Hansen: Tucson’s Ipecac

Have you ever read something that causes an involuntary gag reflex and scorches the back of your throat with acid? That’s the effect that Greg Hansen’s journalism has on me – it’s more sure fire than ipecac when I need to purge my stomach. I have to admit Hansen manages to get it right on occasion. For example there was the time he wrote about… no… there was the article on…hmm… okay, so I can’t think of any. But I’m sure during his 25+ years in covering the Arizona Wildcats there must be an occasion where his words didn’t have the effect of soured milk.

It’s an unfortunate reality, more despairing than the future plight of the Wildcats, that Tucson readers and Arizona Wildcats fans have to tolerate Hansen, the ‘Howard Stern’ of Tucson journalism, and his pretentious and vindictive articles. Hansen is up to his typical “shock effect” writing again with his most recent blog entry “The End is Near” by claiming that the 0-2 start after a trip to the Bay Area equates to the Wildcats going 1-8 in PAC-10 road games. What’s worse is that Hansen essentially proclaims that this is a forgone conclusion and fans should succumb to it, rather than providing the faith and support that a team in limbo needs.

To form his latest opinion that is as tainted as last week’s left over fish sitting in the bottom of my trash bin, Hansen completely omit’s the reality that one of the key players, Chase Budinger, is in one of the worst slumps of his life. The fact that Budinger is slumping and should break out of it soon enough, is a good indication enough that the 0-2 conference start is not a sign of things to come. Unfortunately Hansen doesn’t want his readers to contemplate that, so he simply skirts the issue of Budinger by focusing on the sweep based upon history.

Hansen pulls up some great facts about how long it has been since Arizona has been swept in the Bay Area, including some non-pertinent information on rankings during those sweeps. The funny thing that he neglected to mention is that regardless of the final results very few wins at Haas or Staples Pavilion have ever come easy. But, like the certifiably insane bums carrying cardboard signs, Hansen’s only objective was to insight emotional responses by proclaiming “the end is near.” Unfortunately, just like those bums the proclamation is premature.

I will agree, the end of Arizona basketball as we have come to love and appreciate began to wind down a year and a half ago when Olson took his LOA. The program as we know it is drawing to an end most certainly. To ignore that reality is absolute foolishness. Fortunately, we won’t see that end until the Cats are ousted from the NIT or NCAA Tournament in March. So grab the Pepto, and don’t be fooled by the Wildcats 0-2 conference start and certainly not by the ipecac that Hansen is attempting to force feed the Wildcat faithful.

 

 

PAC-10 Power Rankings

 

Every morning you can pick up your local newspaper or go online to any major sports website and look up the current standings in the PAC-10. If you were to do that any time before this Thursday here’s what you would see:

1. UCLA 2-0

2. CAL 2-0

3. Washington 1-0

4. Stanford 1-1

5. ASU 1-1

6. USC 1-1

7. OSU 1-1

8. WSU 0-1

9. Arizona 0-2

10. Oregon 0-2

 

Darren Collison

But standings at this point in the conference season don’t mean anything. Do you honestly believe that Oregon State is better than Arizona, Oregon or Washington? As conference play wears on the standings will be perpetually more revealing as to how each of the teams stack up. Now, I know this is impossible, but it would be nice if the media had some way of reporting how the teams are really stacked up, and not just by their record. So I’ve decided to pick up there and every week I’ll break down the PAC-10 and rank them against one another. Enjoy!

 

1. UCLA – It’s no surprise that they stand on top of the conference after the opening weekend. Shipp and Collison were impressive this weekend on the road.
2. CAL – Their sweep of the Arizona schools is more impressive than UCLA’s conference wins, but it’s too early to use that as a bearing point right now. Jerome Randle and Patrick Christopher are a great one-two punch and have Cal vying for the top position in the PAC-10.
3. ASU – A 30 point win over Stanford at Maples? Even if Stanford is down this year, that’s still impressive. CAL exploited their weaknesses and showed that ASU needs another offensive weapon.
4. Washington – Defeating your in-state rivals on their floor is always a great way to start conference play. The Huskies have seen continued production from Jon Brockman, Isaiah Thomas, and Justin Dentmon. If they want to stay ranked this high, they’ll need Quincy Pondexter to step up.
5. Stanford – That 30 point loss at home was embarrassing, but they bounced back and controlled their match-up with Arizona, even on an off night. Their lack of interior presence will become problematic over the course of conference play. They over-came it this weekend, so until their style falters this is where they belong.
6. USC – Winning on the road in the PAC-10 isn’t easy, period. But to be the team that snaps Oregon State’s 17-game losing streak is downright embarrassing. The Trojans have more problems than a tough road loss to a bad Oregon State team. They have an athletic and talented roster, but they aren’t playing as a team. They’ll continue to struggle until the players view the team as more than a yield sign into the NBA.
7. Arizona – Going 0-2 to start conference play is never good. But for a young team whose leader is struggling you can’t fault them too much. Things should be okay in Arizona once Budinger finds his way out of this wicked slump. Until then, all talk of contending for a tournament bid should be silenced.
8. Oregon State – It must feel great to get that monkey off their back, especially against a team that was picked to finish in the top four of the conference. Has the new coach breathed life into these kids, or was this simply a flash in the pan?
9. Washington State – Their off-season losses are grossly apparent. It wasn’t the fact that they lost their rivalry game at home that has them ranked so low. It’s the fact that an average Washington team flat out toyed with them. Rochestie, Thompson, and Baynes need to step up in a big way or this is going to be a long season.
10. Oregon – What’s worse than starting conference play 0-2? Doing that on your home court. The Ducks should be fine as long as Ernie Kent can get the freshmen up to speed. It will be another up and down season for the Ducks though.

 

Alright, I admit it… I’m a stat junkie. I get excited looking at a box score. I like seeing a player putting up 18 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists more than seeing a guy go for 30 points. Why? Partly because I like seeing all the little boxes with something filled in – might be some form of OCD – but mostly because I value the complete game more than a scorer any day. But stats can only tell you so much. While they can give you an idea as to how a player or team performed, they aren’t definitive. The same can be said of Conference standings.