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Around SBN: Johan Santana's No-Hitter Inspires Field Stormer

Matt-ortega3

mattortega

Jun 26, 2008 Jan 08, 2011 11 89

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Arizona Desert Swarm Shooting Postpones Men's Basketball Game

The details are still a bit hazy but a shooting in northwest Tucson has prompted the Arizona men's basketball game against Stanford to be postponed.

The facts about what happened are still being investigated -- conflicting reports have already marred the coverage of this story -- but among the victims were Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who represents southeastern Arizona, including parts of Tucson, federal Judge John M. Roll, staffers to Giffords, as well as a 9-year old child.

It is hard to think of a game at a time like this but Arizona and Stanford will meet tomorrow at 12:30PM local time.

Please keep the victims and their families in your thoughts.

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Tour the conference's kickoff week at SB Nation.

over 1 year ago Matt-ortega3_tiny mattortega 0 comments

Arizona Desert Swarm Game 1 Quick Reactions: Arizona 41, Toledo 2

Arizona rolled into Toledo on Friday and left with pretty much everything but the key to the city.

QB Nick Foles was as accurate as you could be -- 32-37 for 360 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception off the fingers of FB Taimi Tutogi.

Not to be outdone by Foles, WR Juron Criner put on a show for ESPN's national television audience. Criner -- who finished his night with 11 receptions, 187 yards receiving, and a gorgeous touchdown catch -- picked up a huge 45 yard reception falling on his back. Under heavy coverage -- some may say it looked like defensive PI -- Criner grasp the ball with his right hand, off his right thigh and cradled for the the catch with his left hand. Flip on SportsCenter, it will be there.

The defense looked rather solid considering all the questions about the inexperienced linebackers. JuCo transfer LB Derek Earls picked off a pass. DEs Brooks Reed and Ricky Elmore made their presence known. Freshmen Shaquille Richardson and Marquis Flowers got in on the action as well.

Overall, the defense pitched a shutout. Toledo's only points came on a holding call in the endzone that resulted in a safety.

Special teams showed up as well. WR and returner William "Bug" Wright had a solid 35 yard punt return. Late in the game, Arizona forced Toledo's standout freshman WR from last year, Eric Page, to cough up a return inside his five to effectively close out the game.

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Arizona Desert Swarm Pac-10 Blogs Preview the Season

Avinash at California Golden Blogs posted an epic preview of the upcoming (and last) Pac-10 season.

College football is back, and the clock is ticking toward the official kickoff on Thursday night. To get you prepared, we got together the SB Nation Pac-10 sites to provide our input on this upcoming season. We managed to get AZ Desert Swarm (Arizona Wildcats), House of Sparky (Arizona St. Sun Devils), Addicted to Quack (Oregon Ducks), Building the Dam (Oregon St. Beavers), Bruins Nation (UCLA Bruins), Conquest Chronicles (USC Trojans), Coug Center (Washington St. Cougars) to join us (California Golden Bears, in case you thought this was the Concordia University SB Nation site) in casting their predictions for this upcoming season. The categories were predicted standings, Pac-10 Offensive & Defensive Player of the Year and Pac-10 Coach of the Year. In addition, some of us added in our All Pac-10 Teams.

Based on votes from across the conference of blogs, Arizona is slated to finish third behind the pair of Oregon and Oregon State.

Among the Arizona Wildcats selected to the All-Pac 10 Team: OT Adam Grant, C Colin Baxter, DE Ricky Elmore, and CB Trevin Wade.

Just think - next year, these predictions will include Utah as a strong contender for the conference title, and Colorado can duke it out with ASU in the cellar to see who is better than Washington State. Heh.

Give it a read.

Related Ted Miller laid out his season predictions at ESPN. Miller predicts freshman S Marquis Flowers to tie for defensive freshman of the year.

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Arizona Desert Swarm Arizona's Three-Headed Monster

A few days ago, the Arizona Daily Star caught up with Arizona's three running backs: Nic Grigsby, Keola Antolin, and Greg Nwoko.

The three spent a lot of quality time together this offseason only to emerge under their self-described nickname: "Three-Headed Monster."

The Arizona Wildcats three running backs are presenting a united front in the weeks leading up to their Sept. 3 season opener at Toledo.

They seem to be happy, finally, with their roles.

Grigsby will serve as the team's first-stringer, with the shifty Antolin backing him up. For the second straight year, the bruising Nwoko will take over in short-yardage and red-zone situations.

"We call ourselves the three-headed monster," said Grigsby, a senior. "Our goal is to have three 1,000-yard rushers. It's something the school's never had.

"We like running the pill; we like running the rock. There's nothing selfish going on."

Read the whole story.

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Arizona Desert Swarm Top 25 Blog Poll - Week 1

SB Nation continues the build up to the new college football season with the weekly Blog Poll rounding out the top 25 teams.

Alabama is clearly number one following last year's crushing national title victory, the returning talent, and new blood. Who you got?

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Arizona Desert Swarm ESPN House of Pain: 11/15/07 - Arizona 34, #2 Oregon 24

ESPN continues their "House of Pain" series - the 50 most painful outcomes in college football -- with numbers 31-40 today.

College football fans recall the tumultuous year for top ranked teams in 2007 with the "Curse of the #2." Regarded as the "Year of the Upset" as the #2 team in the nation lost seven times, unranked or lower ranked teams upset their opponents 59 times, and a record 13 unranked teams defeated top 5 teams during the regular season.

That year, #2 Oregon rolled into Arizona with a path towards the Pac-10 title, a national championship berth, and a Heisman for QB Dennis Dixon, in sight.

ESPN marked this one #31 on the "House of Pain" list:

#31: 11/15/07 - Arizona 34, (2) Oregon 24

Nov. 15, 2007: Four No. 2 teams in the previous five weeks had lost. Yet new No. 2 Oregon (8-1) didn't have reason to be concerned. Quarterback Dennis Dixon, the leading candidate for the Heisman Trophy, returned from a knee injury to play at Arizona. The Ducks led the Wildcats 8-7 when Dixon attempted to juke linebacker Dane Krogstad. Dixon crumpled, his left ACL gone. The dispirited Ducks lost 34-24. Goodbye, Rose Bowl. So long, Heisman. The Ducks lost their last two regular-season games, too.

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Arizona Desert Swarm Pac-10 Rebrands with New Logo, Media Strategy in NYC

This year, officials at the Pac-10 decided to move towards a more aggressive media outreach plan and it appears to have paid off.

 

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It started with a new brand for the conference in the shape of a redesigned, sleeker, logo that encompasses a wave inside a mountain.

 

Ted Miller, Pac-10 blogger for ESPN, writes:

As I am typing this, Stewart Mandel and Andy Staples are to my left doing video for SI.com, giving their summary of the Pac-10 press conference from the W Hotel in Manhattan.

They are talking about the wide-open Pac-10 race, how the conference isn't afraid to schedule tough nonconference games, how the Pac-10 -- top-to-bottom -- might be as good as any conference in the country and how the conference seems certain to produce a leading Heisman Trophy contender.

The reason I note what these two national, non-ESPN.com writers are doing is this: Both are based on the East Coast. And both would not be doing this video together (and in coats and ties!) if the Pac-10 were again holding media day on a single afternoon inside a business-traveler hotel by LAX.

It is no accident that the conference's rebranding effort begins just a few short months before negotiating a new television contract.

The rebranding of the Pac-10 comes months before Scott and his team will sit down with television executives to hammer out the conference's new media deals. There, Scott hopes to correct an imbalance that left the Pac-10 last among the six BCS automatic-qualifying conferences in revenue. In fiscal 2009, the Pac-10 made $96.8 million. The same year, the Big Ten made $220 million. This year, the SEC distributed $209 million to its 12 member schools.

The trip out east opened the door to more national coverage but also provided four of the conference's elite quarterbacks, including Arizona's Nick Foles, an opportunity to travel to Bristol, Connecticut and visit ESPN's headquarters.

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Arizona Desert Swarm Foles to Tour ESPN HQ with Pac-10 QBs

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Nick Foles will join three other Pac-10 quarterbacks at ESPN's headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut today as part of the conference's media push to garner more national attention.

The ESPN cycle, referred to as "the car wash," is part of a Pac-10 media push designed to get the conference more national attention. The four quarterbacks will do interviews on "SportsCenter," "First Take" and "College Football Live" and make appearances on the ESPNews and ESPNU channels. They'll meet with writers from ESPN Rise, a prep sports magazine, and take part in a podcast. [...]

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Arizona Desert Swarm Meet Rob Hankins, 4-Star LB Commit from Dallas

Check out this must-read story from the Arizona Daily Star about Rob Hankins, four star linebacker commit from Dallas.

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Arizona Desert Swarm Upgrade the NCAA 11 Cover

July 13 marks the return of college football video games. I'm not just talking about the yearly release that's basically just a roster update and minor tweaking. The EA franchise is back and back in a big way.

For the last few years, the general consensus among hardcore sports gamers was that the franchise languished into mediocrity. But folks up and down will tell you NCAA 11 feels like a whole new game in many respects -- with flawless ESPN presentation integration, improved gameplay, more animations, online management integrated into dynasties, and so much more.

One major letdown of this year's game? The cover athlete. Just when we thought we finally got rid of Tim Tebow, he's immortalized on the front cover of NCAA 11. My initial reaction was to try to Photoshop the Tebow Tears from last year's SEC title game into the cover. No dice.

However, courtesy of Operation Sports' commenter, miami2005734, NCAA 11's cover received an upgrade in the form of Arizona corner, Trevin Wade. (Click here for full hi-res version.)

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