Arizona has played an aggressive and demanding road schedule in the early part of the 2016-17 campaign, with games in Hawaii, Missouri, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Tyrann Mathieu Jersey . That road grind continues Saturday when the 19th-ranked Wildcats battle Texas A&M on Saturday in the first game of the Lone Star Shootout at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.Former Southwest Conference rivals Texas and Arkansas play in the second game of the showcase.Arizona is 9-2, with both of its losses coming in neutral-site games (against Butler in the Las Vegas Invitational and against eighth-ranked Gonzaga in the Hoophall LA in Los Angeles). The Wildcats also defeated 12th-ranked Michigan State in the Armed Forces Classic in Honolulu and beat Santa Clara in Las Vegas in their other neutral-site games and even tossed in a true road game win on Dec. 10 at Missouri.The matchup with Texas A&M will mark just the second time in 15 seasons that the Wildcats will face two Southeastern Conference opponents in the same year. Arizonas 2011-12 squad faced Mississippi State in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic before playing at Florida three weeks later.Saturdays game against the Aggies will be Arizonas final game prior to the demanding Pac-12 Conference schedule.Arizona outlasted Grand Canyon 64-54 on Wednesday in Tucson as Kobi Simmons scored 13 points and Lauri Markkanen and Rawle Alkins each had 11 points and eight rebounds. All three of those players are freshmen, making Arizona one of only two programs in the nation (Auburn is the other) to have its top three scorers all be freshmen averaging at least 10 points per game.The Wildcats had 19 turnovers in the victory, with 10 of those coming from their three post players.It was a very physical, hard-fought game and it should do well to prepare us for playing Texas A&M and for the Pac-12 schedule, Arizona coach Sean Miller said after the win Wednesday. It caught us off guard for a while but our defense was really good. We took advantage of our size but our turnovers were out of control.The Wildcats have won three straight. Arizona has been ranked in the AP poll for 84 consecutive weeks, trailing only Kansas for the longest active streak in the country.We have no depth to speak of and three freshmen are playing huge roles for us, but I think we have a tough team, with some hard-nosed guys that will not back away from a challenge, Miller said. This game against Texas A&M will be another test for our team, another step in being the team we want to be.Arizona is 24-26 (.480) against current SEC institutions in program history. That 48.0 winning percentage is the second lowest versus all 32 conferences faced, trailing only the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC), against which Arizona is 2-4 (.333).Texas A&M (7-2) has also won three straight games and will be led by reigning SEC Player of the Week center Tyler Davis, who averaged 18 points and eight rebounds while shooting 73.1 percent from the field in wins over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Denver and South Carolina State last week.Both of the Aggies losses this season are to Pac-12 teams, at home to USC (65-63) and to UCLA (74-67) in the Wooden Legacy Classic in Anaheim, Calif.We match up well size-wise with Arizona, Texas A&M coach Billy Kennedy said. Arizona is big at the 3-4-5 positions, and we know that playing, and hopefully beating, a team like Arizona will help us in the long haul. Our practices have been good but we have to make shots -- they are the best defensive team weve played so far this year.Saturday will be A&Ms fourth neutral-site game of the season, having defeated Cal State Northridge and Virginia Tech at Cal State Fullertons Titan Gym and falling to then-No. 14 UCLA. It will be Texas A&Ms fourth game inside the Toyota Center (1-2).Our energy is great in practice so we just have to bring that level of intensity to the games, Davis said. We nearly kill ourselves in practice every day and we need to find a way to bring that mentality when were playing someone else.The state of Texas has not been kind to the Wildcats throughout program history. Despite a record of 4-1 (.800) in neutral-site games in Texas, Arizonas all-time record in the state is 54-75 (.419). The Wildcats last played in Texas on Dec. 19, 2014, in a 60-55 win at UTEP, which pushed Arizonas record in Texas to 3-0 under Miller. Custom Chiefs Jerseys . "It doesnt get any better than that," Giambi said. "Im speechless." The Indians are roaring toward October. Giambi belted a two-run, pinch-hit homer with two outs in the ninth inning to give Cleveland a shocking 5-4 win over the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night, keeping the Indians up with the lead pack in the AL wild-card race. Wholesale Custom Chiefs Shirts . The 17-year-old native of Marystown, N.L., pulled out of Skate Canada International last month in Saint John, N.B., with the same problem. http://www.customchiefsjersey.com/custom...arge-1756n.html . Catch all the action on TSN2 at 11pm et/8pm pt. The nine-time Big 12 champion Jayhawks are positioning themselves for another title, as they have run out to a flawless 6-0 mark in conference play thus far. LAS VEGAS -- In a matter of months, former player Murray Craven has gone from being the Montana-based golfing buddy of Bill Foley to calling Foley, the owner of the NHLs newest expansion team, his boss.The 52-year-old Craven -- who played 1,071 games for the?Detroit Red Wings, Philadelphia Flyers, Hartford Whalers, Vancouver Canucks, Chicago Blackhawks and San Jose Sharks,?collecting 759 points along the way -- was a semi-retired hockey dad and businessman before he re-entered the game with a bang. Now, he oversees the building of a new practice facility for the newly minted Vegas Golden Knights, as well as getting his first taste of being an NHL scout.I sat down with Craven -- who was officially named the 31st NHL franchises senior vice president in August -- recently to talk about how hes helping prepare the Golden Knights for their inaugural season next fall.ESPN.com: How did you end up in Montana?Murray Craven:?Im from Medicine Hat [Alberta]. Whitefish, Montana, was our vacation place. Its a ski resort. And its beautiful. Skiing in the wintertime. Great golfing and boating in the summer.?ESPN.com: How did you end up meeting Bill Foley?Craven:?Golfing. We belong to the same golf course there.ESPN.com: Whos better?Craven:?Me.ESPN.com: How many strokes do you have to give him?Craven:?Its kind of not fair. I have to give him quite a few now. He owns his own golf courses, though. He gets up there with the greens keeper and has the tees moved up to wherever its best for him. Its not a fair fight anymore.ESPN.com: Do you remember the moment Foley said, Im thinking of putting an NHL team in Las Vegas. What do you think?Craven:?I remember it distinctly. He pulled up in his boat at my dock. We were playing golf later that day. We chatted about golf and then, as he was pushing off, he said, Oh, and by the way, I think Im going to try and put a team in Las Vegas. And I said, You are out of your mind. They will never let you do it. As I walked away, I said to myself, I think hes serious about this.At that point it was just an idea, even for him. And it gained momentum and slowly picked up speed -- now were sitting here in Las Vegas.ESPN.com: At what point did you go from providing advice as a friend and former player to being part of the team?Craven:?We never talked about it that much, mostly because there was so much uncertainty about the whole thing. Everyone thinks this was kind of baked in the cake, that we were getting this thing a long, long time ago. It really wasnt like that. It was always kind of, Well kick it down the road until we get to that point.My roles always evolving, and it will continue to. But, at the same time, I need to learn the management side of the game too. Thats my goal. I obviously have to get the practice facility built, and we have some American Hockey League responsibilities to take care of, and we have to get T-Mobile [Arena] all ready. And then, in between, in order for me to be involved in the conversations, I have to know the players. My goal is to [scout] 10 games a month. Our regular scouts are going to see 20.ESPN.com: Was the scouting part of the plan for you all along?Craven:?Yeah. Ive always been on the other sside of the game. Darwin Thompson Jersey. I was always a player. Ive never ventured to the other side, really, so its all new to me. Even scouting is new to me. Its been a learning experience. We have a lot of experienced scouts. We have guys who have decades [of scouting]. So when I sit with them, Im always asking them, What are you looking at? How are you doing it? Everyone thinks, Oh, itd be easy to just go scout a game. Its not. Because you end up watching the game and not actually focusing [on scouting]. So they tutor me on how to do that. Dont try to watch two teams in one night. Focus on one team, and focus on five or six guys at first.ESPN.com: Whats Bill Foley like to work for? And did you worry about the transition from golfing pal to employee?Craven:?Its different. No doubt its different. I knew it would be. Now I work for him. I can still bug him about his golf game. I dont see him as much. Hes a busy guy. Im a busy guy. Im not worried about it, to tell you the truth. Whatever happens, happens.ESPN.com: Has the experience of doing the job been different than you thought?Craven:?No, it hasnt. There are more pieces to it than I thought. Obviously, the game has changed since I played -- especially on the analytics side. But I knew the commitment it was going to take to do it. Its seven days [a week], 365 [days a year] right now. You cannot remove yourself from it. You dont go home at night and put something else on TV. You go home at night and put whatever games are on and you watch them till youre done.ESPN.com: When you finished playing, what did you do? Did you miss hockey, or were you happy to move on?Craven:?After I was done [at the end of the 2000 season], I took a year off. And then I had it in my contract with the Sharks that I would work for them post-hockey. I worked for them in Cleveland. I would spend one week a month in Cleveland. I enjoyed that but I had a young family at the time, a newborn, my boy.So I looked at the road I was going to take and I just wasnt prepared to pay the price. I knew what the future to get into coaching would have held. A lot of buses, a lot of starting at the bottom. Coming off playing 18 years, it just wasnt in the cards for me. So I took some time off, got into some building and construction activities, commercial and residential, and I enjoyed that. And then this opportunity came along, and its great. It was the right time of my life to jump back in. Its a lot of work, though.ESPN.com: There were rumors in the early going that you might end up as the Vegas GM.Craven:?It never, ever even crossed my mind that I would be ready for that. Not a chance. I would never have said that to Bill. Or positioned myself in that manner. That would have been putting my own interests in front of everybodys. Im not that way.?ESPN.com: Whats your relationship like with GM George McPhee?Craven:?Im trying to learn from George. George is my boss. Obviously Ive got other responsibilities. Ive got to build these things. When it comes to the hockey stuff, hes my boss. Hes got the experience. I dont.? ' ' '