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What about sexism?

As a member of the women’s hockey team here at the UA I have been around hockey my entire life, so naturally my attention went right to an article covering my favorite sport (“”Icecats’ only black player mentored by pioneer,”” Feb. 28).

Although I was mostly excited to see an article covering hockey, I was still a little upset with the outcome. What I found most interesting were the coach’s comments. I completely agree that race has nothing to do with a player’s ability, yet I find it a little ironic that Leo Golembiewski wants no affiliation with the girls’ team.

We do not have the same privileges as the boys’ team; we do not have the same funding, we are not allowed to play in the same facility, we are not even allowed to use the same name as the Icecats, let alone promote our team at their events.

The Icers have been on their own since day one and are allowed no affiliation with the men. If he feels that racism has no place within the sporting community, why does he feel that sexism is completely acceptable, especially with today’s society?

“”I don’t judge anything other than a player’s ability,”” Golembiewski said. “”It doesn’t matter what a player’s ethnicity is. He just has to be able to play.””

Kristen Bowness

education junior

UA women’s ice hockey

Blog:

Bayless a win away from championship

Two years ago No. 1 Mountain View (Mesa) whipped No. 6 St. Mary’s (Phoenix) and star sophomore guard Jerryd Bayless to take home the Arizona 5A basketball championship.

Tomorrow Bayless, now a senior and an Arizona signee, gets his chance at revenge and his first state title when his No. 5 Knights (19-12) face off against two-time defending state champion No. 2 Mountain View (27-4) and California commit Harper Kamp at 7 p.m. at Jobing.com Arena.

With a victory, Bayless would join Mike Bibby, Richard Jefferson and Channing Frye – all former UA players currently in the NBA – who won Arizona state titles as seniors before stepping foot in Tucson.

Bayless helped the Knights take down No. 1 Desert Vista Thursday with 37 points in a game that almost didn’t happen for him, as officials changed a technical foul against Bayless in the closing minutes of the St. Mary’s quarterfinal win against Dobson into an intentional foul, saving him a suspension from the semifinal contest.

Now Bayless, the nation’s No. 9 recruit according to the recruiting Web site rivals.com, hopes to put his name among the Arizona high school legends and punctuate his career with a state championship.

This year eerily like ’97 for men’s hoops

Remember all that preseason talk of 2006-07 being the 10-year anniversary of the Arizona men’s basketball team’s only national title, how the team shouts “”Atlanta”” – the site of the 2007 Final Four – after breaking every huddle?

Although that seems to have been forgotten quicker than the idea of Jawann McClellan being this squad’s version of Jason Terry ever since the losses started to pile up in Pacific 10 Conference play, some numbers look eerily reminiscent of ’97.

Sure, there was no Pac-10 Tournament that year, but at the end of the ’97 regular season the Wildcats hit some bumps in the road on their way to stumbling to a 19-9 record, including 11-7 in the Pac-10. That was good for a fifth-place finish after getting swept at the Bay Area schools to end conference play.

This year Arizona heads into postseason play with a nearly identical 20-9 record, including 11-7 in the Pac-10. And yes, it opens Thursday’s conference tournament as the No. 5 seed after a road sweep of the Bay Area schools, the conference road trip where the Wildcats’ regular season ended during their past two Final Four runs.

The ’97 squad also started strong early against a tough non-conference schedule that included wins over North Carolina, Utah and Texas. Then those Wildcats won three games to open Pac-10 play before a sweep at the Los Angeles schools derailed them, leading to a 6-5 stretch.

This year’s version of the Wildcats opened up 12-1 and beat the likes of Nevada-Las Vegas, Louisville and Memphis. They followed by winning their first three conference games before a sweep at the L.A. schools was part of a 5-8 stretch.

And of course both teams have an impact freshman, Mike Bibby in ’97 and Chase Budinger this year.

The differences are plenty: Those Wildcats were a No. 4 seed, while this year’s version would be lucky to get that even by winning the conference tournament; 1997’s Miles Simon was academically ineligible to start the year, while this year’s stars have not missed much time.

All these parallels certainly don’t mean that’s it’s a good idea to put Arizona anywhere close to the winner’s circle when you’re filling out your NCAA Tournament bracket next week. In fact it’s all likely mere coincidence.

But then again, nobody expected any kind of run out of the ’97 Wildcats.

– Michael Schwartz