Third straight win for Devils sets up showdown with Wildcats

ARIZONA STATE: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW

With Arizona State's 34-9 smackdown of the UCLA Bruins, the Devils are now winners of the last three, and find themselves in position to make it four against their in-state rivals.

The Sun Devils, now 5-6 overall, 4-4 in conference play, scored three defensive touchdowns in their rout, and have averaged 34.6 points in the last three wins.

Arizona State will take on the Arizona Wildcats Saturday in the annual "Dual in the Desert" game, televised live on ESPN and FSNAZ.

The Sun Devils began the season as an early favorite to challenge USC for the conference title, and were collectively thought to be the nation's 15th best team, returning with 16 seniors, including quarterback Rudy Carpenter who threw for 3202 yards with 25 touchdowns. Arizona Sate was billed as a veteran team poised to make a run at the BCS standings.

All that changed when ASU was embarrassed at Sun Devil Stadium to an unranked UNLV team 23-20 in overtime, a week before a titanic matchup between the Devils and the second ranked Georgia Bulldogs in Tempe.

The Sun Devils were then crushed by the Bulldogs, setting the team into a spiral, losing four straight before finding daylight against the Washington Huskies.

At more than one point during this season, the Territorial Cup, given to the winner of the ASU/UA matchup, looked to be on its way back to Tucson due to the Devils' early season demise.

In Arizona State's six game losing streak, the Devils were able to muster only 279.7 yards per game, while allowing 396.2 to their opponents. Even more astounding for Dennis Erickson's "pass first" offense was that the team was only able to put up a mediocre 14 points a game, while the defense gave up almost 31 points.

The ground game for ASU was held to an anemic average of 77.7 yards in the six losses, including a particularly rough stretch of games against Southern California, Oregon, and Oregon State.

Even with the Sun Devils' lackluster mid-season performance, Arizona State has found a very small window into a possible bowl bid.

The Devils would love nothing more than to torch the Wildcats, who are now on the verge of missing the post-season yet again, and win their fourth straight Territorial Cup.

The road to a bowl runs through Tucson.

-JMB

-The Territorial Cup. Photo courtesy of picasaweb.google.com.

Deja Vu, with Bowl Implications

OREGON STATE 19, ARIZONA 17

As I walked away from Arizona Stadium last night, suffering another gut wrenching loss to Oregon State, 19-17, the feeling was one I had never experienced before.
It wasn't a feeling of total anger, directed to the oblivious play-calling by the Arizona coaching staff that cost the Wildcats a chance at pulling off a huge comeback.
It wasn't a feeling of despair or sadness, that our team had come so close to beating the 21st ranked team in the land, and almost sent them to the second place bowl game.
And lastly, it wasn't of hope, in which our players and coaches have almost turned the corner, and next season's going to be great.
What puzzled me was how calm I was leaving the Zona Zoo section. It was a feeling of deja vu, as if this outcome had already been determined by some unforeseeable force.
And every Sunday, the same headline on the paper reads how the Wildcats missed opportunities and lost another close one.
Oddly enough, the only thing that seems to be on the minds of Wildcat fans is, "at least there's a bowl game."
An obscure bowl game, but a bowl game none the less.
But after five years of the Stoops era, my patience is running out rather quickly. The rebuilding process from the John Mackovic days are long passed, and Arizona has been so painfully close to getting to a bowl game the past two seasons, that losing another "close one" sends me into a deeper state of confusion.
Why should we settle for getting to just any bowl game? Because we haven't been there in 10 years? Sure it's great to get to the post season, but after five years, any bowl just isn't good enough.
How many more "heart-breaking" losses do Wildcat fans have to endure before our fearless leader finally gets it right?
How many more obvious play calls in critical moments of the game will fall by the wayside in order to project Arizona as a more "risk-taking" team?
The Wildcats have dropped the last 3 of 4, defeating the Pac-10's 9th ranked team, Washington State, to hold on to their bowl hopes. In the three losses, Arizona has missed opportunity after opportunity to gain a foothold in the Pac-10.
While it is unfair to blame Stoops entirely for these last second meltdowns, it is hard not to. After all, it is his team, and he is the head coach. But many of the mistakes have come from his top coordinators, making the wrong calls at the wrong times.
Offensive coordinator Sonny Dykes becomes increasingly conservative with his offense, playing to the level of the opposing team rather than spreading the defense and enacting his "Air Zona" offense.
Defensive coordinator Mark Stoops has dropped the ball with his defensive schemes, allowing the Oregon offense to put up 45 points in the first half of the game. Not to mention, the odd defensive sets within the last 1:30 of the OSU game which led to the winning field goal.
Now while these coaches are trying to win at all costs, it is unacceptable to be making critical mistakes after five years of coaching the same team for the Stoops brothers. And as for Dykes, the offensive unit has lacked the firepower that was promised to us the moment Arizona snatched him from Texas Tech.
Arizona continues it's long march through the sandpits of deja vu, and once again finds itself in a battle with arch-rival Arizona State to keep its bowl hopes, and crawl out of obscurity by heading to the post-season.
Oh well, at least we can say we're headed for a bowl.
-JMB

Photo courtesy of ESPN.COM/AP PHOTO

-Wildcat freshman Keola Anolin breaks past Beaver defender Greg Leybourne for a score in the third quarter.

Cruel Intentions

Mike Stoops and his troops face another daunting task today as they try to knock off the Oregon State Beavers, currently ranked 21st in the nation.

If Arizona wins today, it will likely knock OSU out of the race for the Rose Bowl, and improve Arizona's chances of getting to the Sun Bowl.

So why not root for the underdog Wildcats today? The conditions in Tucson are totally ripe for a home upset today. The reasons are clear:

1. Slumping Cats- Arizona is coming off a difficult loss to the Oregon Ducks, losing 55-45 in Eugene. In past seasons, this might not have bode well for the Wildcats, but this season, they have not lost back to back games.

2. Desert Climate- The game is in Tucson, and not in the cold and rain of Corvallis. The Wildcats have played amazing at home this year, going 4-1 at Arizona Stadium, the only loss coming to USC in late October.

3. Motivation- Arizona has lost eight out of nine to the Beavers, and the last three times State has visited Southern Arizona, the Cats have been on the losing end.

Today's game is quickly becoming a big game in Tucson. For the Wildcats to win their last two would send the Cats out with lots of momentum going into a bowl game. This could be Mike Stoops' big chance to show that his team has, in fact, "arrived", and give Arizona coaches a better hand in recruiting efforts.

So, with this in mind, it would be easy to see why Arizona needs to win, and why Wildcat fans desperately need the team to win this game.

Unfortunately, mixed emotions are tied in with one of the biggest football games in Tucson this season.

It all stems from the Wildcats home loss to Southern California.

In a game Arizona could have, and should have won, it failed to do so. And the Trojans remained on top of the Pac-10, in a tie with the Beavers who have not won the Pac-10 and gone to the Rose Bowl since 1925.

Since the second year of the era of Pete Carroll at USC, the Trojans have won the conference.

What makes it all different this season is the fact that the Beavers defeated the Trojans early in the season.

If the Beavers can close out against the Wildcats today, and their rivals in Corvallis next week, the Rose Bowl is theirs.

A different team going to the Pac-10's top bowl game is just what the conference needs to stay legitimate to the rest of the nation.

Plus a rematch between Penn State and Oregon State would interest many college football fans, due to the fact that both teams are on a roll.

It is hard to want the opposing team to beat the home team, but in this situation, watching the Beavers win might be a good thing.

-JMB

Lost in Space

My view on last night's debacle-

Jamelle Horne is lost. He has been lost since the day he stepped foot on the University of Arizona campus.
While being touted as, the second coming of former Arizona great Richard Jefferson, Horne saw little to no playing time his freshman season.
While it might have been a combination of factors, such as interium head coach Kevin O'Neil, or off practices, or even pure stupidity (I'll get back to that point later), Jamelle is a bit of a mystery for Wildcat fans.
During the off-season, Horne contemplated leaving Arizona for greener pastures, leaving fans, coaches, and players alike in suspense, wondering if the team will have enough depth for the upcoming season.
Every week seemed to become a bigger and bigger soap opera with the sophomore, with doubt written across his face, and his father talking about getting his son the hell out of Dodge.
It is in my opinion that if there was this much drama with an "unknown", let him leave.
Of course, depth is the problem, and scholarship players are hard to come by.
Ultimately, Horne decides that Arizona is really the only school that wants or really needs him, and comes back with the guarantee that he will get his chance.
I'll spare you the dramatic details facing our once illustrious coach, and fast forward to Arizona's first real game against Florida Atlantic University.
The good news is, the boys did their job, and got the win.
But let us talk about the gaping hole which is Jamelle Horne.
The sophomore forward out of San Diego was lackadaisical throughout the game. Defensively, Horne dropped the ball by not pressuring anyone he was guarding. Offensively, while making baskets, Horne missed wide open looks, and passed the ball with no great importance to teammates.
While it might have been premature to start in on my criticism of players, my first thoughts on the new and improved forward was not what one would want to hear. Lazy could be the best term to describe it.
Wind the tape up to last night's game blowing intentional foul, and now you know why Horne's stupidity might have gotten in the way.
And yes, I understand that some might feel differently, and put the blame on the team's poor showing, or that Horne just made a "mistake". And believe me, I will not argue in favor of the way they played. It was bad, especially defensively, and yes, occasionally, mistakes will happen.
But the opportunity to win was less than one second away from overtime, and was stopped thanks in part to a "mistake" by a sophomore.
A sophomore. Jamelle Horne has probably been playing this game since he was old enough to walk, and he is on scholarship at a division one school. These "mistakes" as one might believe them to be, are inexcusable.
These "mistakes" should not happen, especially to someone who believes that they are too good to be at this university. These types of things do not happen to sophomores playing at the D-1 level.
I hope that there is a lesson that comes out of this. An embarrassment that will help spark the team to new heights this season, and also to help Jamelle realize that this is not all about him, but about the team.
Jamelle Horn is lost. Let us hope, through this long season, that our sophomore forward finds his way.
-JMB

Pennell shocked as Cats fall in final second

Jamelle Horne is all the rage in Tucson today, and unfortunately the rage is coming from angry Wildcat fans around southern Arizona.
Horne, the sophomore forward out of San Diego, created one of the biggest blunders last night by intentionally fouling University of Alabama-Birmingham's Paul Delaney III last night with less than a second left till overtime.
Delaney hit one of two free throws to seal the win for the Blazers, who improved to 3-0.
And while Arizona played a terrible defensive game, and looked sloppy offensively, it was the play of Horne that cost the Wildcats a presumable shot at overtime.
Interim head coach Russ Pennell's post game interview tried to shift the talk to that of the teams play, but ultimately the coach had to set the record straight on Horne's apparent lapse of judgment.
"Jamelle I just don't think, had a clock in his head," stated Pennell. "One of the things he said was, 'I didn't know what to do.'"
While the loss sent Arizona to the consolation bracket of the NIT Season Tip Off to play Mississippi Valley State, the Wildcats will be looking to regain their footing.
Arizona will play its next two games on the road against opponents whose combined record this season is 1-6.
And while the season has started rocky for the coach-less Wildcats, Horne and company will need to find a way to play better all-around basketball, and watch the clock a bit more diligently.
-JMB

Intentional Growing

First blog ever! And sorry to say, it won't be pretty...

University of Alabama-Birmingham 71, Arizona 70

Growing pains. Everyone gets them, and no, they are not fun. What I've come to realize in the past 2.5 hours is, growing pains affect teams as well.
I understood that this would be a transitional season, one that would become much like the final episode of a television show before the spin off. Lute Olson out, interim head coach Russ Pennell in, basically gliding through this season until the new era begins.
I get that, I truly do.
What is hard to swallow is last night's mind-boggling loss to Alabama-Birmingham, a mid-major on the rise, but not supposed to be coming out of Tucson with a win.
From the start, the Blazers took it to the Wildcats, nailing 13 three-pointers, and shooting 45 percent on the night.
It's not that the Blazers looked amazing on the court, but what irks me and other Arizona fans is the fact that the Wildcat defense was non-existent for 35 minutes.
Seniors Robert Vanden and Lawrence Kinnard made four three point buckets each, and every one of the baskets came at the most iinopportune moments for the Wildcats.
The Cats, continually living up to their nickname, "cardiac", battled back to bring the score to a 71 point tie with thirty seconds remaining. Freshman Kyle Fogg, in his excitement over scoring the tying bucket made the freshman mistake of not realizing that with a tie game, there is no need to foul.
Needless to say, he fouled, giving the Blazers one of the biggest gifts ever to come out of McKale Center.
The fates must have been rooting for the beleaguered Wildcats however, as Aaron Johnson missed the front end of a one and one, giving Arizona time to set up for the final shot.
Point guard Nic Wise, painfully taking time for the final shot, pulled up for an off-balance fade away jumper and, missed.
With Arizona's tallest man on the court, Jordan Hill too far under the basket to even have a chance at a rebound, Birmingham's Paul Delany took the loose ball with two seconds left, and... was fouled with eight tenths of a second on the clock by Wildcat sophomore Jamelle Horne.
Let me repeat, SOPHOMORE.
I understand that this transitional season will be tough. There is no interim or assistant coach who can take the place of Lute Olson, especially on such short notice.
It is understood that the team will need time to find its true self, and come together to play as one.
And in the big picture of things to come, we shall all look back on this loss and believe that this season was meant to sail as gently as possible through rough waters ahead, until a new captain could be found.
In the mean time, the growing is painful.
-JMB

You might have read this before, repeat, might have read this before

Redundancy annoys me.
It should annoy you too, having to hear or see the same thing over and over again. It's like eating from the same resturant over and over again, and realizing that the food continues to taste the same.
But I feel that it is time to become redundant after watching the Penn State-Southern California game, and reiterate the point that many sports writers, fans, and even our new president, have tried to pitch.
A playoff system needs to be implemented in college football.
It is so tiring to see the nation's top team not getting a chance to play in the national title game because of an early season loss.
It is maddening to see other teams from, what some writers deem, "stronger" conferences, jumping over the Trojans because, THEY didn't lose to an unranked Oregon State team.
Lets face it, Oregon state finished third in the conference, finishing with a 9-4 record and defeating a ranked Pitt team in the Sun Bowl.
And for all the jumping the "stronger" conference teams did in the BCS this season: the Pacific Ten conference (yes, PAC-10), has the best bowl record in this year's bowl games, standing at 5-0.
So does it not look silly right now, when USC is leading the nation's eighth ranked team, 38-14, and Florida and Oklahoma are playing for the national title?
I am not insinuating that Florida and Oklahoma are bad teams and do not deserve to be there, but lets look at how they got to the title game.
The Sooners' only loss this season was to Texas, and the Longhorns finished one below Oklahoma, due to a loss they suffered against Texas Tech.
The Gators found themselves jumping over multiple teams (Southern Cal included) at the end of the season after defeating the top ranked Crimson Tide at the end of the season. Although, the Gators lost to Mississippi at the begining of the season. Mississipi finished second in the SEC West this season.
So after all this information and the blowout that is being broadcast all over the nation, an eight team playoff should not be out of the question.
Who cares if the season is extended another week or so? Wouldn't you sleep better if you knew who the actuall number one team in the nation is? Wouldn't Florida's Tim Tebow against USC's Rey Maualuga tickle your fancy? And since when did the NCAA NOT, repeat, NOT want more money?
Redundancy folks. That's why you continue to listen to sports radio and the discussions of college football playoffs, and why you continue to read opinions like these, which talk about how the college game would be so much better with a playoff system.
Unfortunately, for some odd reason, the NCAA says that the bowl system would be thrown off entirely, along with the time-space continuum and a number of other things.
But lets look at the good thing about redundancy- sports writers get to keep their jobs.