Editor’s Note: The following letters were taken from posts commenting on yesterday’s article “”Embarrassment”” by Roman Veytsman.

Mail:

I too anticipated the Tar Heel game. I sat down and watched a butt kicking the likes of which I have not seen a Wildcat team take in years. It is obvious to me that we are not very good. Coach Lute Olson is sure to be losing patience with the team. Turnovers are a major problem. Flashy behind-the-back passes out of bounds looked like playground ball. I think the players need to take a hard look at themselves and give the effort that coach O deserves. All good things come to an end, and I hope the streak of top 20 and NCAA Tournament runs continue. Time is short, and another loss may put us in the dreaded N(nobody)I(interested)T(tournament). Coach O, kick some butt, you have nothing to lose.

Fred Sheron

Never could I have imagined this. How many times over the last four years has Arizona started as a top-12 team only to be kicked out of the rankings (three or four). Defense has been a major problem over those years, and it’s hard to determine the source. Perhaps players like Chase Budinger just flat out can’t play defense and it’s not a fixable problem. Maybe it’s not how many stars a prep receives coming out of high school (just look at WSU). Or, maybe I’m about to commit a UA blasphemous

remark, perhaps it’s Olson. If you look at Hall of Fame coaches, at elderly ages their winning percentages have decreased in the later years (Knight and Crum for example). Bottom line: Arizona has talent, so start living up to it or else I (as an alumnus) may be able to purchase cheap season tickets some day soon.

Justin

Look at WSU? OK, they’re ranked for the first time in over 20 years. Yeah, let’s model our program after them! “”Kicked out of the rankings?”” I believe last season was the first time that they were “”kicked out”” in about a decade. Before you start criticizing the team or Olson, you should learn a few things about basketball and offer a more factual/intelligent critique. You’re batting .000 so far. Try again.

Jeff

A scary trend is starting. The UA has never been famous for its defense. But over the past few years, their defensive skills have deteriorated even further. Personally, I think it is time for Olson or someone to start identifying a successor or grooming one for when he retires. How many years does Olson have left, three to five? Is Pastner going to succeed him? Or is the UA going to get someone else with a proven track record? Before Kelvin Sampson went to Indiana, there were rumors that he would come to the UA once Olson retired, but that won’t happen. So who will it be? What about Steve Lavin?

Adam

Blog:

ASU halfway to 0-18

The ASU men’s basketball team could be making history in its first year under head coach Herb Sendek. But it’s not the kind of history teams like to make.

Only four teams have finished with a 1-17 Pacific 10 Conference record since Arizona and ASU joined the Pac-8 to make it the Pac-10 in 1978-79, but at 0-9 in what could be the strongest Pac-10 in year the Sun Devils are halfway toward becoming the first squad to ever go 0-18 in conference play.

ASU ranks No. 233 in this week’s RPI projection, 49 spots below conference-weakling Oregon State and behind basketball powers like Harvard, Yale, NAU, Portland State and Stephen F. Austin.

It’s possible that ASU will pull an upset to finish 1-17 like those four pathetic schools before them, but it’s not likely with the Sun Devils facing difficult home games against No. 5 UCLA, No. 18 Washington State, No. 20 Arizona, USC and Washington and tough road trips to the Bay Area and Oregon schools, with only the OSU game looking semi-winnable.

So as the Wildcats struggle to a sixth-place, 5-4 conference record, remember that struggling is a relative term.

Just ask Arizona’s neighbor to the north.

– Michael Schwartz

No Zoo, no problem

Cough, cough. Hgmmm. So the $8,000 for the Zona Zoo campout was going to go where? Apparently the students didn’t need much to have a rowdy but relatively safe campout, and all they had to spend was some time in the cold and buy some warm blankets. A few words of advice: don’t overcomplicate simple ideas, planning a campout isn’t like planning the Rose Parade. Here’s to hoping a possible campout against UCLA (if students still have the motivation to show up) goes just as smooth. And maybe the game will be close.

– Roman Veytsman