One last note on the Mildcats for this season, unless we get to beat them again during the Pac-10 tourney or lampoon them for an appearance in the N.I.T. Here are the Zona streaks that are likely to be crushed by the end this season:
● Eighteen straight 20-win seasons. Arizona is at 13-9, with only seven regular-season games remaining. Any losses the Wildcats suffer the rest of the way will have to be made up for in the Pac-10 Tournament or -- if they are invited -- in the NCAA tournament.
● Twenty-one straight years of winning at least 11 Pac-10 regular-season games. The Wildcats have six wins with seven games left, meaning they'll have to at least win out at home or make up the difference on a potentially treacherous trip to the Bay Area next week.
● The biggie: 21 straight NCAA tournament appearances. Common speculation figures that the Wildcats will need 19 or 20 wins or a Pac-10 tournament championship to ensure they're in. That translates into winning all five remaining home games, plus a Bay Area win or a victory in the Pac-10 tournament.
None of it figures to be easy.
Yes we are all shedding a tear over here over the sorry state of Viagra Lute who deluded himself to thinking he was somehow equivalent of John Wooden. Coach went out as a National Champion, while Viagra Lute will get forced out ("retire") from a program he built as some also ran coach from the Pac-10 whose days have past him by:● Twenty-one straight years of winning at least 11 Pac-10 regular-season games. The Wildcats have six wins with seven games left, meaning they'll have to at least win out at home or make up the difference on a potentially treacherous trip to the Bay Area next week.
● The biggie: 21 straight NCAA tournament appearances. Common speculation figures that the Wildcats will need 19 or 20 wins or a Pac-10 tournament championship to ensure they're in. That translates into winning all five remaining home games, plus a Bay Area win or a victory in the Pac-10 tournament.
None of it figures to be easy.
Lute is going to be whining away to retirement.