Bayless ahead of his time

The day has come and passed. Jerryd Bayless officially has one NCAA Division-I basketball game under his belt. We can all exhale.

It wasn’t quite the performance that forward Chase Budinger had in his freshman home opener last year, when he scored 32 points, but it was far from gut-wrenching.

The guard Bayless scored 18 points – more than any Lumberjack – in 34 minutes during last night’s 76-69 win over NAU. And Bayless was the Wildcats’ second-leading scorer, behind Budinger (25 points).

Bayless added five assists, a block and a steal to his stats line. To make his debut more impressive, he wasn’t 100 percent healthy, playing with a torn toenail that kept him out of most of
practice Saturday.

“”It’s still a little sore, but I’m going to have to play through that until it gets better,”” Bayless said of his toe.

Said UA interim head coach Kevin O’Neill: “”Jerryd, I thought for a freshman, performed very well in his opening game. He started out a little slow, but I thought he was very good defensively. He played very hard.””

What was shocking was that freshman Jamelle Horne did not contribute to the Wildcats’ scoring, going 0-of-3 from the field in 29 minutes, after the forward scored a combined 22 points in No. 17 Arizona’s two exhibition games. But the starter did pull down five rebounds and stuffed a shot.

It was an acceptable game for Horne, defensively, and an exceptional game for Bayless all around. And this was an off-night for both. Based on how current Arizona upperclassmen played in their team’s home opener as freshmen, these two Wildcats have bright futures ahead of them.

But we all knew that already, right?

-Lance Madden
assistant sports editor

Andrews to bring sparkle to Arizona’s sidelines

This isn’t ESPN “”The Ocho.”” This is about as big time as it gets for Arizona football.

Arizona Athletics sent 70 media credentials to ESPN for tomorrow’s “”Thursday Night Football”” special, featuring No. 2 Oregon at Arizona Stadium, for all the personnel involved in producing the broadcast.

Former NFL star Doug Flutie will be in the announcer’s booth, along with “”College Gameday”” host Chris Fowler and Chris James.

But perhaps the most exciting piece of the ESPN broadcast for college students will be the one on the field: the sideline princess, Erin Andrews.

Andrews, 29, the former “”Dazzler”” (Florida basketball dancer) is known not only for her reporting skills but even more so for her striking appearance.

She’s certainly the favorite among all of ESPN’s sideline reporters not only for fans but also ESPN work associates. “”College Gameday”” analyst Kirk Herbstreit has given her the nickname “”Poopsie,”” nearly flirting with her on-air.

When covering a Florida basketball game, ESPN showed a clip of Andrews’ dancing years, and Dick Vitale said, “”She’s still a Dazzler, baby! Are you kidding me?””

In SI.com’s Extra Mustard feature on Friday, Andrews revealed that she’s received several marriage proposals from fans, but that no one has presented her with a diamond ring.

“”The big winner that does that may get the prize,”” Andrews said. “”I heard in Omaha this year that there were a couple of fans wearing shirts that said ‘Mr. Andrews.’ I didn’t get one unfortunately. I wanted one.””

-Mike Ritter
assistant sports editor