MediterraneanGrocery Wholesalers in Tucson, AZ

When the 12th-ranked Arizona Wildcats opes up their season with an exhibition home game against Lewis-Clark State on Friday night they will be without some of their key pieces on the court.

On Thursday, coach Tommy Lloyd said that wing Pelle Larsson is out with a sprained ankle, and he was seen wearing a boot at media day. Lloyd also said centers Oumar Ballo and Motiejus Krivas will probably sit due to being banged up and sore.

How to watch

What: Arizona men’s basketball vs. Lewis-Clark State

Where: McKale Center; Tucson, Ariz.

When: Friday 7 p.m. MT

TV: None

Streaming: Arizona Live Stream

Radio: 1290 AM

The injuries will give more playing time to some of the younger guys, but Lloyd is going to let his rotation be free for right now.

“I’m gonna let it play out and I’m not even gonna set that on the first game,” Lloyd said. “I’m gonna let it play out. From my experience every time I set it it changes. So, I’m going to kind of let it play out for me and give different guys different opportunities because I think they deserve that.”

Ballo is the lone starter returning after Arizona’s first-round exit last year in the NCAA Tournament to Princeton, but the Wildcats added of a trio of high-profile transfers and a mix of freshmen who will look to replace the production that is gone.

“The balance and depth is going to be a strength of this team,” Lloyd said.

Caleb Love transferred to UA after spending the last three seasons at North Carolina. In his junior season Love averaged 16.7 points and 2.8 assists. The senior guard will bring a scoring threat to UA as long as he stays in the system.

The backcourt for UA is loaded with talent and potential with the return of sophomore Kylan Boswell while adding the transfers of Love and Jaden Bradley and 4-star freshman KJ Lewis.

“Me, Kylan, Jaden and KJ, it’s loaded I think, one of the best backcourts in the country, If not the best,” Love said.

The other senior transfer other than Love is forward Keshad Johnson, who came from San Diego State where he played in the NCAA title game. Johnson brings a veteran voice, good rebounding and is a versatile defender that will pair nicely with Ballo in the frontcourt.

“They’re great players,” Lloyd said. “I think they both are very comfortable here and settled into leadership type roles, and I feel comfortable that they know what we’re looking for,” Lloyd said.”

This is the first of two exhibitions for the Wildcats, who host New Mexico Highlands on Oct. 30, before the season opener Nov. 6 against Morgan State at McKale Center. Arizona is +2000 to win the NCAA title this season, according to DraftKings Sportsbook, tied for the ninth-best odds of any team.

Odds/lines subject to change. T&Cs apply. See draftkings.com/sportsbook for details.

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TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — A community hub on the WestSide, the MSA Annex, is preparing to host multiple events over the weekend.

It all starts Saturday, Oct. 21, at 6 p.m.

“We have the flow for the soul dance party which is a monthly event Flam Chen puts on, but it’s also a fundraiser for the all souls procession," Carl Hanni said.

Then on Sunday, Oct. 21, the day starts with a half marathon.

“It starts at 6 a.m., we’re expecting a thousand people for that.”

But capping off the weekend, is the second annual Best 23 Miles of Mexican Food Festival featuring over 15 local Mexican restaurants in one place.

“We try to be representative, and get as much diversity," Organizer Jose Jimenez said. "I could eat Mexican 3 times a day, and different meals.”

Tickets for the event are $65, available for purchase at the door.

It includes all you can eat food from 3 - 7 p.m., and two drink tickets.

"We have great live entertainment, we have Zona Libre headlining the show and some of the students that won the mariachi contest.”

Part of the ticket price also goes to benefit the Tucson International Mariachi Concert.

Special events are happening all week long at the MSA Annex.

——Adam Klepp is a reporter for KGUN 9. At his previous station in Yuma, Adam focused on a range of local issues including the border, water rights and healthcare. He is originally from Detroit, Michigan, and attended both Loyola University Chicago and Syracuse University. Share your story ideas and important issues with Adam by emailing [email protected] or by connecting on Twitter.

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TUCSON, Ariz. — Here are this week's adoptable pets going on Jersey's Journeys to find their forever homes! They're all up for adoption at the Pima Animal Care Center.

- Olaf (#A823090) is a 9-month-old white wire-haired terrier mix. He's a friendly boy, who just wants to be loved. He's calm but playful, gentle and affectionate. He'll make a wonderful pet!

- Sandman (#A778199) is a young adult black pit mix. This sweet boy is a ball of energy, and he loves to give kisses! He came into PACC because he was hit by a car, and his front leg had to be amputated because of it. But now, he gets around beautifully, and he has no clue he's a tripod! He has been at PACC for more than a year, so it's time he found his forever home!

- Ghost Ryder, Griffen, Ghostbuster and Gremlin (#A823348-#A823351) are four gray or white and gray kittens. These four are purring machines, and they can't wait to be your best friend! They don't need to be adopted together, but PACC says it's never a bad idea to consider having two cats, so they can each have a friend!

Claire Graham is an anchor and reporter for KGUN 9. She grew up in Tucson and graduated from the University of Arizona with a degree in musical theatre. Claire spent a decade in Washington state, where she worked in journalism, met her husband and welcomed their baby boy, before moving back home. Share your story ideas and important issues with Claire by emailing [email protected] or by connecting on Facebook and Twitter.

Copyright 2023 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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The east-side eatery, at 5350 E. Broadway, closed its doors 2½ years ago — but now it’s back. Kind of.

The Monkey Burger name is no longer and the menu has 10 less burgers than it once did. The changes come as part of a collaboration with Iron John’s Brewing Company — a marriage that began in early 2020, just months before the pandemic shut down the world.

“We got in the same room together and we all just felt like we had to do something — we all came to an agreement really quickly to partner up,” says Monkey Burger’s owner Stuart Lauer. He was the burger joint’s operational director in 2011, eventually purchasing the eatery in 2014. He’s now one of the co-owners behind Iron John’s. The former Monkey Burger space is now called Iron John’s and it officially opened on Oct. 16.

Admittedly, what they had in 2020 wasn’t much of a collaboration yet — mostly just Iron John’s beers served alongside the menu loved by Monkey Burger fans. A year and a half later, owners decided to change course.

“During COVID, we realized it wasn’t worth keeping open the way it was and we wanted to do a bigger remodel,” Lauer says.

When news of the Monkey Burger closure reached the community, customers were sad — but also confused. “I had a lot of people call me thinking I got bought out or that something happened,” he says.

But the merger was a mutual aspiration. The Monkey Burger taproom was small. Iron John’s wanted to offer food. The friendship made sense.

Monkey Burger fans will notice the namesake burger still on the menu, with its two cheeses, roasted poblano, sautéed mushrooms, caramelized onion, bacon and tomatoes. The Great American is also still on the menu, just with a tweak to the sauce — it now has a green chile remoulade versus the bourbon version that was on the old menu.

There’s also an ode to Monkey Burger’s El Diablo and Madness burgers — the new burger at Iron John’s is basically a marriage of the two with a habanero aioli.

“The new chef we brought on has been putting a spin on some of the older menu items I had, which is making them better,” Lauer says.

There are talks of bringing other Monkey Burger menu items back, possibly as monthly rotations, like the South Shore burger — which had pineapple relish and a ginger barbecue glaze — in summer time.

The fourth, and final, burger at Iron John’s is a handheld with wagyu, complete with a truffle cuttlefish ink drizzle.

While burgers are no longer the frontrunner of the menu, there's a new star of the show: pizza. There are eight pies on the menu, from the classic Margherita to the Tinga pizza with chorizo and lime crema.

“We all sat down and talked about our favorite style of pizza and it was pretty unanimous that we were into the thinner Italian crust,” Lauer says. “When we did research, it was 100% — people were like, you have to get the right brick oven. If we wanted to do this, we wanted to do it right.”

“One of the big hold-ups on getting reopened was we had some pizza ovens shipped over from Italy and they got stuck in port for about six months and that delayed everything and it basically all snowballed,” Lauer says.

The Iron John’s team made the decision to add a pizza menu and slim the burger menu for a couple reasons. The price of burger meat can be unpredictable and sometimes high — and the kitchen is tight, making it hard to make as much as they wanted.

Since closing in 2021, the restaurant has also seen extensive renovations from the flooring to the booths to the patio outside — some of which was done by the Iron John’s owners themselves.

“It ties us into the space. I think it made us all closer as a partnership because the first maybe six months of it, when it was Monkey Burger just selling beer, it didn’t quite feel like we had merged yet,” Lauer says. “But once we had our hands in it, it felt like this was all of our business.”

“The waiting has been the hardest part — even more than the work,” Lauer says. “Being open and seeing people walk in the door for the first time — it felt really, really good to be back in the mix.”

Iron John’s was founded in 2014 and is now owned by four families — Lauer’s wife Elise is the head brewer. The brewery is also home to the Maracana Indoor Sports Arena at 555 E. 18th St., where the owners eventually hope to open a restaurant. Last month, the brewery’s downtown location, 222 E. Congress St., was transformed into a gin-focused bar called Juniper.

The new Broadway location is open 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday-Thursday and 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday-Saturday.

Question is: Can the Wildcats find a way to earn an official invite?

The LA Bowl announced Saturday that Gronkowksi, the oft-cartoon-like, now-retired NFL legend who played his college ball in Tucson during the Mike Stoops era, has signed a multiyear agreement to partner with the college football postseason game.

“LA Bowl hosted by Gronk” is set for Dec. 16 at SoFi Stadium and matches teams from the Mountain West and Pac-12 conferences.

Gronkowski said his dream would be if Arizona could become bowl-eligible and be the Pac-12’s pick. The Wildcats (4-3 overall, 2-2 in Pac-12 play) would need two more wins to be postseason eligible for the first time since 2017.

“The whole goal is hopefully to land the University of Arizona,” he said. “And if we can’t, there’s a lot of good teams in the Pac-12 that would be a great matchup no matter who it is.”

The four-time Super Bowl champion tight end’s attachment to the bowl game at the now 3-year-old, $5 billion-plus Inglewood, California, stadium replaces that of late-night television personality Jimmy Kimmel.

“Jimmy was a fantastic host and brought a lot of elements to the game. But it’s my turn now and I’m going to turn it up, that’s for sure,” Gronkowski said.

Gronkowski said having this bowl game named after him is, in some ways, a full-circle moment. His Arizona squad defeated BYU 31-21 in the 2008 Las Vegas Bowl, which hosted the Mountain West-Pac-12 matchup before it was relocated to Los Angeles in 2021.

Rob’s brother and UA teammate Chris Gronkowski, caught a 24-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter to give the Wildcats their first bowl victory and winning season in 10 years.

It also ended up being Rob Gronkowski’s final collegiate game for the Wildcats. He sat out the 2009 season due to back surgery before being drafted in the second round by the New England Patriots in 2010. His four Super Bowl titles during an 11-year career included three with the New England Patriots and one most recently with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2021.

Kimmel, who hosted the first two editions of the LA Bowl, had a vomiting camel — “Jimmy Camel” — as a mascot and an official sandwich as ways to keep the fans entertained.

Gronkowski didn’t mention anything about a mascot, but he did say he was coming up with a special performance either at halftime or during the game along the lines of when he performed on “The Masked Singer” in 2020.

The winning team, along with the offensive and defensive MVPs, will continue to receive their own championship belts.

The game will feature the top selection from the Mountain West and the Pac-12’s No. 5 pick after the College Football Playoff and New Year’s Six matchups are set. The Mountain West has won the past two games, including Fresno State’s 29-6 victory over Washington State last year.

Arizona’s bowl scenario flipped square around a week ago after coach Jedd Fisch’s team dismantled then-ranked Washington State, 44-6 in Pullman, Washington. But now the Wildcats have multiple intriguing possibilities for fans should they continue those winning ways.

The Pac-12 has ties to a number of bowls, including the Las Vegas Bowl, the Sun Bowl in El Paso, and the LA Bowl.

The LA Bowl’s SoFi stadium is just minutes from LAX, which is a 90-minute direct flight from Tucson International Airport. Add in the “Gronk” factor, and that likely ups the attraction for the UA and fans alike.

The Sun Bowl on Dec. 29 may not seem as glamorous as Vegas or Southern California, but, door-to-door, it’s roughly a 4½-hour drive from the UA campus.

And the Las Vegas Bowl, in the also-nearly-new Allegiant Stadium, brings intrigue of its own. Should Arizona win enough to move up the Pac-12 standings and earn a Vegas invite, the Wildcats would take the field at 5:30 (Tucson time) on Dec. 23. Conveniently, that same day, just blocks away, the No. 12 UA men’s basketball team takes on No. 10 FAU — the Panthers fresh off a Final Four trip last spring — at 1 p.m.; that’s plenty of time for UA fans to indulge in a pre-Christmas, Vegas strip double-dip.

Arizona football joining its basketball brethren in Vegas may take some work, though, with El Paso or Inglewood seeming more likely for the Wildcats at this moment.

Jon Wilner's Pac-12 Hotline has Arizona trending toward the Sun Bowl as of this week, with No. 18 USC (6-1, 4-0) penciled for the Las Vegas Bowl. The Hotline has No. 25 UCLA (4-2, 1-2) in the LA Bowl entering this weekend’s matchups.

Arizona and UCLA square off in Tucson in two weeks — a week after the Wildcats host No. 12 Oregon State at Arizona Stadium.

With 10 schools leaving the Pac-12 at the end of the 2023-24 academic calendar, the lineup for the LA Bowl for 2024 and beyond will be determined some time next year.

— The Associated Press and the Star's Brett Fera contributed to this report.

The Texas Stars kicked off the 2023 – 2024 AHL campaign getting swept at home by the Tucson Roadrunners, dropping one-goal decisions both Friday and Saturday in a season-opening back-to-back set. They would come back with an impressive 7 – 3 victory on the road against the division-rival Chicago Wolves.

Kyle McDonald recorded the team’s first goal of the new season, briefly knotting up the opening contest with Tucson at one. Logan Stankoven would later tally his first professional marker, once again drawing the contest even before Roadrunners LW and Arizona prospect Milos Kelemen scored what would end up being the game-winner halfway through the final frame.

Remi Poirier took the loss in goal for Texas, stopping 27 of 30 shots against. Former Kings third-round pick, Matt Villalta earned the win with 25 saves.

Villalta was the star Saturday night, holding Texas to just one goal despite facing 36 shots. Stankoven scored the long goal for the Stars, the talented young forward’s second of the young season. Matt Murray, not that Matt Murray, took the loss for Dallas.

After consecutive losses at home and falling behind early in both contests versus Tucson, it was imperative Texas get off to a better start on the road in Chicago. Curtis McKenzie would take care of that, opening the scoring just :39 into the game. LW Matej Blumel and Riley Damiani added goals of their own to give the Stars a three-goal lead in period one until Chicago got on the board late in the opening frame.

Mavrik Bourque, one of the organization’s top prospects, scored twice, netting his first two goals of the season. Fredrik Karlstrom and McDonald also had goals for the Stars. Poirier evened his record at 1 – 1, making 28 saves for Texas.

Through three games, the Stars presently reside in a tie for third place with the Iowa Wild in the Central, trailing Grand Rapids and Rockford in the division. Bourque and Stankoven pace the club in scoring, each with two goals and four points.

What’s Next

Texas is slated to wrap up their three-game road trip this weekend with games Saturday against the Milwaukee Admirals, before a Sunday rematch with the Wolves. Next weekend, the Stars return to the H-E-B Center in Cedar Park, TX, hosting the Manitoba Moose for a two-game set Friday and Saturday.

Opening Night Roster

Courtesy of the Texas Stars Communication staff, the following is an excerpt from the press release announcing the club’s opening night roster:

Forwards (15):

Francesco Arcuri, Oskar Back, Ben Berard, Matej Blumel, Mavrik Bourque, Nick Caamano, Riley Damiani, Fredrik Karlstrom, Keaton Mastrodonato, Kyle McDonald, Curtis McKenzie, Scott Reedy, Matthew Seminoff, Logan Stankoven, Antonio Stranges

Defensemen (8):

Gavin Bayreuther, Lian Bichsel, Artem Grushnikov, Michael Karow, Christian Kyrou, Alexander Petrovic, Derrick Pouliot, Gavin White

Goaltenders (2):

BY COUNTRY

Canada: 15, USA: 5, Sweden: 2, Czech Republic: 1, Russia: 1, Switzerland: 1

EXPERIENCE

The Stars’ 2023-24 opening night roster has a combined 2,351 regular season games of AHL experience and 800 games of NHL experience. The 23 skaters have a combined 1,276 AHL points (441 -835=1,276).

The two goaltenders have a combined record of 32-16-7 in 56 career AHL games.

Captain Curtis McKenzie is the most experienced player on the team with 523 career regular season AHL games played. His 622 professional games (including 99 NHL games) is two more than Alexander Petrovic’s 620. Petrovic has appeared in 357 regular season AHL games and 263 NHL games. The Stars have two other veteran players, including defensemen Derrick Pouliot (276 AHL games and 221 NHL games) and Gavin Bayreuther (221 AHL games and 122 NHL games). Bayreuther returns to Texas, where he started his career from 2017-2020.

The Stars return 13 players from the 2022-23 team that won the Central Division and participated in the Calder Cup Playoffs, including forwards Oskar Back, Matej Blumel, Mavrik Bourque, Nick Caamano, Riley Damiani, Fredrik Karlstrom, Curtis McKenzie, Scott Reedy and Antonio Stranges, defensemen Michael Karow and Alexander Petrovic, and goaltenders Matt Murray and Remi Poirier.

Texas also carries 10 rookies on its opening day roster, including Dallas Stars 2021 second round pick Logan Stankoven and 2022 first round pick Lian Bichsel. Of the rookies, only three have played an AHL game, including Ben Berard (2), Keaton Mastrodonato (2) and Artem Grushnikov (1). Bichsel played the last two seasons professionally in Sweden, but the remaining six have yet to make their professional debuts, including Francesco Arcuri, Christian Kyrou, Kyle McDonald, Matthew Seminoff, Stankoven and Gavin White.

SIZE

Average Height: 73 inches – 6’1″, Tallest: Bichsel (77 inches – 6’5″), Shortest: Stankoven (67 inches – 5’7″)

Average Weight: 196 pounds, Heaviest: Bichsel (225 pounds); Lightest: Stranges (168 pounds)

Average Age: 23.32, Oldest: McKenzie (32), Youngest: Bichsel, Seminoff (19)

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