Hansen's Sunday Notebook: Memories will flood back for Elliott

When Fox Sports 1 asked Sean Elliott if he would like to be the analyst for Sunday’s Arizona-Oregon State game, it would’ve been easy for him to say “are you nuts?”

Elliott worked Saturday night’s Spurs-Timberwolves game in Minneapolis. He’ll fly to Portland on Sunday morning and drive 90 miles to Corvallis. He’ll return to Portland late Sunday night and fly coast-to-coast Monday for the Spurs’ game against the Wizards on Tuesday in Washington.

This will be Elliott’s first visit to old Gill Coliseum since Dec. 23, 1988, when he scored 21 points and had 11 rebounds in his senior season in UA’s 73-69 win, part of a perfect 10-0 career against the Beavers.

Elliott, who has been the San Antonio TV/radio analyst for 12 years, was on the scene, hands dirty, when Arizona overhauled OSU to become the Pac-12’s leading basketball program.

How have times changed? The Beavers sold out three of those four games against Arizona at Gill (10,400) during Elliott’s career, and had 7,114 at the other. Now OSU sells out Gill Coliseum once a decade, and only against rival Oregon.

Against the Beavers, Elliott was part of two of the most memorable games of the Lute Olson era. The first was the “McMiracle” game at McKale Center, in January 1986, when Craig McMillan scored at the buzzer on a length-of-the-floor pass from Steve Kerr, winning 63-62, the impetus for Arizona’s first Pac-10 championship.

The second was during Elliott’s junior year, at Gill Coliseum, when Kerr had his “Perfect Game.” Kerr was 7 for 7 from the floor that night, including 5 for 5 from three-point range and 2 for 2 from the foul line, as Arizona won 70-48.

Elliott has made his mark as a broadcaster in San Antonio (he also spent two years working at ESPN). It doesn’t appear he’ll be available to the Pac-12 Networks anytime soon.

Mike Kickirillo, Spurs Sports & Entertainment’s director of broadcasting, told the San Antonio Express-News that “we call Sean ‘The Mayor.’ I can’t recall him denying an autograph or photo request. He’s always accessible.”

The Spurs are so popular in Texas that they’ve ranked No. 1 or No. 2 in the NBA in ratings 12 out of the last 13 seasons.

Elliott is married to Claudia Zapata, a high-profile dietitian and nutritionist, a Georgetown grad who wrote a newspaper column for 12 years in San Antonio. His first child, Jordyn Elliott, is a soccer standout in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Jordyn scored 35 goals for Pine Crest High School in her freshman and sophomore seasons. She lives with Elliott’s first wife, Akiko Rose, a former UA cheerleader.

Life is also good for Sean’s brother, Noel Elliott, who donated his kidney to his brother in 2000. Noel owns the Finish Line Home Inspection company in Tucson and has had three children since donating his kidney to Sean in San Antonio 15 years ago.

The power has shifted in Tucson prep basketball. The boys teams at Cholla, Pueblo and Sunnyside are a combined 39-8, thriving under new or relatively new coaches Masai Dean at 14-1 Cholla; Rob Harrison at 15-4 Sunnyside; and Kelvin Eafon at 10-3 Cholla. 

It’s almost like the old days, when Cholla’s Paul Dull, Pueblo’s Barry O’Rourke and Sunnyside’s Dwight Rees were state contenders on the south side.

All have talented players much like their predecessors Chuck Overton at Cholla; Jermaine Watts at Sunnyside; and Pueblo’s Jeff Clark.

Pueblo got 50 points and 21 rebounds last week from 6-4 senior Naquwan Solomon in a combined two games. Sunnyside’s 6-6 sophomore Santino Duarte is averaging 13.2 points. Cholla sophomore Ezekiel Alley is averaging 15 points.

Much will be decided this week when Pueblo plays both 16-2 Sahuaro and 12-2 Cienega. It is one of the better years in Southern Arizona basketball in the last decade.

Tucsonan Bryanna Caldwell averaged 216 over five days (and 30 games) to make the Team USA bowling roster for the Pan American Games this summer in Canada. The CDO grad is one of eight women to make the U.S. team. In September, she tied an American record with an 879 series in Tucson. 

During the NFL playoffs this weekend, Santa Rita High grad Ron Gould will be a proud man. Now the head coach at UC-Davis, Gould was the running backs coach at Cal when the Bears produced playoff running backs Marshawn Lynch of Seattle, C.J. Anderson of the Broncos, Justin Forsett of Baltimore and Shane Vereen of the Patriots. 

On Friday night at Kino Sports Complex, FC Tucson held open tryouts for the 2015 season, and more than 100 prospects attended. Some drove from Colorado. Others came from Phoenix. The appeal of the FC Tucson program — and the possibility of playing next month against MLS teams Sporting Kansas City, Real Salt Lake and the Seattle Sounders — has a wide reach. 

Mountain View High grad Aaron Anderson, who was a standout basketball player at Kennesaw State (Georgia), is now starting in the Euroleague for the Sodertalje Kings of Sweden. Anderson is averaging 9.1 points and 8.5 rebounds. 

Don’t be surprised if Palo Verde grad Bryce Cotton is recalled by the San Antonio Spurs at some point this season. He had back-to-back games scoring 31 and 32 points last week for the D-League’s Austin Spurs, and seems to be on a trajectory that will lead to the NBA. 

It wasn’t an accident that UA senior point guard T.J. McConnell scored a UA-career high 21 points Thursday at Oregon. The Ducks chose to open the game by deploying freshman Casey Benson on McConnell. Benson is a three-star recruit from Tempe Corona del Sol High School. But Arizona didn’t recruit Benson, who was offered scholarships by ASU, Washington State, USC and Oregon State. McConnell has played 4,084 minutes in his college career; Benson was at 343 when Thursday’s game began. McConnell took advantage quickly, scoring seven points in the first 4 minutes 48 seconds as Arizona led 15-4. Benson couldn’t effectively guard McConnell, and the Ducks never caught up. 

One of Tucson’s top golf events of the year will be held Saturday at Arizona National. PGA Tour winners Don Pooley, Ronnie Black, Dan Pohl, Andrew Magee, LPGA winner Christa Johnson and Web.com Tour golfer Brian Prouty will be among the instructors at the Ricki Rarick Junior Golf Benefit at Arizona National. The clinic begins at 9:30 a.m., followed by lunch, golf and an awards/dinner ceremony. Entry information: dpalmer@aznational.com. 

Shelley Duncan’s annual youth baseball clinic, held Saturday at Kino Sports Complex, drew almost 500 kids aged 7-16. That’s got to be a record. At Duncan’s annual fund-raiser for youth baseball Friday at Sewailo Golf Club, you could look around and see ex-major leaguers Terry Francona, George Arias, Mike Paul, Ron Hassey, Gil Heredia and on and on. Well done. 

The Greg Byrne-returns-to-Oregon scenario was short-lived. West Virginia last week hired Alabama deputy AD Shane Lyons as its new AD. Some had speculated that the Mountaineers would attempt to hire Oregon AD Rob Mullens, a WVU grad and homeboy, which would then open the Ducks job for Byrne, who grew up in Eugene and worked for the Ducks. 

UA senior shortstop Kellie Fox was selected to USA Softball’s national team after a tryout camp last week in San Diego. So was Pueblo High School teacher/coach Bobby “Jugg” Rosthenhausler, a Sunnyside grad who is one of the top ballplayers in Tucson history. The USA Softball men’s national team doesn’t have the high profile the women’s team does, but it has a long Tucson and Southern Arizona tradition of excellence. Cliff Wisdom was on the USA team a year ago; his father, Herb Wisdom, was earlier part of a long run of USA Softball champions. Others from Tucson who have been on Team USA men’s:Omar Moraga; Alex Villa; Chuck Seymour; Mike Rivera and Anthony Farinacci. 

Four-time Tucson Olympic distance runner Abdi Abdirahman last week told Deadspin.com that his long-time coach, UA Hall of Famer Dave Murray, is more than a coach. “When things are not going well, some runners want to change coaches,” said Abdirahman. “That thought never crossed my mind. Me and him, I look at him as a life coach, a mentor and a friend. He’s always there for me. My family is in Seattle, so he has become my family. Christmas, Thanksgiving, a lot of holidays, I go over to Coach’s. I know his grandkids, his brother, his sister — I’ve become one of them.” Well said. 

UA football coach Rich Rodriguez is getting a lot of mileage (and deservedly so) from Arizona’s 2013 and 2014 victories over Oregon. Friday was unofficially “RichRod Day” on ESPN (and ESPN radio). RichRod was featured on virtually every segment involving college football all day in Dallas studios. 

NBA analysts suggest that LeBron James’ basketball odometer is nearing an end. He has played 34,364 minutes. Is that valid? Jason Terry, now a role player at Houston, has played 37,745 minutes through Friday. Mike Bibby played 33,962 minutes before his body shut down at the elite level. 

When Craig Victor, looking for more playing time, left Arizona to transfer to LSU last week, it wasn’t much of a surprise. But remember this: of all the transfers, many of them high profile prospects, who have left Arizona the last 35 years, only Leon Wood, to Cal State Fullerton, and Will Bynum, to Georgia Tech, ever got to the NBA for more than a cup of coffee. If you can’t play at Arizona, you’re probably not an NBA prospect. 

Not much was said last week when Hank Peters, 90, died. He was the Cleveland Indians GM when the club decided to end a four-decade stay at Hi Corbett Field and move to Florida in 1992. That was another era, but also one that previewed what was to come — taking spring training for granted — when the D’backs, White Sox and Rockies moved to Phoenix. Peters’ office at Hi Corbett Field was in a small space under the grandstands; you had to duck to get safely inside. His most telling quote, when the Indians announced their Old Pueblo exit: “I have never met the mayor” of Tucson. And yet the Indians for 40 years had been Tucson’s link to the big time. 

Arizona’s 88-41 loss to Arizona State in Thursday’s women’s basketball game was the second-worst loss in school history. The Wildcats lost 95-44 to Washington in 1988, a 51-point margin.

Worse, Niya Butts’ team pushed its recent streak against the Sun Devils to 2-18. It’s difficult to remember that Arizona beat ASU 14 consecutive times in women’s basketball from 1994-2000.

Furthermore, sitting on ASU’s bench Thursday was Salpointe grad Sybil Dosty, an ASU grad who is now a graduate assistant on the Sun Devils staff.

Though it’s not that popular, if nothing else, UA women’s basketball matters in Territorial Cup points. Here’s how much it matters around campus: The universities’ law schools have their own “Territorial Cup” every November. It is called the Jenckes Closing Argument Competition. Arizona has won five consecutive “Jenckes Cups,” coached by professor Tom Mauet. The trophy is on display in the Cracchiolo Law Library on the UA campus.

Maybe Greg Byrne can get some Territorial Cup credit for that. 

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