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Sep 24, 2023

A Few Sports Notes

Just a few quick things: After the end of the 2022 University of Arizona

Just a few quick things:

After the end of the 2022 University of Arizona softball season

(a season where first-year coach Caitlyn Lowe took the Cats to the College World Series), two of the top players on the team transferred out. Their leaving was damaging enough, but it was multiplied multiple times by the fact that their destination was Arizona's rival, UCLA.

There was never any clear explanation as to why Janelle Meoño and Sharlize Palacios left Arizona, but it certainly smacked of "the grass is always greener-ism." Although both teams were in the running for the Pac-12 title every year and were still making frequent trips to the College World Series, it was apparent that UCLA had moved ahead of Arizona as the premier program in the West, if only just slightly.

Whether they’ll admit it or not, almost all sports fans have a nasty streak of vindictiveness in them. (I know I do.) That's why it was delicious when UCLA flamed out in this year's NCAA playoffs. The Bruins were ranked second in the entire nation, behind only mega-power Oklahoma. UCLA would host one of the opening regionals. Because they were so high ranked, they were handed two sacrificial lambs — Grand Canyon University, which only recently moved up to Division 1, and scandal-ridden Liberty University from Virginia.

In a 24-hour period, those two "lambs" rose up. Each laid a bitter one-run beating on the Bruins, making UCLA the recipient of the biggest upset in the history in NCAA softball.

I shed not one tear.

The National Federation of High School Sports Associations (NFHS, leaving out several initials) has announced a huge basketball rule change that will go into effect next season. They are doing away with the much-beloved or maybe universally hated one-and-one free throw situation.

For decades, the rule has been that for the first six team fouls in a half, no free throws would be shot unless the foul was committed during a shot attempt. (Free throws were also shot for technical fouls.) On the seventh, eighth and ninth team fouls (not on a shot), the player who was fouled would shoot a one-and-one. If they made the first shot, they would get another. For the 10th foul and beyond, all free throws would be two shots.

The one-and-one created some of the most exciting and nerve-wracking moments in basketball as a team could be trailing by eight or nine points late in the game and be forced to foul. All the team in the lead would have to do is make a few free throws to ice the game, but quite often, they would choke on that front end of the one-and-one, and the game would get tighter. Then the team with the lead would biff on another front end and suddenly it's a four-point game.

That kind of drama is now officially a thing of the past. For reasons unknown or inexplicable, the NFHS now says that on the fifth foul (and every foul thereafter in a quarter) two free throws will be awarded. The foul count will reset after each quarter, keeping teams from being in the bonus situation for an entire quarter or more.

Oh yeah, the NFHS says that rule change will "reduce opportunities for rough play during rebounds." Okay.

On a very positive note, the Arizona Interscholastic Association is starting competition this coming fall in girls’ seven-on-seven flag football. I have been around high school sports for a long time, and you would be amazed at the number of girls who want to play some kind of football. California and a couple other states are also starting flag football this fall.

Unfortunately, there is only one team in Southern Arizona that will be offering the sport for its girl athletes in the inaugural season and that is Marana. Several other schools have talked about it but decided that they needed more time to implement the sport. That means that Marana will be doing a lot of traveling up to the Valley for games.

This is currently the situation for beach volleyball in the spring. It's a hugely popular sport for girls, but the only local schools to offer it are the Amphi schools (Amphi, Ironwood Ridge and Canyon Del Oro), the Marana schools (Marana and Mountain View), Cienega in the Vail District and Salpointe. Those frequent trips to Phoenix make for some serious loss of classroom time.

There are several details to be worked out since it will be in the same season as boys’ football. There will have to be synchronized practice schedules, the shared use of practice fields, and actual game times to be ironed out. It's going to be cool.

Watch for rising Tiger sophomore Malaysia Roebuck to start off as a star in the sport and just grow from there.

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