Arizona Softball loses a nail-biter to No. 1 Texas, Men’s tennis sweeps, Men’s hoops gets hosed, and sand volleyball is underway.

Arizona gets short end of the stick in rematch with BYU

Arizona basketball has suffered losses in three of its last four games. On paper, that is concerning. In reality, they could’ve won any of the four contests and Saturday night in McKale is a game Arizona would like to delete from their headspace for their own well-being.

You’ve probably seen the call heard round the southwest ad nauseam by now. Big 12 official Tony Padilla, seemingly out of position, called a foul on Wildcats forward Trey Townsend, sending BYU leading scorer Richie Saunders to the line down by one. He hit both and sent madness into the McKale crowd after the Wildcats dropped their second game in a row on their home floor.

The student section responded with degrading chants that have no place in the game, players had to be separated at half court and the tension was palpable more than any other time in recent memory.

The call was controversial, several calls were questionable on both sides and in the end, Arizona could’ve done more to ensure victory. However, it wasn’t just the call on the baseline by Padilla, it was also the waving off of an And-1 basket by Caleb Love that would’ve ultimately made the Saunders free throws later for a tie instead of a win. Again, Padilla was seemingly out of position to make the call.

Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd stated that he thought it was a terrible call, but that Tony Padilla is a good referee and it happens. Lloyd is hedging his bet that the Wildcats will see him again down the road without a doubt because any calm person would’ve absolutely lost it with how physical the Big 12 has allowed play to be this season and the seeming ticky-tack call with less than four seconds left in the game. This is why they pay him the big bucks, yeah?

So now Arizona heads into a pivotal Wednesday night home matchup against the Utah Utes who recently fired head coach Craig Smith after coming off wins against, *checks notes,* Kansas and Kansas State. No one understands exactly why the firing happened now, but Utah is in the market for a new coach and Arizona is in no position to care all that much because it has plenty on the line.

Currently, Arizona is a projected 4th seed in the South bracket according to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi and would begin in Denver against Akron with a possible second round matchup with Oregon. The Big 12 is also projected to have eight teams in the big dance.

Down the Mall

Softball

It was close, but ultimately timely hitting in extra innings did the Wildcats in as they dropped their matchup against then No. 1 Texas. After going down early 3-0, Arizona answered immediately off a Sydney Stewart bomb to center field to tie the game up. It remained that way until Texas broke the tie in the 6th when Katie Cimusz doubled to bring in Joley Mitchell for a 4-3 lead. In the bottom of the seventh, after a Logan Cole double to leadoff, Kaiah Altmeyer connected on a shot down the left field line to bring in Cole and tie the game up.

Texas was too much in the 8th, scoring four runs and shutting down the Wildcats in the bottom of the inning for an 8-4 win. The bright spot was Devyn Netz who was put in to slow the Longhorn momentum after the hot start. She gave up just three hits and one run in the sixth in relief. For her efforts, Netz was named Big 12 Pitcher of the Week.

Despite the loss, Arizona was able to rebound against No. 20 Stanford in dominating fashion, a 10-2 mercy rule win. The win improves the Wildcats record to 15-2 overall and ranked No. 10 in the country, one spot up from the previous week. Arizona heads to Southern California for the week as it takes on Loyola Marymount Wednesday, before playing in the Judi Garman Classic this weekend with matchups against Weber State, Cal State Fullerton, Notre Dame and No. 4 UCLA…it’s always nice to see an old friend, or not!

Women’s Basketball

It defies logic, but despite the fact that Arizona women’s basketball has only one Quad 1 win, one Quad 2 win and losses to teams like Northern Arizona and Grand Canyon in state, they are still in play for the NCAA tournament. The Wildcats held serve against Texas Tech in their final home game of the season and now only have lowly ASU left on the schedule this Saturday in Tempe.

Last Saturday could have been the proverbial nail in the coffin. Despite being down 13 with under seven minutes left, the Wildcats battled back to take a three-point lead with just three seconds left. Houston’s Eylia Love then threw up a prayer off the rim, touching the top of the backboard, then dropping in to tie the game. Brutal.

However, this didn’t deter Arizona, who gave the Cougars a steady diet of free throws and layups to eventually win by two. A loss to Houston, the Big 12’s worst team with a 5-22 record and just one win in the conference, would’ve been devastating to say the least.

Arizona is on the bubble and projected as one of the first four teams out according to ESPN bracketologist Charlie Creme. The Wildcats can still find their way to the first bye in the Big 12 tournament as it currently sits tied with Colorado at 8-8. The Buffaloes own the tiebreaker over UA.

Baseball

After getting swept in Arlington to open the season, the Wildcats answered back winning four in a row including a sweep of San Diego. Now, the biggest test of the season comes; a matchup at Rice and then No.1 Texas A&M, No. 18 Mississippi State and No. 3 Tennessee at the Astros Foundation College Classic in Houston this weekend.

Mathis Meurant was recognized as Big 12 Newcomer of the Week after leading the Wildcats in just about every offensive category possible, hitting .625 with a 2.200 on base percentage. Arizona is going to need that kind of output this week. No. 3 Tennessee has the fourth best team ERA in the country at 1.36 and Mississippi State is 13th at 2.02.

Men’s Tennis

The good times keep rolling for Arizona as it moved up five spots in the rankings to ninth in the country after a dismantling of No. 7 San Diego. It is the third top-25 win this season as they head to Tempe to take on Arizona State in the Diablo Invite.

The win was highlighted by Colton Smith and Inaki Cabrera-Bello who took down the No. 1 doubles team in the country in San Diego’s Stian Klaassen and Oliver Tarvet.

Football

Duane Akina is leaving Arizona to head back to Texas where he had tremendous success as one of the top defensive back coaches in the game. Akina was the defensive coordinator last season but was prepared to move over to coach the defensive backs in 2025 after Danny Gonzales was promoted to the position.

Akina has coached three Thorpe Award winners in his career which is given to the best defensive back in the nation: Darryll Lewis (Arizona-1990), Michael Huff (Texas-2005) and Aaron Ross (Texas-2006).

Potpourri

Have yourself a week like Richard! Former Arizona basketball alum Richard Jefferson was named to ESPN’s top broadcast team joining Mike Breen and Doris Burke. This is a major step in just five years at the company, showing how dynamic of a personality he has become in the NBA landscape.

He also landed this beauty of a nugget. Got to love Phoenix native Wildcats giving ASU the business!

The week ahead

Men’s Basketball: Wednesday, Feb.26, 7pm vs Utah (ESPN+), Saturday Mar. 1, 7pm at Iowa State (ESPN)

Women’s Basketball: Tuesday, Feb.25, 6pm vs Texas Tech (ESPN+), Saturday, Mar. 1, 4pm at ASU (ESPN+)

Baseball: Wednesday, Feb. 26 at Rice (ESPN+), Astros Foundation College Classic, (All games at Astros.com) Fri/Sat/Sun,

Softball: Feb. 26, at Loyola Marymount (ESPN+), Feb. 28-Mar 2 Judi Garman Classic  **Only the Cal State Fullerton game is slotted for ESPN+ Friday at 8:30pm at the moment