ASU quarterback Rudy Carpenter, above, has been criticized for a bad season, but his passing stats are similar to those of UA's Willie Tuitama, who is having a good season.

DAVID SANDERS / Arizona Daily Star 2007

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More than 55,000 tickets to the UA-ASU football game had been sold a few days before the Wildcats collapsed and lost to Oregon State with 10,000 empty seats at Arizona Stadium.

Tells you a lot about the priorities of the Tucson football fan. Beating ASU has always been The Big Eraser in dusty Baja Arizona, and it hasn't changed in 2008.

"Tucson is a 6-5 and 7-4 town; it's always 'we'll get 'em next year,' '' David Adams, the UA's 1986 All-Pac-10 tailback from Sunnyside High School, said last week. "The mentality seems to be 'we're one step away.' I've seen that for 20 years. Beat ASU and everything will be all right.''

Adams' Wildcat teams were 4-0 against the Sun Devils, under Larry Smith, and they discovered the most effective formula: defense. In none of those four games did the Sun Devils score more than 17 points.

It wouldn't be something new if a mediocre 5-6 ASU team won in Tucson. The Sun Devils won in Tucson with game-day records of 5-5 in 1992, 5-5 in 2000, 7-5 in 2002 and 6-5 in 2006.

ASU and Arizona are virtually the same team this year. Both beat up on awful Pac-10 opponents Washington, Wazzu and UCLA. Both lost to bad mid-major teams (Arizona to New Mexico and ASU to UNLV). The difference is that ASU lost to a national power, Georgia, in nonconference action, while Arizona built a margin for error playing against Toledo.

Sun Devil quarterback Rudy Carpenter has been harshly criticized for having a bad season. But, strangely, his passing numbers are almost identical to those of Arizona's Willie Tuitama, who, in general, has been judged to have played well.

Tuitama is 210 for 327 with seven interceptions, 19 touchdowns and 2,479 yards.

Carpenter is 200 for 320 with eight interceptions, 15 touchdowns and 2,369 yards.

In this rivalry, one team's "bad'' is another team's "good.''

By Saturday night, the tension at Arizona Stadium will be thick. It will be the most important game Mike Stoops has ever coached. The "we'll get 'em next year'' philosophy won't apply.

Tucsonan Sara Brown enters the final stage of the LPGA qualifying school Wednesday in Florida. She then returns home to help stage the LPGA Girls Golf Club of Tucson's "Super Girls Golf Day'' on Dec. 14 at Randolph Park from noon to 3 p.m. Girls aged 7-17 are invited to the clinic; there is no charge. Information: girlsgolfof tucson.org. … Sabino High grad John Bannister, who has made a strong recovery from Tommy John arm surgery, last week was added to the Texas Rangers' 40-man roster and will go to spring training with the Rangers in February. … Sad to hear that one of the top running backs in Tucson prep history, Jonas Eldridge, died of cancer in Fairfield, Calif., last week. Eldridge, 43, played collegiately at NAU and Northern Colorado. … In his junior season at Iowa State, former Sunnyside High School state champion Nick Gallick won perhaps the biggest match of his career last week. He beat defending NCAA champion John Jaggers of Ohio State 6-2 in Columbus, Ohio. Gallick is ranked No. 2 nationally at 141 pounds. … Chris Brown, a Salpointe grad, closed a terrific college soccer career in the NCAA tournament last week. He was one of two UMass players to start all 21 games for the defending College Soccer Cup finalists. Brown's Minutemen lost to Harvard in the NCAA first-rounder.

Flowing Wells High School girls basketball coach Michael Perkins led the Caballeros to a superb 33-1 record and the state 4A-I championship earlier this year. His five starters graduated or transferred. Now Perkins is learning how difficult it is to repeat. His young team was beaten 89-6 by defending 5A-I champ Gilbert Highlands last week; the Cabs scored just one point the entire second half. It was reminiscent of Flowing Wells' 101-13 victory over Desert View last season. … Tucson auto racer Jamie Slone will be featured in the Discovery Channel's "Why We Race — The Mustang Challenge" reality series. It debuts next Sunday at 6 p.m. for three consecutive Sundays. Slone was second nationally in the 2008 Mustang Challenge; he closes out the 2008 racing season in the 25-hour endurance race at Thunderhill Raceway Park in Willows, Calif., next weekend. ... Former UA athletic director Cedric Dempsey and his wife, June, were fortunate to depart India before last week's brutal terror attacks. The Dempsey's had been on an extended vacation in India and Africa and had stayed at one of the hotels victimized in the bloody terrorist attacks. While on a cruise near India, Dempsey was also in the area in which pirates and commandos seized a freighter. Not all of his trip was in harm's way. The Dempseys visited the Taj Mahal, took yoga classes in the Himalayas and witnessed a Nigerian celebration of President-elect Barack Obama's victory. "We were thankful to observe the excitement in Cape Town (South Africa) as they prepare for the Soccer World Cup in 2010,'' said Dempsey, former executive director of the NCAA. "Building new hotels, airport, roads and a huge stadium. I'm always fascinated how sports can energize a community, state and country.'' The Dempseys live in San Diego.

Unless my instincts are wrong, Baylor's Scott Drew is likely to be college basketball's emerging coaching name this season. He is sure to be one of those considered when an elite program such as Arizona searches for a basketball coach.

He is the Billy Gillispie of 2008-09.

Drew signaled his arrival late Friday night in Anaheim, Calif., when his team thumped Arizona State 87-78. It was the most points a Herb Sendek team has yielded in regulation in two-plus years at ASU.

You can watch Drew and the unbeaten Bears tonight at 8:30, against 19th-ranked Wake Forest, on ESPN2. Baylor has games scheduled on ESPN-affiliated networks this season against Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. Drew's team is likely to spend the rest of the season in the Top 25 and take a record of 23-7 or thereabouts into the Big 12 tournament.

At 38, the son of former Valparaiso coach Homer Drew, Scott Drew is in his sixth year at Baylor. No team in recent history, and that includes the ongoing messes at Indiana and Arizona, were in worse shape than when Drew went to Baylor in 2003. His teams have gone 8-21, 9-19, 4-13 (the NCAA didn't allow Baylor to play non-conference games in 2006), 15-16 and 21-11.

Drew accepted a 10-year contract at Baylor in April. His salary is estimated at roughly $850,000 annually. He doesn't have the name or the history of Arizona wish-list possibilities such as John Calipari, Mark Few or Jamie Dixon, but Drew is two things they aren't: affordable and, perhaps, available.

Drew has a sideline presence and a growing reputation. He won't be at Baylor for long.

A pair of former Tucson prep standouts have made an impact at Boise State this fall. Last week, Desert View and Pima College grad Mark Sanchez was selected WAC basketball player of the week. Sanchez scored 25 points and grabbed 14 rebounds in a victory over Idaho State and is now averaging 18.5 points and 8.3 rebounds for the Broncos. … In football, former CDO linebacker Aaron Tevis completed the regular season ranked No. 11 overall in tackles for Boise State. Tevis has 27 tackles, an interception and two sacks in his redshirt freshman season. … Game of the week in high school boys basketball: Defending 5A-II state champion Ironwood Ridge plays No. 1-ranked Phoenix North on Thursday evening at IRHS. The Nighthawks, 4-0 under coach Brian Peabody, are led by 6-foot-10-inch senior center Brandon Duliakis, who is averaging 17 points and 9.3 rebounds; he was nominated to play in the McDonald's All-American Game last week. ... Thanks to determined actions by Ironwood Ridge athletic director Will Kreamer and principal Mike Bejarano, the Nighthawks won't have to play Friday's state semifinal 5A-II football game at Glendale Cactus High School. That's about three miles from opponent Peoria Centennial's campus. Kreamer and Bejarano persuaded the often short-sighted AIA to move the game to Chandler High School, which will give coach Gary Minor's team a more neutral setting.

Santa Rita High School football coach Jeff Scurran laughs when he says his 4A-II state finalists "have four players who have their driver's licenses.''

That's his way of saying a team that often starts 14 juniors and two sophomores has gone beyond his coaching staff's expectations.

The Eagles, 23-3 in Scurran's two-year tenure, are sure to be decided underdogs in Saturday's state championship game against defending champ Scottsdale Notre Dame, winner of 22 straight games.

Almost as if he cherishes it, the glass-half-full Scurran on Saturday called it "another David vs. Goliath game for sure.'' Winning in these situations is precisely how he built his dazzling career at Sabino High School and Pima Community College.