Hansen's Sunday Notebook: Cats' nonconference home schedule not paying off
- Updated
Star sports columnist Greg Hansen offers his opinion on recent sports news.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Cats' nonconference home schedule not paying off
Arizona’s basketball season ticket holders last week were reminded that May 1 is the deadline to renew for the 2016-17 season.
So let’s say you have two seats in Section 16, opposite the Arizona bench, maybe 25 rows from the court. You must send $330 now for a yearly priority seating tax to reserve your seats. In September, you will pay $1,150 for the actual tickets. That’s roughly $1,500 for you and your wife to watch Sean Miller’s eighth Arizona team.
That’s life in the fast lane of college basketball.
But one thing has changed dramatically. Arizona’s home schedule has diminished with such suddenness that you wonder if you’re reading ASU’s schedule.
Arizona’s 2016-17 nonconference home schedule does not include a weekend game. All are played Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The five teams on the schedule are Cal State Bakersfield, Texas Southern, UC Irvine, Grand Canyon and New Mexico. Yes, Arizona is to play a rematch with Gonzaga, but it will be staged in downtown Los Angeles, of all places.
It’s a punch in the gut to those paying $1,500 (or much more).
There’s more: because of the Pac-12’s quirky schedule rotation, the league’s reigning power, Oregon, will not play at McKale Center next season.
The UA’s 2015-16 home schedule was its worst since 1983-84, a numbing procession of Boise States, NAUs, Pacifics and Bradleys. Next year’s is worse.
A name opponent won’t play in Tucson again until UConn arrives in December of 2017. Teams like UConn used to play at McKale Center every year. Sometimes two and three teams like UConn.
Unfortunately, this is much more than an Arizona problem in college basketball. Kansas’ top home nonconference opponent this season was Montana. Duke played Indiana at home, but thereafter no one better than Utah State. North Carolina had a home game against Maryland, but otherwise lined up the Sisters of the Poor.
ASU, much like Arizona, has sold out for made-for-TV events. Arizona will play its top opponents in Hawaii, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. ASU plays its premium 2016-17 opponents in Puerto Rico, the Bahamas and New York City.
Arizona built its basketball brand and reputation on playing everyone from Duke to Kansas at McKale Center, and then returning those games in hostile road arenas year after year for 30 years.
It also built an industrial-strength RPI that never had Lute Olson worrying about a bad seed on Selection Sunday.
Now the school says top teams, and those removed from the region, are reluctant to play in Tucson.
The Wildcats still have an opening (or two) for a nonconference game at McKale. Those who support the team financially deserve for that opponent to be someone like Purdue or Oklahoma, and not, as the trend has become, Houston Baptist or IUPUI.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Pro hockey in Tucson, continued
If the American Hockey League’s Springfield Falcons indeed move from Massachusetts to the Tucson Convention Center for the 2016-17 season, it would be one of the most unexpected sports transactions in memory.
After all, the AHL’s headquarters is in Springfield, Massachusetts, just down the street from where the Falcons drew a meager 3,108 per game in the 8,000-seat MassMutual Center. The AHL has had a franchise in Springfield since 1936.
The UA’s club hockey team drew 3,500 for a game against Arizona State last season.
One potential clash between the Wildcats and an AHL franchise at the TCC would be available weekend playing dates. The Springfield franchise played 34 of its 38 home games on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays this season.
The Icecats played 21 of 22 home games in a Friday/Saturday rotation.
The AHL has been well received as it has moved west. San Diego averaged 8,675 fans this year; Ontario, California, averaged 8,570; Bakersfield, California, averaged 5,195; and Stockton, California, averaged 4,647.
The demise of pro hockey’s predecessors in Tucson all were traced to lack of financial support from the community. But in those days, the greater Tucson population was probably half what it is today.
If pro hockey is ever going to work in Tucson, now’s the time.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Sunnyside's Moraga continuing family tradition
Sunnyside High senior Adam Moraga pitched a no-hitter against Rincon on Friday afternoon. He struck out seven and showed a lot of spunk; in his previous start, he gave up six first-inning runs to powerful Salpointe Catholic. Moraga is hitting .405 for the Blue Devils entering the playoffs. He has as much baseball blood as any prep ballplayer in Tucson. His father, Omar Moraga, a Blue Devils assistant coach, was a two-year starting infielder for Arizona who later played four years in the Cleveland Indians system and then became a starter on the USA national fastpitch softball team. His father’s cousin, Diego Rico, was the Arizona high school player of the year in 1994, a UA standout who played in the Chicago Cubs system. Adam’s uncle, Gabe Moraga, is Sunnyside’s head coach.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
UA's Dalbec slumping now, but future likely still bright
UA junior pitcher/third baseman Bobby Dalbec is in the most puzzling slump imaginable. He was hitting .208 through Friday’s victory at Cal. A year ago, Dalbec hit .319 with a Pac-12-leading 15 home runs. He hit .266 as a freshman. Dalbec had been projected as a first-round draft pick in June, perhaps the most feared power hitter in college baseball. But he has just four home runs. Dalbec has 49 strikeouts this season, which is headed toward the school-record 72, set in 1976 by All-American Dave Stegman. Dalbec is also on pace to challenge Brad Glenn’s school record for career strikeouts (183). Dalbec has 157. What does it mean? Both Porter and Stegman were drafted and played in the major leagues.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Ex-Cat, Olympic gold medalist Schoeman misses cut
Olympic gold medal swimmer Roland Schoeman, who, behind nine-time NCAA champion Ryk Neethling is the most accomplished swimmer in Arizona history, did not meet his goal of making the South African Olympic team for the fifth time last week. Schoeman, who now trains in Scottsdale, was edged out for a spot on the South African team by another ex-UA swimmer, Brad Tandy. In 2005, Schoeman turned down a reported $5 million offer to obtain Qatari citizenship and swim in the Olympics for that nation. Two weeks ago, Schoeman, now 35, began a “fund me”-type account to help with expenses related to training, coaching and traveling. His goal was $50,000. He raised $1,850.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Byrne to 're-engage' UA on subject of student fee
University of Arizona athletic director Greg Byrne said he will “re-engage” the student body on the subject of a per-student fee that would help fund about $150 million in Arizona Stadium renovations. It wouldn’t be unprecedented. On Dec. 20, 1923, the Daily Wildcat wrote: “Every UA student pays $5 at registration. The fund provides the school money to provide eight intercollegiate football games.” That $5 in 1923 money is about $70 in today’s money.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
'Our House' campaign aims to sell more UA football tickets
Byrne and football coach Rich Rodriguez last week appealed to fans to buy more tickets at Arizona Stadium, part of an “Our House” marketing campaign. Capacity at the stadium will shrink by about 600 as chairback seats are installed in the middle level, east side, of the stadium. Byrne said it would be “four to six years” before full renovation of the stadium begins, but added “I’m trying to give myself space there; we’re trying to be aggressive with the timing.” This is aggressive: Byrne said that Hillenbrand Aquatic Center, once home to Frank Busch’s NCAA powerhouse swimming teams, needs an overhaul. How much? “About $10 million,” said Byrne. Gulp.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
End could be near for Pac-12 commissioner Scott
The discord between Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott and UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero became public last week; Scott essentially threw Guerrero under the bus after it was disclosed Guerrero voted “no” when the league instructed him to vote “yes” on the NCAA’s satellite camp issue. Colorado athletic director Rick George defended Guerrero and questioned why Scott made the issue public. Confidence in Scott continues to erode. I suspect, ultimately, dissatisfaction with the Pac-12 Networks, its limited reach and relatively small revenue, among other political issues inside the league, will lead Pac-12 presidents to hire a new commissioner.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Salpointe grad Denny has UA offer; could assume reserve role
Salpointe Catholic grad Talbott Denny had some notable performances as a 6-foot-6-inch forward at Lipscomb University. He made the 2015 Atlantic Sun All-Tournament team after getting 22 rebounds; he had a 22-point, 11-rebound game against Tennessee State. He sat out the 2015-16 season at Lipscomb after he tore a shoulder labrum in fall practice. He is to complete his mechanical engineering degree requirements next month and transfer for his fifth year of college basketball. Arizona offered Denny a scholarship last weekend. He will decide whether to return home to play, and probably assume a role similar to the one Matt Korcheck filled for two years, or go to a smaller school in hopes of receiving more playing time.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Tucsonan, former Lancer Brown Radley back on Golf Channel
Sara Brown Radley, a Salpointe graduate who was an All-Big Ten golfer at Michigan State and later an LPGA regular in 2011, returned to her role on Golf Channel’s weekly “School of Golf” program last week. Brown had taken maternity leave in Tucson the last six months.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
UA women's golf misses out on second straight Pac-12 title
Arizona wasn’t able to repeat as Pac-12’s women’s golf champion last week. The league is brutally difficult; nine Pac-12 teams are ranked in the top 23 nationally, including No. 1 UCLA, which lost to No. 2 USC in the Pac-12 finals. Even making No. 11 Arizona’s lineup is a challenge. A year ago, UA junior Wanasa Zhou shot a final-round 65 to propel Arizona to the league championship; she was 10th overall. This year, Zhou didn’t make the UA’s five-woman lineup at the league meet.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Amphi grad Lopez named gymnastics first-team All-American
Amphitheater High grad Kassandra Lopez became an NCAA gymnastics first-team All-American last week. The Utah senior tied for fourth in parallel bars with a 9.90 at the NCAA championships. Lopez was second-team All-American on bars in 2015.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Former UA All-American Cecil touches on concussions during speech
In Tucson to speak at the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame banquet, Arizona’s 1987 consensus All-America safety Chuck Cecil spoke frankly about the many concussion-related hits he endured in his Pac-10 and NFL careers. “I probably had four or five concussions, when I’d wake up and they’d be asking me what my name is,” he remembered. “But under the new terminology used today, I probably had 40 or 50 concussions.”
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Sahuaro grad Hong named ACCAC female Golfer of the Year
Sahuaro High grad Desiree Hong became the ACCAC female Golfer of the Year last week, winning the Pima College Invitational at Silverbell Golf Course. Hong won three of five spring tournaments Pima College entered; she was second and third in the other two. That alone should be enough to make Hong a first-team NJCAA All-American, but the NJCAA determines its All-America team strictly on the top 18 finishers in the national championships May 16-19 in Daytona Beach, Florida.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
My two cents: Parseghian welcomes new child as family's charity work continues
Happiest news of the week: Former Salpointe Catholic distance running standout Ara Parseghian, grandson of the former Notre Dame football coach of the same name, became a father for the second time last week.
Now an anesthesiologist in residency in Portland, Maine, Parseghian is married to an attorney, Cicely, who gave berth to a boy, named Kevah, on Thursday. The couple also has a 3-year-old daughter, Lila.
All three of the younger Ara’s siblings — Christa, then 9; Michael, 10; and Marcia, 16 — died of Niemann-Pick Type C disease in Tucson. It is a rare, fatal, genetic disorder that essentially degenerates motor skills in young people. Ara was the only child of Tucson surgeon Michael Parseghian and his wife, Cindy, not to carry the Niemann-Pick Type C gene.
Ara, a torchbearer when the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics torch passed through Tucson, graduated from Princeton and from Tufts University School of Medicine.
The Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation continues its work on Sunrise Drive.
- Greg Hansen
Cats' nonconference home schedule not paying off
Arizona’s basketball season ticket holders last week were reminded that May 1 is the deadline to renew for the 2016-17 season.
So let’s say you have two seats in Section 16, opposite the Arizona bench, maybe 25 rows from the court. You must send $330 now for a yearly priority seating tax to reserve your seats. In September, you will pay $1,150 for the actual tickets. That’s roughly $1,500 for you and your wife to watch Sean Miller’s eighth Arizona team.
That’s life in the fast lane of college basketball.
But one thing has changed dramatically. Arizona’s home schedule has diminished with such suddenness that you wonder if you’re reading ASU’s schedule.
Arizona’s 2016-17 nonconference home schedule does not include a weekend game. All are played Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The five teams on the schedule are Cal State Bakersfield, Texas Southern, UC Irvine, Grand Canyon and New Mexico. Yes, Arizona is to play a rematch with Gonzaga, but it will be staged in downtown Los Angeles, of all places.
It’s a punch in the gut to those paying $1,500 (or much more).
There’s more: because of the Pac-12’s quirky schedule rotation, the league’s reigning power, Oregon, will not play at McKale Center next season.
The UA’s 2015-16 home schedule was its worst since 1983-84, a numbing procession of Boise States, NAUs, Pacifics and Bradleys. Next year’s is worse.
A name opponent won’t play in Tucson again until UConn arrives in December of 2017. Teams like UConn used to play at McKale Center every year. Sometimes two and three teams like UConn.
Unfortunately, this is much more than an Arizona problem in college basketball. Kansas’ top home nonconference opponent this season was Montana. Duke played Indiana at home, but thereafter no one better than Utah State. North Carolina had a home game against Maryland, but otherwise lined up the Sisters of the Poor.
ASU, much like Arizona, has sold out for made-for-TV events. Arizona will play its top opponents in Hawaii, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. ASU plays its premium 2016-17 opponents in Puerto Rico, the Bahamas and New York City.
Arizona built its basketball brand and reputation on playing everyone from Duke to Kansas at McKale Center, and then returning those games in hostile road arenas year after year for 30 years.
It also built an industrial-strength RPI that never had Lute Olson worrying about a bad seed on Selection Sunday.
Now the school says top teams, and those removed from the region, are reluctant to play in Tucson.
The Wildcats still have an opening (or two) for a nonconference game at McKale. Those who support the team financially deserve for that opponent to be someone like Purdue or Oklahoma, and not, as the trend has become, Houston Baptist or IUPUI.
- Greg Hansen
Pro hockey in Tucson, continued
If the American Hockey League’s Springfield Falcons indeed move from Massachusetts to the Tucson Convention Center for the 2016-17 season, it would be one of the most unexpected sports transactions in memory.
After all, the AHL’s headquarters is in Springfield, Massachusetts, just down the street from where the Falcons drew a meager 3,108 per game in the 8,000-seat MassMutual Center. The AHL has had a franchise in Springfield since 1936.
The UA’s club hockey team drew 3,500 for a game against Arizona State last season.
One potential clash between the Wildcats and an AHL franchise at the TCC would be available weekend playing dates. The Springfield franchise played 34 of its 38 home games on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays this season.
The Icecats played 21 of 22 home games in a Friday/Saturday rotation.
The AHL has been well received as it has moved west. San Diego averaged 8,675 fans this year; Ontario, California, averaged 8,570; Bakersfield, California, averaged 5,195; and Stockton, California, averaged 4,647.
The demise of pro hockey’s predecessors in Tucson all were traced to lack of financial support from the community. But in those days, the greater Tucson population was probably half what it is today.
If pro hockey is ever going to work in Tucson, now’s the time.
- Greg Hansen
Sunnyside's Moraga continuing family tradition
Sunnyside High senior Adam Moraga pitched a no-hitter against Rincon on Friday afternoon. He struck out seven and showed a lot of spunk; in his previous start, he gave up six first-inning runs to powerful Salpointe Catholic. Moraga is hitting .405 for the Blue Devils entering the playoffs. He has as much baseball blood as any prep ballplayer in Tucson. His father, Omar Moraga, a Blue Devils assistant coach, was a two-year starting infielder for Arizona who later played four years in the Cleveland Indians system and then became a starter on the USA national fastpitch softball team. His father’s cousin, Diego Rico, was the Arizona high school player of the year in 1994, a UA standout who played in the Chicago Cubs system. Adam’s uncle, Gabe Moraga, is Sunnyside’s head coach.
- Greg Hansen
UA's Dalbec slumping now, but future likely still bright
UA junior pitcher/third baseman Bobby Dalbec is in the most puzzling slump imaginable. He was hitting .208 through Friday’s victory at Cal. A year ago, Dalbec hit .319 with a Pac-12-leading 15 home runs. He hit .266 as a freshman. Dalbec had been projected as a first-round draft pick in June, perhaps the most feared power hitter in college baseball. But he has just four home runs. Dalbec has 49 strikeouts this season, which is headed toward the school-record 72, set in 1976 by All-American Dave Stegman. Dalbec is also on pace to challenge Brad Glenn’s school record for career strikeouts (183). Dalbec has 157. What does it mean? Both Porter and Stegman were drafted and played in the major leagues.
- Greg Hansen
Ex-Cat, Olympic gold medalist Schoeman misses cut
Olympic gold medal swimmer Roland Schoeman, who, behind nine-time NCAA champion Ryk Neethling is the most accomplished swimmer in Arizona history, did not meet his goal of making the South African Olympic team for the fifth time last week. Schoeman, who now trains in Scottsdale, was edged out for a spot on the South African team by another ex-UA swimmer, Brad Tandy. In 2005, Schoeman turned down a reported $5 million offer to obtain Qatari citizenship and swim in the Olympics for that nation. Two weeks ago, Schoeman, now 35, began a “fund me”-type account to help with expenses related to training, coaching and traveling. His goal was $50,000. He raised $1,850.
- Greg Hansen
Byrne to 're-engage' UA on subject of student fee
University of Arizona athletic director Greg Byrne said he will “re-engage” the student body on the subject of a per-student fee that would help fund about $150 million in Arizona Stadium renovations. It wouldn’t be unprecedented. On Dec. 20, 1923, the Daily Wildcat wrote: “Every UA student pays $5 at registration. The fund provides the school money to provide eight intercollegiate football games.” That $5 in 1923 money is about $70 in today’s money.
- Greg Hansen
'Our House' campaign aims to sell more UA football tickets
Byrne and football coach Rich Rodriguez last week appealed to fans to buy more tickets at Arizona Stadium, part of an “Our House” marketing campaign. Capacity at the stadium will shrink by about 600 as chairback seats are installed in the middle level, east side, of the stadium. Byrne said it would be “four to six years” before full renovation of the stadium begins, but added “I’m trying to give myself space there; we’re trying to be aggressive with the timing.” This is aggressive: Byrne said that Hillenbrand Aquatic Center, once home to Frank Busch’s NCAA powerhouse swimming teams, needs an overhaul. How much? “About $10 million,” said Byrne. Gulp.
- Greg Hansen
End could be near for Pac-12 commissioner Scott
The discord between Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott and UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero became public last week; Scott essentially threw Guerrero under the bus after it was disclosed Guerrero voted “no” when the league instructed him to vote “yes” on the NCAA’s satellite camp issue. Colorado athletic director Rick George defended Guerrero and questioned why Scott made the issue public. Confidence in Scott continues to erode. I suspect, ultimately, dissatisfaction with the Pac-12 Networks, its limited reach and relatively small revenue, among other political issues inside the league, will lead Pac-12 presidents to hire a new commissioner.
- Greg Hansen
Salpointe grad Denny has UA offer; could assume reserve role
Salpointe Catholic grad Talbott Denny had some notable performances as a 6-foot-6-inch forward at Lipscomb University. He made the 2015 Atlantic Sun All-Tournament team after getting 22 rebounds; he had a 22-point, 11-rebound game against Tennessee State. He sat out the 2015-16 season at Lipscomb after he tore a shoulder labrum in fall practice. He is to complete his mechanical engineering degree requirements next month and transfer for his fifth year of college basketball. Arizona offered Denny a scholarship last weekend. He will decide whether to return home to play, and probably assume a role similar to the one Matt Korcheck filled for two years, or go to a smaller school in hopes of receiving more playing time.
- Greg Hansen
Tucsonan, former Lancer Brown Radley back on Golf Channel
Sara Brown Radley, a Salpointe graduate who was an All-Big Ten golfer at Michigan State and later an LPGA regular in 2011, returned to her role on Golf Channel’s weekly “School of Golf” program last week. Brown had taken maternity leave in Tucson the last six months.
- Greg Hansen
UA women's golf misses out on second straight Pac-12 title
Arizona wasn’t able to repeat as Pac-12’s women’s golf champion last week. The league is brutally difficult; nine Pac-12 teams are ranked in the top 23 nationally, including No. 1 UCLA, which lost to No. 2 USC in the Pac-12 finals. Even making No. 11 Arizona’s lineup is a challenge. A year ago, UA junior Wanasa Zhou shot a final-round 65 to propel Arizona to the league championship; she was 10th overall. This year, Zhou didn’t make the UA’s five-woman lineup at the league meet.
- Greg Hansen
Amphi grad Lopez named gymnastics first-team All-American
Amphitheater High grad Kassandra Lopez became an NCAA gymnastics first-team All-American last week. The Utah senior tied for fourth in parallel bars with a 9.90 at the NCAA championships. Lopez was second-team All-American on bars in 2015.
- Greg Hansen
Former UA All-American Cecil touches on concussions during speech
In Tucson to speak at the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame banquet, Arizona’s 1987 consensus All-America safety Chuck Cecil spoke frankly about the many concussion-related hits he endured in his Pac-10 and NFL careers. “I probably had four or five concussions, when I’d wake up and they’d be asking me what my name is,” he remembered. “But under the new terminology used today, I probably had 40 or 50 concussions.”
- Greg Hansen
Sahuaro grad Hong named ACCAC female Golfer of the Year
Sahuaro High grad Desiree Hong became the ACCAC female Golfer of the Year last week, winning the Pima College Invitational at Silverbell Golf Course. Hong won three of five spring tournaments Pima College entered; she was second and third in the other two. That alone should be enough to make Hong a first-team NJCAA All-American, but the NJCAA determines its All-America team strictly on the top 18 finishers in the national championships May 16-19 in Daytona Beach, Florida.
- Greg Hansen
My two cents: Parseghian welcomes new child as family's charity work continues
Happiest news of the week: Former Salpointe Catholic distance running standout Ara Parseghian, grandson of the former Notre Dame football coach of the same name, became a father for the second time last week.
Now an anesthesiologist in residency in Portland, Maine, Parseghian is married to an attorney, Cicely, who gave berth to a boy, named Kevah, on Thursday. The couple also has a 3-year-old daughter, Lila.
All three of the younger Ara’s siblings — Christa, then 9; Michael, 10; and Marcia, 16 — died of Niemann-Pick Type C disease in Tucson. It is a rare, fatal, genetic disorder that essentially degenerates motor skills in young people. Ara was the only child of Tucson surgeon Michael Parseghian and his wife, Cindy, not to carry the Niemann-Pick Type C gene.
Ara, a torchbearer when the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics torch passed through Tucson, graduated from Princeton and from Tufts University School of Medicine.
The Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation continues its work on Sunrise Drive.
Most Popular
-
State lawmakers vote to outlaw Sharia Law in Arizona
-
2 Arizona hotels named among best in US
-
Former Phoenix Mercury star praises landmark WNBA retiree payments
-
U of A dismantles Health Sciences unit, disperses functions university-wide
-
The 20 highest-paying jobs in America? Doctors, doctors, more doctors
