Hansen's Sunday Notebook: Big 5 commit to Match Play

The deadline for committing to the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship is Feb. 17, but the top five players in the world have already joined the field.

As of Saturday, world No. 1 Luke Donald, No. 2 Rory McIlroy, No. 3 Lee Westwood, No. 4 Martin Kaymer and No. 5 Steve Stricker had officially pledged to be part of Match Play VI at The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, Dove Mountain.

What's more, Tiger Woods indirectly said he would return to Dove Mountain for the Feb. 22-26 event. At the conclusion of the Abu Dhabi championship last Sunday, Woods told a Golf Channel analyst that his immediate future schedule included "Pebble Beach and the two World Championship events."

Woods typically makes an official commitment on his website on the Friday before he plays.

According to Rocco Bene, tournament chairman for the Tucson Conquistadores, 40 of the world's top 50 ranked players have officially committed. The only known holdout is Phil Mickelson.

Arizona Football

Lack of JC recruits isn't typical of Wildcat rosters

After poring through the last 34 UA football media guides, I found that the Wildcats have never entered a Pac-12 season without a junior-college transfer in a recruiting class.

Rich Rodriguez's first UA recruiting class is devoid of any JC transfers, which wasn't by plan but rather by the lack of time to successfully evaluate and recruit a JC player and and get his academic work in order.

Unlike USC and Stanford, both of which handpick their recruits, Arizona needs to work the JC market. Remember when Stanford coach Bill Walsh said you had to "hose off" the UA roster because it had so many transfers? Dick Tomey swept Walsh with those transfers in 1992, 1993 and 1994.

The two most successful teams in UA football history, the 10-2 Fiesta Bowl champs of 1993 and the 12-1 Holiday Bowl winners of 1998, were JC-heavy.

The Desert Swarm teams of '92 and '93 included JC starters such as linebacker Brant Boyer, receiver Troy Dickey, cornerbacks Darryl Morrison and Keshon Johnson, guard Willie Walker, linebacker Jamal Lee, center Mike Heemsbergen and tackle Vincent Smith.

From JC teams, the '98 Holiday Bowl team started cornerback Chris McAlister, receiver Jeremy McDaniel, tackles Edwin Mulitalo and Manuia Savea, H-back Paul Shields and pass-rusher Mike Robertson.

As much as the world has changed in the last 20 years, football recruiting at Arizona is much the same. Over time, Rodriguez will find that being resourceful, developing "preferred walk-ons" and making judicial use of transfers, is the surest way to get Arizona back to the Top 25.

Indoor track

Arizona's Lalang going for 5K record this week

UA sophomore distance runner Lawi Lalang, the NCAA cross country champion, will get international and TV exposure Saturday in New York City.

The Kenyan star will run the 5,000 meters at the Millrose Games, matched against, of all people, Olympic star Bernard Lagat, who often trains with Lalang and his UA teammates here.

Lalang is out to break the collegiate indoor record at 5,000 meters of 13:18.12. His best time is 13:30.64.

"Lawi has a chance to have a major breakthrough from his previous best times," said UA distance running coach James Li. "The pace will be pushed at world-class levels. If Lawi had someone to run with him, push him, in the (indoor) mile last week in Arkansas, he would've broken the college record for the indoor mile easily."

As it was, Lalang ran the indoor mile in 3:55.09 in Arkansas. The record is 3:55.0.

He could get another shot at the record at the NCAA Indoor championships March 9-10 in Boise, although Li said no decision has been made about what distances Lalang will run in that meet.

Short Stuff

San Jose State received special permission to recruit Sahuaro LB

San Jose State thought so much of Sahuaro High linebacker Niko Kittrell that it had to get special permission to sign him last week. The financially strapped Spartans recruit almost exclusively in-state, avoiding what they say is an extra $10,000 expense, per year, for out-of-state scholarship costs. SJSU director of athletics Tom Bowen last week told reporters that he approved five out-of-state signees, including Kittrell. "I told our coaches, don't bring me a role player from out of state, but if you can get a difference-maker, go get him." … It was a trying week for UA track coach Fred Harvey. He lost key recruiting battles for two of the top prep female sprinters in the world, San Francisco's Trinity Wilson to rival UCLA, and CDO's Jaide Stepter to USC. Both had visited Arizona and included the Wildcats in their set of finalists. Then, Harvey accepted the resignation of cross country coach Erin Dawson, a dynamic recruiter who had helped the Wildcat women's distance runners become a Top 25 program. "We had philosophical differences that couldn't be resolved," said Harvey. "I love that young lady to death. She's been great, but it's best we go our separate ways." … Jerry Carrillo's Cochise College men's basketball team won 17 consecutive games and boosted its season scoring average to 98.1, second in all NJCAA, before the 20-3 Apaches lost to Eastern Arizona on Wednesday. Now Carrillo can refocus the nation's No. 10-ranked team and attempt to win a second consecutive Region championship. Cochise and star center Matt Korcheck of Sabino will play at Pima College at 4 p.m. Saturday.

More Short Stuff

No D-backs, but 2 games at Kino should draw well

The Arizona Diamondbacks have 35 spring training games this year, none in Tucson. Any complaints? Organizers of the March 18 Padres vs. Rockies and March 23 Dodgers vs. White Sox games at Kino Stadium did well to ignore the D-backs, who were key players in the demise of spring training baseball here. Both Tucson games - played on a Sunday and a Friday at 1:05 p.m. - should be at near-capacity, perhaps 11,000 fans both days. … After a series of epic finishes between Arizona and Washington, Huskies basketball coach Lorenzo Romar had high praise for UA coach Sean Miller during the Huskies' news conference last week. "Our rivalry with Arizona has grown to be a really, good healthy one," he told reporters. "We go against those guys in recruiting all the time and not once have I heard them negative-recruit us. Every time they recruit, they do so in a way that's positive. They believe in their program and that's what they talk about. When we get out on the floor, they go at us and we go at them. So I think it's very healthy." … When Bob Knight was in Tucson last weekend for the ESPN "White Out" game, UA vs. UW, he went out to dinner with UA Hall of Fame baseball coach Jerry Kindall. Knight is an avid baseball fan and has long respected Kindall as much for the way he approached and respected the game, an old-school disciplinarian, as for his playing days with the Cubs and Indians. Seems hard to believe, but Knight is 71 and Kindall is 76.

It'll be Fowler vs. Fowler when Cats face Nebraska

When Arizona softball coach Mike Candrea opens the season Friday in Tempe at the Kajikawa Classic, he will have the power to set up a sister vs. sister matchup in the second of two games on Saturday. That's when the Wildcats play Nebraska. Nebraska starting third baseman Mattie Fowler of CDO is the sister of UA junior pitcher Kenzie Fowler. Even though Nebraska returns eight starters from a team that finished the season ranked No. 21, Mattie Fowler immediately moved into the starting lineup. "We have no concerns at all about throwing this freshman into the fire," Cornhuskers coach Rhonda Revelle said Thursday. "We know she will produce in a starting role." Mattie Fowler is to start at third base and also be used as a pitcher. … It's so difficult to get a spot in a PGA Tour event that five Tucson-UA connected golfers failed to gain entry into the ongoing Waste Management Phoenix Open. Brian Prouty, Rich Barcelo, Ted Purdy, Jason Gore and Chris Nallen were among 131 golfers who chased four Monday qualifying spots last week. Gore and Prouty broke par but didn't make it. … Among those on the UA-Stanford/Cal trip this week is ex-UA assistant basketball coach Gary Heintz. If Heintz looks at home on the sidelines, sitting next to UA superfan George Kalil, he should. In a distinguished coaching career at Salpointe Catholic and Central Arizona College, Heintz became one of the top basketball coaches Tucson ever produced. He is retired now after serving as director of athletics at Central Arizona.

My two cents

Life's not fair: Stoops, Kish in recruiting Eden, eye Neal

If you don't think this is a forgiving world, check out the recruiting class at Oklahoma.

The Sooners signed a five-star wide receiver and four four-star receivers, including two from California.

That's a decade worth of recruiting stars at Arizona.

And yet Sooners assistant coaches Mike Stoops and Tim Kish still hope their team can recruit Scottsdale's four-star receiver Davonte Neal, who would be the absolute coup for the star-hungry Arizona Wildcats.

Stoops was paid $1.4 million to leave Arizona and is now getting $600,000 per year from the Sooners. Kish, the UA's interim coach and linebackers coach, is expected to be paid about $350,000 annually by OU.

In 2011, Stoops and Kish were the masterminds of an Arizona defense that ranked No. 107 nationally in scoring defense and No. 110 in total defense, a mess that cost seven other assistant coaches their jobs.

Somehow it doesn't seem right they can profit so much.