In 20-plus years of covering the Cats I never thought it would come to a sellout at the Red-Blue Game.  That’s the state of affairs here at UA these days. Midnight Madness games were nothing like this. With 20 minutes left before it starts there’s about 10,000 people in the building with about 4,000 yet to come.

Just introduced into McKale Center were Jason Terry (Dallas Mavericks), Channing Frye (Phoenix Suns), Chase Budinger (Houston Rockets), Michael Dickerson (retired), Jordan Hill (Houston Rockets), Jerryd Bayless (Toronto), Andre Iguadala (Philadelphia 76ers), Richard Jefferson (San Antonio Spurs) and Derrick Williams (Minnesota Timberwolves, second round). And don’t forget former coach Lute Olson. Big day. Expectations high.

The one thing – among many – head coach Sean Miller has done is embrace the past. He’s well aware it means everything for the future.

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Looks like freshman Nick Johnson dunked his way to a dunk title with a between the legs move on a left-handed dunk to easily win the contest. Not a surprise, though, in that Johnson can jump like no one since Richard Jefferson or Hassan Adams.

Arizona coach Jeff Hammerschmidt has heard the criticism. And he’s OK with it.

It comes when you’re a coach – head guy or otherwise. And the criticism has come in bunches lately, particularly last week, when it seemed Hammerschmidt’s special-teams unit, well, didn’t have anything special about it.

A missed field goal, a missed extra point, a blocked kick and a perfectly executed fake punt constituted Arizona’s laundry list of demise against Oregon State last week and the beginning of the end for then-head coach Mike Stoops, who was fired two days after losing 37-27 to the Beavers.

Arizona is 1-5. Players will not be made available to the media until after Thursday’s game with UCLA, which will kick off at 6 p.m. at Arizona Stadium.

“If the guys don’t play great, you get a lot of criticism,” Hammerschmidt said. “We’ve had games before when we did well on special teams and we got a lot of credit. It’s one of those things, if we don’t make field goals and do some right things and get punts blocked … you get criticism.”

Read the rest of this story at FoxSportsArizona.com …

Now what?

That’s the question the University of Arizona football team – coaches, included – should be asking themselves.

It’s a question that could have been asked in any of the past couple of weeks as Arizona continued to reel from defeat after defeat after defeat after defeat.

Get the picture? It isn’t pretty.

That’s the case more so now after – yes, another defeat – as winless Oregon State defeated Arizona 37-27 on Saturday afternoon at Reser Stadium in Corvallis, Ore. Figure that OSU snapped a six-game losing streak in winning for the first time this season. (1-4)

In short, Arizona coach Mike Stoops called it “a tough day.”

Arizona is now 1-5 overall (0-4 in the Pac-12 Conference) and on a 10-game losing streak to FBS schools. Just this week, Stoops called it a “big game in a lot of ways” and a “desperate situation” to win.

OSU played like its life depended on the win; Arizona didn’t.

Maybe Arizona’s last-ditch second half attempt at a comeback – 21 unanswered points to make it 30-27 midway through the fourth quarter – was just a tease, or a noble effort to save face and ease some pressure on all parties.  Figure this, however, Arizona has now been down at least 22 or more points in each of the last five games.

“It’s a 60-minute game and not a 30-minute game (and) the sooner we realize that the better off we will be,” Stoops said, responding to Arizona’s late comeback.

One thing is certain: Arizona can no longer make the excuse of the toughest part of the schedule being gone after losing the first four games against three top 10 teams (Oklahoma State, Stanford and Oregon) and a blue-blood program in Southern California. On Saturday, Arizona went into the game facing a Beavers team that started the season losing to Sacramento State. Arizona went into the game a two-point favorite.

To read more visit FoxSportsArizona.com.