Definition of "Sore Winners?"

Look up ASU in the dictionary. Reading some of these comments you'd think they lost the game last week to the Wildcats. Check'em out:

Praise for Cats too much -- excuse me, but aren't the Devils packing up their glamorous 6-5 record and hitting the road for the, well, Insight Bowl?

Did ASU win Duel in the Desert? -- duh. They whine even when they win. Get over it and start getting ready for Rutgers. Wow.

"Lowly Arizona" -- grrrrrrrrr....

Egads...

The Monday After......

Cats drop in polls -- all the way to 16 after a tough Maui Tourney.

Thomas is on the Money -- named co-PAC10 freshman of the year.

Upset of the year? -- that's what this paper is calling the Cats' victory over UCLA. It was pretty amazing.

Hoopsters finally find the range -- and break 50% shooting against the Cavs. And find their 6th Man - the ZonaZoo.

Back to work tomorrow. Ugh.

Ultimate tailgate party

Just 'cause she dances, mofo, that don't make her a ho, no....

The gang that couldn't shoot straight

The Wildcats may have shot a miserable 24% against KU but the pressure defense did its job, holding the Jayhawks at bay long enough to put them away. Justg a blip on the radar, but the Cats do lack a go-to-guy when the shots aren't falling. Somebody step up.

Let THE GAMEs Begin

Exhibit A:


"The ASU campus community awoke on Monday to find the 'A' on Tempe Butte red and blue, Arizona's colors. A middle-of-the-night painting of the letter is a semi-annual occurrence before ASU-UA contests, despite the best attempts of locals to protect it.

'I ran into some students last week, and they told me they were going to guard the "A," ' (Tempe coach Dirk)Koetter said. 'They must have failed us. I guess that they have to get in the weight room and bulk up some more.'

Perhaps those students were too busy returning the favor, as the 'A' on a mountain near the Arizona campus was painted maroon and gold. "

Big Monday, Big Week

Today kicks off a big week in sports for the Wildcat Nation and for Wilbur's family, as well. After tonight's Maui Invitational tipoff against Kansas, we pack up and head off to Colorado for family and feasting. It doesn't get better than that!

Corky's take -- CSimpson is always entertaining. Here he looks at the UA/Tempe rivalry.

Miles-stone -- Miles Simons turns 30 today. Hopes to blow out the Jayhawks.

Lute hangs ten -- Don't he look cool??

Hot Sauce heats up -- Hassan gets some well-deserved press.

More UA/Tempe -- this time we hear from our soldiers in Iraq.

Bear Down. Fork Tempe.

The Big Game -- 50 years ago

End earns place in history with the tip of his finger, as the Wildcats denied Tempe a Border Conference championship in 1955. Some things never change.

Remember these plays?

From the AZ Republic, an article about some unforgettable (and forgettable) big plays in the UA/asu rivalry. We were in the endzone when JJefferson made "The Catch," and there for CCecil's intereception return. As for BThompson's TD run in '61, we were in the Knothole section, no doubt. Who's going to be the unsung hero this year?

Here's one for Bumma and Pae - and their famous Whammy!

Cats lasso 'Horns' recruit

Just after landing one of the nation's top QB prospects in Tyler Lyon, Mike Stoops just added the 25th ranked running back in the country. Derke Robinson, who initially commited to Texas, has seen the light and will be a Wildcat next year. Amazing how we are recruiting both California and Texas so well these days, a must to keep up with the big boys in the PAC10.Cats lasso 'Horns' recruit

Quarterback High sends one to Tucson

Tyler Lyon, the 10th ranked QB in the nation this year, has committed to the Wildcats. When was the last time we got one ranked so high? I'll have to check into that one, but I can't remember a one.

Odds and ends from UA athletic dept.

With the football season eyeing their season-ending fracas with ASU, the basketball team just gearing up for another run deep into the NCAAs, and even the soccer team making it to the Sweet 16, let's see what the real sportswriters have to say about the Wildcat Nation.

Run and Stun -- with bench so deep it's almost illegal, Lute plans on employing an all out blitz on the opponents. Let's hope it fares better than last year's short-lived full-time full-court press.

World of talent -- college basketball players now come from all corners of the world, and the rush to find and recruit them is in full swing. English as a second language, basketball as a first.

Soccer in Sweet 16 -- though they face a tough challenge, going up against number 1 ranked and undefeated Portland State, in Portland. Run, Lally, run!

UA/ASU preview -- Corky Simpson always has such an interesting take on all things Wildcat.

Softball signs stars -- four all-star players sign to play for the Cats in 2007. Too bad we have to wait.

Beat the Devils.

No Mercy for Tempe.

From perfect to perfectly awful

In a year when one more loss isn't all that critical (no rankings, no bowl, not ASU), the Huskies throttling of the Cats last night was still a nightmare. No focus, no edge, no spark left from the UCLA game - maybe the team was reading their own press. No turnovers against the Ruins - 5 against the Huskies. Missed routes, tackles, and assignments again were the Cats bugaboos. The good news? We've got two weeks to prepare for those lovable Sun Devils.

The light at the end of the tunnel -- we can still shove Sparky's pitchfork where the bowls don't shine.

Pa-Tuii -- he really is a freshman quarterback. Doh.

No Pitty for the Kitty

The Official Online Store of Arizona State University Athletics...............pretty cute idea for a shirt. Maybe they'll have some ideas for a game plan to stop Willie the Big Bad Kitty.

Game Day vs UDubya

The final home game brings the Huskies to town, another lost-its-luster program searching for past respectability. With the UA nearly a 2-TD favorite, this game looks much different today than it did 2-3 weeks ago, when the Cats hadn't been Willie-sized. What a turnaround, and what a crowd is expected today. The Zona Zoo will be there in full force - and no doubt early and eager. Those seats in the South endzone are going to seem even smaller when all 50,000+ of us try to squeeze in, another gentle reminder that I need to start that diet. Today, though, let that bright AZ sun shine on the Cats, especially on the seniors who have endured the roughest of times to be a Wildcat only to bring us to the brink of the next grand era of UA football.

Cat scratch fever -- five reasons why Arizona football is hot, hot, hot. Check it out - Stoops gets a cool $90K bonus when paid attendance averages more than 45,000/season.

Kick-off return contest -- some lucky fan gets a chance to win a new Kia auto if the Cats return the opening kickoff of either half for a TD. Noone's come close yet, and wouldn't it be sweet for that to happen today? Steptoe steps in.


Bear down - dog down today.

Signed, sealed, delivered

Bayless commits to Wildcat basketball
STEVE RIVERA
Tucson Citizen
Phoenix St. Mary's High junior guard Jerryd Bayless has committed to the Arizona Wildcats men's basketball program for the 2007-08 season.

The 6-foot-3, 185-pound guard announced his decision at a press conference Friday in Phoenix.

Scout.com ranks Bayless as the seventh-best high school player for the 2007-08 season.

Aran Smith, a Scout.com writer, called Bayless "a pure scorer who plays hard on both ends of the floor'' after watching him play at the annual Reebok Classic in 2004, when he was a sophomore.

Though UA was a near lock before Bayless committed, other schools reportedly in contention were Texas, Stanford, UCLA and North Carolina.

Senior Day minus one and counting

Signee shines -- UA-bound defensive back helps lead team to league title. Looks for more here.

Jerryd Bayless update -- we'll have the final answer later today. I'll have to tune my radio to 1290AMthesource for the answer.

Read about Willie T -- halfway down the article. Check out the list of other qb's coached by Roger Theder.

More Big Willie -- the folks up north are just a little worried now that the UA has found a top-level quarterback. Meow.

Mallory's foot carries the day -- as the soccer team advances to the second round of NCAA play. Did I just write about soccer??

Bear Down. Huskies in sights.

Paper Bruins boost Cats

The positive press keeps rolling in after Saturday's big game. Seems like the only ones not reading all the good vibes are the Wildcats themselves. Focus power, Cats...

NCAA rejects eligibility appeal of Arizona's McClellan

Second time was not the charm, as Jawann McClellan had his appeal from academic ineligibility rejected by the wise at the NCAA. Now he won't be able to play until mid-December - and miss the Maui trip.
Aloha.

SoCal brothers commit to Stoops

Saturday's rout of the Ruins helped land these two brothers for next year...and beyond. Big boys both. Dare we say we're over the hump?

Well, if you insist.....another look at the Bottom Line.

Super stud basketball recruit to announce decision Friday

Jerryd Bayless of Phoenix St. Mary's HS will announce this week which elite college program he'll suit up for in 2007. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with current team members at Saturday's a**-kicking of UCLA can't hurt Lute's chances.

Redemption!

The wait was a long one, but it was worth it. Worth it for the players, the fans, the coaches, the city. What a Saturday night was had in the Old Pueblo, and the celebrating is likely to continue for some years to come. The Ruins won't be the only ones to get their bells rung.

Tui for Heismann? -- maybe a little premature, but the word is out on Willie.

Cats do their part to clear up the BCS mess:

Miami and Arizona cleared some of the clouds around the national title picture Saturday.

The Wildcats did in the Bruins in resounding fashion - Arizona 52, UCLA 14 was the shocking final.

"I'm just frustrated, that's the biggest thing - to go out there and put on a performance like that," said UCLA quarterback Drew Olson, whose team finally put itself in a hole too deep to overcome.

UCLA's house of cards comes down -- and how. Slipping seven spots in the AP poll should rile them up just a tad in preparation of this week's game against ASU.

"Slowly but surely we noticed them losing their heart" -- while the Cats were just finding theirs. Pack the house for this week's game against Washington.

From OC REgister

Sunday, November 6, 2005
Game was lost cause from the start

By MARK WHICKER
The Orange County Register

TUCSON – Someone told Antoine Cason that the UCLA players complained they hadn't been "flying around."

Cason, the sophomore corner from Los Alamitos, smiled tolerantly, as if he'd just been asked to explain subject-verb-predicate.

"They weren't flying around," Cason said, "because we were."

Fly to the moon, Arizona.

The Wildcats, 2-6 coming into Saturday, threw a Don Larsen at UCLA on Saturday. They played their game. Why didn't UCLA, 8-0 before this, play its game? Go back to the blackboard. The predicate follows the subject and verb. The Wildcats played theirgame, and played it so unusually well that the fans rushed the field and attacked a goalpost. The goalpost, unlike the Bruins, remained standing.

"It was pedal to the metal all night," said UCLA safety Jarrod Page, having had enough time to digest this visceral, 52-14 night at the whipping post - "a humble butt-kicking," as Coach Karl Dorrell called it.

"They just came out and played fast, faster than us," Page said. "They ran some bootlegs and got some of our guys lost in the shuffle with their misdirections. They were sure of everything they were doing."

That's football. Very rarely do two opposing teams reach their happy zone at once and stay there. When that happens, you have something that lives forever, like Dolphins-Chargers in 1981 or Miami-Nebraska in 1983. Otherwise, it's a zero-sum game.

How could Drew Olson get anything established when UCLA had to punt on its first four possessions, all of which began on the 20? How can UCLA win when its longest play of the game is 23 yards?

And every time Olson got the ball back he found himself one floor deeper. Arizona scored touchdowns on its first four trips. It averaged more than 10 yards per playin the first half.

Freshman discovery Willie Tuitama, who was playing at St. Mary's High in Stockton a year ago, completed his first seven passes. The Wildcats outgained UCLA, 193-43, in the first quarter, which ended, 21-0.

That brings up another truism, popularized by Lou Holtz: Football teams either get better or worse. They don't stay on the blackboard, in static chalk.

This Arizona team was within seven of USC after three quarters, and that was before Tuitama. Two weeks ago Tuitama got his first start and Arizona nearly beat Oregon, which has only lost once. Last week, he got his second start and Arizona beat Oregon State.

Arizona dropped a calling card on its first play. Tuitama rolled out left, turned and found Mike Bell down the right side, lonelier than a macarena dancer. Bell ran for 51 yards and might have scored had he not tackled himself. Four plays later, receiver Mike Thomas ran the final 17 yards.

"They had the perfect play called for our defense," said UCLA defensive coordinator Larry Kerr, who faced the music stoically.

"We were in an 8-man front, playing man-to-man to stop the run. They burned us, and one of our linebackers got caught up in the wash, and he lost his man, and that was it. That kind of thing kept happening.

"Our guys seemed to let a lot of little things bother them. We thought we got things settled down at halftime, and then they came out and drove 80 yards to start the third quarter. We hit Tuitama and he throws a flutterball that their guy (Thomas) comes back to catch. Things like that."

Kerr stared and shook his head.

"But if you can't stop the run, it really doesn't matter. They got us blocked, and they did things like run a draw play on third-and-16, and we got four guys with a shot and none of them could make the play. We just could never make a play on defense all night."

Bell (156 yards) and Harris (113) became the first Arizona tandem to break 100 in the same game since Clarence Farmer and Ortege Jenkins did it in 2000, also against UCLA.

There are no turning points in games like this, but there are illustrations.

Arizona led, 31-7, when Gilbert Harris toured right end - and receiver Syndric Steptoe, who later became the first Wildcat in five years to return a punt for a touchdown, held up UCLA safety Dennis Keyes for what seemed like five seconds as Harris rumbled for 12 yards. This is the same Keyes who personally terrorized Oklahoma back in September.

On the next play, Keyes set himself to stop Bell up the middle, and Bell simply somersaulted him and landed in the end zone. One guy was one step, one thought, one twitch ahead of the other guy. All day, all night.

Once Dorrell descended the steps to UCLA's tiny locker room, he told the Bruins, "Remember, we're 8-1, not 1-8." No one cried over the loss of a "national championship"; no one should believe the sheen is gone from the Dec. 3 date with USC.

The Bruins had been living right all season. They could have lost to Washington, Washington State, Cal and Stanford. They didn't have to play Oregon. The time would come when they would fall off their skis. They just didn't expect to run into sharks like this.

Dorrell came back out and said the normal stuff, as if there was any alternative.

"We didn't play well," he said over and over. Asked what he told the team at halftime, he said, "That we didn't play well," and now he broke down - laughing.

That's how you dispense with days like this. Watch the tape, then tape over it. Just don't forget the subject, verb and predicate. One football play, if left unchecked, can infect the next 90.

Or, as one old coach said, "We got a great offense. They just wouldn't let us run it."

No love lost for UCLA

They Warm Up for USC Game by Roasting UCLA -- "they" being USC fans. SC had the best of both worlds yesterday - watching their hated cross-town rival being pummeled by Arizona, then beating up on the same team (Stanford) that the Ruins had rallied against just the week before.

A Last Easy Step Instead Turns Into Tumble for Humbled Bruins - Los Angeles Times

A Last Easy Step Instead Turns Into Tumble for Humbled Bruins - Los Angeles Times

This one looks like the turning point

Welcome to the Tucson Citizen

Cats leave Bruins no escape

Cats leave Bruins no escape

UCLA Ruins

UCLA Ruins - Los Angeles Times

Losing football, but affordable housing

The football team might need a little more seasoning, but the housing market in Tucson ranks #1.


EUGENE, Ore. (AP) -- The University of Arizona football team got its first win of the Pacific-10 Conference season last weekend.

Now a real-estate company has given the Wildcats a second win -- most affordable place to buy a house in the Pac-10.

A study released Wednesday by Coldwell Banker Real Estate ranked Tucson as the most affordable, followed by Corvallis, home of the Oregon State Beavers. The Pullman, Wash.-based Washington State Cougars ranked third.

Together, the three schools have twice as many losses as wins this season, but when it comes to buying a house, their locations are smelling like roses.

The company ranked the most and least affordable college markets in the nation by comparing average single-family home values in 59 towns.

They defined these homes as having about 2,200 square feet, four bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, a family-type room and a two-car garage.

Such a home costs $250,800 in the Tucson area and $327,000 in 4th-ranked Eugene, according to the Coldwell Banker College Market Home Price Comparison Index.

The index's average price in Eugene sounds low for the type of home in the survey, said Curtis Irving, owner and broker of Coldwell Banker Curtis Irving Realty in Eugene.

'For a nice, 2,200-foot house in an executive area of Eugene, that's three to five years old? You bet that's low,' Irving said.

Today such a house might sell for $375,000 to $400,000, a sign of just how hot the housing market has been in recent years, he said.

Still, that's not"

UA/UCLA Football Notes

UCLA brings its high-powered game and lofty ranking to Arizona Stadium tomorrow, but don't look for a Bruin cakewalk. The Uclans have had to resort to come-from-behind rallies to win recently and the Cats have new-found confidence after last week's win at OSU. With the Bruins at the bottom of the heap in rushing defense this could be the game Mike Bell has been waiting for. Will Willie Wow? Heck - it's Homecoming. Let's see all that Wildcat Spirit from alums.

Wide receiver recruiting -- on the upswing with the free slinging Willie T.

9.5 point underdogs again -- same spread as last week. Same results?

Cats on defense -- the good news is the news is good.

A tale of two teams -- Is UCLA real good or real lucky?

And who can resist another shot at ASU??

One Arizona team on top, one at bottom -- in preseason PAC10 basketball poll.

Lute Reloads

From all indications after last night's Red/Blue Scrimmage the Cats are "off and running" at another successful hoops campaign and PAC10 title. And who are these new guys, and why are they comparing Marcus Williams to Sean Elliot/Chris Mills/Richard Jefferson already? You gotta feel sorry for the Devils up I-10, though, as in ranked 10th preseason......in the PAC10. That's old news for ASwho, though - they've been ranked at the bottom before....often, in fact.
"Last year, when we were picked to finish last, we put it on our wall," ASU coach Rob Evans said. "It's motivation for those guys. To me, it's a non-issue."
Might be an issue come contract renewal time, Robbie.