Never has .500 looked so good.

When you’re on your fourth week of bad basketball you don’t turn down any wins. A bank shot from 16 feet? I’ll take it. Having the lead for exactly one second in the second half? Sign me up. Members, fans, friends and distant relatives of the Arizona Wildcats basketball program needed a win in the worst way and the dynamically young duo of Derrick Williams and Lamont Jones delivered.

(By the way, you thought for sure I was going to stick a play on “MoMo” in the headline, didn’t you? But I’m not going to make the Bad Sports Pun Hall of Fame without mixing it up.)

((Oh, and can we get the official word on the MoMo syntax? I’ve seen Momo, Mo Mo, and Mo-Mo. I even saw a MeauxMeaux once, but that was in a Louisiana paper.))

MeauxMeaux?
Photo by WildcatSportsReport.com

When you go from up 11 to down seven in a six-and-a-half-minute stretch you have to be happy to have a shot at the end. It’s also nice when the guy you forget to guard misses a wiiiiide open three from the corner with a minute left.

Derrick Williams has had a lot of great plays this year but the best one might just have been the spin, foul, left-hand-off-the-wrong-foot-as-he’s-landing shot he hit with two minutes to go (you can see it at the 7:50 mark here). The three point play got the Cats within one and set up the heroics in the final 30 seconds.

And the UA is back to +1 in the buzzer-beater department. This Stanford game joins Lipscomb and NC State on the good side and outweighs WSU and OSU on the negative side of the ledger. You definitely want to have the final possession when you play these Wildcats.

I would like to take a moment to thank the California Golden Bears for their 33-16 second half against ASU. But the Devils’ dreams haven’t yet been completely crushed. ASU still has a chance to back into a share of the regular season championship. We either need ASU to drop a game at home this week or we need Cal to maintain focus and win at Stanford. Let’s put our rooting powers to work one last time

I would not like to thank whoever designed Stanford’s home uniforms. One of the few teams in the country named after a color and the Cardinal comes out in gray. Thanks for nothing, Oregon.

MoMo’s increased confidence and competence are coming at the right time since Nic Wise is running out of gas. There were moments in the second half when Nic passed up open threes, like he wasn’t comfortable taking a shot. He just looks like a guy who has been asked for four years to carry a burden heavier than his frame can bear. It was great to see him jump off the bench to join the dogpile with a big smile on his face, and I hope the McKale faithful give him plenty of thanks in his final two home games.

Considering how bad the team looked in December we should be happy with an even record. In fact, a really cool guy once said:

[I]f we can keep splitting each weekend and split against ASU that would put us at 14-14 / 8-8 heading into the final home games against UCLA and USC. That wouldn’t be a bad place for this young team to be.

So why have we been feeling disappointed? The problem isn’t the record but how we got here. If the team had just stayed at .500 all year we would have been OK with 8-8 (although a lot of people would have tuned out due to boredom).

Maybe Sean Miller’s only mistake was winning the first Cal game. Swap that one for an Oregon State win and nobody gets their hopes up or down.

But I’m glad we had the winning streak, even if it was immediately followed by a losing stretch. Those four games, highlighted by the Cal and ASU wins, give us something to think about over the summer. They keep the ceiling on this young roster nice and high.

Obviously it would have been best to save the wins over ASU and Cal for February and storm into Staples Center as the team to beat. But with freshmen you take your victories where you can get them.

Of course, sitting on a one-game win “streak” with two home games left, this team does still have a chance to build a little momentum before the Pac-10 tourney.

Some MoMomentum.

There’s not much to say after this one. The Cal Golden Bears blitzed the Arizona Wildcats with a 29-11 run in the opening ten minutes. It was 41-17 with six minutes left in the half. Arizona’s defense was as invisible as the lettering on Cal’s white-on-silver uniforms.

Doesn’t the first game with the Bears seem like ages ago? After beating Cal to sit in a first-place tie the UA has dropped five of six. Now the Cats are closer to last place than first.

The Pac-10 game of the year will take place in Berkeley on Saturday and it will feature California and Arizona State. If the Bears win they clinch at least a share of the conference title. If the Sun Devils win they will be alone in first with two home games left.

It’s a dream scenario for two sets of long-suffering basketball fans (or, in ASU’s case, two long-suffering basketball fans).

As far as the JV game on Saturday, the Wildcats could obviously use a win against Stanford. But what they really need is to play with passion. Fire. Show some love for the game of basketball.

These guys need a dunk. They need a reason to chest-bump somebody. Attack the rim, attack the glass, and bring back No Easy Buckets. Buckets have been beyond easy the last couple weeks. On sale. Everything must go.

Now everything must stop.

Don’t use the freshman excuse as a reason to mail in the final three games. Show us why next year is going to be better. Give your teammates a reason to believe you will be the team playing for a championship in 2012.

Refuse to be invisible.

- – - – -

What do you do when your basketball team is fading in February? You watch baseball!

The undefeated BatCats take the field Friday night against Long Beach State. The Dirtbags are off to a slow start, having scored only six runs in four games. They did however pick up a 2-1 win last Friday thanks to a complete game from junior right-hander Jake Thompson.

Arizona will counter with a young pitching rotation that just got younger. Freshman Stephen Manthei will start in place of junior Daniel Workman on Sunday. Kurt Heyer and Kyle Simon will attempt to repeat their opening-weekend success as the first two hurlers.

Can the UA offense maintain its 11 runs per game average as they step up in competition? Game times are 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday with a noon start on Sunday at Kindall Field/Sancet Stadium if you’re looking for a place to enjoy the Tucson weather, or just escape from the basketball team.

I like rivalries. I’ve always belonged to the “My second favorite team is whoever’s playing [Team I Can’t Stand]” school of fandom. If my team can’t succeed the next best thing is watching my team’s biggest rival fail.

So the moral dilemma becomes: Is it ever acceptable to hope your team loses in order to keep your rival from winning a championship?

As we discussed a couple days ago the salt in the ASU wound is that a Wildcat win against Cal on Thursday would be a big benefit to the Sun Devils. Would it be so bad if the Cats didn’t win this one?

Now, for the record, I’ve already said I want the UA to beat Cal, even if it helps ASU. I want a winning record and a spot in a tournament of some kind (even if Sean Miller doesn’t necessarily agree).

But what if you don’t have anything left to play for? Say you’re Stanford. You’re in seventh place and you have a losing overall record so you’re not making a postseason tournament. Is it OK if their fans want to lose to ASU on Thursday so the Devils can catch (and maybe pass) the hated Berkeley Bears?

It’s not uncommon for fans of pro sports to root against their team. The more you lose the better your draft pick. You don’t think Cleveland Cavalier fans are happy they tanked to get the #1 pick in 2003?

It’s different in college. In college sports losing gets you a worst draft pick, so to speak. Recruiting is the name of the game and the best players want to play for the best teams. Winning late-season games can help a coach sell his program as being a couple players away from turning things around.

I don’t think coaches and players would ever consider losing to hurt a rival. Competitors are wired to compete. Beat the guy in front of you. That’s it. But fans have other motives, like bragging rights (or the lack thereof) over co-workers and family.

Bottom line? I think I would do it. Championships far outweigh individual games, and if my team had nothing to gain I would rather take away something precious from the bad guys. The pain of a losing team losing another game wouldn’t be as great as the pain of watching your rival celebrate a huge accomplishment, having to listen to a full year of boasting, and staring at a lifetime of bumper stickers and t-shirts.

So it’s a good thing Arizona has something to play for. Beat Cal.

- – - – -

On to TWIT-Pac. Now in a new-and-improved format!

Thu. Feb. 25 (all times Arizona/Mountain)

Sat. Feb. 27

Thu. Feb. 25
ARIZONA (13-13 / 7-7) at Cal (18-9 / 10-5)
No team has ever won the Pac-10 with six conference losses. It would be fitting to break that record this year.

ASU (19-8 / 9-5) at Stanford (13-14 / 7-8)
Only one team won two games last week: Stanford. On the road. Reason number 23,861 why this is a strange year.

Oregon (12-14 / 4-10) at USC (16-10 / 8-6)
The Dead Men Walking won’t be in the postseason but they could still win a regular season title as a consolation prize.

OSU (12-14 / 6-8) at UCLA (12-14 / 7-7)
The Beavers beat Arizona and Cal back-to-back, then lost to Stanford. Makes sense to me!

Sat. Feb. 27
ASU at Cal
This is supposed to the de facto championship game. Will Thursday night’s results change that?

Oregon at UCLA
The Bruins won by 20 last Thursday. They lost by 29 on Saturday. You might say they peaked too soon.

ARIZONA at Stanford
Just Stanford’s luck: They finally win their first two road games and now they have to play at home the rest of the way.

OSU at USC
Beware the Beaver-stink!

Washington at WSU
Three straight road games to end the year for the one-road-win wonders.

Cal is just three games away from winning the championship. They wouldn’t blow it at home where they’ve won five straight.

Would they?

It’s official: Rebuilding isn’t fun.

I know the Arizona Wildcats basketball team is young. We all know they’re young. But that doesn’t make it any easier to watch the Cats lose. Not at home. Not to ASU.

We’re now up to a baker’s dozen losses on the season, including five at the McKale Memorial Center. The home losses include a sweep by the Pac-10 “States.” ASU, OSU and WSU all came to Tucson and left with a hoops victory. The same three schools that have combined for one Pac-10 basketball championship (and a co-championship at that) in the past 25 years.

Not fun at all.

We just can’t wrap our red-and-blue-loving minds around it. You still see “Arizona” on the front of the jerseys and you expect the team to pull out games at the end. Defensive stops. Big shots. Clutch free throws. That’s what UA basketball represents.

I believe in Sean Miller. I am still excited about the potential of the five freshmen. If we made it through Mackovic we can survive anything.

But patience isn’t fun.

Cat fans hoped the 52-31 second half in Tempe would carry over to this game. But when the score was 13-13 after ten minutes of play it was pretty easy to see who was dictating tempo. Arizona actually did worse in the second ten minutes of game, finishing with just 25 points at the break.

That said, the UA still had a four-point lead with just over two minutes before halftime. ASU was sitting on 21 points before a key stretch that turned momentum toward Sparky’s side. The Wildcats jacked up three shots from behind the arc and missed all three while the Devils drained two triples and converted a three-point play. The 9-0 run gave ASU a lead it held for almost the entire second half.

Ty Abbott was the hero but he needed a relief pitcher to close out the game. With 11 minutes to play Abbott had 28 points and Jerren Shipp had zero. Ty didn’t score another point while Jerren (e.g., the rowboat of the Shipp family) exploded for eight. Maybe the two of them switched uniforms.

Here are Jamelle Horne’s rebounding totals from the last six games: 1, 2, 2, 1, 14, 3. Is there such a thing as a 24-hour dose of desire?

Another thing that’s not easy is seeing ASU tied for first in the loss column with just two weeks left. Since Cal got hit with the Beaver-stink the Sun Devils control their own destiny for their first Pac-10 title. How’s that for an unlikely showdown? The guys who haven’t won the league in 50 years against the guys who wish they had a 50-year-old championship.

The Wildcats had a chance to knock the Devils out of the basketball Rose Bowl but couldn’t seal the deal at home. Now we’re left with having to helplessly root against ASU over the final four games.

Bitter? Possibly. Pitiful? Perhaps, but a rival’s gotta do what a rival’s gotta do.

To make matters worse, an Arizona win on Thursday directly helps ASU. If the Cats and Devils both win their next game Arizona State is alone in first place. Not fun at all.

So do we even want to beat Cal? Wouldn’t it be better for Arizona to lose so we can hold onto the “no Pac-10 championships” trump card?

Don’t even think about it. We’re tired, we’re frustrated, but let’s not get crazy.

Of course we want the Cats to win on Thursday. You have to stay focused on the big picture. Arizona winning a championship is better than ASU not winning one. We don’t get our next league title until this team gets better, and the best way for this team to get better is to play more games.

We’ve got to win as many games as possible to get some tournament somewhere to select Arizona. I don’t care if it’s the NIT, CBI, CIT or AEIOU&sometimesY. I want the Cats to win enough games to earn the opportunity to practice and play longer, so next year we can get back to our winning ways.

Now that would be fun.

- – - – -

As promised the Arizona baseball team started its season over the weekend. The result – a three-game sweep of Utah Valley – wasn’t a surprise, although the Cats needed a walk-off home run from The Jett to take the finale in 10 innings.

Beating the Wolverines was expected. UVU hasn’t had a winning season since 2006. The real story, however, was the performance of freshman pitcher Kurt Heyer on Friday night. Heyer made his collegiate debut by striking out 13 batters in six innings while only allowing one walk and one run. I don’t care if you’re throwing batting practice to Little Leaguers, accuracy is a big deal and a 13-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio is impressive against anyone.

The name of the game this season is looking for hints of potential stardom and we got our first one opening night, in a big way.

On the hit TV show “Lost” the survivors of a plane crash end up on a mysterious island. There’s time travel involved, a smoke monster, and dead people who might not be dead. The bottom line is nobody knows exactly where they are.

The same could be said for Arizona Wildcats Baseball.

For all intents and purposes, 2009 was a lost season for coach Andy Lopez and the Cats. Arizona finished with a losing conference record and missed the NCAA tournament for just the second time in seven years. But that’s not the problem. When you lose a bunch of players to graduation and the MLB draft you’re going to take a step back.

The UA had a peak year in 2005 and then missed the postseason in 2006. But the team went on to finish second in the Pac-10 in 2007 and came within one game of the College World Series in ’08. The freshmen on that losing team grew up together and left as winners.

The problem with last year’s young players is that – like the characters on “Lost” – a lot of them didn’t come back.

Exactly two-thirds of this year’s roster wasn’t here a year ago. Only 11 players from last year’s 33-man squad have returned, and only eight of them saw significant playing time. It would be like killing off Jack, Kate and Sawyer and turning the franchise over to Bernard and Daniel Faraday’s mom.

You think Sawyer can hit a curve ball?
Photo by Norman Shapiro, The Honolulu Advertiser

And it’s not like last year’s team was loaded with veterans. Seven freshman and three sophomores from ’09 are gone. Those ten underclassmen combined to produce 45 extra-base hits and 40 strikeouts. It wasn’t hard to flashforward and see a few stars.

So who is back? At the plate it comes down to three guys: junior IF Bryce Ortega, sophomore C Jett Bandy, and sophomore OF Steve Selsky. That’s it, which is too bad since last year’s team led the Pac-10 in hitting.

The good news is all three of the old-timers hit .299+ last year with on-base percentages north of .385. Selsky is the power hitter with seven home runs a year ago, but Bandy had 21 doubles so the hope is The Jett can develop into a middle-of-the-order run producer.

Bandy and his chest-bumping skills are back.
Photo by Val Cañez, The Tucson Citizen

On the mound there’s good news and bad news. The good news is the six returning pitchers combined for 26 starts last year. The bad news is none of them were very good. The Wildcat pitching staff as a whole was poor in 2009. Like 9th-place-in-the-Pac-10 poor. Great Recession poor.

Of the returnees only Daniel Workman finished with an ERA under 4 and Kyle Simon and Bryce Bandilla couldn’t keep theirs on the good side of 6. But, hey, everyone’s undefeated right now and you hope someone can explode on the scene like Preston Guilmet in 2007.

Workman, a junior right-hander, and Simon, a sophomore righty, will be in the starting rotation this weekend. Bandilla, a left-handed sophomore, will be the closer. The man on the mound opening night will be true-freshman right-hander Kurt Heyer. He’s from Huntington Beach and his middle name is Wolfgang. All that means is I can read his bio.

Please be great.

So the 2010 BatCats are a big mystery. Not in a which-parallel-universe-is-real kind of way, but in a which-way-is-our-program-headed kind of way.

One way we know the team isn’t headed is out of town. Arizona takes full advantage of its “winter” weather and opens the season with 26 straight home games. If you’re going to break in a young team that’s the way to do it.

You have to keep win-total expectations low in a year like this. Root for the team to play with passion. Root for the team to be fundamentally sound. Root for the young guys to improve as the year goes on and root for signs of stardom.

And, last of all, root for the Cats to finally beat the Others.