Here we go again. After a surprisingly fun summer of winning Diamondbacks baseball and a lot of hope and promise for our football teams early in their seasons, we are once again faced with dark times in the local sports landscape.
↵On top of the Cardinals losing season and the ASU Sun Devils self-destructing we won't even have Steve Nash and the Suns to brighten our spirits with fancy assists and up-tempo games.
↵The Phoenix Coyotes are in fact playing hockey but there's very little buzz around that team given their never-ending ownership saga. We'll see if a new marketing campaign and the lack of NBA competition will help draw fans to Glendale, but so far weekday attendance is at Phoenix Mercury levels.
↵College basketball is starting but the Sun Devils look like they are in for a season that only the diehards will follow. Their most exciting player, freshman Jahii Carson, is still inexplicably in an NCAA academic holding pattern. It will take months of him playing incredible ball for that team to make a splash.
↵In Tucson, the Arizona Wildcats are nationally ranked but without a big star they are going to have to claw their way back into the bigger conversation. Hopefully, by March the Cats will be ready to make another tournament run. Hopefully.
↵So yeah, things look bleak on the local sports scene and that's not good for a town full of bandwagon fans who bring mixed loyalties from their previous homes.
↵But just as bad as it looks now, it can quickly turnaround. We've been here before only to be surprised by some team making an unexpected run or some player going from little-known, to must-watch. And besides, it can always be worse: We are NOT Penn State.