Hansen's Sunday Notebook: UA athletics must be 'all-in'

UA athletic department has to be 'all-in' to reach goals 

The UA athletic department is advertising two fundraising jobs. Here’s the job description:

“Identify, cultivate, solicit and steward major donor prospects with the following annual goals: 225 in-person visits and a 95 percent renewal of current Wildcat Club members. Manage a donor book of 400-500 prospects and a portfolio of 25-50 prospects.”

Can there be a more difficult assignment in the athletic department?

Can there possibly be more than a handful of potential UA sports donors who are untapped?

The UA’s staff directory lists 26 people under the general description of development/fundraising. In addition, the IMG staff, which is essentially sales, lists eight full-time employees. The marketing staff has four employees. The ticket office lists eight employees.

That’s 46 people under Greg Byrne’s umbrella whose task it is to put people in the seats and keep them there. That’s 46 people working specifically toward a $75 million annual budget that the school believes could reach $100 million in the next few years.

If you think the UA’s overall development staff is large, check out the one at Washington. It has 57. Arizona State has 54.

The operative, 21st century term at the heart of all college athletic departments is “major gifts.” That’s a game-changing level at which Jeff Stevens, Cole Davis and David Lowell all have contributed more than $10 million to UA athletics in the Byrne years.

But it all starts at the bottom, and that’s getting Tucsonans to buy football tickets to watch UTSA and NAU in September. A week ago, the UA’s marketing department was honored by posterswag.com for creating one of the NCAA’s 20 most provocative football posters of 2015.

Under the theme “ONE” and “BE THERE” the school smartly chose not to hang its marketing theme on All-America linebacker Scooby Wright. Instead, it featured eight players, among them punter Drew Riggleman, kicker Casey Skowron and backup QB Jerrard Randall.

How many schools do that? Most go for star appeal. Arizona chose to follow coach Rich Rodriguez’s “all-in” platform.

Georgia Tech’s 2015 football poster features quarterback Justin Thomas. Purdue goes solo with cornerback Anthony Brown. Pitt chose to put coach Pat Narduzzi front and center, as did Boise State with coach Bryan Harsin.

Operating a college athletic department in an isolated setting like Tucson is a big-money enterprise (and getting bigger) that will always swing on the “all-in” theme.

No disrespect to Scooby (who probably doesn’t want extra attention anyway), but the UA’s marketing approach to the 2015 football season better reflects RichRod’s “pull-the-rope” theme in a business that depends on the Little Guy as much as those in the party suites.

UA draft takeaway 1:

When Stanley Johnson arrives in Detroit, full of his take-a-look-at-me self-promotion, Pistons fans are going to learn what Arizona fans learned. Johnson is neither a pure shooter nor does he have much range. He isn’t a shut-down defensive player. He isn’t a ball-handler. But he sure looks good in a uniform. Much like ex-Wildcat center Jordan Hill, a career journeyman, Johnson looks the part, but doesn’t play the part. He is a good kid, though, and if he applies himself, could be a double-figure scorer with a 10-year career. 

UA draft takeaway 2:

In 12 NBA seasons for seven NBA teams, Jud Buechler started just 29 games. The ex-Wildcat, the 38th overall pick in 1990, stayed in the league because he a) added to locker-room harmony and b) was a dogged practice player who knew and accepted his role. He knew the playbook back to front. That’s why T.J. McConnell is apt to stick in the NBA for a few years. He is a shorter Jud Buechler. Every NBA team has 15 players on the bench per game (12 active) and those from Nos. 11-15 don’t have to be stars. They just have to buy in, stay ready, and, like McConnell, realize that it’s not about him. 

UA draft takeaway 3: 

ESPN’s first mock draft for the 2015-16 college season lists Arizona center Kaleb Tarczewski at No. 80 overall. Among his “positives” it lists: “good hands.” Just a guess, but I’d say ESPN has not watched much film of Zeus, who has a dozen positives, but “good hands” is not one of them. No. 80? I’d cut that in half. Top 40 for sure. 

UA's second-round picks have enjoyed NBA success 

When Arizona played in the 1988 Final Four, it had notched just a single first-round draft pick in NBA history, power forward Larry Demic in 1979. (Leon Wood, who played just one UA season and transferred to Cal State-Fullerton, doesn’t count). Since then Arizona has had 19 first-round picks. UCLA has had 17, Stanford 11 and ASU three. But what makes the UA draft success more dynamic is the extended careers of its second-round draft picks, like Jud Buechler, Gilbert Arenas, Sean Rooks, Tom Tolbert, Luke Walton and Steve Kerr, to name a few. 

Ex-Cat Kingery says he's Kinsler with more speed 

Had to suppress a chuckle when I read a draft interview with UA second baseman Scott Kingery, a second-round choice of the Phillies. Kingery told a reporter “I’m something like Ian Kinsler with a little more speed.” Kinsler, a Canyon del Oro High grad, has played in four All-Star Games and has been paid $67 million, including $16 million this year by the Detroit Tigers. Kingery began his minor-league career for the Lakewood (N.J.) BlueClaws of the Class A South Atlantic League on Thursday. 

Former Wildcat Field likely to reach MLB 

Perhaps the first player from Arizona’s 2012 College World Series champs to reach MLB will be outfielder Johnny Field. He played in the Double-A Southern League All-Star Game last week and is among the league leaders with 11 homers and 49 RBIs. He plays for the Montgomery (Ala.) Biscuits. 

Salpointe grad Sands starts pro career 

Salpointe Catholic High grad Donny Sands, an eighth-round pick of the Yankees, began his pro career with the New York Yankees’ rookie league team in the Gulf Coast League last week. The Yankees moved him to third base; he hit .263 (5 for 19) in his first five games. 

Sahuaro grad Leverenz finishes season at top 

Sahuaro High grad Caitlin Leverenz completed the Arena Pro Series Grand Prix swim season last week as the highest point scorer among American women. She was paid $8,600 and given the use of a BMW for a year. The 2012 Olympic bronze medalist now prepares for August’s world championships in China.

Ex-Dorado Elliott pays dues, lands assistant job 

After he played basketball at CDO, David Elliott began his coaching career with the girls JV team at Ironwood Ridge. He graduated with a degree in microbiology from Arizona in 2009, but wanted to coach. He spent time on the staff at Columbia, and most recently, Knox College (Ill.). Last week he was hired as the assistant coach of the Denver University women’s team. Dues paid. 

UA receives lowest athletic score since 1993

Arizona finished No. 36 overall in the NCAA Directors’ Cup standings, a compilation of an athletic department’s total on-field success for 2014-15. It was the lowest finish at Arizona since 1993. The Pac-12 rocked: Stanford, UCLA and USC were 1-2-3. Cal was No. 12 and Oregon was No. 13. The reality of the last decade is that Arizona is no longer an elite program in anything except men’s basketball and women’s golf, but it wouldn’t take much for softball and football to gain that identity. 

Only two former Wildcats in pro softball 

The UA has just two players in professional softball: infielder Brigette Del Ponte and rookie catcher Chelsea Goodacre. The pro fast-pitch league used to be dominated by ex-Wildcats, especially pitchers. 

Tucsonan Cunningham finishes 8th in prestigious amateur tourney 

Tucsonan George Cunningham, a UA freshman, finished tied for eighth last week (at 8 under par) in the Sunnehanna Amateur, one of the most prestigious events in the country. It’s the same tournament Tucsonan Ed Updegraff won in 1962. 

New UA baseball coach Johnson scrambling to build team

Nevada took two weeks to name a replacement for UA baseball coach Jay Johnson. It hired UCLA assistant T.J. Bruce. Johnson has already received commitments from two pitchers in the class of 2016, one from Colorado and the other from Southern California. Johnson is scrambling to add pieces to his first UA team — he signed a junior college catcher from Santa Rosa, California — but it might be too late for Johnson to do much more than avoid finishing last in the Pac-12 next May. 

Sad news 

Cassandra Kirkland, a UA second-team All-Pac-10 golfer in 2005, a four-year letter-winner, has been diagnosed with lung cancer. A native of Paris, France, Kirkland has won twice on the Ladies European Tour in her career. She has been undergoing chemotherapy treatments for two months. She is only 32.

Foothills standout Glad active in MLS 

Southern Arizona now has three active (and starting) players in Major League Soccer. Very impressive.

Former Catalina Foothills standout Justen Glad, who is only 18, has started three games for Real Salt Lake since May 30. He turned down a scholarship offer from Stanford to take a chance in the MLS, and it is working out well. Glad is the second youngest player in MLS, part of a team with men aged 33, 34, 35 and 36. Glad’s MLS debut, in Vancouver, was watched by Pima College coach Dave Cosgrove. 

CDO grad Toia a starter for Montreal Impact 

CDO grad Donny Toia helped the Dorados win two state championships and was a standout at Pima College. He also spent six years playing for the Tucson Soccer Academy, and is now starting for the Montreal Impact. He had his first MLS goal, a header against Orlando, to help the Impact win 2-0. Toia, 23, also started 24 games for Chivas USA last year. 

Sierra Vista Buena grad Robles a media star in New York 

Sierra Vista Buena grad Luis Robles, who has 23 career shutouts in the MLS, has become something of a media star for the New York Red Bulls. He has been featured in a recent TV marketing campaign for the team. Robles, 31, played five years in the Tucson Soccer Academy. 

My two cents: UA football coaches helping out W.Va. cause 

UA football coach Rich Rodriguez returned to his home turf, Morgantown, West Virginia, last week, and was accompanied by defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel and defensive line coach Bill Kirelawich.

It was a journey that said a lot about those three men.

They paid their own way to West Virginia to be part of the annual Taylor Jones Scholarship Fund celebration.

When RichRod, Casteel and Kirelawich coached at West Virginia, Jones was a writer for the (WVU) BlueGold News. Tragically, she died of cancer in May 2014. She was only 27.

The UA coaches are trying to help raise $500,000 for endowed scholarships for the Mountaineers football program, in the name of Taylor Jones.

Her father helped RichRod start a recruiting fund when he began as WVU’s head coach in the 2001 season.

The UA coaches could’ve simply mailed a contribution to their old school. But by insisting on being there, and being a big part of the week’s festivities, it suggests there is much more to them than the X’s and O’s of a football game.

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