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Commentary: Glory days: Best worst of UA sports
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Amanda Branam
staff writer
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By Amanda Branam
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Wednesday, December 7, 2005
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After 2½ years with this crazy paper, I get this space to write whatever I want.
I would love to be profound, but that's not my thing. So without further ado, here are Mandy's Marvels.
These prestigious awards cover 3½ years of Arizona sports: my favorite (and some not so much) sports-related moments, both as a sportswriter and a fan.
UA male athletes with the hottest moves
Michael Johnson, football - Johnson once took down Southern California superman Reggie Bush from behind when Bush was in a dead sprint for the end zone. So hot.
Kirk Walters, men's basketball - A 6-foot-10 white guy doing the Worm in front of thousands of people? That is performance under pressure, my friends.
Athlete I would ask if I needed a straight answer about looking fat in something
Kaity Heath, soccer - She got a red card in the Wildcats' second-round playoff game against Utah on Nov. 10 for kicking a Ute player in retaliation. She said afterward, "It was kind of obvious, too. I didn't do it discreetly." If I learned anything in college, it's to appreciate and surround yourself with people who tell it like it is, no matter what.
Favorite team to cover
Soccer team - nice, easy to talk to and hilarious. Thanks, ladies.
My favorite ASU moment
After we beat ASU 34-27 in football last season, an ASU fan pointed at me and said, in all seriousness, "See you guys in basketball season." There's idiotic, and then there's the Sun Devils. Unreal.
This year at the Arizona-ASU football game, when the person running the closed-captioning on the Jumbotron spelled our starting quarterback's last name "TWO WE TAMA." Is that the best speller ASU had?
Most fun game to be at as a fan
The football game against Wisconsin in 2004. That long rain delay with lots of drunk kids in the student section chanting, "Hell no, we won't go," standing on the steel bleachers in a lightning storm. Awesome. I would say the UCLA pounding this year, but I was in Los Angeles for a friend's wedding. Don't talk about it. I'm still trying to get past it.
The game I thought was the coolest to cover ... and then it wasn't
Arizona vs. Illinois in last season's men's hoops Elite Eight. Cool to be there, but not cool to see lots of grown guys cry after the biggest implosion of all time.
Favorite football hit
Darrell Brooks. He hit an NAU player, and when he tried to run off the field like he wasn't hurt, the guy face-planted. I'll miss watching Brooks play in person.
Best examples who violate my theory of 'Everyone gets one thing they are exceptionally good at, and if you are pretty, you don't get anything else, because that isn't fair to the rest of us'
Kim Glass and Bre Ladd, volleyball
They violate my rule all over the place. Either you are amazing at volleyball, or you can look like a model. Pick one. No one should get both. I didn't get either.
Most difficult day of doing this job
The day Shawntinice Polk died. May she rest in peace.
Most dominating performance
Alicia Hollowell's perfect game against Indiana in 2004 - She struck out every batter but one, and that one player grounded back to her and Hollowell threw her out. Complete domination.
Favorite pregame song
"In the Air Tonight," Arizona football. Did a player blurt out in some meeting, "The Phil Collins song! That would be great to warm up to!"? I must know.
Wittiest thing I ever heard at an Arizona football game
"The time is right for Levitre!"
Dumbest thing I ever heard at an Arizona football game
"We should run the option." Keep in mind, this was when Richard Kovalcheck was still our starting quarterback. That would have been more disastrous than when the Yankees moved Chuck Knoblauch to centerfield.
I'm outta here. You stay classy, Wildcats.
Thanks, Mom and Dad, for everything. To Travis, Cagney and Emily: You are the best, most fun siblings a girl could have. To Chorissa, Karen, Christine and Mychal: I miss you already.
Amanda Branam is a journalism senior. She can never be reached again at sports@wildcat.arizona.edu.
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