Quick Hitters
ASU holds off struggling Cal
BERKELEY, Calif. — Tra Holder and Remy Martin scored 13 points apiece, and No. 16 Arizona State overcame a slow start to beat California 81-73 on Saturday night.
Arizona State (15-4, 3-4 Pac-12), which began the season 12-0 to reach No. 3 in the AP Top 25, won by more than three points for the first time in conference play. Mickey Mitchell added 12 points and 11 rebounds for the Sun Devils.
The Sun Devils scored just two points in the opening 5 1/2 minutes, missing seven of their first eight shots. They led by as many as 16 points late in the first half and then regained control late after Cal got within 65-60 with just under 6 minutes left.
Titans hire Vrabel as coach
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Tennessee Titans hired Houston defensive coordinator Mike Vrabel as their new coach in a fast search that wrapped up after three interviews and just five days after firing Mike Mularkey.
The Titans announced Saturday they have agreed to terms with Vrabel. A news conference was scheduled for Monday.
Vrabel was the first person Tennessee interviewed after firing Mularkey on Monday. Mularkey, who also coached Buffalo and Jacksonville, went 21-22 and led the franchise to its first playoff victory in 14 years . This will be Vrabel’s first head coaching job after 18 years in the NFL — 14 as a player and four as a coach.
Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk said in a statement it was easy to see Vrabel’s commanding presence and relationship with general manager Jon Robinson. The GM got his start in the NFL as a scout with the New England Patriots, where Vrabel won three Super Bowls as a linebacker.
Wrestling is a different sport, and wrestlers are a different breed.
Take Cibola wrestlers, who have a hubris that is virtually nonexistent among high school athletes.
After winning back-toback AIA Division II state championships in 2014-15, the Raiders moved up from Division II to D-I to become the only team in Yuma County that year competing at the highest level in the state. Meanwhile, the Yuma Union High School District had successfully appealed to have football, volleyball, baseball, softball and basketball placed in D-III.
This is what then-senior Cibola wrestler Martin Martinez said at the onset of that season, with a real — and eventual — threat to a three-peat at stake: “A bunch of other schools are trying to drop divisions. So far, from what I’ve heard, we’re the only ones trying to move up, and that’s definitely just because of the pride we have.”
Cibola coach Mike Jankowski the same day: “Anywhere you go, state titles are very elusive. The overall level of competition in Division I, it’s up there, and that’s exactly what we wanted.”
The elusive state title in D-I has not happened yet for Jankowski’s Raiders. The D-II championships, however, were sandwiched between top-five D-I finishes from 2011-13 and 2016-17.
The culture of wrestling in Yuma is one of winning. It’s a year-long struggle, a year-long requirement to sniff success. To the untrained eye, wrestling is a brutish display of physicality that generates a Roman Colosseum-type crowd atmosphere.