Arizona Marvelous Ideas: Sonoran Hot Reads: 1997 Arizona one of the worst National Championship teams

Not really too big of a surprise

Until another National Championship is won by the Arizona Wildcats, every team will be compared to the 1997 squad. But is that a good thing? You could argue the '97 team isn't even one of the top-five Arizona teams of all-time, and in a ranking list put together by Prediction Machine, that '97 team is the fourth-worst National Championship team ever. Only 2011 UConn, 1975 UCLA and 1950 CCNY are worse. The 1997 team went 25-9, 11-7 in the Pac-10, finishing fifth in the conference. That UConn team went 9-9 in the Big East in 2011 (8th in the conference). 1975 UCLA was pretty dominant (28-3, 12-2 Pac-8), and was John Wooden's last. The 1950 CCNY team was an interesting case. They had to win the NIT and NCAA Tournament. That seems pretty good. So maybe Arizona is really the 2nd-worst National Champion ever?

- Will next year be the year 1997 is put in the rearview? We got a glimpse at Kobi Simmons, as well as a couple other possible Arizona players in an entertaining McDonald's All-American Game

- Sean Miller offered 2016 four-star Taurean Thompson

Football

- Will Parks had a visit with the Cleveland Browns

- If football had a 68-team tournament, Arizona would have faced off against, wait for it, Boise State in the first round, and then LSU in the second round

- One of the things the Pac-12 was bad at last year was getting to the quarterback