Arizona
Cardinals vs Rams: Three X Factors
The Arizona Cardinals’ opener against the Buffalo Bills a week ago had mixed results.
On one hand, Kyler Murray was solid and found ways to make plays despite being under constant duress. On the flip side of the ball, the defense was bullied by Josh Allen and couldn’t help the offense when they needed the help to play catch up.
Arizona returns to State Farm Stadium for their home opener against the NFC West rival Los Angeles Rams, which will be quite the challenge.
LA has a host of Pro Bowlers on offense, including Matthew Stafford, Cooper Kupp, and Kyren Williams – all of whom have had great success against the Cardinals’ defense.
It will once again fall on Murray and the offense’s shoulders to keep the Cardinals in this game, but they’ll need the following players to have great days if they want to get the upset and their first win of the season.
Paris Johnson Jr
This Cardinals offensive line was bullied against the Bills a week ago, surrendering four sacks and constant pressure throughout 60 minutes. Things get no easier ais the Rams, who have booked edge rushers in Byron Young and first-round rookie Jared Verse, who each recorded a sack in week one’s loss to the Lions.
The duo was far from the issue in the defeat, and they will be the key on defense for LA against the Cardinals.
We, unfortunately, know what to expect from Kelvin Beachum at right tackle, but second-year man Paris Johnson Jr will have quite the task in front of him with a chance to prove himself.
A lot of pressure will be placed on Johnson, right, wrong, or indifferent. But a strong day from Johnson dramatically increases the Cardinals’ chances to get the win.
Kyzir White and Mack Wilson Sr
White (first) and Wilson (third) were two of the Cardinals’ top three tacklers from last week and they’ll once again need to put up some big numbers against the Rams.
LA has no shortage of weapons but running back Kyren Williams may be the top priority for this defense to slow down. After all, Williams ran for 301 yards on 8.4 yards per carry plus a touchdown against Arizona in two games last season.
The defensive line needs to be on their A-game, but it’ll be up to White and Wilson to contain Williams if he gets to the second level and keep him from breaking off big runs.
Sean Murphy-Bunting
Sean Murphy-Butning has the “pleasure” of covering Cooper Kupp this weekend…
If the Cardinals are smart, and I believe they will recognize this as a top priority, they will put Kupp in bracket coverage to make sure Murphy-Bunting, and his teammates aren’t covering Kupp one-on-one. There are few defensive backs in the league who can do it, so this is no insult to the veteran corner.
However, Murphy-Bunting will be likely tasked with lining up on the former Super Bowl MVP the most, and thus he’ll need to put together the best performance of his career.
Arizona
Arizona women’s tennis swept 4–0 at SMU
The UA Women’s tennis team (3-2) fell to SMU (3-1) 4-0 Saturday, Jan. 31 at the Styslinger/Altec Tennis Complex in Dallas, Texas. The match had both singles and doubles competition, with SMU winning the doubles two matches to zero and the singles three matches to zero.
Singles
In the singles play, Arizona Junior Martyna Ostrzygalo lost to Senior Gina Feistel in 2 sets, with the first set ending 6-3, and the second set ending 6-1. The second matchup saw SMU freshman Amelie Van Impe defeat Arizona’s freshman Ciara Moore in two sets, 6-4 and 6-2. The third and final matchup saw SMU’s No.46 sophomore Sophie Llewellyn take a victory against senior Danielle Tuhten, 6-0, and 6-2. Three matches were left unfinished.
Doubles
The doubles followed the same pattern. Martyna Ostrzygalo and Danielle Tuhten were beaten by Junior Caroline McGinley and Amelie Van Impe, 6-1. Then, Arizona Sophomore Maria Garcia and Ciera Moore were overwhelmed by freshman Ellie Mireles and Gina Feistel, as the match went unfinished with the score of 5-3. The third and final match saw Arizona’s junior Josie Usereau and Sophomore Stephanie Shogreen bested by SMU’s junior Natalie Stasny and Sophie Llewellyn, 6-3.
What’s next
The UA Women’s tennis team will travel to Santa Barbara to play in the University of California Santa Barbara invitational tournament.
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Arizona
3 fraternity members arrested after student’s alleged hazing death
Three members of an Arizona fraternity are facing a hazing charge in connection with the death of a student during a pledge event this weekend, police said.
Officers were called to a residence on Saturday morning to help with an unresponsive 18-year-old male, according to the Flagstaff Police Department. The young man was not breathing and bystanders had been performing CPR by the time officers arrived at the scene.
He was pronounced dead at the scene after paramedics arrived at the house, police said. Police identified the young man only as a student at Northern Arizona University.
Police said detectives executed search warrants for the residence and interviewed several witnesses, learning that there was a rush event for the Delta Tau Delta fraternity there the night before.
“Alcohol consumption was reported to have occurred by numerous individuals in attendance, including pledge candidates, which includes the deceased male,” police said.
Three members of the fraternity’s executive board were arrested and booked into jail on a charge of hazing, police said. They were identified as Ryan Creech, fraternity vice president; Carter Eslick, new member educator; and Riley Cass, treasurer.
Court records were not immediately available for the three 20-year-old fraternity members and it is unclear whether they have retained attorneys.
Northern Arizona University released a statement Saturday describing the death as a “devastating loss” to the university’s community. It also acknowledged the three arrests, saying that the death occurred at an off-campus residence associated with the Delta Tau Delta fraternity.
“We want to be clear: The safety and well-being of our students remain our highest priorities,” the university said. “Violence, hazing or any other behavior that endangers others has no place at NAU.”
The university added that it was suspending Delta Tau Delta while it conducts its own investigation regarding potential violations of university policies.
Arizona passed a law in 2022 that made hazing a criminal offense in honor of Jack Culolias, who died as a freshman at Arizona State University. Hazing resulting in death is a Class 4 felony, according to the law.
Culolias was drinking during a pledge event at Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity in 2012 when he drank so much alcohol that he eventually drowned by falling into Tempe Town Lake after he was last seen leaving a fraternity event, according to NBC affiliate KPNX.
Arizona
Bobby Hurley Discusses What Went Wrong in Loss to Arizona
TEMPE — Arizona State head coach Bobby Hurley is relatively pleased, yet not exactly thrilled with his team’s performance in what was an 87-74 loss to the top-ranked Arizona Wildcats on Saturday afternoon at Desert Financial Arena.
Hurley discussed a wide range of topics during his press conference that featured a surprising amount of praise for their rival.
Watch Hurley discuss the result of the game, reflect on the season series against Arizona, and more below.
Hurley Discusses What Went Wrong
Arizona State brought a free-flowing offense, intense on-ball defensive pressure, and well-timed shot making to the table in what resulted in a game that was tied at 38 going into the half.
The Wildcats asserted their physical dominance over the last 20 minutes of the game, which is something Hurley didn’t mince words on following the final buzzer.
“This game felt like very similar to like a mirror of our last game in Tucson, just really good first half, and then you know, whether it’s they’re just too big and physical that you know they wear you down, and eventually… the encouragement of having our defense in front of us in the first half and now down at the other end, and we just weren’t able to stand up to challenge on the interior, whether that meant, you know, stopping their drives or getting a big defensive rebound when we needed to, we still had our chances.”
There were several points in the final 10 minutes in which Arizona State had an opportunity to bring the deficit down to two possessions or less, although the Wildcats’ sheer physicality, depth, and timely shot making resulted in remaining undefeated.
The 11th-year head coach also discussed Arizona State’s shortcomings on the offensive side of the ball – including not shooting well enough to keep up with an Arizona offense that continued to fire on all cylinders.
“We didn’t shoot free throws well. think we were four for 15 on unguarded threes. So things against the team, as good as this Arizona team, is you can’t afford to do those things offensively.”
Arizona State shot 27-65 from the floor, 8-24 from behind the arc, and missed eight free throws – including ones in key moments that has potential to bridge the gap that had been built in the second half.
Hurley Discusses “Putting Things Together”
Hurley was pleased with what he saw overall in the loss, although there were areas that the team fell short in that were made an emphasis.
“It’s kind of too late to put things together, I would say. But like, more or less like, we’ve been scrappy… we’ve beaten, beaten Texas, Oklahoma, being Santa Clara, close games, fortunate to win a couple of them, we’ve kind of done as good as we can do… Now we should be able to shoot free throws better. There’s no excuse for that. There had to be two or three more rebounds that we should have gotten that we didn’t get. Maybe if you do that, it closes the gap a little bit.”
One would have an incredibly strong case to make that Arizona State would be considered a bubble team in the NCAA tournament picture at absolute worse had they prevailed against Oregon State, Colorado, and UCF.
A pair of competitive losses to Arizona, an effort that had Gonzaga sweating, and a 13-point loss to UCLA that was really only realized in the closing minutes of the game have displayed what team the Sun Devils can be, although they have yet to capitalize in capturing a season-defining triumph.
The acknowledgement that the Sun Devils were “close” to their ceiling in this game serves as a stark reminder that the team has so much potential to be a competitive one, but they have yet to fully realize it over a full 40 minute game – at least in Big 12 play.
The Sun Devils return to action on Wednesday night in a road battle against the Utah Utes.
Read more on the bold strategy that head coach Bobby Hurley employed with comments on 1/21 here, and on why Arizona State may have saved the season with the win over Cincinnati on Saturday here..
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