it would spread. So Bruce Pascoe put out a preview (before an anticipated difficult road game tonight for ASU) where he lists every roster problem ASU has had all season. Yeah, the angle is that those issues are now behind them, but where's the coverage of UArizona's short-handedness? Like losing then-second leading scorer Jemarl Baker (12.0 PPG/2.8 RPG/.343 3%/.833 FT%/21-12 A/TO Ratio/7 STL) for the season? How about the bullshit NCAA not allowing projected possible/probable starter Kerr Kriisa to play until February? How about losing a very athletic and mobile 6-11 Daniel Batcho to injury so far this season? We don't cry about it, and the local (and Phoenix) media shrug it off and ignore it, under the "everybody has injuries" adage. Well, then...everybody has injuries. Meanwhile the beat goes on in Phoenix, where the story of their women's team's loss to Utah was chalked up to them being - wait for it - short-handed because they were missing three reserves. If you add up the cumulative scoring stats of those three, it's about equivalent to what we've been missing with Baker. So to the teams: suck it up, rub some dirt on it, and carry on. And to the media: "balance" doesn't mean you make up for unfairness to one side over time by being unfair to the other side later...it means you're fair EACH time.

[Chicat]

The media will keep hammering the "short-handed" meme when it comes to ASU because they had so much faith in them before the season started. Bobby Hurley was labeled a magnificent coach and recruiter and their returning talent was supposed to be some of the best in the conference.

But they suck.

Were the sportswriters wrong when they touted them as sure bets to make the tourney and go deep? Of course not. They're never wrong. So it must be the injuries and the Covid and any other excuse they want to toss in there.

[TheCatInTheHat]

Yeah, that definitely provides the media cover for their bad predictions, although I'll also say I've seen that used this school year before and after ASU losses in football, men's basketball, women's basketball, and ice hockey. But, other than the wishful media thinking that "colorful" Hurley would become more relevant for their coverage, any reasonably intelligent middle-school hoops fan could have looked at that roster in the pre-season and identified problems with their front line. I know we had an assistant coach say their poor rebounding stats are due to some of their players not being available off-and-on during the season. But, against us Friday night, they got a nice shot in the arm for their rebounding by the firm of Hall, Carr & Curry. In addition to the pencil-thin Koloko's DQ, the rest of our non-guards got whistled for 14 more, for a total of 19 in rebounding country. Their non-guards got 12, which accounts for the overall difference in total fouls. I remember a few high school games where that happened. If you get called for fouls early and often in the normal course of activity under the basket, it sets a tone that's pretty hard to overcome. Hopefully, we either get a better crew, or we get our due share of home cooking. Meanwhile 9 PM start on ESPN2? 11 PM in NYC? I'm sure grinning and bearing "Late Night In The Pac-12" is another reason Larry Scott was FIRED. (And to Wilner, no he didn't just "step down.")

[TheCatInTheHat]

Okay, full disclosure. First of all, I can't stand most announcers, so I generally keep the sound at a level where I can hear the crowd roar and the PA announcer bellow whatever, but the announcers fade into a background buzz. And I really don't care what they had for lunch, or what they think passes for hyuk-hyuk by-play humor. And further, as I write this at halftime, I confess I toggled back and forth to a pretty good interview and clips with Oscar Robertson on NBA TV. But why in the wide world of sports is Jay Bilas doing color for anybody? His voice is like the annoying amplified tenor of a sawmill. He has already rushed to judgment in our case, which should call into question the value of a (completely unused, probably forever) Duke JD law degree (which I'm sure he talks about endlessly.) And all I heard in the first half was about Stanford's missing three players. Next to nothing about Baker, Mathurin, Krisa, or Batcho. (That's 4 to 3, for Duke grads.) I really wish we could have had a crowd to hold up signs. ESPN hires production crews (probably from Phoenix) to man the trailers and generally locals to man the cameras. They like to get paid and get the extra gig money, but ESPN only shows up every now and then, so I assume it's kind of a shrug about ESPN. There's always FoX and Pac-12, and the money's the same, so what the hell, let's have a little fun. There's a little drive-thru automated car wash off Mountain that has a clever billboard. Don't recall the specifics, but it's something about how they're cleaner than ESPN.

[84Cat]

[TheCatInTheHat]

That's the one!

[TheCatInTheHat]

I toggled between the Laker game and the ASU game last night. ESPN2 dutifully showed the travelogue of ASU-provided stills of northern Arizona (this time with ugly labeling), rather than the metro Phoenix area. Curiously, there were no scenic shots of Mt Lemmon or Saguaro National Park, which are both a lot closer to Tempe than the Grand Canyon, but whatever. The officiating crew, led by Bob Staffen, was horrible. They called a lot more fouls on ASU, but it was still about 25% fewer than they should have, which I guess was ASU's strategy, as all the un-called frenetic arm-hacking, bumping, and grabbing obviously threw Stanford off. So on one play, Walton rightly said it was a textbook play that should have been called a charge. Cardinals announcer and Walton coat-tailer Dave Pasch, apparently concerned about backlash in his neighborhood, instantly said the Stanford player moved, so the call was right. And, of course, ESPN2 never showed a replay. So, I ran it back. The Stanford kid was standing stock-still outside the semi-circle. Too bad there isn't more accountability in officiating (and in the sports media.)

[TheCatInTheHat]

Maybe I'm nit-picking, but this caused me to scratch my head. Hansen has what in many ways is a very fine column for Black History Month involving former UArizona track coach Willie Williams, the first black head coach in major college (non-HBCU) sports history. He recounts an Arizona team having its black players denied entrance to a movie theater in El Paso in 1964. Then he writes: That repulsive experience at the El Paso movie theater became the genesis for the UA’s Black History Month. Well, it may be true that the event caused then-AD Dick Clausen to vow to wipe out discriminatory practices with the hiring of Williams (after multiple attempts) five years later to point to as some evidence of that. But, it almost sounds like Hansen doesn't get that Black History Month exists across the US in February and is celebrated by most schools and many businesses. A ten-second Google search shows that it was started by black educators at Kent State University in February of 1970. I'm pretty sure that nobody at Kent State in 1970 knew about the 1964 El Paso event or had heard either of Willie Williams or the University of Arizona. Otherwise, it was a good idea for a column, although I don't know that all the exposition on Williams' tragic end was necessary.

[TheCatInTheHat]

Phoenix is the #11 media market in the country. Every single city ahead of them has at least one reasonably strong newspaper, yet the Republic continues to be best used for protecting your garage floor when spray painting something. Hell, even the Star, in the #70 sized market, has the very well-regarded Michael Lev, and Bruce Pascoe is generally decent when he sticks to straight game coverage. But the Republic can't point to a single writer of any consequence or with any star power. Their jowly copy editor tried to stir the pot again by repeating something negative from Jon Wilner, when the San Jose flash put out his wishful thinking that Sean Miller should be fired. When the best you can do is to repeat somebody else's ideas, you're obviously incapable of having any yourself. It's easily documented that Wilner doesn't like UArizona. When with the Star, he got into it with Lute one time too many, and that didn't turn out well. Some of our own fans don't like Miller for various reasons, but this is just cheap-shot 8th-grade girl bullshit that a self-respecting writer for a decent newspaper wouldn't engage in. I suppose when your favorite teams have been irrelevant for the last six months, it's easy to understand the helpless feelings of pain and frustration. ASU football only played 4 games and won 2, none of any note, including running it up against an inept lame-duck coach and dispirited team. (But it still doesn't match a 67-point beat-down once administered to them by Arizona.) Their overrated (but presumably "innovative") men's basketball team is 6-8 and DOA, and their women's team is 4-6 in conference play. By comparison, Miller's team is 13-6 and Adia Barnes and her squad are now 10-2. And there's also a lot of the positive national publicity for Jedd Fisch (and Gronk.) It's like ASU fans are on the outside looking in with their runny noses flattened against the window. So pass the Windex already.

[TheCatInTheHat]

And now for something completely different; here's something other than a media critique. For anybody who occasionally watches the Paul Finebaum Show on the SEC network (and simulcast on a radio network), Jedd Fisch will be appearing at 4:30 Arizona time today. It's pretty unusual to have anybody from outside SEC country on that show. They get into the color of Nick Saban's socks and who the third-string long-snapper is at Tennessee. Finebaum, who obviously has a face for radio, is an institution in the deep south. I remember once having to go on business travel to an isolated part of Arkansas. I had a long drive on a two-lane blacktop with nobody in sight for long stretches, and I expected at any minute to see Confederate troops pop out of the woods. But here's Finebaum on the radio in the middle of nowhere, and it was pretty entertaining. This is another encouraging sign of Fisch "getting it," like when he went on the Cowherd show. He's out beating the bushes selling Arizona football, and media coverage means something, both to fans and recruits.

[UAEebs86]

And now for something completely different; here's something other than a media critique. For anybody who occasionally watches the Paul Finebaum Show on the SEC network (and simulcast on a radio network), Jedd Fisch will be appearing at 4:30 Arizona time today. It's pretty unusual to have anybody from outside SEC country on that show. They get into the color of Nick Saban's socks and who the third-string long-snapper is at Tennessee. Finebaum, who obviously has a face for radio, is an institution in the deep south. I remember once having to go on business travel to an isolated part of Arkansas. I had a long drive on a two-lane blacktop with nobody in sight for long stretches, and I expected at any minute to see Confederate troops pop out of the woods. But here's Finebaum on the radio in the middle of nowhere, and it was pretty entertaining. This is another encouraging sign of Fisch "getting it," like when he went on the Cowherd show. He's out beating the bushes selling Arizona football, and media coverage means something, both to fans and recruits.

He was on Finebaum yesterday:

[TheCatInTheHat]

Well, hell...I guess that's the definition of a day late and a dollar short, but thanks for the link! So his time with Spurrier at Florida and the story about the cards on his windshield to get a job was the SEC link, along with hiring Spurrier's son here. Instead of what a lot of coaches pull about how it's now Day One of the Coach XXX Era as though the world didn't exist before them, I appreciate how he's talking about what Smith and Tomey did in the 80's and 90's and the effort to build toward getting back to that consistently. And he also kept reasonable perspective about the lesser success of Stoops and RichRod, but still gave them a tip of the hat. It was a good commercial.

[Merkin]

[TheCatInTheHat]

(That's Henry V, for media types.) So now the Republic (not a very good paper for a market that size), has apparently seen the error of its ways and dropped the term "short-handed" when referring to any of ASU's sports teams that lose a game. Instead, they'll use the word "depleted." Kudos to them. And Arizona is still without starter Jemarl Baker and talented big man Daniel Batcho and doesn't cry about it.

[TheCatInTheHat]

This is kind of an unusual week in terms of sports schedules and coverage, and newspaper listings are often inaccurate or incomplete, so I'll post this as a public service.

Thursday
Men's Basketball: Arizona at UCLA 7 pm ESPN2

Friday
Women's Basketball: Arizona at Cal 1:30 pm P12N
Baseball: Ball St at Arizona 6 pm (Streamed)

Saturday
Men's Basketball: Arizona at USC 4 pm FoX
Baseball: Ball St at Arizona 6 pm (Streamed)

Sunday
Baseball: Ball St at Arizona 1 pm (Streamed)
Women's Volleyball: Oregon St at Arizona 1 pm (P12A)

Monday
Baseball: Ball St at Arizona 10 am (Streamed)
Women's Basketball: Arizona at Stanford 7 pm ESPN2

This is assuming Ball St can travel with the cold and snowy conditions between there and here, but I'd think they'd be motivated to get some relative warmth and sunshine. Heeke seems to think they're the best team in the MAC and that both teams want the games on their schedules for power rankings come NCAA seeding time. The softball teams' games will also be streamed, but I didn't list them. Disappointing that the games at Texas and against Alabama were cancelled due to the weather conditions in Texas. They've got games with New Mexico on Friday night and Saturday afternoon, but I doubt anybody will give them much trouble this coming weekend. Those games are sandwiched in-between games with Southern Utah and Seattle U.

[TheCatInTheHat]

So those fun-loving imps at the Republic (a poor newspaper for its market size, if I haven't mentioned it before) are at it again. ASU got whupped last night at USC by 20. And we've moved from "short-handed" to "depleted" to the new Word Power (TM) Word For The Day: UNDERMANNED. So, just to help them out, I whipped out my trusty thesaurus. Here are some additional options they can feel free to use:

Reduced; Weakened; Sapped; Lessened

Or, more to my liking:

Lacking; Found Wanting; Washed Out; Destitute; and my favorite: Kaput

The University of Arizona Wildcats may well get whupped at UCLA tonight. Hopefully, we'll make a good showing. Regardless, hopefully our season-long trend will continue, and there'll be no point in Tucson media mentioning our two roster challenges the way the Phoenix media bangs on ASU's roster-limitation drum endlessly to reflect the school administration's approved narrative for a failed season.

[TheCatInTheHat]

Copy Boy at the lessened Republic scoured the internet to cherry pick the east coast e-zine sports types who are understandably skeptical of the Fisch hire, since he's never been a head coach. (Good job on that...now don't forget to take out the trash.) Meanwhile, the annual exercise seems to be that ASU's sports PR department cranks out something with words like "high expectations" and "breakthrough season" for every major sport, the local Phoenix media robots yearn for some relevance and dutifully parrot it, and then the national media for some reason assumes they must know what they're talking about, and voila...you have the annual buzz about the sleeping giant awakening, and blah-blah-blah. You'd think someone in this circle jerk would eventually either wise up, refuse to go along, or at least worry about their credibility after I don't know how many decades of this nonsense. So far this school year, after all the hype, you're left with non-winning seasons in football and basketball, and their baseball team pulled defeat out of victory in their season opener against Sac St, taking a 2-0 lead into the 9th, before losing 4-2. Charlie Brown, meet Lucy.

[TheCatInTheHat]

So on December 23, as the self-proclaimed seer of all seers and prognosticator of prognosticators in the Pac-12, Howdy Doody Wilner sniffed and scoffed and skepticalled his way through an introduction of Jedd Fisch at Arizona. Because "everybody" knew that you had to hire a former player, preferably who could appeal to the Polynesian communities, and so on and so forth. Now, almost exactly two months later, he suddenly thinks it all may work out because...Fisch has a strong Twitter game? Just throw some slop out there and see if it sticks to the wall, but don't recognize that your earlier contradictory slop is a searchable internet artifact. I realize these guys have to fill space, and they occasionally provide actual information, which is the reason to periodically check in to see what data they've got. But anybody who worships at their feet because they're so "in the know" and their opinions are sacrosanct is, to be kind, rather naive.

[TheCatInTheHat]

Seems like it's always the same ol' from those media types with the non-math-required degrees (if even that.) Not too sharp, kind of lazy, and whiny to boot. "Give us more access...we'll file a FOIA request...wait'll we see the NOA...drop even more stories in our lap." Frankly, as important as it historically has been to have honest watchdogs over elected officials, the bureaucracy, and the judiciary in this and other countries, with the media's decline into the entertainment business and all the lapses, it's hard to be very sympathetic to their complaints or receptive to their opinions. I'm trying to think of the last time somebody (local) took the chance of sticking his neck out and broke a story that really made a difference to the average person. More like "here's news you may have missed" (because they didn't report it in a timely way) and maybe let's bang away on nice safe targets who can't hit back around awards time. Meanwhile, it seems like the obvious answer on Miller's non-extension is that the ABOR said wait until everything shakes out (this summer) and then make a move one way or the other. Oh, and don't go public with this discussion. At that point, whether some frustrated media types criticize you or not is irrelevant; everybody gets to wait for the IARP findings. I'd guess the IARP will go with the self-imposed tourney ban, reduce a couple of scholarships and maybe a staff member for a year or two, and that's that. Then and only then, Miller gets extended. And it doesn't matter how much media types here and elsewhere copy each other and huff and puff and snort.

[ChooChooCat]

Seems like it's always the same ol' from those media types with the non-math-required degrees (if even that.) Not too sharp, kind of lazy, and whiny to boot. "Give us more access...we'll file a FOIA request...wait'll we see the NOA...drop even more stories in our lap." Frankly, as important as it historically has been to have honest watchdogs over elected officials, the bureaucracy, and the judiciary in this and other countries, with the media's decline into the entertainment business and all the lapses, it's hard to be very sympathetic to their complaints or receptive to their opinions. I'm trying to think of the last time somebody (local) took the chance of sticking his neck out and broke a story that really made a difference to the average person. More like "here's news you may have missed" (because they didn't report it in a timely way) and maybe let's bang away on nice safe targets who can't hit back around awards time. Meanwhile, it seems like the obvious answer on Miller's non-extension is that the ABOR said wait until everything shakes out (this summer) and then make a move one way or the other. Oh, and don't go public with this discussion. At that point, whether some frustrated media types criticize you or not is irrelevant; everybody gets to wait for the IARP findings. I'd guess the IARP will go with the self-imposed tourney ban, reduce a couple of scholarships and maybe a staff member for a year or two, and that's that. Then and only then, Miller gets extended. And it doesn't matter how much media types here and elsewhere copy each other and huff and puff and snort.

There's a more than good chance that the IARP will have not even ruled on their decision by the end of next basketball season. So if Arizona waits until then they would have forfeited the entire 2022 recruiting class, because nobody is going to commit to a program where they don't know if the coach recruiting them will be the head coach or not. A decision has to be made this offseason. You do not leave a coach on a one year contract, it's literally self-imposed suicide.

[SCCats]

There's a more than good chance that the IARP will have not even ruled on their decision by the end of next basketball season.

Oh my god, seriously?

Jesus.

[ChooChooCat]

There's a more than good chance that the IARP will have not even ruled on their decision by the end of next basketball season.

Oh my god, seriously?

Jesus.

We're like 4th in line (maybe worse). They haven't even gotten started on the first school yet.

[TheCatInTheHat]

It'll be interesting, no doubt. But no amount of pressure from the media to generate a story will change anything, and we don't know about the IARP timeline. Meanwhile, we seem to have a pretty set roster returning, with some nice additional pieces coming in. Players can always transfer, but I don't see it all that much different than last year with the three one-and-dones. And Miller has shown he can recruit, even with this cloud. This is a unique situation to weather, and I'm not sure you can apply the traditional one year rule. We've been screwed by the FBI maybe trying to divert attention from their other problems, the NCAA's typical multi-year incompetence, and ESPN's character-assassination "reporting." So the lynch mob wants to force a firing. My typical reaction to that kind of piling-on is to side with the underdog. I certainly wouldn't object to extending him right now, regardless. But nobody knows what's gone on between Robbins and the ABOR. They've seen the NOA and the response, but we're stuck in the "justice delayed is justice denied" phase (even assuming an honest and competent judge.)

[ChooChooCat]

It'll be interesting, no doubt. But no amount of pressure from the media to generate a story will change anything, and we don't know about the IARP timeline. Meanwhile, we seem to have a pretty set roster returning, with some nice additional pieces coming in. Players can always transfer, but I don't see it all that much different than last year with the three one-and-dones. And Miller has shown he can recruit, even with this cloud. This is a unique situation to weather, and I'm not sure you can apply the traditional one year rule. We've been screwed by the FBI maybe trying to divert attention from their other problems, the NCAA's typical multi-year incompetence, and ESPN's character-assassination "reporting." So the lynch mob wants to force a firing. My typical reaction to that kind of piling-on is to side with the underdog. I certainly wouldn't object to extending him right now, regardless. But nobody knows what's gone on between Robbins and the ABOR. They've seen the NOA and the response, but we're stuck in the "justice delayed is justice denied" phase (even assuming an honest and competent judge.)

Miller can recruit when he has a contract saying he’s going to be the head coach of Arizona the year kids will enroll. That is currently not the case for 2022 recruits.

[TheCatInTheHat]

It's kind of sad when you have to say "hey, somebody actually did something right", but I'll extend a little credit where it's due. Anne Ryman and Craig Harris of the Republic are grown-ups who wrote what I consider a fair summary of the allegations. I write this because, when I first saw the story, I expected the Republic's typical giggling middle school approach to any bad news for UArizona athletics. But, I guess that's the special province of the arrested development types in their sports department.

[TheCatInTheHat]

The state of Arizona suffers from two pretty mediocre newspapers, but c'est la vie. For reader convenience, here's a summary of the generally missing information (I think the Republic actually got the ASU baseball data out there.) It's really not that hard to get the data and publish it...just a little nosing around on this thing called the internet.

UArizona:
Baseball - The Cats picked up a big road win at ranked UCLA to split the first game of their series. The rubber match is today at 1 p.m., available on UCLA's livestream.

Softball - Arizona lost at Washington, then had the first game of a doubleheader washed out and cancelled, and the second game was rescheduled for this morning at 11 a.m. Pac-12 Network was originally scheduled to carry the regularly scheduled game at 1 p.m. today. Unknown what the TV situation is at this point.

Women's Basketball - Arizona plays Stony Brook in the NCAA Tournament Monday in the Alamodome in San Antonio at 11 a.m. Tucson time on ESPN2.

ASU:
Baseball - Pitching-depleted ASU split the first two games of their series at Oregon. The rubber match is today at 12 p.m., available on Oregon's livestream.

Softball - ASU lost the first three games of their series at UCLA. The final game is today at 2 p.m. on Pac-12 Network.

Women's Basketball - 12-11 ASU lost in the WNIT, but they were given two consolation games to play before their season ends. They beat Missouri yesterday, and they play Houston on Monday at 2 p.m. Arizona time, as they try to avoid a non-winning season. No TV.

NBA:
The defending NBA champion Lakers play at the Suns tonight at 7 p.m. on Fox Sports Arizona. The Lakers will be without LeBron James, who suffered a high ankle sprain against Atlanta, and who may be out for three weeks or more, with the playoffs only weeks away. Gee, I don't know...maybe that's considered news.

It's outrageous that so much of what should be the top stories are so poorly covered, or not covered at all. Somebody wanted to put the papers to bed early and call it a week? But, you DO get hypocrite Greg Hansen kissing Jedd Fisch's rear end just a few weeks after he and his buddy Wilner completely savaged him.

[TheCatInTheHat]

No surprise, but really great work by Lev. Number assignments, weight changes, use of tight ends, QBs under center, who's looking good...all on day one. The typical interviews with the coaches about giving 110% and all that are fine, but being the eyes and ears of the fan base really provides a valued service.

[TheCatInTheHat]

Well, the Cats won the opener of the series with ASU at Phoenix Muni 10-5. Four errors by "ESU", and a fun night for Arizona. No Star coverage, as I guess they're not doing the road games. In this case, I'd think they could use their deal to carry the Republic's story and photos, but those are available in the Republic, and the games are on radio and TV. On the topic of the Republic, Jeff Metcalf had kind of a sour grapes/dick comment about how this was UArizona's first win over ASU since 2018, because ASU had a rare sweep in 2019 and Covid struck in 2020. Okay, and Arizona leads the series all-time and over the last ten years and sure looks like it'll be adding to those numbers this year. So what?

[TheCatInTheHat]

14-2 final from Hi Corbett. After losing the conference series at Muni, Republic writer/ASU mouthpiece Metcalfe built up this midweek non-conference game as a way for ASU to "split the points" in the all-sports T-cup series. Well, other than maybe Hansen occasionally grasping for something to write about, Metcalfe seems to be the only writer or fan who ever mentions the series. An insurance company started it with some very debateable rules, the schools got excited about the money (go figure), then the company dropped their funding, and for years, there's been nobody left to adjudicate the grey area stuff, of which there's plenty. Basically Crow makes his pronouncements as it benefits ASU, Metcalfe parrots him, and nobody else particularly cares. Meanwhile, the season-long trend continues with the excuses whenever ASU loses, as we learn they had a couple of players out sick last night. Funny, when Arizona's Blake Paugh (batting .350) was out injured for the whole ASU series in Phoenix, you never heard about it. And then, you've got ASU with their annual announcement of trying to out-bid everybody to buy a baseball regional from the NCAA. When we've got a better record and just whupped them. Situation normal, I guess. But the NCAA says regionals will be allocated based on merit.

[TheCatInTheHat]

As was discussed elsewhere, former Citizen writer Steve Rivera took a shot at Miller as he left, with his list of every faux pas and slight over a 12 year period. So you can imagine how badly Hansen wanted to get in on that act. In his case, it's a claim by former Snowden recruiter Jerry Holmes that he felt dissed by Miller. Apparently, even though he hasn't been in the game for like 50 years, he tried to give Miller a tip on a player. Now, Miller has his flaws, but being relentless in recruiting isn't one of them. But, his big "sin" was to brush it off and not follow up, maybe on a player who wouldn't fit his particular system or wouldn't be interested in moving so far away to school. I imagine Miller's had more than a few people come up to him with recruiting tips in his career, and it no doubt gets old. So this particular player went to Notre Dame and on to the NBA. And Holmes runs to Hansen with his complaint, and Hansen decides to talk out of school about it? Again, it provides some insight to compare and contrast Miller's classy good-bye note to these kinds of behaviors. I'll note that Miller walks away having earned over $30M in Tucson, but the writers have, what...some brief amount of attention in a small market? It seems like the old adage may apply here: Living well really is the best revenge.

[Chicat]

Any negative Miller press at this point has to be looked at through the lens of “why didn’t you report this while he was still the head of the program?”

The answer is either cowardice or a lack of sources at the time and sour grapes now. Either way, it’s a real bad look.

And let’s be clear, I know people both in the press and in the general public who had interactions and relationships with Sean Miller that I would describe as having left a sour taste in their mouth, but these aren’t the people trashing him today. In fact, I’ve seen them write very nice tributes to what he did for the program. It’s called taking the high road.

[EastCoastCat]

Don’t trample on a man’s grave. It says something about you.

[TheCatInTheHat]

So the schmuck at the Republic once again tried his inept hand at trolling all things Arizona yesterday, scouring the internet to cite comments about how poorly UArizona's basketball search was going. Then, the very next day he was forced to write a story with all the positive comments about the hiring of Tommy Lloyd. Now there's a very nice example of total incompetence in terms of timing and judgment. Anybody with any sensibility would feel embarrassed and humiliated, but that's not our boy. Clueless to the end, I'm sure. I'm not going to defend Robbins for sticking his overly prominent nose way-too-deeply into collegiate athletics. He deserves criticism for over-stepping the bounds of his actual expertise so he could play in the toy box. But my stance is that while a family may criticize another family member, if some outsider walks into the living room with his big mouth, he's going to have to fight the whole family. So while an over-the-hill writer who makes dick for a living at a very mediocre newspaper accepted the role of a somewhat annoying adolescent trying to be relevant, he just wound up with a door slammed in his face and a bloody nose. Good.

[Carcassdragger]

CBS national news just reported that Rob Gronkowski just caught the world record football at Arizona State. Sigh.