Basketball Town

      I'm sure you've seen the 1988 Wild About the "'Cats" music video. If not, you can check it out here. Because I lived in California during the height of its popularity (I'm told that you couldn't turn on the radio without hearing it) I didn't stumble across this gem until around a year ago thanks to youtube and that whole "the 80s were so cool" fad. If there is one thing I took from it (other than the inspiring "don't do drugs" message that should cement Nancy Reagan as the most influential First Lady ever), it's that, at one point in history, the University of Arizona had a bad basketball team. I know it sounds preposterous to anyone under the age of 27 but why else would the "rappers" include the lyric, "At first they all were skeptics, they used to put us down, but Tucson, Arizona is a basketball town"?? After 22 consecutive appearances in the NCAA Tournament, if you call Tucson a "basketball town" nowadays, it's usually a backhanded complement - pointing out the failings of our football program more than Lute Olson's successes.

(Interesting side note: The Arizona Wildcats have made it to the NCAA tournament every year since Sherrick Baffert - rauraur.com's editor and "webmaster" - was born. As far as he knows, if the 'Cats ever miss a trip to the "big dance" he will die.)

So here we are, one of the most successful college basketball programs in the nation, spoiled to the point where we consider the 2005-06 team to be a "failure" despite making it to the second round of the tourney (and beating, what has proven to be, an extremely talented Wisconsin squad), and I'm about to discuss my desire for a true title-contending football squad? Football? During basketball season? On a game day?

I know, I should be content with my top-ten basketball team. And believe me, I am. This is the most enjoyable team I've watched since Gardner and Walton were seniors. The last thing I should do is tempt the gods by asking for more. Besides, football season doesn't start for months. But to hell with all that because Florida just became the first school to serve as reigning champions in both major sports and that is entirely unfair. Unless Florida's entire student body gets a combo meal of bubonic plague and syphilis, I say gods be damned.

And why couldn't we excel at both? Lute shows no signs of slowing and we've definitely had some good football news in the past two days. Not only did Arizona get a commitment from its most talented offensive recruit ever (Rob Gronkowski), we also discovered that both Antoine Cason and Louis Holmes will return to an extremely talented defense next year. Maybe Tucson, Arizona can be a basketball town AND a football town, after all.

We were close once. In 1998, Arizona football went 12-1, finishing the season ranked #4 in the nation after beating Nebraska in the Holiday Bowl (just nine months after the reigning the national champion basketball team went into the tournament ranked #4 in the nation and fell short of its opportunity for a repeat by losing to Utah's "box and one" in the Elite Eight). But any efforts towards duel-sport supremacy status abruptly ended when the next football season didn’t work out as planned.

Things only got worse from there. After the thirteen year hors d'oeuvre that was the Tomey era, Wildcat fans demanded a main course in 2000 and got John Mackovic, who proved to be as gourmet a meal as a diarrhea sandwich. From 1999's Penn State loss to Mackovic's firing, rooting for Arizona football was like dating an abusive drunk. You go through four month periods of "falling down the stairs," followed by calling it quits and seeking refuge from someone who will care for your needs (basketball season), only to move back into the trailer park come August with the promise that things are going to change and Jason Johnson will be a darkhorse candidate for the Heisman.

Then Mike Stoops walks into this mess (apathetic fans, defective players with a penchant for defecting, the curse of being labeled a "basketball school") as a rookie head coach and brings the promise of "Big Time" college football. In other words, he had the potential to bring what Tomey's successor was supposed to but couldn't. Then, when the going got tough this past season (most notably after losing to Washington for the second straight year) bloodthirsty fans started calling for Stoops' head. Who can blame 'em? Firing coaches is the only thing this program has done successfully in the last eight years.

John Mackovic is to Arizona fans what Richard Nixon is to American voters. Each has left a legacy of cynicism that, at times, seems insurmountable.

But there is hope on the horizon. Stoops obviously (and deservedly) kept his job and now sits less than eight months away from, what should be, the most successful Arizona football season since 1998 (I know, I know... that's like saying the best Paulie Shore movie since Bio Dome). The staff is within striking distance of their third top-25 recruiting class in as many years and one would think that with top-25 athletes should come a top 25 season. In other words, duel sport "supremacy" has become an obtainable goal rather than a laughable impossibility. Say what you want about Stoops and his staff, but they are tirelessly working to take this program to new heights.

Hey, maybe what they need is a "Wild About the 'Cats" football video.

"Tuitama here, I'm playing swell... They want me in the NFL."

"Another pick by "Nasty" Nate Ness... he don't do drugs 'cause he's the best!"

Ok, maybe not. But remember, there were once skeptics who even put Lute's boys down. And, Tucson, Arizona has since, undoubtedly, become a basketball town. I just long for the day that I don't take offense to that "complement."

Bear Down and beat the Beavers