Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Cue the entrance music

And now starting at Center for your Arizona Wildcats........Number 77 in your programs, Number 1 in your Hearts........The Big Daddy, To smart for his own good....Matt "Antoine MF Cason" Randle "el"......AHHHHHHHHHH the crowd goes wildddddddd.

Thank you, Thank you....I am thrilled to be here. Big up's to Dom for seeing that I had the potential to be great like every Arizona Cardinals 1st round pick in the modern era.
Let me start this first of many contributions by saying, Dom it's to late, All sales are final, you sir have probably made the worst decision ever. Who in their right mind would give me the keys and let me drive....oh well...here goes


Maybe an appropriate step should be to introduce myself. I am a T-Loc, that is to say a Tucson Native to the uneducated reader. I have been a Wildcat fan for longer than I can remember which in all honesty is sometime last week. My moods from week to week are determined by how my beloved Wildcats are doing. I served in the US Army for 5 years to include a wonderful 7 months in the sandbox full of explosions...Spring Break in Baghdad '03.


And now that we are through with the formalities let’s get on with the ranting and raving.....
I have been in a state of sorrow and depression over the state of affairs in Wildcat land the past year. Things seem to be at the lowest the can possibly be....oh wait...*News Flash*...Emanuel Negudu released from his letter of intent....and on and on it has been going for months on end. I used to trump sports conversations with the ol' class of the NCAA card. This is no longer possible, in fact we are quickly becoming the team people are just tired of hearing about because it is clearly not going to be good news.


Here is the sad state of affairs:


Jonathan Turner, who is innocent until proven guilty, was caught practicing his tackling with a girl who was passed out...Not Good


Josh Pastner, the glue to our basket cats program, gone because he couldn’t operate under the "system" as it was any longer. He (according to my sources) asked to be named associate head coach and given the freedom to offer scholi's to kids he evaluated. The "system" refused to see the reality of both JP's value and its' ability to effectively recruit the OLD way.

Sadly the MVP of last years team (Jerry'd), the most gifted athlete on the team (Chase) and one of the real prizes of the recruiting class (Negudu) all have jumped off this sinking ship.

Nic Wise is telling everyone who will listen he is leaning towards transferring, Jamelle Horne had to be begged to come back and now Brandon Jennings is struggling to qualify.


We have lost to the SCUM Devils in every contest worth mentioning this year. I can't even fall back on the softball team card.


But don't let me convince you that all is terrible in Wilbur’s cave....


We boast the National Champions in both Men's and Woman's Swimming & Diving with the national coach of the year in Frank Busch.


The Softball team is onto the Super Regional’s after being unceremoniously shipped to NY for the regional round and demolishing the competition. We are in fact hosting this round, starting this weekend.


The Bat Cats won 2 of 3 in last weekend’s series against Stanford and are back in the top 25. The reality is that if we can win 2 of 3 this weekend against “Tempe Normal” we even have a shot at hosting a first round regional this post season.


The Basket Cats have done a pretty good job of renovating the coaching stuff. Dunlap and Pennell are great coaches and great guys. This just in...Reggie Geary will be the 3rd assistant, thank god we made right by him for the whole Simon fiasco a few years back. Maybe our Karma will come back.


Willie hasn't suffered a concussion in months, that’s huge.


All of the de-commits that Dirty Dennis stole from us this past recruiting season are in serious academic trouble right now. Jarelle Barbour is not getting in, Ryan Bass is hurting and Gerelle Robinson is in a bad bad way.


Nic Wise is leaning but Lute was quoted as saying they met last week and that Nic wants to be the leader on next years team.


Jeff Withey is on the way....You heard it here first...This kid is really 7 ft and athletic...Having J Hill and Withey in the paint next year is going to be HUGE.


Jennings isn't in as bad a situation as some news outlets would have you believing. He scored terrible on his SAT's when he was at Compton Dominguez High school. His scores jumped "significantly" at Oak Hill and the NCAA wants him to take it again to make sure nothing fishy was going on. I can't help but assume that moving to the woods and attending a private school, basketball factory where they shot hoops and study everyday, all day probably helped.


Lastly, on a personal note, the athletic department (Rocky LaRose & Jim Livengood) are doing the right thing and putting Mike Dawson's name in the ring of honor. He was my step father and I have fought a long battle to see this happen. Ultimately nothing I did made it happen, although the grassroots pressure had to have had an effect. It looks as though they will be doing this without any fanfare; they told us that they never do a ceremony. I am just glad to see it happen and only wish it could have happened while Mike was still alive to enjoy some of the much deserved glory.

This seems like a good place to call it quits for now....
BEARing DOWN on national championships in Baseball and Softball

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