It’s been 19 days since Colorado Coach Tad Boyle’s shot—err, statement heard ‘round the world.

Boyle, who has led the Buffaloes to a 161-102 record in his nine-year reign in Boulder, ushered the now-infamous comments in the immediate aftermath of his team’s stunning 80-77 upset of Sean Miller’s squad—the Wildcats first (and of now, only) conference loss.

Boyle is well-known for his off-the-cuff, oft-blunt commentary and didn’t mince his words in his postgame press conference, when asked by a reporter about whether he took pleasure in beating Miller’s team, along with the USC Trojans, especially considering their place in the ongoing FBI investigation.

“Absolutely,” Boyle said. “Absolutely. It’s ironic we’re playing Arizona. I’ve got great respect for Sean Miller and the type of coach he is. They recruit very, very well. USC has recruited very, very well. The two most talented teams in our league from top to bottom are USC and Arizona. So,
hell yes there’s extra satisfaction.”

Boyle went on to praise Miller, along with USC Coach Andy Enfield, for their continued success in the Conference of Champions—but certainly didn’t contain his excitement either.

“I’ve got great respect for Sean, helluva coach. I’ve got great respect for Andy Enfield. But to answer your question: Hell yes.”

Miller, for his part, didn’t ruffle feathers when asked if he felt extra motivation to clobber Boyle like a dollar-store steak during Monday’s weekly press conference.

“My focus is just on coaching our team. …We have to be a better team this time around, more ready for the game than we were the last time,” Miller said. “And that’s my focus.”

Let the beef commence!

The airing of on-court grievances will once again be on full display at 6:30 tonight—when the 11th-ranked Wildcats (16-4, 6-1) host the Buffs (12-8, 4-4).

The blinding LED lights of McKale Center will no doubt be fixed on the two sideline fixtures, especially if Arizona has a large lead late in the contest.

Miller, who is well-known for his penchant for twisting the knife when given the chance (see last year’s UCLA kerfuffle)—may very well send a symbolic message that cuts across the court and region tonight, should Arizona have a large lead.

The motto of the night, to quote HBO’s infamous Baltimore-centered show “The Wire,” has to be: “You come at the king, you best not miss.”

How to Watch: Arizona and Colorado will face off at 6:30 p.m. tonight, with Fox Sports 1 airing the game.

How to Bet: Arizona is a 14-point favorite to beat Colorado, according to the bookies in Las Vegas. College basketball guru Ken Pomeroy gives Arizona an 88 percent chance of
winning.

Players to Watch: Colorado’s offense, which ranks 179th in points per game (74.1), is led by freshman McKinley Wright IV, senior George King and junior Namon Wright—who average 14.9, 14.2 and 11.6 points per game, respectively.

Your Weekly guide to keeping busy in the Old Pueblo.

Music to Your Ears

John Kamfonas & Eric Edberg. The Sea of Glass Center for the Arts is hosting Award-winning pianist John Kamfonas, known for his talent with improvisation and Eric Edberg, a Julliard and Peabody Conservatory-trained cellist. Spend a weekday evening watching these two powerhouses make gorgeous music. The Beer & Wine Garden will be open before, during and after the show, so you can take the edge off of your Tuesday. 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 30. Sea of Glass Center for the Arts, 330 E. Seventh St. $15 advance, $20 day-of. For adults, $12/$17 for teens 12 to 17, $4 for kids 11 and under.

Bernstein Mass! Mass, formally known as Mass: A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players and Dancers, is a big deal. Leonard Bernstein composed it, and wrote the lyrics along with Stephen Schwartz (he’s the guy who wrote Wicked, and did music and lyrics for The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Prince of Egypt). It’s loosely based on a Catholic mass, but it explodes into Broadway, avant-garde and classical styles at different times to explore the versatility of humanity’s relationship with god. This performance features the Grammy-nominated group True Concord, Baritone Jubilant Sykes, UA Dance and the Tucson Arizona Boys Chorus. 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 26 and 3 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 28. Centennial Hall, 1020 E. University Blvd. $20 to $75.

Catalina Organ Festival. Maybe they call it organ music because you can feel it through your whole body—like it’s good for your own, internal organs. There’s just something striking about hearing grandiose chords echo throughout a room, like the chapel in the Catalina United Methodist Church. The church continues their 2017/2018 organ festival with a performance by Katelyn Emerson, first-prize winner of the American Guild of Organist’s 2016 National Young Artists’ Competition and associate organist and choirmaster at the Church of the Advent in Boston. She’ll be playing works by the likes of Reinberger, Bach, Escaich, Sowerby and Litaize. 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 26. Catalina United Methodist Church, 2700 E. Speedway Blvd. $15 advance, $20 at the door.

Back in September, I promised to create a comparison of Tucson Unified scores on the 2017 state AzMERIT test with similar schools in other districts, because I was unhappy with comparisons between Tucson's district and neighboring districts with wildly different demographics. I spelled out how I planned to approach the comparison before I looked at any of the data, and I've stayed true to my basic design.

I compared elementary schools with similar racial and economic characteristics in Tucson, Sunnyside, Flowing Wells, Douglas, Nogales and Yuma. Since very few of the other districts had schools with fewer than 60 percent of their students on free or reduced lunch, I only compared schools with F/R lunch percentages of 60 percent or higher. All the districts other than Flowing Wells have a high percentage of Hispanic students.

I compared the districts' passing percentages with one another using all the schools I looked at. I also divided the schools into four groups based on the number of low income students, using the percent of students on free or reduced lunch as the measure—60-69 percent, 70-79 percent, 80-89 percent and 90-99 percent—and compared the districts' passing percentages within each of the four groups.

Here are the overall findings:

• When looking at the passing percentages of all the schools, Tucson, Douglas and Sunnyside have identical passing percentages in Language Arts. Douglas and Sunnyside have slightly higher passing percentages than Tucson in Math — by 3 and 5 percentage points. Yuma, Nogales and Flowing Wells have significantly higher passing percentages than the other three: 8-14 percent higher in Language Arts, about 10 percent higher in math.

• When looking at the schools in the four categories based on income levels, Tucson's passing percentage is significantly lower than the others in the 60-69 percent F/R lunch category. The gap between Tucson and the other districts decreases as the number of low income students increases. In the 90-99 percent category, Tucson's passing percentage is about average.

• Tucson schools have significantly more variation in their passing percentages than other districts, with schools among the lowest and highest in all four categories.

I also looked at the passing percentages for Hispanic students in the schools. The comparisons were close enough to what I found when I looked all the students that a separate analysis of Hispanic passing percentages doesn't yield significantly different results.

With beauty treatment from Red Door Beauty, art gallery tours, raffles, food and beverages, the Tucson Museum of Art's Fashion Fête kept everyone entertained last Friday, Jan. 19. Guests received complimentary gifts from Kendra Scott.

The night was inspired by their two fashion exhibitions on display, Dress Matters: Clothing as Metaphor and Desert Dweller. Alba Rojas-Sukkar, TMA's chief development officer, said they wanted to give people a chance to see the exhibition if they had not already done so. The Desert Dweller made its debut to TMA on October 21, 2017, and wrapped its run this run this weekend.

The cocktail lounge theme was designed to create a relaxed atmosphere for the guests while they explored the exhibition, according to Rojas-Sukkar. The laid-back environment gave visitors the opportunity to drink, eat and mingle.

Hi, my name is Miss Scarlett!

I am an 11-mont- old girl ready to meet the purr-fect family! I can be shy at first but can be won over with chin and ear rubs. I will make a great addition to a family that will give me ample time to adjust.

I do not have any previous experience with cats, dogs, or kids but would love to meet them through a slow introduction. Come meet me at HSSA Main Campus at 3450 N. Kelvin Blvd., or give an adoptions counselor a call at 520-327-6088, ext. 173 for more information.

Lots of Purrs,
Miss Scarlett (849875)

Even if Doug Ducey, somewhere in his heart of hearts, wanted to advocate for higher taxes or put a brake on Arizona's private school voucher programs, he couldn't. He's addicted to the massive doses of dark money he gets from the Koch brothers network, and the Kochs are for lowering taxes and dismantling public (read "government") schools, ever and always. Ducey doesn't dare mess with the supplier even if he thought it would be good for Arizona, lest his vital flow of cash dries up. Lack of supply could lead to a painful withdrawal from public life.

On January 14, Ducey went on Sunday Square Off with Brahm Resnik. It was Ducey's first time on the show since he's been governor, and it may be his last, given the tough questions Resnik threw at him about his positions on education and his political debt to the multi-billionaire Koch Brothers. Before I get to the interview, some background is in order.

Doug Ducey first made a name for himself on the national anti-tax stage in 2012 when he was state treasurer and led the fight against Proposition 204, which would have added a billion dollars to education funding by increasing the sales tax. Anyone fighting a tax hike is a friend of the Kochs, and they showed their support by putting $1.8 million into the effort. Their money was instrumental in defeating the measure. [See Note at the end for a correction.]

In 2014, Ducey was running for governor, and he wanted to make sure his Koch connection was still solid.

The Kochs don't supply all the money for candidates and causes they support. Much of it flows from a loosely connected group of fabulously wealthy people who form the Koch network. They come together during regular summits at fancy resorts to plot their strategies and offer up the money necessary to put their political plans into motion.

Ducey attended the network summit in June, 2014, along with conservative favorites like Tom Cotton, Jodi Ernst and Cory Gardner. These gatherings are very secretive. Nothing is supposed to leak out. But someone managed to record the proceedings, including Ducey's moment in the spotlight.

Ducey was introduced to the gathering as someone who "really stood up to a lot of cronyism in the business community in Arizona and led the charge against a tax hike ballot initiative" — referring, of course, to his fight against Prop 204. Ducey followed his introduction with a five minute self-congratulatory talk which let the deep pockets in the room know he was their man. He told them about himself while he stroked their oversized egos, hoping to open their pocketbooks.

"I've been coming to this conference for years," Ducey told them. In politics, he continued, "You're known for the company you keep," referring to the ultra-rich members of the network and the politicians they support. He stated that he had “confidence in the messaging we have here at the conference.”

"I can’t emphasize enough the power of organizations like this," he said as he concluded. “I’m grateful for what this conference does.” What the conference does is fund candidates, both through direct contributions and infusions of dark money. That's "the power of organizations like this" Ducey was talking about.

One of 2017’s better love stories, this sumptuously filmed romance set in Italy is a thing of beauty to look at. Lush settings, stunning locations, and two admittedly quite adorable leads in Armie Hammer and Timothee Chalamet contribute to a sweet, and heartbreaking, story by Andre Aciman (who wrote the novel), with a screenplay by James Ivory. Chalamet plays Elio, an American living in Italy with his professor father (Michael Stuhlbarg). When father takes an assistant in the form of Oliver (Hammer), Elio is smitten, and so is Oliver. They wind up having a fling that carries deep meaning for them, and for those who know them. Chalamet (who was also terrific in 2017’s Lady Bird) makes Elio so much more than a confused teen in love; this guy is really in love in a way that will affect his entire life, and the viewer feels it. Hammer continues to evolve as an actor, and this is his best work yet; he also gets high scores for his stellar dance moves whenever somebody play the Psychedelic Furs. As good as the duo are, my vote for best scene in the film goes to the underrated Stuhlbarg, who has a speech relating to his son that is an absolute showstopper. An overall sweet movie that features an end credit sequence that, well, just says it all.

The game of the season in the Pac-12 tips off tomorrow, pitting an Arizona team that looked god-awful when playing a woeful Cal team against the Brainiacs from Stanford.

The battle, which takes place at 2 p.m. on Saturday, will be the toughest in a while for Sean Miller’s club, with the Cardinal (11-8, 5-1) rolling off five straight wins, finding themselves in a tie for first place with the Wildcats.

The Cardinal, led by second-year coach Jerod Haase, feature a balanced offensive attack, spearheaded by Arizona natives Dorian Pickens and Michael Humphrey—who average 12.9 and 11.2 points per game, respectively.

Perhaps the greatest cog in the Stanford offensive machine, however, is Minnesota native Reid Travis—whose fresh-faced enthusiasm with the ball in his hands has produced a team-high 20 points per game this season, to go with 7.5 rebounds per game.

Defense might be an issue for both teams, with the Cardinal ranking 250th in Division I in points allowed (75.1), with Arizona sitting at 156th, giving up 71.4 points per game.

Miller in his weekly press conference on Monday stressed how important the Cardinals’ combo of experience and skill is, with two seniors, a junior and two freshmen in their usual starting five.

“With Stanford, they have a lot of experience, maybe the most returning experience in our conference,” Miller said. “But, I also know they've battled through a significant amount of
injuries in the non-conference season.”

Both of those tenets were on full display on Thursday, when Stanford rolled past ASU in Palo Alto, 86-77, thanks to 37 points from the combo of Travis and Pickens, to go with a Herculean effort by bench players Josh Sharma and Oscar de Silva, who scored 14 points apiece against the Sun Devils.

The Cardinal’s recent resurgence has gotten them within the top-100 of Friday’s KenPom.com rankings—up four spots from the start of the week.

Turnovers galore

A major problem for the Arizona offense of-late has been its inability to hold onto the ball—committing 21 turnovers against the Bears in Berkeley on Thursday.

The Wildcats rank 111th in the nation in turnovers per game, at 12.6, which speaks to their continued inability to effectively move the ball, and their lack of a true point guard to
guide the offense forward.

They’ll need better ballhandling from upperclassmen, like junior guard Allonzo Trier—who has committed at least two turnovers in each of his last five games, in order to escape Palo Alto with a win.

The Wildcats should get a shot in the arm on Saturday, with sophomore guard Rawle Alkins returning from a foot injury.

Miller will need Alkins and senior guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright, who had 14 points and a team-best six assists on Thursday, to be in top form at Maples—where Arizona’s conference
title dreams have died in the past.

The longtime Arizona coach expects a daylong battle in the South Bay on Saturday, given Stanford’s run of-late.

“Stanford's a good team, and seems like they're playing their best, with a lot of confidence,” Miller said. “And in fairness to them, they're healthy.”

How to Watch: Arizona and Stanford tip off at 2 p.m. on Saturday, with CBS airing the game live.

How to Bet: Vegas has Arizona as a six-point favorite over Stanford

Who to Watch: Stanford has five players averaging more than 10 points a game—Reid Travis (20.0), Dorian Pickens (12.9), Michael Humphrey (11.2), Kezie Okpala (10.9) and Daejon Davis (10.4). Perhaps the most exciting player of-late, however, has been seven-foot junior Josh Sharma, who scored 14 points against ASU on Thursday.

Tough luck kid makes comedy gold.

Whatever else Bill Cosby may have done, we owe him the unique, improbable and occasionally perilous career of Felipe Esparza.

Based on a Cosby record he loved as a child, Esparza wanted to be a comedian. It was all he could think of when a rehab counselor asked him to list five goals for his future. At 18, he’d already had the kind of life that leads inevitably to rehab, if not to jail.

But Esparza cared enough about comedy to work the next 16 years in the salt mines of comedy oblivion, plying his craft in small clubs until he could open for the likes of Gabriel Iglesias and Paul Rodriguez. In 2010, he busted out of obscurity as a winner in Last Comic Standing. He went on to produce two, hour-long comedy specials, one on Netflix and one for HBO. He’s been the spokesperson for a national Honda campaign and a national campaign for Target Mobile.

Many fans know Esparza from his recurring TV roles on The Eric Andre Show; NBC's Superstore, TruTV's World's Dumbest and Russell Simmons Presents Stand-Up at the El Rey.He now hosts a popular podcast called What’s Up Fool, on the All Things Comedy Network.

Esparza performs at the Desert Diamond Casino’s Diamond Center in Sahuarita at 8 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 27. Tickets for the age-18-and-older show are $20 to $40, available at startickets.com.

Hi, ho, Steve!

A bone-hard progressive, I expected to rant about how a farcical shadow of the Lone Ranger’s sidekick, Tonto, misrepresents our Native American friends and neighbors in Gaslight Theatre’s production The Lone Stranger. But even the magnificent equine Silver is an articulated brown cardboard affair named Steve, so it’s complicated.

I laughed, hard, with this seasoned company of fine melodramatic actors, who sing and dance with more finesse than we could expect. The word “Indian” never comes up. “Renegades” harry a wagon train with arrows for a minute, but the real villain is a greedy, rich white guy after Nell’s ranch.

"Tonka", played by the ever scene-stealing Joe Cooper, is the smartest and funniest of the bumbling cast of characters. His outfit is hardly more outlandish than others’, but I winced at his stereotypical broken English. It would be funnier if he’d learned perfect English with, say, a Swedish or Italian accent.

And if Tonka can’t have a horse, the production should at least give him a motorcycle.

Monday I wrote a post about Ducey's proposed 2018-19 budget. I got some of the facts wrong. I thought Ducey had proposed $214 million in new education spending, including $88 million to build or expand schools in Chander, Queen Creek and Tolleson. My numbers were wrong on both counts. I'm going to try and get closer to right in this post. No guarantees I'll be exactly on the money.

I tried my damndest to pull together the details of Ducey's budget proposal by reading a bunch of accounts in the media, but my damndest wasn't good enough. Better would have been to go directly to the source, the official State of Arizona Executive Budget Summary, Fiscal Year 2019. Near as I can tell, Ducey's proposal contains $190.4 million in new money for K-12 education beyond adjustments for inflation and student growth. Here's the part of the proposal listing the education numbers.

Add together the two "Initiative" lists, and you get $190.4 million.

See the item near the bottom, "$5.1 million, New School Construction"? That's the first of 25 yearly payments to cover the $88.1 million needed to build or expand three schools in Chandler, one in Queen Creek and one in Tolleson Union High district. That means every year for the next 25 years, $5.5 million for those schools will be part of the education budget.