June 1, 2007

Moredich: Baseball Cats plenty ready to pick a fight
JOHN MOREDICH
Tucson Citizen

The 15th-ranked University of Arizona baseball team is willing to play anybody at any location.

Finding that "anybody" is tougher than it sounds.

In 2007, the Wildcats played their easiest schedule in coach Andy Lopez's six years at the helm.

With teams such as Utah Valley State, Northern Colorado and Liberty on the schedule, UA played the 42nd toughest schedule nationally.

The result is that UA (40-15) didn't get to host a regional, and was shipped to Wichita, Kan., where it will play Oral Roberts at 11 a.m. Friday.

Lopez conceded that the big names were not on the nonconference schedule, and he didn't like it one bit.

Arizona welcomes the tough teams and the hard lessons.

"Everywhere I have gone, we have tried to play the very best people we can play," Lopez said.

Arizona is not going to leave anything to chance next year. It will play one of the toughest schedules in the country.

In addition to 24 Pacific-10 Conference games, the Wildcats will face Georgia, Oklahoma State, San Diego State and Cal State Fullerton, and will be in a tournament with Texas A&M and Oklahoma.

Tough enough?

This year was an exception as UA got caught in the crossfire of the NCAA's decision to shorten the baseball season by three weeks to help out cold-climate schools.

Arizona had Texas and Alabama on the original schedule for 2007. Both programs opted out because they knew they couldn't return the games due to the new scheduling timetable.

"If we played Texas and Alabama, I'm sure that would have put us over the edge to host, but you never know," Lopez said.

Scheduling is a trick, especially for geographically challenged programs that don't have plenty of teams in their area.

Setting up midweek games is a chore.

"Are you going to get Long Beach State to come here on a Tuesday and Wednesday? No," Lopez said. "Why are they going to spend $15,000 to come here when they can get into a bus and go to Pepperdine?"

UCLA can go just down the road to play Irvine, Fullerton, Riverside, etc.

Who can Arizona face? The Wildcats and Arizona State have to get creative, and have to be willing to spend a lot of time on the road and away from school.

"It becomes a matter of who do you get? Everybody is looking for games," Lopez said. "The geographics make it tough."

In recent years, UA has played series against Fullerton, Mississippi State, Cal-Irvine, Minnesota, Notre Dame and Nebraska.

Texas, Mississippi State and Fullerton were on the 2005 slate. Fullerton, Irvine and Long Beach State were on the 2004 schedule. Minnesota, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M and Texas were played in 2003.

With the NCAA succumbing to pressure from Midwest and East teams to push back the start of practices until Feb. 1 and the earliest games to March 1 to avoid cold weather, the Wildcats have a tough time keeping the strength of schedule rating high.

The 2008 schedule will be tough, but finding strong opponents in future years may prove difficult, much to Lopez's chagrin.

"We are going to do what we can because we are not going to duck anybody," Lopez said.