Where’s a Niq Wise senior day rewrite when you need one?

That certainly wasn’t what we had in mind. The Cats scored the first basket on Thursday then never led again. The game looked a lot like last week’s UCLA game for the first 27 minutes but there was no McKale crowd (and Kyle Fogg 3s) to turn things around.

Our young team gave us one last memory of inconsistency. How do you get out-rebounded and fail to get back on D every other possession?

Ben Howland had his guys in the perfect defensive position all afternoon. The Bruins knew exactly where Derrick Williams would try to go with the ball when faced with a double-team. They knew which lanes to step into when an Arizona player got caught in the air or trapped on the baseline. Of course, it would help if the Cats didn’t self-trap themselves but that’s a discussion for one of our many offseason days.

And so the moment we’ve been dreading is here. Selection Sunday will come and go without any selecting of the team from Tucson. Will you be able to watch?

Personally, I don’t know what I’m going to do on Sunday. Part of me wants to watch to get some closure and see what we hope Sean Miller is building toward. But I know it’s going to hurt.

The thing is, it’s completely understandable that we don’t know how to react. The last time an Arizona fan went through missing the tournament we weren’t “Arizona.” We were coming off a season with our third coach in three years. Back then “the streak” was the UA missing the tournament seven straight years. This is brand new for all of us.

But life goes on. And so might the games. The streak is over but the season may not be. Yes, an NIT bid is possible and, yes, I want it. I hope the Cats get invited, I hope they accept, and I hope the team plays well. The more games our freshmen play the better.

How funny would it be if ASU just stole our NIT bid when they also lost in the first round of the Pac-10 tournament? Even though I hope the Wildcats’ season continues sometimes you have to give credit where credit is due. ASU and the NIT belong together.

For one sad year, Arizona hopes to join them.

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The BatCats bounced back nicely from their rough week. Arizona punctuated its 2-1 series victory over top-25 Cal State Fullerton with a 10-1 victory last Sunday. Daniel Workman went six innings without giving up an earned run to secure his first win of the year and guarantee he’ll be in the starting rotation again this weekend.

Next was the age-old college baseball tradition of warm weather teams beating up on their chilly visitors from the north. This week’s victim was St. Joseph’s as the Cats swept the two games by a combined score of 29-5.

As a result our guys are sporting some gaudy offensive numbers. Arizona is hitting a cool .334 as a team highlighted by five players above .350. The highlights of the highlights are Steve Selsky at .446 with a .492 on-base percentage, and Jett Bandy with his video game .490 average, .559 OBP and .863 slugging percentage.

On deck are the Northern Colorado Bears who sit at 3-5 on the year. The UA looks to build another three games’ worth of momentum before top-25 Wichita State pays a midweek visit.

Game times for the UNC series are 4 p.m. on Friday, 1 p.m. on Saturday and noon on Sunday. The WSU games are Tuesday and Wednesday, both at 6 p.m.

Perhaps on Sunday you can select some baseball and let the ping of leather meeting aluminum sooth your Wildcat soul.

The Arizona Wildcats baseball team has had a rough seven days. Coach Andy Lopez’s team blew a late lead in the first game against Long Beach State and then got knocked around in the second game before rain cancelled the Sunday content.

The first midweek series saw UNLV come in and score five runs before making their first out. When the score book says, “Grand slams: 1, Outs 0” you’re officially off to a bad start. The Cats rallied to tie the game at 7-7 and again at 10-10 but the bullpen couldn’t slow the Rebel bats and the final rally came up short.

Wednesday’s game featured more bullpen issues for the home team leading to more rallying but this time Arizona pulled it out. After 22 combined runs on Tuesday the second UNLV game featured a 2-1 score going into the 8th. The Rebels pushed across the tying run and then took the lead in the 12th inning only to have the Cats tie it in the 12th and win it in the 13th.

So we’re back above .500 as perennial power Cal State Fullerton comes to town. The Titans (if you remember them) are ranked #14, #18, #17, #18 and not ranked (you gotta love college baseball). CSF is 3-4 on the young season with wins against Long Beach and San Diego, losses to Oregon and Pepperdine, and a 2-1 series loss to TCU. This is Fullerton’s first road trip.

UA freshman starting pitcher Kurt Heyer took a step backwards last Friday giving up four earned runs in 5 2/3 innings of work. His control was still there (seven strikeouts and no walks) but he got tagged for 11 hits. All a part of a young pitcher adjusting to the college level.

The Wildcats’ young bats are definitely ahead of the young arms. Sophomores Jett Bandy and Steve Selsky are leading the way as expected but freshmen Robert Refsnyder and Joey Rickard are off to great starts. The frosh infielders are struggling at the plate however with Alex Mejia and Seth Mejias-Brean both sporting batting averages below .200.

The one hitter off to a surprisingly slow start is junior infielder Bryce Ortega. After hitting above .320 (with .400+ on-base percentages) in each of his first two seasons Ortega is slumping with just four hits in 28 at-bats (.143). The low point was an 0-for-6 in the first UNLV game, which is more rare than a 4-for-4 in college ball. Maybe playing second base instead of shortstop has Bryce’s brain turned around. Whatever the reason it might be best to drop Ortega in the lineup to take some pressure off and let someone like Rafael Valenzuela (.484 OBP) or Rickard (.406 OBP, 4 stolen bases) take a shot at leading off.

Game times for the Fullerton series are 6 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 12 noon on Sunday.

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.

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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.