Wednesday, April 30, 2014 • Page 8
SPORTS dailywildcat.com/sports
Editor: James Kelley sports@wildcat.arizona.edu (520) 621-2956 twitter.com/wildcatsports
NBA
WOMEN’S TENNIS
TOUGH DRAW
WOMEN’S GOLF SELECTED TO NCAA TOURNEY
An NBA commish steps up BY JAMES KELLEY The Daily Wildcat
O dailywildcat.com/blog
FOOTBALL ADDS YET ANOTHER BIG TIME TRANSFER
REBECCA MARIE SASNETT/THE DAILY WILDCAT
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THREE FOOTBALL PLAYERS EARN ACADEMIC NODS
SCORE CENTER LAC GET POST EMANCIPATION W (3) Clippers 113 (6) Warriors 103
REAL MADRID BOMBS BAYERN Real Madrid 4 (5) Bayern Munich 0 (0)
WHAT TO WATCH
SENIOR Susan Mc Rann returns ASU’s serve during the doubles match of Arizona’s 4-2 win against the Sun Devils at LaNelle Robson Tennis Center on April 19. Arizona was selected to the NCAA tournament on Tuesday and will head to Athens, Ga., to play No. 42 Florida State.
While No. 23 Arizona received its 22nd NCAA tournament selection on Tuesday, the Wildcats could face top-seeded Georgia in the second round on the Bulldogs’ home court BY MATT WALL
The Daily Wildcat
No. 23 Arizona women’s tennis (17-5) will head to Athens, Ga., to face the Florida State Seminoles (15-12) in the first round of the Division I NCAA Tournament on May 9. This is Arizona’s 22nd NCAA tournament and eighth under head coach Vicky Maes. “Honestly, I am a little bit disappointed,” Maes said. “We really did not want a region where we will potentially be facing the No. 1 team in the country. I think we have done much better than to deserve that particular region, but it is what it is.” The Intercollegiate Tennis Association currently ranks Florida State No. 42 in the country. Juniors Kerrie Cartwright and Daneika Borthwick lead the team with singles records of 22-13 and 1813, respectively, and were both named to All-ACC teams. “Clearly, we have a tough matchup with Florida State,” Maes said. “They are a very good team and have been ranked
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TWEET TO NOTE
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Adam Silver using #BearDown makes him even cooler after the Sterling ban. —@VanillaV1ck7, B.J. Denker former Arizona quarterback
At a press conference Tuesday, NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced the lifetime ban of Clippers owner Donald Sterling. Silver said when he heard the recording that the NBA needs to “bear down” and get to the “bottom of this as quickly as possible.” Follow us on Twitter twitter.com/wildcatsports
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STERLING, 9
Last weekend Arizona baseball lost the fifth series in its last seven, raising the question whether this season is a lost cause
(1) Pacers at (8) Hawks 4 P.M. - NBA TV NHL
Atletico Madrid at Chelsea 11:45 A.M. - Fox Sports 1
With 64 teams in the tournament, the Wildcats expected to travel, but not necessarily more than 1,500 miles across the country. “Traveling on the road is always challenging, but traveling across the country — time difference, the humidity — it is not an easy place to travel to, but we have been to Georgia before,” Maes said. “Our kids are excited to go to the tournament, and we are just going to play to the best of our ability.” Although Georgia seems to be a huge roadblock on the Wildcats’ path, Maes is only focused on the first round matchup. “We first need to get past Florida State, and they are a very good team, so I am not going to focus at all on the second round; we need to get past the first round,” Maes said. “If we do get the opportunity to play Georgia, then we go out there and play with nothing to lose.”
Time for baseball to clean house?
NBA
(3) Kings at (2) Sharks 7 P.M. - NBCSN CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
in the top 20 for most of the season. To be honest, I’m very disappointed in the region, but we have to recover from it and deal with it to do the best that we can.” If the Wildcats can get past their first round matchup against Florida State, they may have to play Georgia, which is the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament. “I think we are all a little surprised that we are going to Georgia, but we also have the opportunity to play the No. 1 team with the No. 1 rank,” senior Susan Mc Rann said. “We obviously are going to go out there and give it our best shot and hopefully make the Sweet Sixteen.” The Wildcats were dominant, 14-0, at home this season and must transfer that momentum if they want to advance in the tournament. “We have had a really good year, so first of all it is exciting that we made the NCAA Tournament,” senior Kim Stubbe said. “Being there and giving us another opportunity to shine will be fantastic, and we just need to make the most out of it.”
n Tuesday, NBA commissioner Adam Silver cleaned up the nasty mess he had inherited, banning Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling. Silver gave Sterling a lifetime ban and a $2.5 million fine. That’s chump change for someone like Sterling, but it was the maximum fine. Yes, Sterling will still own the team, paying players and cashing checks, but he has been banned from going to NBA games or practices and entering the Clippers’ facility, and he cannot go to NBA board of governors meetings or participate in “any other league activity.” The NBA will also try to force him to sell. Fox News reported that Sterling said he won’t sell the Clippers, but there’s no real point to him owning the team any more. Silver picked up where his predecessor, David Stern, had failed. Sterling has a history of racial issues and it’s great that an NBA commissioner finally stepped up and did what is necessary in 2014 (or really 2004, 1994, 1984, etc.). Sterling settled a lawsuit brought by the federal government alleging he avoided renting to black and Latino people. He paid $2.725 million, the largest award the Justice Department has won in a housing discrimination suit involving apartment rentals. In a separate lawsuit, former Clippers general manager Elgin Baylor, who is black, accused Sterling of running “a Southern plantation-type structure” for the Clippers. Sterling should have been stripped of his ownership long ago. If Sterling was allowed to remain in control, it would have been a disaster. Drafted players would refuse to play for the Clippers — like they were being drafted to fight in Vietnam, not getting millions to play games — and no one would sign with the team and players stuck there would be labeled Uncle Toms. Also, the timing of Sterling’s comments was extremely awkward. They came at a time when the first round of the normally painfully long NBA playoffs were producing thrilling first round match-ups, and in the middle of the latest equality
BY LUKE DELLA
The Daily Wildcat
B
aseball teams led by mentally tough upperclassmen are the ones that compete for the College World Series championship. This Arizona team doesn’t have that. Head coach Andy Lopez needs to clean house to start the process over with the current underclassmen. In 2012, when Arizona captured the CWS title, it had worked the previous two years to get to the point to where it could legitimately compete. In 2012, Arizona’s ace pitcher was Kurt Heyer. The then-junior was in his third season as the main pitcher and he had built up a fortitude that made him a bulldog on the mound. Arizona also had juniors Alex Mejia, Seth Mejias-Brean and Robert Refsnyder, who were talented batters and could gut out a needed hit. This Wildcat team is led by juniors and seniors — who were part of that 2012 team — who just don’t have the same gutsiness as the upperclassmen before them. Maybe if they did, they wouldn’t have lost 10 games so far by two or fewer runs. For goodness’ sake, a player allegedly showed up to a game drunk the same weekend the team
was scheduled to play Mississippi State, the national champion runner ups. The fact is this Arizona baseball team is actually led by its freshmen and sophomores. Its best player is a walk-on: sophomore outfielder Scott Kingery, who is actually playing out of position and is maybe the team’s best defensive infielder. Underclassmen such as Kingery, Zach Gibbons and Bobby Dalbec are extremely talented, but they don’t have the grit yet to lead a college baseball team. Like them, current upperclassmen Trent Gilbert and Riley Moore were starters as underclassmen, but because their team was led by tough upperclassmen, the young players’ abilities were not as crucial. Maybe these upperclassmen have checked out since they have already won the championship. So it’s time for Lopez to dump the extra baggage and tell his juniors they’re no longer needed here. If he’s nice, he’ll let them return as bench players, but why waste another year when you can be building for the future?
BY EVAN ROSENFELD The Daily Wildcat
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rizona baseball is much better than its 18-25 record. The Wildcats are leading the Pac-12 Conference in batting average (.285), hits (415) and stolen bases (49). Injuries to key members of the pitching staff, coupled with the absence of head coach Andy Lopez during the fall season due to heart surgery, caused what was expected to be a productive year for the program to develop into its worst season since 2006, when it finished with a 27-28 record. If the Wildcats hadn’t suffered so many injuries, especially when it came to pitching, then numerous close games this season would have gone the UA’s way. Arizona has played 15 games decided by two runs or fewer, and 10 that were decided by one. The Wildcats are seven games below .500 and have the second-worst record in the
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league. The postseason is nearly out of the picture for the slumping Wildcats. Instead of striving for this year’s playoffs, a more attainable goal would be to end the season above .500. Looking forward, the question that comes to mind is how Arizona will make sure that another disappointing season won’t follow. It could try to clean the clubhouse with a purge of coaches and players, but in this situation, it would simply be foolish to purge a team of such potential. This year’s MLB Draft will inevitably serve as some type of natural purge, but actively dismissing coaches or players could disrupt the evolving chemistry of the team and prove to be detrimental to the future of the program. Just because Arizona’s offense and defense didn’t gel together this year doesn’t mean that next season will yield the same results. If key arms return healthy and the Wildcats are able to complement their explosive offense with lightsout pitching, then next year will give the UA a chance to redeem itself and live up to its high standard of excellence.
— Follow Evan Rosenfeld @EvanRosenfeld17