With the Arizona men’s basketball team caught up in myriad scandals in 2017, the 2018 sports calendar was already written in pencil in Tucson.
When the most important sports entity in town is under federal investigation, not much else matters.
Combine that with a football coaching change, and it’s clear that 2018 was going to be a struggle.
But no one could have foreseen what unfolded in Tucson.
Here are the 10 worst sports stories of the year in the Old Pueblo.
Drama, scandal envelop Miller’s Wildcats
Throughout the 2017-18 Arizona men’s basketball season, a cloud loomed over the program, courtesy of an FBI investigation that began in 2017 targeting inappropriate payments to athletes across college basketball.
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But when ESPN dropped a much-disputed bombshell report by Mark Schlabach in mid-February, that Miller allegedly discussed a $100,000 payment to ensure Deandre Ayton played for the Wildcats, the team came under even further scrutiny from the national media. Some, including the Arizona Daily Star’s Greg Hansen, wondered if Miller should ever coach Arizona again.
Then, in October, ESPN’s Schlabach reported that call records connected Miller with coveted recruit Brian Bowen’s handler, and Arizona was pulled through the mud once more.
Forget yet another disappointing ending to another disappointing season: The Wildcats’ reputation is in peril, and that’s scarier than any first-round exit.
And speaking of …
Unbelieva-Bull: Fourth-seeded Wildcats routed by Buffalo in first round.
With the future No. 1 pick in the draft in Deandre Ayton and a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament, the Arizona men’s basketball team certainly envisioned a deep tournament run, and potentially Sean Miller’s first Final Four appearance.
Instead, the fantasy turned into a nightmare and in a hurry.
The 13th-seeded Buffalo Bulls bullied the bigger, faster, stronger Wildcats in an 89-68 upset, one of the most shocking results of a topsy-turvy tournament.
The Bulls hit 15 of 30 3-point attempts and looked far more like a Pac-12 Tournament beast than a mid-major giant killer. By midway through the second half, it appeared Arizona was headed for an upset, though no one predicted a final margin of more than 20.
“It kind of felt weird,” UA freshman guard Brandon Randolph said. Buffalo “came out of the gate and just destroyed us. They just kept coming at us and we obviously had no answer for that, so I’m gonna give them a lot of credit for that.”
swoon costs bowl bid
Kevin Sumlin’s first regular season could have ended with a flourish, with a Territorial Cup win over Arizona State, which would’ve clinched a bowl berth in his first season at the helm.
If not for those pesky Sun Devils.
Arizona led 40-21 entering the fourth quarter, only to allow 20 unanswered points in the final quarter in a 41-40 loss that was even more heartbreaking than it sounds.
Arizona’s Josh Pollack had a 45-yard field goal attempt to win the game in the final seconds, but the kick went wide right, costing the Wildcats the postseason.
The Wildcats didn’t just cough up a big lead heading into the final quarter, but they led by 16 points with under 12 minutes left. A Khalil Tate interception and a fumbled exchange between Tate and J.J. Taylor on the ensuing possession cost Arizona dearly.
For the year, Arizona finished a disappointing 5-7, with a 4-5 record in the Pac-12.
Another premature exit for Arizona softball
After a 7-1 loss to UCLA in the first game of their Super Regional matchup, the Arizona softball team got off to a big start in Game 2.
After the defense rang up a big double play to stifle a UCLA scoring opportunity in the first inning, Alyssa Palomino smashed a two-run home run in the bottom of the inning to give the Wildcats a big early lead.
But the Bruins scored one run in each of the second, third and fourth innings and rode out the rest of the win, advancing to their fourth straight Women’s College World Series. There was a time when Arizona advanced to WCWS after WCWS. Those days are long gone.
The loss kept the Wildcats from their first appearance in Oklahoma City since 2010, after six straight appearances. That followed a one-year absence in 2004, after 16 straight from 1988-2003.
Appleman hired as Arizona diving coach, only to be replaced within weeks as scandal comes to light
Arizona thought it had found its man: Josh Appleman was hired as Wildcats’ diving coach in early June, just weeks after parting ways with former coach Omar Ojeda.
But after USA Diving suspended Appleman in mid-July without citing a reason, Arizona rescinded the offer to its would-be coach and instead hired Dwight Dumais, the youngest brother of the famous Dumais diving family.
The day before Appleman’s USA Diviing suspension, a federal class-action lawsuit was filed against USA Diving, the Ohio State University Diving Club and its former coach Will Bohonyi, who was accused of sexually abusing 50 divers at Ohio State and USA Diving, including a minor. One of the victim’s teammates allegedly reported the abuse to Appleman in 2014, but neither Appleman nor the school took action.
As a result, Arizona acted quickly to avoid scandal, but it was still tainted by the search.
Wildcat baseball team misses postseason after 13 one-run losses
Despite a non-conference RPI that ranked 11th nationally and a 11-5 stretch to close the season, the Arizona baseball team was not selected for the NCAA Tournament after going 34-22 on the year and just 14-16 in the Pac-12.
The Wildcats, three years removed from a College World Series appearance, finished the year with a respectable .285 team batting average, and opposing pitchers struggled with a 6.06 ERA against Arizona.
But the Wildcats had 13 one-run losses that killed their playoff chances.
Pima says goodbye to football program
Pima College had a tremendous year, with a national championship in men’s soccer and a runner-up finish in men’s basketball, but it was not without its difficulties as financial concerns caused the shutdown of the football program.
“I can assure you, the decision we made is no less difficult than other decisions we’ve made across the college,” athletic director Edgar Soto said during a mid-June press conference, after the Maricopa County Community College District announced it would end football programs at the Phoenix, Scottsdale, Mesa and Glendale community colleges starting next season.
In their last season, the Aztecs finished 6-4 and advanced to the C.H.A.M.P.S Heart of Texas Bowl in Waco, Texas, where they lost to No. 4 Kilgore College 28-0 in the program’s last game.
Football wasn’t the only program to get the ax: Pima will also cut two of the four golf and tennis programs — one men’s team and one women’s team.
Former Arizona track coach Carter sentenced to five years
One of the most sordid chapters in Arizona athletics history ostensibly closed in mid-May when former Arizona track and field coach Craig Carter was sentenced to five years in prison for threatening a former athlete, with whom he’d had a sexual relationship that she deemed non-consensual.
Carter was convicted of two counts of aggravated assault, including one with a deadly weapon, almost three years after he was arrested for choking former UA thrower Baillie Gibson in his office. After harassing Gibson’s roommate, Julie Labonté, he was also charged with four counts of aggravated harassment after he violated a protective order by attempting to contact her via social media.
Roadrunners’ playoff run ends early against Texas
The Tucson Roadrunners capped off a fine season in 2017-18 with an AHL Pacific Division title. But after winning their first-round series over San Jose, the Roadrunners exited the playoffs on a low.
The Texas Stars eliminated Tucson, four games to one, after a 3-2 overtime win closed out the series. The Roadrunners had entered the series as favorites after finishing in front of the Stars in the standings. But Tucson fought Murphy’s Law against the Stars — two pucks clanked off the post in the series-ending loss — and the law won.
Gronk begins inevitable decline with Patriots
For so long, former Arizona star Rob Gronkowski appeared invincible, like some kind of supermachine with the strength of a buffalo and the speed of a slightly fast buffalo.
But in this, his ninth season, the superstar New England Patriots tight end appeared human, for maybe the first time.
Gronk finished the regular season with just 45 catches for 658 yards and three touchdowns, the most limited production of his illustrious career. We all knew that with the punishment he’s taken in his career, he’d eventually see the downswing.
But it was still jarring.
