In a season when the UA lacks outside shooting and inside punch, the Wildcats enter the NCAA tournament by welcoming back Hassan Adams, who is a midrange player.
About 6:30 a.m. Saturday, UA assistant basketball coaches Jim Rosborough, Josh Pastner and Miles Simon were at the Los Angeles International Airport, knowing that the numbers do not lie and that Adams' return might not mean much.
Arizona has made just 437 free throws this year, its lowest number, by far, since 1984. Some of Lute Olson's teams have made more than 700 free throws in a year; nine of them have made more than 600. Almost always, Arizona has been able to get to the foul line significantly more than the opposition, where shooting percentages exceed 70 percent.
Not this year.
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Worse, this year's club has made just 132 three-pointers, far below last year's 253, and the lowest in UA history. A decade ago, in 1996, Arizona made 269 three-pointers.
No inside game. No outside game. No parade to the free-throw line where so many games are won.
Pastner has scoured the country, searching for recruiting help from a 6-foot-8-inch junior college player, a Ben Davis or Bennett Davison-type, who could step in immediately next year.
Nothing.
Arizona is likely to be seeded No. 9 or No. 10 this afternoon, but the immediate reaction of a new opportunity will soon be balanced by the reminder that Arizona is seriously limited when it has the ball.
One victory this week, 20 wins for the season, would be a reasonably good exit to a choppy season.
Short stuff
● The Chicago Bears are working on a contract extension with All-Pro linebacker Lance Briggs. The original contract for Arizona's two-time All-Pac-10 player expires at the conclusion of the 2007 season. Expect him to get star money; Briggs' agent is hard-liner Drew Rosenhaus. … Baseball author Lynn Bevill, who has written a book about our local baseball history — "Phenoms, Outlaws and Black Sox: Early Baseball in Southern Arizona" — will give a lunch-hour presentation on his work Thursday at the Joel Valdez Main Library, 101 N. Stone Ave. There is no admission charge to the brown-bag lunch affair. … Ex-UA guard Will Bynum, who transferred to Georgia Tech essentially after losing playing time to then-freshman Chris Rodgers, is leading the NBA's developmental league with a 23.6 scoring average for the Roanoke Dazzle.
● After Tucsonan Chris Duncan hit a home run and two doubles in his first three spring training starts for the St. Louis Cardinals — he is attempting to make the team as a left-handed hitter off the bench, with the ability to play first base and outfield — manager Tony LaRussa was impressed. "He's got special talent and he's got a special attitude," LaRussa said of the Canyon del Oro product. "Guys who have that play in the big leagues." Through Friday, Duncan led the Cardinals with 15 total bases in spring training. His father, Dave, is the St. Louis pitching coach. … PCC update: The Pima College men's basketball team completed the ACCAC season in 11th place at 5-26 overall. The Aztec women finished 1-29, far behind No. 1 ranked NJCAA Division I power Central Arizona, which completed the regular season 30-0. … Central's first-year assistant coach, Mallory Parsons, a former Marana High School standout, is splitting her season between attending ASU (she has a 4.0 in math) and coaching the Vaqueras. Parsons started for last year's CAC national championship club.
● Dick Tomey not only attended the UA-Oregon game at the Pac-10 women's basketball tournament last week in San Jose, Calif., he also showed up for Joan Bonvicini's pre-tournament reception, taking time to wish her the best after a sad season. Why aren't we surprised? … Bonvicini's top recruits for 2006-07, twins Suzanne and Beatrice Bofia, will be in Phoenix today through Wednesday attempting to win the NJCAA II championship for Illinois Central College. The twins from Cameroon, both 6 feet 7 inches tall, are on the nation's No. 1 ranked team. … Trevor Crowe was given a surprising audition by the Cleveland Indians in spring training. Last year's No. 1 draft pick from Arizona, Crowe has played in Cleveland's first five spring games, hitting .375. He is expected to open his first full pro season at Class AA Akron. … CDO grad Jason Stanford, a left-handed pitcher coming back from 2004 Tommy John surgery, is probably the leading candidate to be Cleveland's long relief or spot starting pitcher. He is engaged to Kara Leonard, a Cleveland Cavaliers' dancer.
● Frank Busch's UA women's swimming team qualified 15 athletes for this week's NCAA championships. Only Georgia, with 16, had more. It should be Arizona and Georgia battling for the national title. One factor: The meet will be held at UGA's aquatic facility. Not the best omen. … Former ASU basketball coach Rob Evans said he voted UCLA's Luc Richard Mbah a Moute as Pac-10 freshman of the year in what had to be a close vote with Arizona's Marcus Williams. Against ASU, Mbah a Moute averaged 5.5 points and 8.5 rebounds in two games. Williams' ASU averages were 10.0 points and 6.0 rebounds. … Rather than try to break the bank by recycling a coach with a national reputation, the Sun Devils might be better served by asking Montana's 41-year-old Larry Krystkowiak to replace Evans. In two years at Montana, Coach K has produced two NCAA tournament teams. He is personable and on his way up. Krystkowiak's résumé is impressive: nine years in the NBA and a head-coaching stint in the CBA. He would cost half of what Mike Montgomery, another former Montana head coach, would require. … Tucson's College Football Hall of Fame coach, Jim Young, is back on the sidelines this spring. The former UA head coach (1972-76) is at Kent State, helping coach Doug Martin with the Golden Flashes' spring football session. Young retired from Tomey's staff, as an offensive line coach, in 1993.
● The Sidewinders might open the season without manager Chip Hale. He has become the Diamondbacks every-day third base coach, filling in for injured Carlos Tosca, who probably is out for another month with a broken foot. If Hale opens the season in Phoenix, it would be a stretch to see him return to Tucson. Stay tuned. … Damon Stoudamire was at the Pac-10 tournament on Saturday as Arizona's fifth player inducted into the league's Hall of Honor. The first four were: Sean Elliott, Steve Kerr, Pete Williams and Khalid Reeves. The UA would do well to consider, as its 2007 choice, Roger Johnson, a Tucson High School grad who in 1951 became a third-team Associated Press All-American, almost unheard of at the time for small-college Arizona. … Stoudamire, incidentally, has recently spoken publicly about arranging an investment group to buy his hometown Portland Trail Blazers. He has earned more than $85 million in his NBA career.
Ochoa, Sorenstam returning to Tucson
UA women's golf coach Greg Allen entered his team in the Guadalajara Invitational in Guadalajara, Mexico, last week, home of former UA superstar Lorena Ochoa. The team and staff had dinner at Ochoa's house on Tuesday night.
The ex-Wildcat All-American then attended a Q&A session with all of the teams at the tournament. Also included in the week was a stop at a children's hospital by the golfers.
Ochoa will be part of a UA golf program fund-raiser on March 20 at the Tucson Country Club. Annika Sorenstam also has committed to attend the event. It's possible that former UA golfers Leta Lindley, Marisa Baena and Natalie Gulbis also will be in Tucson, one day after the completion of the Phoenix LPGA Tour stop.
My two cents
Fox Sports Net's presentation of the Pac-10 tournament was embarrassing, further cementing its reputation as a not-ready-for-ESPN challenger and, by association, giving the Pac-10 a similar minor-league image.
FSN's studio crew was brutal. It cannot do any better than Bill Macdonald, a second-tier Los Angeles Lakers sideline reporter? Worse, the all-UCLA analysis crew of Don MacLean, Sean Farnham and Marques Johnson is an insult to the rest of the league.
Among the reasons there is no buzz, locally or nationally, for Pac-10 hoops, is because its presentation, via FSN, is so weak. Perhaps in its next contract with Fox, the Pac-10 can insist on an upgrade of game broadcasters and studio analysts.
In March, the most important month of the year for college hoops, it's sometimes as if the Pac-10 does not exist.
