Bryan Roy's experience in Sports Columns | 
David Bagga’s hoop dream is getting off the bench and getting a paycheck.
By BRYAN ROY
The Orange County Register
[The back story: This appeared as a "Morning Read" feature story on A1 of The Register]
David Bagga scanned the gym and saw something familiar:
Fear.
As shoes squeaked and balls bounced and grown men grunted and cursed and sweated, Bagga knew the question in the gut of every one of the 200 players trying out for a precious handful of the low-pay, high-potential spots in pro basketball’s minor league, the Development League.
The question was simple: “Am I good enough?”
Bagga has been asking so long it’s almost not worth asking anymore.
At Mater Dei, the high school basketball power in Santa Ana, Bagga was the team’s rah-rah guy.
Coaches and fans and sportswriters love rah-rah guys. Athletes – those with ambition, anyway – sometimes don’t. For Bagga, being the rah-rah guy meant he practiced and learned plays and did everything he was supposed to do. But, come game time, he spent a lot of time on the bench, jumping up and clapping and slapping butts when other kids scored.
Bagga, a shooting guard, averaged one point a game his senior year.
Somehow, it was enough.
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Bryan Roy's experience in Sports Columns |
Removing old-school cactus logo from McKale Center’s court would strip arena’s tradition dating back 22 years
By Bryan Roy
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Sean Miller came here to continue traditions.
And now that the Two Million Dollar Man inked a seven-year deal, why would Arizona opt to symbolically destroy the 22 years of history that attracted Miller to Tucson?
About 50 cameras and media members thought they had captured the transition into Arizona basketball’s next era last Thursday. As Miller took questions at his inaugural press conference, the real transition had already begun.
It happened on the floor, where the action always happens.
The east end of McKale Center’s court looked worse than Reggie Theus would’ve looked in front of the microphone.
Construction workers uprooted stacks of wood, leaving McKale’s base exposed. The barren concrete felt coated with a film of dried-up sweat and tears that had seeped through the hardwood, accumulated from players like Jason Terry, Andre Iguodala and Gilbert Arenas.
As Miller, Tucson’s newest poster child, thanked Lute Olson for attending the press conference, the Hall-of-Famer witnessed the destruction of his namesake’s floor.
The construction only paused for the 50-minute on-air period when Miller spoke, but the silence of the drills spoke volumes.
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Bryan Roy's experience in Sports Columns |
By Bryan Roy
Arizona Daily Wildcat
[The back story: Every media outlet missed this opening scene unfolding in the bathroom. It turned out to be the most symbolic point.]
INDIANAPOLIS – The media assembled in Arizona’s locker room following its blowout loss to Louisville, but unknowingly rushed past a touching scene in the team’s bathroom.
The brief exchange spoke volumes.
Unnoticed by the herd of reporters and cameramen preoccupied with player reactions, UA interim head coach Russ Pennell and his father, Dewey, quietly gave each other one last “thank you,” followed by a hug.
Both Pennells parted ways with red, teary eyes. Russ left to do his final post-game press conference as Arizona’s head coach. Dewey lingered around the locker room, absorbing the atmosphere one last time with the guys who accompanied his unusual journey during the past five months.
Tears, not because the Wildcats suffered their all-time worst loss in the NCAA Tournament, but because the ride was over.
In a season where the Wildcats used all nine lives and then some, Indianapolis ended the rocky road of 2008-09.
“I just thanked him for, you know, bringing me along basically,” said a choked up Dewey, almost unable to finish the sentence. “This really meant a lot to me. I’ve really enjoyed working with him and working with the guys. You’re around these guys and you learn to love them.”
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Bryan Roy's experience in Sports Columns |
By Bryan Roy
Arizona Daily Wildcat
[The back story: Not only did the Wildcats leave it all on the floor, but so did we after covering all six games Miami hosted that weekend.]
MIAMI – They left it all on the floor.
Every last drop of energy, drip of sweat and dab of effort – the Wildcats left it all on the floor in Miami.
No regrets. No what-ifs, should-haves or second-guesses: Those are the most painful conversations any competitive athlete must endure after losing.
And over the past two years, you’ve seen plenty of instances in which Arizona played soft or uninspired when it mattered most. You’ve seen lost potential, underachievers and heartbreakers in a gradual decline of the once-elite program.
Not this postseason. Not in Miami.
The Arizona Wildcats are in the Sweet 16.
Can you believe it?
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Bryan Roy's experience in Sports Columns |
All eyes were on Josh Lewis’ sexually explicit video his sophomore year. But after many portrayed the ex-football player as the criminal, Lewis became the victim of racism.
By Bryan Roy
Arizona Daily Wildcat
[The back story: Someone once told me you'll always remember your first death threat. Well, this was mine. I told Mom not to read the comments on this story.]
Wild pool party. Alcohol by the gallons. He’s fondling his girlfriend without much regard for those watching.
Hand up her skirt. Minding his own business. Unknowingly, he’s targeted for off-field mayhem that every athlete at every level fears the most.
From a few feet away, some complete stranger catches the scene on camera and posts the video on YouTube.com.
Within hours it’s on the popular gossip Web site TheDirty.com in a prime spot for humiliation, embarrassment and reputation homicide.
Josh Lewis, a sophomore at the time, had some explaining to do — to his friends, his family and most notably his football coach, Mike Stoops. The walk-on UA defensive end needed a few weeks to sort through the mess and clear the air filled with gossip and outrage calling for drastic discipline.
So Stoops suspended him.
“People get a kick out of other people’s mistakes and bad decisions and there’s really nothing you can do about it,” said Lewis in his first public interview now more than one year after the incident and aftermath.
Stoops and school officials tried to hush the gossip. Too late. It’s way too shocking and especially interesting because the bad guy is an Arizona defensive end.
Athletes’ misbehaviors always become a target in itself, but that’s not why he was portrayed as the bad guy.
Lewis is black. The woman is white. Outraged viewers immediately assumed it was sexual assault or rape, calling for everything from expulsion to jail time.
In fact, no charges were even pressed against Lewis.
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Bryan Roy's experience in Sports Columns |
By Bryan Roy
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Cinderella, meet Cupid.
Sure, it wasn’t love at first sight, but these Wildcats earned every last ounce of love – the hard way. They’ve trapped you back into the Big Dance, clawing their way into not only relevance, but a newfound, old-fashioned sense of excitement.
Valentine’s Day goes down as the day that made everyone believers – believers that a team’s camaraderie and chemistry can overcome the most bizarre adversities.
Valentine’s Day: the day Hollywood begins scripting its new against-all-odds sports flick – starring Russ Pennell, goatee and all.
Valentine’s Day: the day Tucson fell in love with basketball again.
Saturday morning in McKale Center, the Wildcats officially entered the building through the Zona Zoo, slappin’ high-fives and showing love to the students and fans who haven’t seen a win over UCLA since 2005.
On his way down, a fired-up UA forward Fendi Onobun put his hand on a sign that read “BELIEVE.”
He believed; he always did.
Now you do, too.
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