Mike Stoops hopes to do this again.
Photo by Francisco Medina/Tucson Citizen

Football training camp is under way for the Arizona Wildcats and hopes are high in Tucson. Mike Stoops took over a program that was on its way to winning nine total games in three years. The rebuilt version has won eight games in each of the past two seasons and the offense returns almost entirely intact.

The team expects a huge year. But even a moderately-big year would be a big deal for Arizona. Post another winning season and Stoops will have achieved something that has only been accomplished once in school history.

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The good news continues, Arizona Wildcats baseball fans!

With just a little over a week before the Aug. 15 deadline for signing a pro contract Steve Selsky and the five UA recruits are still amateurs.

The bad news is this is the week when the players have the most leverage and the dollar amounts go up. Can Andy Lopez last another nine days without losing anybody?

Selsky is currently taking part in the Cape Cod League playoffs. He was a Player of the Week in July but did not make the All-Star team.

UA pitcher Kyle Simon, however, will be joining the Cape Cod All-Stars at Fenway Park as he is third in the league in ERA. Cat fans should be very happy Simon is still a year away from draft eligibility.

Here are the six drafted-but-as-yet-unsigned players who could play for Arizona in 2011:

Follow-up thoughts on Lutegate…

The most frustrating part is Lute Olson was this close to that storybook ending. The 2005 Wildcats weren’t a hypothetical dream team based on recruiting rankings. The elite season was a reality: Thirty wins, an outright Pac-10 championship, two senior stars, the Pac-10 tournament MVP.

Hold onto that lead for another 51 seconds against Illinois, go to Final Four #5, and then everyone who cares about Coach O and his legacy convinces the 70-year-old to retire. Walk away on top. The always-leave-them-wanting-more principle in full effect.

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Kevin O’Neill sees his UA wins disappear.
Tucson Citizen photo

The Lute Olson Era has finally ended.

We thought it ended March 16, 2007, the date of Olson’s final game as coach. Or maybe you preferred March of 2009 when the last of Lute’s former assistants said goodbye. But it turns out the true final day of Lute Olson’s direct influence on Arizona Wildcat Basketball was July 29, 2010, the day the NCAA handed out punishment for the violations committed beginning in 2006.

It wasn’t supposed to end this way.

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