Cats top the Bruins in the Pac-12 Tournament, 66-58

This is what I think of Ucla Basketball

The Cats went into the Staple Center at the start of the Pac 12 tourney as underdogs, since they were playing in the same arena that has served as the Bruin's den for most of the season. However, the Bruins were in for a rude awakening as the Wildcats came into the game and attacked all night long. The Cats went in and out, driving the lane and shooting the trey as Solomon Hill scored 25 points. UCLA would collect a total of 24 fouls with Joshua Smith and Travis Wear fouling out. The Cats will now wait to play either Washington or Oregon State.

Cats lose a crucial game to the rival Sun Devils, 87-80

Just look at the crowd in this picture. Take a good, long look. Now tell me, aren't there quite a few red shirts mixed into the yellow in the crowd. Yes. And those red shirts are the faithful Arizona Wildcats fans that made the trip up to Phoenix, only to see the Cats lose to their arch rival. Now after the game, ask any of the Arizona fans, who paid their hard earned money to ASU only to see the Cats lose, what they think are the Cats chances of earning an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament. Slim. This is how important this game was. It was a chance to finish on a high note and let the committee decide. Instead it was an ugly loss, the kind of loss that costs you your season. As a Cats fan, I'm saying that ASU stuck a pitchfork into our hope for going to the NCAA Tournament and I do not think that this team deserves to play in the Big Dance.

Coyotes end February with an 12 game point streak, beat the Canucks, 2-1 SO

The Coyotes have a knack for making February runs. This year is no different. The Phoenix Coyotes avenged their lone loss (in OT) against the Vancouver Canucks by returning the favor on Tuesday night. The Canucks would show they were one of the NHL's best by jumping out to an early lead in the first period. However, the Coyotes would show they were one of the NHL's hottest by tying the game late. The game would then go to OT and then to a SO, where the Coyotes would win off of a Mikkel Boedker goal past Cory Schneider. This caps off one of the greatest months of hockey for a team as Phoenix earned 23 of the 24 possible points in February.

Jeremy Evans wins a boring dunk contest

I really thought that Derrick Williams should have won this. Instead, it was the last-minute Iman Shumpert sub in Jeremy Evans who won the dunk-contest. I thought that it would've come down to Paul George from the Pacers and Derrick Williams from the T'Wolves, since Budinger is just a tall white boy with hops and Shumpert was a bit too short, however, I did like the Diddy hop and Linsane hop idea. Anyways, I posted my first video to show you what went down in Orlando on Saturday night. I hope you enjoy.

Cats top the Bruins on Senior Day, 65-63

This picture shows why Arizona is better than UCLA: Nike vs. Adidas

The Cats could ill-afford another loss in the regular season. They showed off their unconventional grey unis on CBS as they played a close game against UCLA in a red-out Mckale Center. It was a rugged game that did not have many outstanding offensive performances as both teams went hard to the rack. Joshua Smith, one of UCLA's big men continued committing fouls, which kept him off of the court. Arizona was then able to take adavantage of the size match-up and the two-starting seniors, Kyle Fogg and Jesse Perry combined for a good inside and outside threat on offense. Foggy would hit a key 3-pointer to put the Cats up by three late in the game, a lead they would not let up.

Sports Illustrated jinxes the team (player) on the cover, It's true!!!

Sports Illustrated is a good magazine, don't get me wrong. But there's a problem with releasing weekly magazines for sports: sports headlines are always changing. Just look at Yahoo! Sports. Their front page changes several times each day. Why? Because sports are constantly changing. Just look at this week's cover: It's the rising sensation for the New York Knicks, Jeremy Lin. Lin is a great basketball story and he's been a reason for the Knicks recent success, but today against the Heat, Linsanity was hushed and held to only a sniffle as Miami ran them out of the building, 102-88. Lin was Linane as he went 1-11 shooting. Why? For many reasons: the Heat are a good team, he was probably sick, and because he made Sports Illustrated's cover for the second week in a row! This is what SI does. Since a magazine is obviously not the internet, there is no constant feed of information to change what's been done. Once a magazine is printed, those headlines have been set in stone (or ink). Here are a few jinxes from SI in recent memory.

No other sporting event has more coverage than the Super Bowl and no other team had more SI coverage than the New England Patriots. During the two weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, the New England Patriots made the SI cover, twice. One with Tom Brady and one with Robert Kraft. The Patriots ended up losing by a few inches when they had a great chance to win the game. Why? As Eli Manning said: "I'm not superstitious, but I am a little-stitious."

I was surprised when the 49ers beat the Saints in the Divisional round of this year's playoffs, but I wasn't surprised when the 49ers lost to the Giants for the right to go to the Super Bowl. Why? Cause San Francisco was picked to lose to the New Orleans Saints, but they did not because they pulled off one of the more memorable playoff come-backs. The problem is, the 49ers lost that surprise factor the very next week. They were picked to go to the Super Bowl over the eventual Super Bowl champs, the New York Giants, but they lost the game in devastating fashion. The 49ers were in a position to win the game, but they let that opportunity slip through their fingers. I guess I'm just a little-stitious...

The Green Bay Packers... now they're a team that could handle all the hype about being undefeated, but wait a second they went 15-1... well they were a team that could handle the playoff pressure, but wait they lost in the first round to Eli Manning's Giants... Well they certainly did live up to the hype of an explosive regular season offense after the SI preseason NFL preview magazine that featured the Packers on the cover. They carried that hype all the way to Kansas City, where they suffered their first loss. But hey, no jinx, right? Wrong! They made the cover for the NFL playoff preview issue and ended up losing to the New York Football Giants, the eventual Super Bowl champs. I guess you can see why I'm a little-stitious, right?

You're probably starting to think one of two things: this is kinda like the Madden curse, or Eli Manning is always involved in these issues. Well, it's kinda like the Madden curse and I only wrote this post because everyone in sports is a "little-stitious". Just look at Tim Tebow. That throwing motion screams "losing!", but Timothy managed to pull off a few miracles with that south-paw sling. One miracle includes the Chicago Bears win where Tebow led the Broncos to FG range twice and won 13-10 OT after being down 10-0 late in the 4th quarter. Once the Tebow train picked up speed with this winning streak, it was slammed to a sudden halt by the Brady bunch. Pray that you don't make the cover of Sports Illustrated.

The now-evident Sports Illustrated curse differs from the Madden curse for one reason: SI covers all sports. This includes a curse for the Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox were a victim of one of the greatest collapses in regular season sports as they choked towards the end of their season and let the Tampa Bay Rays miraculously leap-frog them in the Wild Card standings. The collapse was so dramatic that a week before, poster and bus signs were put up for the Red Sox in the post season on TBS. They lost their slipping hold on the Wild Card berth as Jonathon Papelbon, the beloved closer of the BoSox, blew a save to the lowly Baltimore Orioles on the last day of the regular season. That blown save capped off one of the greatest collapses in all of sports.

This one is my favorite. As an Arizona Wildcats fan, I was shocked to see the Bruins on the cover instead of the Wildcats. However, as the season rolled by, I saw it as a blessing in disguise: UCLA was crushed by Loyola Marymount and Middle Tennessee State and stumbled to a 2-5 start instead of a predicted 6-1 start. Things got so bad for the Bruins that Reeves Nelson, their star player on the cover, was dismissed from the team. He always gave me the creeps cause of his tattoo sleeves (not that there's anything wrong with tattoos), but things got so bad that his mother even called him out for his bad behavior. I just hope the Cats can pull this thing out and sneak into the NCAA Tournament with as little coverage as possible...

Cats roll the Trojans, 70-54

The Tree finally got into my blog

The Cats took care of business on Saturday night as they took apart the Trojans for a relatively easy win. Arizona got off to a slow start as they trailed for a majority of the first half. However, they were always a bucket or two from making a big run, which they did as they had a 12-0 run to close out the first half. The Cats would continue attacking and scoring with the help of Josiah Turner, who had 15 points and 6 assists on the night to help Arizona build a safe and comfortable lead. Sean Miller would then put in a few bench players for clean-up duty which included The Tree (as seen above) and Jordin Mayes, who say his first action after coming back from a foot injury.