Sophomore named All-Pac-10, team MVP

UA sophomore tailback Mike Bell received three awards in less than 24 hours.

Bell was named to the All-Pacific 10 Conference second team yesterday, as selected in voting by the league's coaches. He was also named the team's Most Valuable Player and Most Valuable Offensive Player for the 2003 season at the UA football awards banquet Sunday night.

Bell rushed for 920 yards on 168 carries this year, an average of 5.5 yards per attempt. He could finish third in the league in rushing, depending on the success of a couple of players behind him who have bowl game appearances on the horizon. [Read article]

Think Mike Stoops was suckered into this head coaching deal? Did he fail to read the fine print? Is he is the next contestant on The UA Price is Right?

Certainly not.

While Stoops will receive $150,000 less in base salary than John Mackovic, the incentives dripping from Stoops' contract make the signing look like more of a steal than it really is.

Consider the incentives in John Mackovic's contract: [Read article]

Injuries continue to be the UA men's basketball team's biggest enemy. The most recent Wildcat to go down is junior forward Isaiah Fox.

The 6-foot-9 Fox was injured early in last Friday's 78-77 loss to the Florida Gators. After an MRI yesterday, it was discovered that Fox had suffered a meniscal tear in his left knee, which will require arthroscopic surgery today. Fox's return to the Wildcat lineup will not be determined until after the surgery to repair the tear is complete. [Read article]

The good news for the UA volleyball team is that an ESPN analyst said during the bracket announcement show that Arizona is the team that could best match up athletically with No. 1 seed Southern California.

The bad news is that the UA will probably have to match up with the Women of Troy.

No. 22 Arizona (17-14) would likely have to face USC (29-0), the undefeated defending national champions, which returned all its starters this season, if the Wildcats advance to their fifth straight Sweet 16. [Read article]

Women's hoops falls from national rankings

The UA women's basketball team dropped out of the Associated Press poll this week after losses to UC Santa Barbara and Virginia and wins over Navy and Hawaii.

The two-time defending champion Connecticut Huskies held on to the top spot, picking up all 46 first-place votes available. The top six teams - Texas, Tennessee, Duke, Texas Tech and Stanford - all held their positions, while Michigan State and Virginia Tech replaced Arizona and Notre Dame, which also dropped out of the poll. [Read article]