• Jim Nintzel

The bulls seemed to get the best of the cowboys yesterday afternoon at Tucson's Fiesta de los Vaqueros. The rodeo continues through next Sunday. You can get the scoop on Thursday's parade here and the rest of the rodeo schedule here.

More photos after the jump.

Arizona received a double overtime thriller for its 101st birthday Friday night between in-state rivals No. 4 Arizona and ASU ending in controversy and the Wildcats' second loss of the season.

In the last minute of regulation, Arizona's T.J. McConnell drove into the middle of the key and floated up a lay-up that was rejected by Jordan Bachynski. ASU point guard Jahii Carson got the loose ball and dunked it giving ASU a three point lead with 0.5 seconds left in 2OT.

ASU rushed the court like they won their first game all season, while many others were waiting for the referees to call a double technical foul on ASU.

One for Carson hanging on the rim after his dunk and taunting the fans. The other for ASU prematurely rushing the court while their was still time on the clock. Instead the referees didn't even play out the 0.5 seconds and called the game, 69-66.

Now even the refs have admitted that it was a bad call. From ESPN:

A Pac-12 conference official told ESPN.com Sunday night that the officials handed in their standard review of the game and conceded that a call should have made on the play. The conference official said coordinator of officials Bobby Dibler asks for a review of each game and the results of the report came from standard operating procedure.

At least until Wednesday's game against Utah, Wildcat fans are left wondering what if.

• US Weekly
• Jamie Anderson, U.S. gold medalist in snowboarding and avid Tinder user

The smartphone-based matchmaking app known as Tinder has its fair share of both proponents (i.e., those who've scored a hookup or 12 out of it) and critics (including those who rack up nothing but "nopes" from other users, as well as prudes in general), but there's no denying its popularity since some bros from USC came up with it.

It's something we here at Weekly World Central have attempted to chronicle from a local standpoint, though our attempts to do so didn't go so well.

But Tinder seems to have found itself a gold mine of willing participants, so to speak, in the form of the young, strapping and (apparently) uninhibited athletes living in the Olympic Village at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.

According to US Weekly — by far the gold standard of Olympic coverage and hookup news — the use of Tinder is so rampant among athletes it's been described as "next level" by the likes of Jamie Anderson, the recently crowned (and quite hot) gold medalist in women's slopestyle snowboarding.

This shouldn't really be a surprise, considering the stories that come out of the Olympic villages every two years about the abundant supply of condoms available to athletes looking for pre-event stress relief or post-competition celebration. Heck, during the Summer Games in London in 2012 there were event reports of "rogue condoms" that weren't officially sanctioned because they were branded by non-approved companies ... like the awesomely named Kangaroo Condoms for the "gland down under."

All of this leaves one question: do Olympic athletes rate each other's ... performance on a scale of 1 to 10, or is it on a medal system? And, if the latter, what rates a bronze-medal effort?

• Jim Nintzel

Yesterday's 76-54 win over Oregon State delivered a confidence boost to the Arizona Wildcats, following their first loss of the season, the season-ending injury to Brandon Ashley and the recent trouble the team has had with free throws.

This week, the Cats—now 23-1 overall and 10-1 in the conference—are going up the road for a Valentine's Day date with Arizona State. Tip off is 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 14 and you can catch the game on ESPN.

After the jump: Some photos from yesterday's game.

Who didn't see this coming ... ?

Chihuahuas play Reno Aces in PCL series @ Kino Stadium April 11 - 14 while construction gets completed in El Paso. More details to follow.
— Mike Feder (@MikeFeder) February 7, 2014

Owners of the El Paso Chihuahuas, the team formerly known as the (but hardly supported by us here in) Tucson Padres, announced Friday morning that stadium construction delays have forced the Triple-A baseball team to play its first 2014 games in Tucson.

An existing rider in the old lease agreement between the Padres and Pima County allowed for the franchise to still play games at Kino Stadium in 2014, if need be. As a result, Tucson will play host to the team it ignored for four games from April 11-14.

Ironically, those games will be against the Reno Aces, the team that used to be the Tucson Sidewinders before, well ... anyone notice a pattern here?

Chihuahuas president Alan Ledford told the El Paso Times that the stadium would be ready in time for the team's next homestand, which is set for April 28. If not, those games will be at Kino Stadium.

So will we see you tomorrow night, Bill? @BillWalton @hottunaband @leonrussell #ArizonaWildcats pic.twitter.com/Cd37jSlY8A
— Rialto Theatre (@TheRialtoTucson) January 25, 2014

As if you needed another reason to watch the Arizona men's basketball game tonight, how about this enticement: thanks to the rambling interests of former college and NBA great/color analyst/space cadet Bill Walton, our very own Rialto Theatre is going to get some love during the ESPN broadcast.

ESPN cameras spend time at the Rialto this afternoon to shoot footage of the concert venue, which drew Walton's attention a few weeks back when he was in town to work the Arizona-Colorado game. He mentioned, during one of his many random segues, that was excited to see the Rialto was playing host to jam acts Hot Tuna and Leon Russell on Jan. 25.

That prompted the Rialto to adjust their marquee, noting that the show had the "Bill Walton Seal of Approval." Walton and the ESPN folks caught wind of that, and with Walton working tonight's game against Oregon it turned into the perfect chance to promote the theater on national television, Rialto executive director Curtis McCrary said.

"We hope to get as much mileage out of this as we can," McCrary joked.

• Photo by: Debby Wong / Shutterstock.com
• Curt Schilling and wife Shonda attend the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year Awards at the IAC Building on November 30, 2010 in New York City.

It's a sad day in the world of Major League Baseball. Curt Schilling, former Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher, announced that he has been diagnosed with cancer. The ESPN baseball analyst will always have a special place in the hearts and minds of D-back fans after he helped the team defeat the New York Yankees and win the World Series in 2001.

Schilling's statement from ESPN:

“I’ve always believed life is about embracing the gifts and rising up to meet the challenges. We’ve been presented with another challenge, as I’ve recently been diagnosed with cancer. Shonda and I want to send a sincere thank you and our appreciation to those who have called and sent prayers, and we ask that if you are so inclined, to keep the Schilling family in your prayers.

“My father left me with a saying that I’ve carried my entire life and tried to pass on to our kids: ‘Tough times don’t last, tough people do.’ Over the years in Boston, the kids at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have shown us what that means. With my incredibly talented medical team I’m ready to try and win another big game. I’ve been so very blessed and I feel grateful for what God has allowed my family to have and experience, and I’ll embrace this fight just like the rest of them, with resolute faith and head on.”

- Thank you,
The Schillings

The Arizona Our Kind of Guy Day night, stylishly presented as #AZOKGDay, is going on tonight at 5:30 p.m. at the Sands Club at the Lowell-Stevens Football Facility.

Arizona Athletics tweeted a picture of the latest Wildcat football uniforms for the 2014 season. The solid jersey numbers gives the gatos a fresh look:

As announced earlier in #AZOKGDay, red and blue jersey numbers in 2014 will have solid coloring. pic.twitter.com/mXy6eXKmqP
— Arizona Football (@ArizonaFBall) February 5, 2014

As @ArizonaFBall #AZOKGDay continues, tix are still available for tonight's Night of OKGs: http://t.co/BvOwvi472E pic.twitter.com/AQwO0EP5pG
— Arizona Athletics (@AZATHLETICS) February 5, 2014

Here's more exciting pictures from the press conference earlier today:

Coming up next on #AZOKGDay, we are pleased to welcome @dennisdoddcbs on set... pic.twitter.com/WejBxrlbqv
— Arizona Football (@ArizonaFBall) February 5, 2014

Already enrolled in school, welcome RB Jonathan Haden (Upper Marlboro, Md.) to the 2014 class! #AZOKGDay #BearDown pic.twitter.com/ixnSBidpTP
— Arizona Football (@ArizonaFBall) February 5, 2014

Such an exciting day! #AZOKGDay pic.twitter.com/7zqUd0IN0z
— Alexandra McDaniel (@AlexandraM_16) February 5, 2014

Great to be on #AZOKGDAY. Thx to @im_katiee, @IzzieBella_M, @meganbouley, @ashleypradettoq & @OfficialWilbur pic.twitter.com/AmyGnNnGiC
— Greg Byrne (@Greg_Byrne) February 5, 2014

Anyone who's watched a college football game knows that officiating isn't always the most accurate of disciplines. There's nothing more frustrating when calls get blown, penalties are ignored, and both fans and coaches flip out and go apeshit over a perceived bias from what's usually an older man in a black-and-white-striped shirt with a whistle.

If you've ever watched a game officiated by Pac-12 Conference refs, then, the thought that you think you can do better must have crossed your mind. We can at least make ourselves sound a little less dumb than the league's most famous official, the now-retired Jay Stricherz, known fondly as Glasses Ref.

I finally got to the see our No. 1 Wildcats live on the court tonight. (Thanks, Curtis!) The Cats got off to a slow start and the game remained close until Arizona grabbed a double-digit lead late in the second half, but they never really seemed to be in serious peril. Not that I want to sound spoiled, but this team is such a wonderous powerhouse of talent that it was just inconceivable that this streak was going to come to an end.

So: Undefeated on the season and sitting on a 20-game win streak for the first time in school history. This week, the Cats go on the road to face Stanford on Wednesday night. Tip off is 7 p.m. and you'll find the game on ESPN2.