Hansen's Sunday Notebook: Angels' new analyst, Kerr had big week
- Updated
Star sports columnist Greg Hansen offers his opinion on recent sports news.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
The Big Four of the week in Tucson sports:
1. Kevin Brice, outfielder. In his junior year at Salpointe Catholic (2011), Brice hit .527. You could say he has always been on top of the numbers. He accepted a scholarship to NCAA Division III Pomona-Pitzer, hit .398 this season and in the summer of 2014 was the MVP of the New York Collegiate Summer League, hitting .400 for the Sherrill Silversmiths.
Brice graduated from Pomoma-Pitzer last week with a degree in mathematics. One of his favorite classes was “Combinatorics.” It’s complicated. It’s about numbers.
He had planned to play professional baseball in Europe for the Brussels Kangaroos, but something else popped up. On Monday morning, the new college grad will report to work for the Los Angeles Angels. He has been hired to be part of the club’s quantitative analysis department. He’ll analyze all of the new numbers that have become an integral part of baseball: ISO, WAR, WHIP, RC27 and on and on.
And Brice won’t have to go to the minor leagues to prove himself.
2. Greg Byrne, athletic director. Because Byrne’s budget is not that of more affluent Power 5 conference ADs, he hired a women’s basketball coach, Adia Barnes, with financial restraint. He will pay her $260,000 a year, up from the $215,000 her predecessor, Niya Butts, was paid.
During the same hiring period, Colorado AD Rick George fired and hired a new women’s basketball coach for a much greater price. CU will pay new coach JR Payne $300,000 this year and up to $350,000 in the fourth year of her deal. In addition, George is paying ex-coach Linda Lappe $930,000 to go away. He also paid a search firm $40,000 to identify Payne (from Santa Clara), which is probably the biggest waste of money in college sports.
Byrne did not hire a search firm. He spent more than $1 million less than rival CU to replace a women’s basketball coach. Good move.
3. Alex Bowman, NASCAR driver. The 22-year-old Ironwood Ridge High grad spent all of 2015 driving NASCAR’s Sprint Cup circuit for Tommy Baldwin Racing. He was often described as one of the sport’s rising young stars.
But after failing to finish any higher than 16th in 35 races, the TBR team fired Bowman. It was a long offseason. Bowman didn’t race for seven months.
Finally, last week, hired by the JR Motorsports organization, Bowman was back on the track. He made the most of it; Bowman finished third in the Xfinity’s Ollie’s Bargain Outlet 200, and is scheduled to be back in the car June 4 in Pocono.
Not bad to get a second chance at a career when you’re only 22.
4. Steve Kerr, basketball coach. On Dec. 3, 1983, Kerr, a freshman guard, accompanied Arizona for a Saturday game at Providence. It was the third game of Lute Olson’s UA career. Kerr was the fourth man off the bench, shooting 1 for 6 in 24 minutes. The Friars won 72-69.
Providence also had a freshman guard breaking into college basketball that night: Billy Donovan. He played eight minutes for the Friars and made four foul shots.
On Sunday, Kerr’s Golden State Warriors will play Donovan’s Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 3 of the NBA’s Western Conference finals. Small world.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Dunagan moves back, will run Tucson Country Club
It was a good week in Tucson golf. The Tucson Country Club hired ex-UA golfer Wade Dunagan to be its general manager. Dunagan had been operating Phil Mickelson’s M Club at Chaparral Pines near Payson. Before that, he was the executive director of Tucson’s WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, and the head pro at, among others, TPC Sawgrass, TPC Starr Pass, the Omni Tucson National and the Gallery Golf Club. That’s a golf résumé like few others.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Jonathan Khan to make Canadian Golf Tour debut
Former UA and Salpointe golfer Jonathan Khan will make his debut on the Canadian Golf Tour early next month. But first he’ll have to play in the U.S. Open sectional qualifying in Vancouver, Washington. Khan shot a 4-under-par 68 Thursday at Sewailo Golf Club to win one of four spots in the U.S. Open local qualifying competition and advance. UA assistant men’s golf coach Chris Nallen just missed advancing, shooting a 71, but he appears to have recovered from back injuries that knocked him off the Web.com Tour four years ago. Nallen recently shot a 65 at Tucson Country Club. “I’ve never seen his swing any better,” said Nallen’s former UA coach, Rick LaRose. “He’s ready to go.”
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Jennie Finch goes 15-0 against Arizona State
Jennie Finch was part of UA softball teams that went 14-0 against Arizona State in her UA softball career, 1999-02. She moved that total to 15-0 on Friday when McNeese State — where she is in her second season as a volunteer coach — beat the Sun Devils 5-2 in the NCAA regionals in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Finch, married to ex-Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Casey Daigle, has three children and lives in Sulphur, Louisiana.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
UA 2016-17 nonconference schedule complete
The UA’s 2016-17 nonconference basketball home schedule is now complete. Here are the nine opponents in order of appearance: College of Idaho; Chico State; Cal State Bakersfield; Bucknell/Northern Colorado and/or Sacred Heart/Norfolk State; Texas Southern; UC Irvine; Grand Canyon; New Mexico. No, this is not an April Fool’s joke. And it’s not the schedule from 1916-17, when Pop McKale or Fred Enke or someone else coached the Wildcats. It’s so bad it doesn’t seem real.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Ohio State no longer fears Arizona
Rich Rodriguez and some of his UA coaches will take part in a satellite camp at Ohio State June 11-14. Can you imagine an ex-Michigan coach on Buckeyes turf? Clearly, the Buckeyes no longer fear RichRod, nor Arizona. Here’s what UA grad Ari Wasserman, the Ohio State beat writer for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, wrote: “Ohio State’s recruiting numbers in 2017 are clearly tight, and the prospects who will be taking the remaining spots in this year’s class are going to be the elite of the elite. Nothing against the programs attending Ohio State’s camp, but Arizona isn’t beating Ohio State out for those guys, so there’s no harm in having them around.” Times change.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Ohio State has deep, deep pockets
Ohio State has so much money, among the top five revenue producers in college athletics, that it pays its softball coach, modestly successful Kelly Kovach Schoenly, a base salary of $219,000 per year. Arizona’s Mike Candrea, who has won eight NCAA titles, has a base salary of $183,967, although he probably makes two or three times that in endorsements, clinics and camps.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Vinnie Tarantola headed to Liberty University
Vinnie Tarantola, who was a key part to Sahuaro High’s 51 baseball victories in 2013 and 2014, accepted a scholarship to Liberty University last week. Tarantola, a lefty pitcher, went 4-4 at South Mountain Community College this season in 51º innings. He visited Lynchburg, Virginia, last week to watch Liberty play Radford.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
New UA men's tennis coach reminds Byrne of baseball coach
The UA bypassed Loyola Marymount head men’s tennis coach Tom Lloyd, a former UA team captain, to hire Utah State’s 29-year-old Clancy Shields last week. “Clancy reminds me a little bit of what (baseball coach) Jay Johnson was able to do at Nevada,” said athletic director Greg Byrne. Shields, who grew up in Grand Junction, Colorado, and played at Boise State, became the Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year in 2016. If he can win in tennis at USU (my alma mater), he should be able to hold his own at Arizona. Playing in the modest Utah State indoor tennis facility, which is shared by the public, is not exactly like taking on UCLA and Stanford in the powerful Pac-12.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Pima College lands two of Tucson's best basketball players
Two of Tucson’s leading high school basketball players, Cienega’s 6-5 Isaiah Murphy and Tucson’s 5-10 Parker Trujillo, have signed to play basketball for Brian Peabody next year at Pima College. Peabody might be the busiest man in Tucson in June. He will hold five separate camps at PCC between June 3-30, for boys and girls aged 6-17. Information: 979-4946 or tucsonhoops.com.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Salpointe's Deng already collecting scholarship offers1
Salpointe sophomore-to-be wing forward Majok Deng has already been offered basketball scholarships by San Francisco and Grand Canyon. Gonzaga is interested. By the end of the July AAU sessions, it’s likely Deng will get Power 5 conference offers. He averaged 9.6 points and 6.5 rebounds as a freshman.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Pima high jumper wins NJCAA championship
Tucson athlete of the week: Pima College freshman high jumper Sam Shoultz won the NJCAA national championship last week in Texas, clearing 7 feet, 1¾ inches. Every Pac-12 school is already interested in Shoultz, who has progressed quickly under PCC jumps coach Chad Harrison.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
No more free parking at MGM Grand
The MGM Grand announced it will no longer offer free parking for the Pac-12 basketball tournament, or any event. It will charge a minimum of $8 per day. Is that the last freebie in revenue-producing college sports? Maybe the Pac-12 will pick up the parking tab. Dream on.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Pac-12 commissioner highest paid in college sports
Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott was paid $4.2 million in his compensation package of 2014-15, CBSsports.com reported last week. He was the highest-paid commissioner in college sports. He spent $726,000 in expenses for his “Pacific Rim Initiative,” which seems like such an extravagance. Scott’s staff of lieutenants are surely the highest paid in college sports: Nine of his top staffers are paid in excess of $427,000 annually. By comparison, the four highest-paid members of Greg Byrne’s executive staff at Arizona were all paid $167,000 for fiscal year 2014-15.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Tucson has been a hockey town before
The Arizona Coyotes ranked No. 29 of 30 NHL teams in home attendance this season, at 13,433 per game (or 78 percent capacity).
The Coyotes examined their ticket base, and while in Tucson last week, owner Anthony LeBlanc said “tens of thousands” of their ticket accounts were traced to Tucson zip codes.
That was one of the reasons the Coyotes bought the Springfield (Massachusetts) Falcons and moved the AHL franchise to the Tucson Community Center.
Pro hockey’s initial appearance in Tucson was in 1975. That’s when the Tucson Mavericks, a CHL affiliate of the WHA Phoenix Roadrunners, Houston Aeros, and San Diego Mariners, began play. Hockey was a coveted ticket in Tucson way back when, 41 years ago.
Hockey legend Gordie Howe, representing the Aeros, flew to Tucson and skated with members of the Tucson Youth Hockey League. That appearance drew 2,000 fans. Alas, the Mavericks went out of business at season’s end.
The Tucson Icemen and Rustlers followed in the ‘70s, and both expired in less than a year.
At the conclusion of the ‘79 season, after the league had taken control of the Rustlers’ operations, it was announced there would be no admission charge for the final game of the season. Attendance: 6,000.
That was a long time ago, when Tucson was half the size it is today.
Howe is now 88. In the four decades since he skated at the TCC, Tucson has grown so much that it at last seems capable of supporting professional hockey.
Of the 38 home games the Tucson team will play at the TCC in 2016-17, I’d guess at least 20 will draw 6,000. It might be my best prediction in years.
- Greg Hansen
The Big Four of the week in Tucson sports:
1. Kevin Brice, outfielder. In his junior year at Salpointe Catholic (2011), Brice hit .527. You could say he has always been on top of the numbers. He accepted a scholarship to NCAA Division III Pomona-Pitzer, hit .398 this season and in the summer of 2014 was the MVP of the New York Collegiate Summer League, hitting .400 for the Sherrill Silversmiths.
Brice graduated from Pomoma-Pitzer last week with a degree in mathematics. One of his favorite classes was “Combinatorics.” It’s complicated. It’s about numbers.
He had planned to play professional baseball in Europe for the Brussels Kangaroos, but something else popped up. On Monday morning, the new college grad will report to work for the Los Angeles Angels. He has been hired to be part of the club’s quantitative analysis department. He’ll analyze all of the new numbers that have become an integral part of baseball: ISO, WAR, WHIP, RC27 and on and on.
And Brice won’t have to go to the minor leagues to prove himself.
2. Greg Byrne, athletic director. Because Byrne’s budget is not that of more affluent Power 5 conference ADs, he hired a women’s basketball coach, Adia Barnes, with financial restraint. He will pay her $260,000 a year, up from the $215,000 her predecessor, Niya Butts, was paid.
During the same hiring period, Colorado AD Rick George fired and hired a new women’s basketball coach for a much greater price. CU will pay new coach JR Payne $300,000 this year and up to $350,000 in the fourth year of her deal. In addition, George is paying ex-coach Linda Lappe $930,000 to go away. He also paid a search firm $40,000 to identify Payne (from Santa Clara), which is probably the biggest waste of money in college sports.
Byrne did not hire a search firm. He spent more than $1 million less than rival CU to replace a women’s basketball coach. Good move.
3. Alex Bowman, NASCAR driver. The 22-year-old Ironwood Ridge High grad spent all of 2015 driving NASCAR’s Sprint Cup circuit for Tommy Baldwin Racing. He was often described as one of the sport’s rising young stars.
But after failing to finish any higher than 16th in 35 races, the TBR team fired Bowman. It was a long offseason. Bowman didn’t race for seven months.
Finally, last week, hired by the JR Motorsports organization, Bowman was back on the track. He made the most of it; Bowman finished third in the Xfinity’s Ollie’s Bargain Outlet 200, and is scheduled to be back in the car June 4 in Pocono.
Not bad to get a second chance at a career when you’re only 22.
4. Steve Kerr, basketball coach. On Dec. 3, 1983, Kerr, a freshman guard, accompanied Arizona for a Saturday game at Providence. It was the third game of Lute Olson’s UA career. Kerr was the fourth man off the bench, shooting 1 for 6 in 24 minutes. The Friars won 72-69.
Providence also had a freshman guard breaking into college basketball that night: Billy Donovan. He played eight minutes for the Friars and made four foul shots.
On Sunday, Kerr’s Golden State Warriors will play Donovan’s Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 3 of the NBA’s Western Conference finals. Small world.
- Greg Hansen
Dunagan moves back, will run Tucson Country Club
It was a good week in Tucson golf. The Tucson Country Club hired ex-UA golfer Wade Dunagan to be its general manager. Dunagan had been operating Phil Mickelson’s M Club at Chaparral Pines near Payson. Before that, he was the executive director of Tucson’s WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, and the head pro at, among others, TPC Sawgrass, TPC Starr Pass, the Omni Tucson National and the Gallery Golf Club. That’s a golf résumé like few others.
- Greg Hansen
Jonathan Khan to make Canadian Golf Tour debut
Former UA and Salpointe golfer Jonathan Khan will make his debut on the Canadian Golf Tour early next month. But first he’ll have to play in the U.S. Open sectional qualifying in Vancouver, Washington. Khan shot a 4-under-par 68 Thursday at Sewailo Golf Club to win one of four spots in the U.S. Open local qualifying competition and advance. UA assistant men’s golf coach Chris Nallen just missed advancing, shooting a 71, but he appears to have recovered from back injuries that knocked him off the Web.com Tour four years ago. Nallen recently shot a 65 at Tucson Country Club. “I’ve never seen his swing any better,” said Nallen’s former UA coach, Rick LaRose. “He’s ready to go.”
- Greg Hansen
Jennie Finch goes 15-0 against Arizona State
Jennie Finch was part of UA softball teams that went 14-0 against Arizona State in her UA softball career, 1999-02. She moved that total to 15-0 on Friday when McNeese State — where she is in her second season as a volunteer coach — beat the Sun Devils 5-2 in the NCAA regionals in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Finch, married to ex-Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Casey Daigle, has three children and lives in Sulphur, Louisiana.
- Greg Hansen
UA 2016-17 nonconference schedule complete
The UA’s 2016-17 nonconference basketball home schedule is now complete. Here are the nine opponents in order of appearance: College of Idaho; Chico State; Cal State Bakersfield; Bucknell/Northern Colorado and/or Sacred Heart/Norfolk State; Texas Southern; UC Irvine; Grand Canyon; New Mexico. No, this is not an April Fool’s joke. And it’s not the schedule from 1916-17, when Pop McKale or Fred Enke or someone else coached the Wildcats. It’s so bad it doesn’t seem real.
- Greg Hansen
Ohio State no longer fears Arizona
Rich Rodriguez and some of his UA coaches will take part in a satellite camp at Ohio State June 11-14. Can you imagine an ex-Michigan coach on Buckeyes turf? Clearly, the Buckeyes no longer fear RichRod, nor Arizona. Here’s what UA grad Ari Wasserman, the Ohio State beat writer for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, wrote: “Ohio State’s recruiting numbers in 2017 are clearly tight, and the prospects who will be taking the remaining spots in this year’s class are going to be the elite of the elite. Nothing against the programs attending Ohio State’s camp, but Arizona isn’t beating Ohio State out for those guys, so there’s no harm in having them around.” Times change.
- Greg Hansen
Ohio State has deep, deep pockets
Ohio State has so much money, among the top five revenue producers in college athletics, that it pays its softball coach, modestly successful Kelly Kovach Schoenly, a base salary of $219,000 per year. Arizona’s Mike Candrea, who has won eight NCAA titles, has a base salary of $183,967, although he probably makes two or three times that in endorsements, clinics and camps.
- Greg Hansen
Vinnie Tarantola headed to Liberty University
Vinnie Tarantola, who was a key part to Sahuaro High’s 51 baseball victories in 2013 and 2014, accepted a scholarship to Liberty University last week. Tarantola, a lefty pitcher, went 4-4 at South Mountain Community College this season in 51º innings. He visited Lynchburg, Virginia, last week to watch Liberty play Radford.
- Greg Hansen
New UA men's tennis coach reminds Byrne of baseball coach
The UA bypassed Loyola Marymount head men’s tennis coach Tom Lloyd, a former UA team captain, to hire Utah State’s 29-year-old Clancy Shields last week. “Clancy reminds me a little bit of what (baseball coach) Jay Johnson was able to do at Nevada,” said athletic director Greg Byrne. Shields, who grew up in Grand Junction, Colorado, and played at Boise State, became the Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year in 2016. If he can win in tennis at USU (my alma mater), he should be able to hold his own at Arizona. Playing in the modest Utah State indoor tennis facility, which is shared by the public, is not exactly like taking on UCLA and Stanford in the powerful Pac-12.
- Greg Hansen
Pima College lands two of Tucson's best basketball players
Two of Tucson’s leading high school basketball players, Cienega’s 6-5 Isaiah Murphy and Tucson’s 5-10 Parker Trujillo, have signed to play basketball for Brian Peabody next year at Pima College. Peabody might be the busiest man in Tucson in June. He will hold five separate camps at PCC between June 3-30, for boys and girls aged 6-17. Information: 979-4946 or tucsonhoops.com.
- Greg Hansen
Salpointe's Deng already collecting scholarship offers1
Salpointe sophomore-to-be wing forward Majok Deng has already been offered basketball scholarships by San Francisco and Grand Canyon. Gonzaga is interested. By the end of the July AAU sessions, it’s likely Deng will get Power 5 conference offers. He averaged 9.6 points and 6.5 rebounds as a freshman.
- Greg Hansen
Pima high jumper wins NJCAA championship
Tucson athlete of the week: Pima College freshman high jumper Sam Shoultz won the NJCAA national championship last week in Texas, clearing 7 feet, 1¾ inches. Every Pac-12 school is already interested in Shoultz, who has progressed quickly under PCC jumps coach Chad Harrison.
- Greg Hansen
No more free parking at MGM Grand
The MGM Grand announced it will no longer offer free parking for the Pac-12 basketball tournament, or any event. It will charge a minimum of $8 per day. Is that the last freebie in revenue-producing college sports? Maybe the Pac-12 will pick up the parking tab. Dream on.
- Greg Hansen
Pac-12 commissioner highest paid in college sports
Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott was paid $4.2 million in his compensation package of 2014-15, CBSsports.com reported last week. He was the highest-paid commissioner in college sports. He spent $726,000 in expenses for his “Pacific Rim Initiative,” which seems like such an extravagance. Scott’s staff of lieutenants are surely the highest paid in college sports: Nine of his top staffers are paid in excess of $427,000 annually. By comparison, the four highest-paid members of Greg Byrne’s executive staff at Arizona were all paid $167,000 for fiscal year 2014-15.
- Greg Hansen
Tucson has been a hockey town before
The Arizona Coyotes ranked No. 29 of 30 NHL teams in home attendance this season, at 13,433 per game (or 78 percent capacity).
The Coyotes examined their ticket base, and while in Tucson last week, owner Anthony LeBlanc said “tens of thousands” of their ticket accounts were traced to Tucson zip codes.
That was one of the reasons the Coyotes bought the Springfield (Massachusetts) Falcons and moved the AHL franchise to the Tucson Community Center.
Pro hockey’s initial appearance in Tucson was in 1975. That’s when the Tucson Mavericks, a CHL affiliate of the WHA Phoenix Roadrunners, Houston Aeros, and San Diego Mariners, began play. Hockey was a coveted ticket in Tucson way back when, 41 years ago.
Hockey legend Gordie Howe, representing the Aeros, flew to Tucson and skated with members of the Tucson Youth Hockey League. That appearance drew 2,000 fans. Alas, the Mavericks went out of business at season’s end.
The Tucson Icemen and Rustlers followed in the ‘70s, and both expired in less than a year.
At the conclusion of the ‘79 season, after the league had taken control of the Rustlers’ operations, it was announced there would be no admission charge for the final game of the season. Attendance: 6,000.
That was a long time ago, when Tucson was half the size it is today.
Howe is now 88. In the four decades since he skated at the TCC, Tucson has grown so much that it at last seems capable of supporting professional hockey.
Of the 38 home games the Tucson team will play at the TCC in 2016-17, I’d guess at least 20 will draw 6,000. It might be my best prediction in years.
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