On March 11, 2010, Arizona's 25-year streak of NCAA tournament appearances effectively ended. Lute Olson sat quietly with friends, eating lunch at the Foothills-area Sky Box restaurant as UCLA eliminated Arizona in the Pac-10 tournament.
The last time Arizona failed to make the tournament it was March 10, 1984. Olson spent most of that day returning to Tucson from the UA's final game in Pullman, Wash.
How long ago was that? Barry Bonds went 3 for 4 with a home run as ASU beat Arizona's baseball team on Selection Sunday 1984.
It is the streak of all streaks, unassailable in school history. It holds a lofty place above the other 10 streaks of note in UA sports. They are, in one man's opinion:
• 288 consecutive sellouts at McKale Center, 1987-2006.
• 48 consecutive winning seasons for UA baseball, ending in 1982.
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• 81 consecutive basketball victories at Bear Down Gym, 1945-51.
• 21 consecutive NCAA appearances by the UA men's golf team, 1987-2007.
• 16 consecutive college softball World Series appearances, 1988-2003.
• 19 consecutive years finishing in NCAA Top 10, women's swimming, 1991-current.
• 60 consecutive pitching victories by Jennie Finch, 2000-02.
• 25-0 start to the baseball season and 15-0 pitching record by Donnie Lee, 1956.
• 64-0 career record at McKale Center by UA guard Matt Muehlebach, 1987-91, the only player active on all four teams.
• 47-game winning streak by UA softball team, 1996-97.
A rare occurrence
Four coaches, four years: UA's Wise may be alone
It's possible that Nic Wise is the only player in modern basketball history to play for four coaches in four seasons, although tracking and confirming that data is virtually impossible.
But he is not the only player in NCAA history to play in three straight NCAA tournaments under three head coaches. Seattle's John Tresvant, who later played in the NBA for nine years, went through the same improbable scenario from 1962 to 1964.
Tresvant, who once had 40 rebounds in a game for Seattle - a Top 25-type program from about 1955 to 1965 - played under Vince Cazzetta on an 18-9 team in 1962. Cazzetta was fired and replaced by interim coach Clair Marky, who went 21-6 in 1963. Marky was replaced by Bob Boyd in 1964, who coached Seattle to a 22-6 season.
There are other similarities between Wise's Arizona teams and Tresvant's Seattle teams. After getting to the 1958 Final Four, Seattle coach John Castellani ran afoul of NCAA regulations. His star player, Elgin Baylor, left early for the NBA and Seattle was put on a two-year NCAA probation.
SHORT STUFF
Bruschi returns to UA as speaker at banquet
Tedy Bruschi discovered last week he is on the College Football Hall of Fame ballot for the first time. He will be in Tucson on March 28 as keynote speaker for the annual National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame Scholar-Athlete Awards banquet at the UA Student Union. Among other things, he will present the Tedy Bruschi Comeback Player of the Year award to Sahuaro High School's Mitchell Sluder, who was diagnosed with cancer last spring but fought back and was a starter for the Cougars in the fall. UA safety Corey Hall will receive the Ricky Hunley Award for scholar-athletes, and nine Tucson-area prep football players will be honored. Ticket information: 621-5233. … Tucson basketball referee Chris Rastatter called the wild Big Sky Conference title game last week as Montana rallied from a 20-point deficit to upset Weber State. It was the 61st game Rastatter had worked this year. A day later, he called the Pac-10 semifinal between Cal and UCLA. Rastatter also called the final game played at Mac Court. He and fellow Tucson official Bob Scofield, who also worked the Big Sky title game, will learn today if they are again being assigned to the NCAA tournament. … Tucsonan Jake Arnold, a two-time NCAA decathlon champion while at the UA, won the USA Track and Field indoor heptathlon last week in Indianapolis. He beat the USA's top-ranked multievents athlete, Tom Pappas, in a tight finish, which puts Arnold on track for the 2012 London Olympics. … In its bid to win the NCAA championship this week in Indiana, UA women's swimming coach Frank Busch qualified more swimmers - 18 - than any other team. The Wildcats finished No. 2 last year, failing to win the team title only after a false start in a relay event. Tucsonan Caitlin Leverenz, a freshman at Cal, enters the meet seeded No. 5 in the 400 IM and No. 13 in the 200 IM. She could win either or both.
2011 draft may reward local offensive linemen
When the NFL holds its draft in April 2011, it should have a distinct Tucson flavor among offensive linemen. Rincon/University High grad Alex Solot impressed NFL scouts at UTEP's timing day last week in El Paso. He ran a 5.14 for 40 yards, which equaled the sixth-fastest time from the recent NFL combine speeds in Indianapolis for offensive linemen. Also last week, USC center Kris O'Dowd of Salpointe Catholic did 35 repetitions of 225 pounds in the bench press, a high among all Trojans, which was equal to the third-best set of reps among linemen at the NFL combine. At Arizona, center Colin Baxter is listed as the No. 3 overall center in the 2011 draft by Scout.com. … At the USC-UA basketball game March 6, I had a chance to say hello to ex-UA guard Eric Cooper, who completed his college basketball career on Ken Burmeister's NCAA team at Texas-San Antonio. Now the head coach at La Verne Lutheran in SoCal, Cooper brought his son, 6-foot-2-inch freshman guard Eric Cooper Jr., on an unofficial recruiting tour of the UA. His son already has seven scholarship offers. … Pima College women's basketball coach Todd Holthaus will work out with his team this morning at McKale Center before leaving for the national finals in East Peoria, Ill. They open against Bismarck State College on Wednesday. The long-woeful Aztecs are 47-12 under Holthaus the last two seasons, one of the most compelling success stories in Tucson sports for the last decade. … How about Jordan Hill? The ex-UA center had a coming-out party for the Houston Rockets last week, scoring 23 points and grabbing 16 rebounds in two relief appearances against Detroit and Washington. Houston gave him 50 total minutes and he made the most of them.
Rosborough may find old friend at NJCAA tourney
It's possible that Pima College and Kirkwood College of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, will meet in the NJCAA men's basketball tournament this week. They are in the same bracket. If so, it would match PCC assistant coach Jim Rosborough and KCC assistant coach Greg Stokes. "I named my son after Greg," Rosborough said. Greg Stokes was the starting center at Iowa during Rosborough's final two seasons on Lute Olson's Hawkeye staff in the early 1980s. "I haven't seen Greg since 1985," Rosborough said. … Santa Rita point guard Terrell Stoglin is not the only Tucson prep basketball player to appear in four consecutive state championship games. From 1989 to 1992, Green Fields guard Matt Poirer was the point guard for a team that won 1990 and 1991 Class 1A titles and lost in the 1989 and 1992 title games. Poirer had some coaching uncertainty similar to that of Nic Wise; at Green Fields, he was coached by Bill Ludeke, Brian Peabody and Dick Marvin. Poirer is now an attorney in Flagstaff. (Thanks Reed Krider). … Sahuaro High pitcher Jake Cole has had a blazing start to the baseball season. The North Carolina-bound right-hander is 3-0 with an 0.74 ERA and is batting .400 with five extra-base hits as Mark Chandler's No. 1-ranked team in Class 4A-I seeks its first baseball state championship since 1982.
MY TWO CENTS
Cats' real MVP wasn't on floor, but rather in seats at McKale
I am convinced that Arizona didn't go 16-15 this season, but rather 12-19. The crowd at McKale Center was so willful, so empowering, that the Wildcats endured and won games against Cal, Stanford, UCLA and USC that otherwise might've been lost.
There were so many reasons Arizona should not have broken .500.
The Wildcats shot .443 from the field this season, their lowest percentage in 27 seasons. They were out-rebounded for only the third time in a quarter-century. Nic Wise was not able to match his stellar junior season; his shooting percentage dropped from .452 to .386.
But once Zona Zoo returned from Christmas break, I thought the atmosphere at McKale was as intimidating as it was from 1985 to 1998 - before the crowd became spoiled and exhibited a feeling of entitlement. But this year the hunger, appreciation and feeling of desperation returned.
At the team banquet last week, Wise and Derrick Williams shared MVP honors, but the real MVPs of Sean Miller's first Arizona season were the 14,500 people who filled the seats and made their presence known.
