Sports
OPEN COURT: Bizarro Wildcats
By Nick Prevenas, www.gvnews.com
Let’s pretend we have access to a time machine.
For the purposes of this discussion, let’s also pretend that time travel is actually possible. Instead of using this power to alter the course of history or make millions in the stock market, let’s use this power to talk to Arizona Wildcat fans in 2003.
Yes, I know that sounds frivolous, but bear with me.
So we’re traveling back in time exactly six years ago to April 5, 2003. We make our way to 6th St. and Campbell Ave. in Tucson to deliver a shocking message to Wildcat fans.
We tell them that Arizona’s football team will inspire confidence in Southern Arizona sports fans, while the basketball team will find itself embroiled in controversy and uncertainty.
The average Wildcat fan in 2003 would hear our message from the future and laugh in our faces. They wouldn’t believe us for a second.
Yet, here we are.
Today, Wildcat fans find themselves in a Superman-esque “bizarro world.” Up is down, right is left, football is steady, basketball is tumultuous.
Nowhere is that difference more pronounced than in recruiting. Tucson’s top football recruit, do-everything Palo Verde senior Adam Hall, turned down scholarship offers from dozens of top programs to join the Wildcats. Meanwhile, Santa Rita’s star point guard and Tucson Player of the Year Terrell Stoglin never even considered joining Arizona, electing to sign with Maryland.
Yesterday might prove to be a pivotal point in this Bizarro Wildcats era. As athletic director Jim Livengood spent the day in Detroit trying to sell Arizona at college basketball’s largest job fair (also known as the Final Four), football coach Mike Stoops led his troops through the annual fun-filled spring game.
With around a dozen former Wildcat greats in attendance signing autographs, including NFL star Lance Briggs, the Wildcats split into blue and white teams and showed the fans a glimpse of what they can expect in 2009. Sure, the football wasn’t too sharp, but it never is at the spring game. Instead, fans were delighted by a halftime package of Las Vegas Bowl highlights, an honest-to-goodness quarterback battle between fleet-footed Matt Scott and rocket-armed Nick Foles and the continued exploits of Rob Gronkowski.
As he enters his junior year, Gronkowski arguably holds the record for most “wow!” plays from an offensive player on this (or any other) Wildcat roster. We saw the strength (at least two plays in the first half where it took a half-dozen players to bring him to the turf) and the speed (his end-of-the-half touchdown jaunt) on display. He is the real deal.
Meanwhile, Livengood hopes to pick up the pieces from the humiliating Tim Floyd saga. Yes, it’s way too early to panic. There are still plenty of quality coaching candidates out there. If Livengood returns to Tucson with a name like Villanova’s Jay Wright or Michigan State’s Tom Izzo attached to the UA coaching vacancy, all will quickly be forgiven.
But, if this job search continues into mid-April with more elite coaches pulling the “thanks, but no thanks” routine, the relationship between Livengood and UA basketball fans could become even more contentious.
nprevenas@gvnews.com | 547-9747
For the purposes of this discussion, let’s also pretend that time travel is actually possible. Instead of using this power to alter the course of history or make millions in the stock market, let’s use this power to talk to Arizona Wildcat fans in 2003.
Yes, I know that sounds frivolous, but bear with me.
So we’re traveling back in time exactly six years ago to April 5, 2003. We make our way to 6th St. and Campbell Ave. in Tucson to deliver a shocking message to Wildcat fans.
We tell them that Arizona’s football team will inspire confidence in Southern Arizona sports fans, while the basketball team will find itself embroiled in controversy and uncertainty.
The average Wildcat fan in 2003 would hear our message from the future and laugh in our faces. They wouldn’t believe us for a second.
Yet, here we are.
Today, Wildcat fans find themselves in a Superman-esque “bizarro world.” Up is down, right is left, football is steady, basketball is tumultuous.
Nowhere is that difference more pronounced than in recruiting. Tucson’s top football recruit, do-everything Palo Verde senior Adam Hall, turned down scholarship offers from dozens of top programs to join the Wildcats. Meanwhile, Santa Rita’s star point guard and Tucson Player of the Year Terrell Stoglin never even considered joining Arizona, electing to sign with Maryland.
Yesterday might prove to be a pivotal point in this Bizarro Wildcats era. As athletic director Jim Livengood spent the day in Detroit trying to sell Arizona at college basketball’s largest job fair (also known as the Final Four), football coach Mike Stoops led his troops through the annual fun-filled spring game.
With around a dozen former Wildcat greats in attendance signing autographs, including NFL star Lance Briggs, the Wildcats split into blue and white teams and showed the fans a glimpse of what they can expect in 2009. Sure, the football wasn’t too sharp, but it never is at the spring game. Instead, fans were delighted by a halftime package of Las Vegas Bowl highlights, an honest-to-goodness quarterback battle between fleet-footed Matt Scott and rocket-armed Nick Foles and the continued exploits of Rob Gronkowski.
As he enters his junior year, Gronkowski arguably holds the record for most “wow!” plays from an offensive player on this (or any other) Wildcat roster. We saw the strength (at least two plays in the first half where it took a half-dozen players to bring him to the turf) and the speed (his end-of-the-half touchdown jaunt) on display. He is the real deal.
Meanwhile, Livengood hopes to pick up the pieces from the humiliating Tim Floyd saga. Yes, it’s way too early to panic. There are still plenty of quality coaching candidates out there. If Livengood returns to Tucson with a name like Villanova’s Jay Wright or Michigan State’s Tom Izzo attached to the UA coaching vacancy, all will quickly be forgiven.
But, if this job search continues into mid-April with more elite coaches pulling the “thanks, but no thanks” routine, the relationship between Livengood and UA basketball fans could become even more contentious.
nprevenas@gvnews.com | 547-9747
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