A quick compilation of news and notes for the Arizona Wildcats.
Men's basketball:
So the Top 10 ranking things didn't work out too well for coach Sean Miller's club. After dropping two games against USC and UCLA, the Wildcats slipped to the No. 18 squad in both the Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll.
Meanwhile, Miller perhaps showed his displeasure by nominating center Kyryl Natyazhko as the team's Pac-10 Player of the Week nominee.
Yep, that's not a mistake. Natyazhko averaged 1.0 point and 2.0 rebounds in the two losses, though he was seemingly the only player to make a difference Saturday against UCLA's interior dominance.
Football:
When Arizona thought it had snatched Duane Akina, one of the better secondary coaches in the country, out of the Texas Longhorns' hands it had to be too good to be true.
It was.
Anthony Gimino of the Tucson Citizen reports that current grad assistant Ryan Walters could be named the new secondary coach for Mike Stoops' team as early as today. That comes after Akina returned to Texas after spending only a couple weeks back in Tucson.
It's a move of extremes. Akina had spent over a decade on UA head coach Dick Tomey's staff, while Walters, as you can see here, is only a few years older than your average Wildcat undergraduate.
Softball:
Mike Candrea's team is ranked No. 3 and hold a 14-2 record, but that doesn't mean there's not work to be done.
The Wildcats went to five games over the weekend, but the biggest concern was an 8-0, run-rule shortened loss against No. 1 Georgia, who beat up on pitchers Kenzie Fowler and freshman Shelby Babcock.
Baseball:
Facing a usually-scrappy Long Beach State baseball team, Arizona took the weekend series in California. After losing its first game of the series 2-1, UA recovered to win, the first time to do so on the road since 2008.
The Wildcats had previously lost eight straight weekend home series.