Hansen's Sunday Notebook: Hard to pinpoint Scooby's place in history

It will take at least another football season, maybe two, to put Scooby Wright’s prodigious 2014 season in proper context.

The highest compliment paid to Scooby has come from, of all people, ex-ASU quarterback Jake Plummer of the Pac-12 Networks. “If you’re a football fan, get over your hatred for the Wildcats and watch this cat play,” said Plummer. “He’s amazing.

“I find myself watching him during the whole game because the dude’s just reckless and crazy. He reminds me of Pat Tillman, a guy that played recklessly.”

Where does Scooby rank?

Just to squeeze into Arizona’s list of 10 leading defensive players now requires one to be a consensus All-American and then some. Put it this way: UA standouts of the ’60s and ’70s, Tom Nelson, Mark Arneson and Mike Dawson, all game-changers, have been surpassed by 21st century visibility, statistics, record-keeping and convenient memory.

If Scooby completes four seasons at Arizona, injury-free and productive, where would he belong on this list — my list — of Arizona’s Super 7 defensive players?

1. Ricky Hunley, 1980-83. Two-time consensus All-American. Pac-10 Defensive Player of Year, 1983. Owns the school record for career tackles, 566. He’s also the almost uncatchable leader among linebackers with 12 interceptions. His work has held up for three decades.

2. Chuck Cecil, 1984-87. Consensus All-American and Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year, 1987. Holds the school interception record, 21, and has most career tackles, 392, for a defensive back. Also blocked five field goal attempts, which now seems impossible.

3. Tedy Bruschi, 1992-95. Consensus All-American 1994 and 1995. Pac-10 Defensive Player of Year 1995. Completed his career as the NCAA’s co-career sacks leader.

4. Darryll Lewis, 1987-90. Won the Jim Thorpe Award as nation’s top defensive back in 1990. Consensus All-American and Pac-10 Defensive Player of Year. Personally won the ’90 Oregon and UCLA games with a tackle at the goal line and an interception return for a touchdown in each game’s final minute.

5. Chris McAlister, 1996-98. Unanimous All-America cornerback 1998. First-team all-conference three times. Third in school interceptions, 18. Possibly the single most talented defensive player in school history.

6. Dana Wells, 1985-88. Two-time winner of the Morris Trophy as Pac-10’s top lineman and 1988 Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year. Had 34½ tackles-for-loss in 1987-88 and helped beat Washington and ASU with last-minute sacks/fumbles in 1985 and 1988.

7. Byron Evans, 1983-86. Pac-10 Defensive Player of Year 1986. Second in school history with 552 tackles. If college football would have had the Bednarik Award (created in 1995) and the Nagurski Trophy (initiated in 1993), Evans and Hunley would have been likely winners.

How difficult is it to be included on a list like this? I couldn’t find space for Hall of Fame nose guard Rob Waldrop, Jim Thorpe Award winner Antoine Cason and three-time All-Pac-10 linebacker Lance Briggs.

Scooby’s college career is likely to continue through 2016. How high he climbs on this list, and your list, starts now.

I can’t recall many more impressive local victories in 2014 than a 94-91 Pima College’s men’s basketball triumph over undefeated and No. 16-ranked Cochise College last week in Douglas. Tucson High grad Murphy Gershman hit a three-pointer at the buzzer to win it, and scored 27 in the game. He is second in the ACCAC in scoring (24.3) and first in rebounding (12.9). Jerry Carrillo’s Apaches have been a national-level elite program for more than a decade. Two years ago, Pima was 1-21 in league play. Brian Peabody has quickly rebuilt the Aztecs with a rotation of players from Cholla, Palo Verde, Tucson, Sahuaro and Nogales high schools. Pretty impressive. Carrillo’s club had a 19-1 streak against Pima before Gershman’s game-winner.

Nick Johnson continues to get more playing time for the Houston Rockets; he played 103 minutes in six games between Nov. 29 and Dec. 11, but he shot just 5 for 24 from the field (20.8 percent). His decision to forego his final season of college eligibility seems like a very good one.

The UA’s eye-popping new basketball locker room and kitchen at McKale Center didn’t entirely zoom forward into 21st century appointments. Sean Miller had the matchless Lute Olson era cactus-and-sunset logo remade (although much smaller) and placed on the locker room wall. Well done.

Ken Burmeister, who was the ace recruiter during Olson’s formative years at McKale Center, registered his most important victory in eight years at San Antonio’s Incarnate Word University last week, beating 6-1 Nebraska in Lincoln, 74-73. Burmeister’s team, which was admitted to Division I a year ago, is now 6-1 and plays Wednesday at Grand Canyon. 

File this one under, “How did Rich Rodriguez win 10 games this season?” The Wildcats finished the regular season with a 56.8 passing completion percentage. It’s the lowest in the Pac-12 and lowest at Arizona since 2001, when the Wildcats completed 54.3percent.

Tucson’s Maddie Pothoff, the leading age-group tennis player in Southern Arizona, has made a verbal commitment to play for the Alabama Crimson Tide. Pothoff, who is home-schooled, is ranked No. 17 overall in the girls class of 2016. Alabama finished No. 6 in the nation last season. Pothoff finished third of 64 girls in a USTA Thanksgiving championship in Austin, Texas. 

Opening his first season 20-2 as coach of the Golden State Warriors, Steve Kerr isn’t in foreign basketball territory. Arizona opened 20-1 in Kerr’s senior season, 1987-88; the Chicago Bulls were 23-2 in 1995-96 and 17-1 in 1996-97 when he was the Bulls’ designated perimeter shooter. Kerr last week told Bay Area reporters he spent two days in the summer with Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll, discussing coaching philosophies. It is working. 

Tom Wiedenbauer was a seventh-round draft pick, a quarterback-outfielder-pitcher from Sahuaro High School in 1977 who went on to play 636 minor-league baseball games and just four in MLB, with the Houston Astros in 1979. Wiedenbauer received (and earned) the award of his baseball life last week in the winter meetings in San Diego. He was named 2014 recipient of the Coolbaugh Trophy, which is presented annually to the top coach/instructor in all of minor-league baseball. Wiedenbauer is now the Cleveland Indians minor-league field coordinator, in which he oversees player development and direction. Before that, he spent 35 years in the Astros organization — he played for the Tucson Toros in 1980-82 — as a coach, manager, scout and field coordinator. If someone ever did a “Bull Durham II” movie, Wiedenbauer’s career would be a compelling story. 

In Oregon State’s brief search for a football coach last week, it interviewed Tucson High grad Osia Lewis, who played linebacker for the Beavers from 1982-85. Lewis, now the defensive line coach at San Diego State, has also coached at Illinois, New Mexico and UTEP. He is the younger brother of former Tucson High Parade All-America defensive end Marvin Lewis. 

Tucsonan Lawi Lalang will be in Phoenix on Wednesday, one of three finalists for the Bowerman Award, the Heisman Trophy for track and field. Lalang, who completed his UA eligibility in June, won the NCAA 5,000-meter championship and set the collegiate record in the indoor mile in March. He defeated his main competitor for the Bowerman, Oregon’s Edward Cheserek, in an epic finish in the 5,000 meters at Oregon’s Hayward Field. Lalang should’ve won the award last year, but that’s a long story. The national convention of the NCAA track and field coaches is being held in Phoenix this week.

Salpointe Catholic defensive lineman Justin Holt, who is likely to be Southern Arizona’s leading football recruit in 2015, is now being recruited by Colorado assistant coach Gary Bernardi, who was an assistant coach at Arizona at the time Julius Holt, Justin’s father, was a starting lineman for the Wildcats. Boise State last week had a recruiter on campus to evaluate Holt and invited him to BSU’s “Junior Day” on Feb. 22. 

Boise State director of basketball operations Jeremy Harden, a former Tucson High and Pima College standout, had a mini-reunion with ex-Tucson High and PCC star Shakir Smith last week in Boise. The Broncos beat Smith’s Adams State club 78-49; Smith scored 11. He leads Adams State with a 16.8 average.

Since Greg Byrne committed about $600,000 annually to pay for a morning brunch for Arizona athletes, the school has served 18,300 brunches since school began. Byrne even included the cheerleaders in the plan (they consumed 1,327 meals). Here’s how to get a grip on what it costs to operate a full athletic department: The UA’s men’s and women’s track and field teams have eaten 4,582 brunches since school started. That’s part of the reason why the Pac-12 football championship game is being played at Santa Clara’s Levi Stadium and not at an on-campus site: The revenue from that contract helps to pay for those brunches.

Lost among the Scooby Wright Across America Awards Tour last week was the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame banquet in New York City. Arizona freshman QB Zach Werlinger was honored for his scholar-athlete achievements at Chandler’s Basha High School. The banquet brought together his grandfather, Dick Ryan, who was the high school coach of Hall of Fame inductee Mike Bellotti in Ygnacio Valley, Calif. Bellotti is a former head coach at Oregon. 

Another reunion: Adia Barnes, who is probably the leading women’s basketball player in Arizona history, part of a long run of excellence under ex-UA coach Joan Bonvicini, coached against and helped to beat Bonvincini’s Seattle U. team 102-69 last week in Seattle. Barnes is now an assistant coach at Washington, and for six years has been a broadcaster/analyst for Fox Sports Northwest. Bonvicini is 72-91 in her sixth season at Seattle. 

How do you beat this camp for baseball expertise: Cleveland Indians manager Terry Francona, Arizona Diamondbacks manager Chip Hale and ex-major leaguers Jack Howell and George Arias are among the instructors at the third Hills Pro Camp next Saturday and Sunday at Mehl Park for boys aged 8-17. Information: Blake Eager, 481-5792.  

The Arizona Interscholastic Association last week decreed that all future playoff games, in all sports, will be played on neutral fields to help lower costs.

Translation: About 90 percent of those games will be played in Phoenix in an attempt to reduce rental costs and security fees.

The result will impact Tucsonans more than anyone else. Fewer students, family members and friends will attend games. The home-field advantage will lie with those from the greater Phoenix area.

One day this century, sooner or later, forward-thinking Tucson administrators will break away in some form and develop their own group, the Tucson Interscholastic Association.

It can then play city championships before large crowds in Tucson, at a complex (or complexes) yet to be built, and perhaps agree to play Phoenix’s champions on a rotating home-and-home basis.

The unending growth of Phoenix-area schools has made the job of effectively administering to an entire state almost impossible for the financially-strained AIA.

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