And bandwagon fans will jump off just as fast as they got on. Today was Selection Sunday. I don’t think it really needs to be said, but I had issues with some of the selections. First off, I will say I was disappointed in Arizona’s play last night. Their defense was AMAZING through the first couple of games of the tourney, but then it just slipped against Colorado, and lost us that automatic bid. That would not have been a problem if they hadn’t lost to…er, if that day of darkness hadn’t happened. I won’t say who the loss was to at the end of regular season, but the fact that I refuse to mention the team by name should make it obvious (or maybe not). If we hadn’t lost against that team, then all Arizona would have needed to do was not get knocked out of the first round of the tourney and we would get in. It wouldn’t be the best seed, but it would be in. UW was in a similar situation. They were the regular season champions but got kicked out first round by Oregon State (who Arizona then beat) in the first round, ruining their chances. What was my point again? Right, Arizona should have been in over some of those teams that were chosen at large. Although the real main point I was getting to was how when it mattered most the team couldn’t pull their defense together. They have the best defense in the conference, yet on that dark day the other team scored a season high 87 points, and for some reason yesterday against Colorado they were not sticking to their guys. I have to point out Mayes in particular, mostly because the last points that won it for Colorado were a dunk by the guy he was defending because he seemed to be somewhere else. I understand that he’s never been the best defensively and the tourney is the first time he’s played in awhile since his foot injury (which may not be healed completely yet, but when your starting PG continues to fail to grow up and gets suspended for the tournament, the back up point needs to come in), but he just would not stay on his guy. I’m not a coach, so I don’t know the reason for it, but I think Miller should have gave most of the time at point to Johnson, then had Fogg at the 2 and Lavender at the 3 instead of giving B-Lav what seemed like limited minutes off the bench (his defense has improved this season).
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Football season has sucked all year (except for Bonano, but that’s beside the point) and now it’s basketball time! My favorite time of the year, basketball season! And after a bit of a rocky start last week in the first exhibition match my Cats started their season off with a win! Considering we lost D-Will and MoMo, Parrom is currently out of commission and we have four freshman on the team compared to one last year, I’d say we did pretty well. I think our defense is better this year than it was last year. Rebounding both ways could be better and I’m sure will get better. There isn’t really a standout player like D-Will last year, but hopefully one will emerge soon. To a winning season!

ARIZONAWILDCATS ARE THE PAC-10 CHAMPS!!! After last weekend, when it looks like we had lost ourselves, the Wildcats came back! Thursday was a nice win over Oregon State, with UCLA losing to Washington and giving us back sole position of the top spot in the conference. Then today, the game that would possibly decide either a tie or overall win, we played and defeated Oregon!! It was a BEAUTIFUL start with Kyle Fogg knocking 3 3-pointers right off the bat and then a couple more throughout the game. Then of course Lavender comes in to continue with the 3-pointers, followed nicely by Parrom. And Horne, our sole senior on this senior day, knocking back one as well. Initially some nice defense, forcing the Ducks to shoot from beyond the arc if they wanted to get any points. Williams had foul trouble early, but that didn’t mean anything. We still played through even with him on the bench, and we clenched that title!! Bring on the tournament! Bring on March Madness!! BEAR DOWN ARIZONA!!

That’s right! You’d best know your place Washington, Wildcats eat little doggies for breakfast! Or I guess in this particular case dinner, but still. It does not matter, breakfast or dinner, because in the biggest game of the season Arizona takes a 1 point win over Washington!!

The first half it was all us, even though we couldn’t break it into a complete run. Up 12 at half. Then Washington turns the game into their speed and we try to follow poorly, resulting in way to many sloppy moves and turnovers. Eventually we get the hang of things, but Washington is just too into it. At one point they finally took the lead for the first time in the game. After that it was a back and forth. With 3 seconds left it looked like it was ours, then Washington put the pressure on MoMo and it was knocked out of bounds only to become their ball. With 2.2 seconds left they almost scored, but D. Will turned beast and slammed that bitch down. You could totally tell he was thinking ‘Not in my house bitch!’ Then .3 seconds left, still their ball, they throw it in and again D. Will to the rescue, tipping it away from the Washington player. The crowd of white, done especially for this game, in McKale goes crazy, the team is piled on each other in the middle of the floor. The adrenaline gets to me and I jump and yell in joy, falling to the ground against my couch. I was afraid at first, but how foolish of me to ever doubt. This is Wildcat territory, we don’t take bull from anyone else in our house. And now with all the various losses from top ten teams, our wins against the Washington schools this week has assured us a top ten spot. Crazy considering a few weeks ago we weren’t even ranked.

We’ve secured a place in the Pac-10 tourney and March Madness. With only four more regular season games we have a bit of a challenge ahead. This next week we head to the LA schools. Arizona managed to beat them at home, on the road is going to be a bigger challenge, I think especially UCLA who is 2nd right now in Pac-10. We can do it if we try though. We won again the bay schools on their turf, we can do it this time too. Then the Oregon schools at home, which will be a piece of cake. As things are right now, we’re well on our way to being 16-2 in Pac-10. Let’s bear down Cats!

I now see why I’ve always hated football. Because basketball is the real deal.

Hell yes!! What a game. Seriously, WHAT.A.GAME. Triple overtime, Wildcats pull through and win over Cal, 107-105. Sweep over the bay area. Fifth straight win. Sole leader in Pac-10, with a record 9-2, 20-4 overall. Ranked 21 right now, we’re going way up this week, no doubt. Next week we we only have to play ASWho, which, despite being there, will be an easy win. If we lose to a 1 win team, no, if we lose to our greatest rival, it would bring shame upon us all. But we won’t! You know why? Because we are the Arizona Wildcats. We are the best basketball team in the Pac-10 conference. We are the best on the entire west coast! And we don’t just depend on our star. Derrick Williams fouled out of the game with a few minutes left in regulation, and yet we still prevailed. We don’t have to depend on just our stars and starters like Cal did. All of our players are amazing. And tonight, especially in overtime, was capable because of two players: Kevin Parrom, and the savior, MoMo Jones.

This is only the beginning! Yeah, when the second round started this week we had 5 of our last 9 games on the road. We’ve just won 2 of those on the road. The team can only get better. What was thought to be our greatest challenge, Washington, have moved from 1st to 3rd place in the conference within their last 3 games, and next time we face they’re on our turf. This is our year! BEAR DOWN WILDCATS!!

Screw football, screw the Superbowl. I find it to be stupid as hell, I never watch (I actually watch the Puppy Bowl). Nothing can beat what went down tonight. NOTHING.

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