Bookemdano under construction

 Attn: Readers of Bookemdanosports

My blog has been around since 2009, but it’s time for a little construction work on the author’s mind and body.

I hope to return soon as I relocate to the border so to speak to the little town of Sierra Vista, Arizona.

I’ll be back soon. Keep up the good work, Wildcats! Great sweep of USC and UCLA this past week. The NFL went as expected last week with the 49ers, the Eagles, the Chiefs and Bengals surviving.

I’ll be back soon with my own take on the world of sports, some words of wisdom and maybe some new stories  from ‘down by the border.’

Divisional playoffs set for the weekend

 National Football League

Not too many surprises during the NFL Wild Card games last week.

The big surprise, for other than Giants' fans, was the win over Minnesota by New York, and maybe a sad note for Tom Brady fans as Tampa Bay gets throttled by the Dallas Cowboys.

The Wild Card games: San Francisco 41-23 over Seattle; Jacksonville over Chargers 31-30; Bills over the Dolphins 34-31; Giants over the Vikings 31-24; Bengals over the Ravens 24-17 and the Cowboys 31-14 over Brady and the Bucs.

Next up: the Divisional round: Jacksonville at Kansas City and New York at Philadelphia on Saturday, while Sunday's games pit Cincinnati at Buffalo, while Dallas visits San Francisco.

Arizona roadkill in Eugene

 Arizona Wildcats Basketball

A 19-point loss for the Arizona Wildcats in Eugene, Oregon, today.

The Wildcats were manhandled under the basket as the Oregon Ducks won going away, 87-68.

Arizona made 24 field goals and missed 40! The Wildcats were outrebounded 42-32!

It is hard to explain this one away. Arizona's top scorer turned out to be Kylan Boswell off the bench with 15 points.

Ninth-ranked Arizona falls to 15-3 overall and 4-3 in the Pac-12 Conference.

It'll be a long flight home.

9th-ranked Arizona beats Oregon State, 86-74

Arizona Wildcats Basketball

Azuolas Tubelis and Oumar Ballo combined for 40 points and 24 rebounds as the Arizona Wildcats knocked off Oregon State in Corvallis tonight to improve to 15-2 on the season and 4-2 in the Pac-12 Conference.

The Wildcats had three players log double-doubles. Tubelis scored 25 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, while Ballo netted 15 points with 14 rebounds. Kerr Kriisa scored 13 points and dished out 11 of the Wildcats' 26 assists.

Courtney Ramey added seven assists and 11 points, and Pelle Larsson scored nine points and grabbed seven rebounds as the Wildcats shot 53.3 percent (32 of 60) from the field and were 11 of 26 from long range.

Arizona led 44-26 at the half, but the Beavers battled back in the second half and outscored the Wildcats 48-42.

And now the Oregon Ducks await the Wildcats in Eugene on Saturday. The Ducks lost to ASU tonight, 90-73. The Sun Devils led by 29 points at one point in the game. ASU improves to 14-3 overall and 5-1 in the Pac-12 Conference, while Oregon falls to 9-8 overall and 3-3 in the conference.

The Ducks were embarrassed tonight. Oregon coach Dana Altman will have his team ready on Saturday. The Wildcats and coach Tommy Lloyd will look for a sweep of the Oregon schools.

It'll be a tough game on Saturday.

Go, Wildcats!

Chiefs, Eagles await the survivors of the Wild Card games

National Football League

Playoffs

Well, it has come down to this.

The Kanas City Chiefs (14-3, first AFC West) and the Philadelphia Eagles (13-4, first NFC East) await the survivors as the Wild Card games get underway this weekend.

In the AFC, the Buffalo Bills (13-3) will host the Miami Dolphins (9-8), the Cincinnati Bengals (12-4) will take on the Baltimore Ravens (10-7), and Jacksonville (9-8) will host the LA Chargers (10-7).

In the NFC, San Francisco (13-4) will host Seattle (9-8), Minnesota (13-4) will take on the New York Giants (9-7-1), and Tampa Bay (8-9) will host Dallas (12-5),

The other 18 teams will await next season.

Looking for some good games this weekend. The college national title game was a thud as Georgia rolled over TCU, 65-7, last week. By the fourth quarter, most football fans were scrambling for something to watch on the tube.

It should be a different story come Saturday afternoon when the 49ers lock horns with Seattle and end on Monday night with the Dallas-Tampa Bay game. 

   

Washington State unleashes 'perfect plan' to beat Wildcats at McKale

 Arizona Wildcats Basketball

Washington State came up with the 'perfect plan' to hand second-year coach Tommy Lloyd his first loss at McKale Center today.

The plan: force fifth-ranked Arizona to hit from the outside and pray the Wildcats will throw up some bricks. 

Mission accomplished. The Cougars win, 74-61.

Arizona made just 4 of 25 from 3-point range, and the Wildcats' inability to score from the outside filtered all the way to the charity stripe as they missed 11 free throws on their home court. Bottom line: Arizona was a dismal 20 of 63 on field goal attempts and spent the entire afternoon trying to catch the Cougars.

The Wildcats, averaging 87 points a game, scored 27 points in the first half and only 34 in the second half, with Azoulas Tubelis answering the call for Arizona with 29 points and 14 rebounds.

Arizona falls to 14-2 overall and 3-2 in the Pac-12 Conference.

   

Joe O top TOTS hitter in 2022 with 200 hits

 Tucson Old Timers (TOTS)

60-and-over baseball

Year-end batting stats for 2022

Make no mistake about it the 60-and-over Tucson Old Timers can hit a baseball.

Forty-five players combined for over 3,000 hits in 2022 at Udall Park and finished with a team batting average of .393.

Leading the way in 2022 was  72-year-old Joe Opocensky --better known as Opie to some and the Big O to others -- finished with 200 hits. He officially batted 362 times in 103 games for a .552 average. The Big O (photo below) banged out 41 doubles during the year, also the best on the ball club.

Opocensky also edged out Reed Palmer, 66, for the most RBI with 129. Palmer knocked in 128 runs and led the club in home runs with 11, while Thunder Tim Tolson was third in runs-batted-in with 122.

Mike Dawson played 115 games and finished with the most runs scored with 114.

Mark Rupert and Brack Whitaker played in the most games with 118 apiece. Rupert topped the club in at-bats with 418.

Other notable players with 100 hits or more included Tolson (188), Dawson (171), Rupert (147), John Cooke (143), Palmer (135), John Mathews (132), Mike Steele (125), Bob Daliege (116), Jesse Ochoa (108), Ken Nebesny (105), and Ernesto Escala (101).

Three players joined the 75-and-over group last winter. David Byars, who turned 75 on December 11, 2022, finished with a batting average of .263 (73 for 278 in 88 games); Bill Mishler turned 75 on October 14, 2022, and ended up with a batting average of .157 (17 for 108 in 72 games), while Rob Morse turned 75 on December 19, 2022 and finished with a batting average of .109 (21 for 192 in 72 games). Danny Pigpen Price, 77, played in the most games (96) in the 75-and-over group and went 58 for 263, a .221 average.

Leading the winter visitors in 2022 were Arnie White (33 games, at-bats 103, hits 19), Dick Ducklow (62 games, at-bats 186, hits 28), and Gary Cuttler, who played in 32 games in his first year with the club and went 49 for 99, a .495 batting average.

Right-hander Pete Maldonado finished the year on the mound with 19 wins and 11 losses. Dawson finished with 16 wins, Palmer had 14 wins, Opocensky finished with 15 wins, Escala won 12 games, and Daliege 11.

The strikeout king for the year was Opocensky with 83 K's. Opocensky logged the most innings on the year with 255, and Dawson was second with 235.

The 54th year for the club is in the books, and the players continue to get younger and younger.

Of course, a few continue to get older.

That's the way of the TOTS.

Congrats to the TOTS on a successful 2022 season.

Note: Players can obtain the printout of the stats from Mike Steele.

Arizona holds off Huskies, 70-67

Arizona Wildcats Basketball

Fasten your seatbelts, Arizona fans. The race to the finish line in the Pac-12 will be a rough ride.

Fifth-ranked Arizona watched No. 1 Purdue lose this week, No. 4  Connecticut drop two, and closer to home, saw the last unbeaten team, New Mexico, fall to Fresno State.

UCLA won by two points over USC today, and Gonzaga went to the wire before disposing of their league foe, San Francisco.

So, a 70-67 win over unranked Washington tonight at McKale Center in front of 11,000-plus Wildcat fans is simply not a shocker.

Arizona got two much-needed 3-point field goals down the stretch from Kerr Krissa and Kylan Boswell to allow enough separation with less than one minute to play to walk away with the Pac-12 Conference win to improve to 3-1 in the conference and 14-1 overall.

Azuolas Tubelis led the Wildcats with 18 points, 10 rebounds, four blocks, four assists, and three steals.

Photo: Tubelis

Opocensky top TOTS' hitter in December

Tucson Old Timers (TOTS)

60-and-over-baseball

Left-handed power hitter Joe Opocensky, 72, finished the month of December as the top hitter on the 60-and-over Tucson Old Timers (TOTS). Opocensky went 22 for 29 in eight games for a .759 batting average. He also collected three doubles and was second on the club in RBI with nine.

Gary Cuttler finished with 13 RBI to lead the club in that department and went 9 for 17, a .529 average, while Tim Tolson went 11 for 22, a .500 average, and knocked in 10 runs.

Other top hitters included Bobby Long (10 for 21), Jesse Ochoa (10 for 18), and John Mathews (10 for 21).

Glen Vann and Randy Livingston were the top two pitchers. Both pitchers logged 25 innings apiece and both finished with 2-2 records.

Forty-one players saw action at Udall Park during the month.

Photo: Opocensky