What is a new year without hope?
Hope in the improbable, the impossible, the unfathomable. Only, with the way Arizona’s two hottest teams were playing to close out 2021, what is reality?
Throw the rulebook out the window. Could Arizona’s men’s and women’s basketball teams win titles in the same season? Stranger things have happened.
At least it’s worth wishing for.
Here are our biggest wishes for 2022:
10. A return to normalcy
Hopefully, the one thing that emerges from this current wave of Omicron cases is herd immunity — or, at least, a stark decrease in hospitalizations. That’s the only positive coming out of the worst wave of the pandemic. Maybe it signals brighter times are ahead.
We deserve it, don’t we?
We deserve packed houses for the Super Bowl and March Madness. We deserve sunshine and happiness and … at maybe at least one national championship.
The Tucson Rodeo was canceled in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
9. Tucson Rodeo’s return
One thing Tucson deserves — and sorely missed last year — was the Tucson Rodeo. An event that represents the Wild West culture of the Old Pueblo, the Tucson Rodeo was canceled for the first time since World War II. It would’ve been the final go-round for general manager Gary Williams, who announced that the rodeo would be losing the only general manager its ever known.
He deserves to be feted as he rides off into retirement, and the rodeo fans who know his impact deserve a chance to bid a formal goodbye.
8. A longer streak for the Wildcats women
The last time the Arizona women’s basketball team lost a game was April 4, in the national championship game against Stanford. The No. 4 Wildcats don’t play a ranked team again until they head to Palo Alto for a rematch with the Cardinal on Jan. 30.
At 10-0 and sporting an impressive win over No. 6 Louisville, but no other games against ranked teams, the Wildcats know they need to keep winning to try to hold on to a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. To do so, Arizona will need to continue to lean on a defense that is allowing opponents to shoot just 33% from the field.
Chip Hale, one of the greatest players in Arizona baseball history, left his job with the Detroit Tigers to take over at his alma mater.
7. A hot start for Hale
Dave Heeke didn’t have to go far to find Jay Johnson’s replacement.
In Chip Hale, Heeke turned to one of the great baseball players in Arizona history, still the team’s all-time leader in several categories. Though lacking college baseball coaching experience, Hale managed the Arizona Diamondbacks for two years and served on Major League Baseball staffs for another 13 seasons. He was hired away from the Detroit Tigers over the summer.
The Wildcats suffered a blow when top bat Jacob Berry decided to follow Johnson to LSU, but Hale righted the ship quickly. A return to the College World Series would be a tall task — as would repeating the team’s sparkling 21-9 conference mark last year. But Hale is heady enough to keep the Wildcats in contention in his first season.
6. A return to the playoffs for the Roadrunners
When the 2019-20 American Hockey League season was canceled because of COVID-19, the Tucson Roadrunners were surging. The Roadrunners were atop the Pacific Division with a 36-19-1-2 record and 75 points, boasting a +35 scoring differential.
The Roadrunners lost their magic in 2020-21, finishing with a team-worst .403 winning percentage and dropping from first in the Pacific Division to seventh.
Can a team almost entirely composed of players acquired in 2021 bounce back in a hurry? With Jay Varady back at the helm after serving as an assistant coach for the Arizona Coyotes, the team is headed in the right direction.
5. A high finish under Lowe
Gone are Dejah Mulipola and Jessie Harper, Malia Martinez and Alyssa Palomino-Cardoza. Alyssa Denham and Mariah Lopez, too. But here’s one thing about Mike Candrea: He never left the cupboards totally empty. There was always someone waiting in the wings.
Well, now that the Arizona softball program is in the able hands of Caitlin Lowe, and the Wildcats are loaded up for what shouldn’t have to be a rebuilding year.
Leading hitter Janelle Meoño returns after batting .439, as does Sharlize Palacios (.348, 18 home runs, 57 RBIs) and Carlie Scupin (.343, 9 HR, 38 RBIs). Those three will anchor a lineup that will feature five new starters.r
A highly rated recruiting class means things are looking up for Jedd Fisch and the UA football program.
4. A Fisch story to remember
Things can only go up from here for the Arizona football team.
And if Jedd Fisch is smart, he starts laying the foundation for wins two, three years from now. In bringing in the best recruiting class for Arizona in more than 15 years — maybe one of the best in program history — Fisch has the ability to hit the reset button. Does that mean every freshman should start? No, but it means Fisch needs to coach with intention. He needs to play the long game.
But Arizona fans will know. They’ll forgive freshman foibles that could turn into senior success. Just show some progress, that’s all.
3. More awards for Arizona
In what is increasingly looking like a three-team race, the Pac-12 Conference Player of the Race is heating up. The problem for Arizona’s men’s basketball team? It just might split the vote.
Bennedict Mathurin and Azuolas Tubelis might well be two of the top four players in the Pac-12, along with UCLA’s Johnny Juzang and USC’s Isaiah Mobley. Mathurin currently ranks second in the conference in scoring, one spot ahead of Juzang, two in front of Tubelis and three in front of Mobley.
With the three teams combining for a 31-2 record, whichever teams comes out alive is going to claim the most hardware.
2. A Final Four — or two?
The last time both basketball teams from the same school took home the title was 2014, when Connecticut’s men and women hoisted trophies. UConn remains the only school to pull off the two-fer, having done it for the first time in 2004.
Could Arizona become the second? A pair of Final Fours would do. That would mean a second straight for Adia Barnes, who has guided her team to an undefeated start following the departure of Aari McDonald. And it would mean a Final Four in Tommy Lloyd’s first foray, which would be an accomplishment in itself.
It this a longshot? Sure. But with both teams currently in the top 10 and true star power on each team, don’t exactly right it off.
1. A dia to remember for Adia
Our biggest wish for the year ahead? A banner for Barnes.
The Arizona women’s basketball team has become one of the hottest tickets on campus, and with UConn losing their stranglehold on the sport, a title run in Tucson could swing the momentum out West. It’s about time a Pac-12 team other than Stanford lifted the trophy.
No Pac-12 team other than the Cardinal have reached the mountaintop since USC in 1983-84.
Barnes and the Cats could very well be next.
