Hansen's Sunday Notebook: Average all around
- Updated
Star columnist Greg Hansen offers his takes on recent sports news.
- Greg Hansen
Arizona was an average team in an average league in 2015-16
I departed the Dunkin’ Donuts Center at 1:45 a.m. Friday and walked a few blocks to a downtown Providence, Rhode Island, hotel. On the way, I passed Murphy’s Irish pub.
Last call? The doors were locked.
A few hours earlier, on my walk to the Arizona-Wichita State game, the streets and sidewalks were almost impassable. The sun was out and the St. Patrick’s Day party was like nothing you ever see in Tucson.
Hope was in the air; anything was possible.
But in the wee hours Friday morning, only a few stragglers remained at Murphy’s. The streets were littered with empty green beer cups. It was raining. The party was over.
It was, I thought, a symbolic end to Arizona’s basketball season.
This is what I learned:
1. If you run your finger down Arizona’s roster, you do not, as in most seasons, tell yourself “we’re really going to miss that guy.” Best example: Ryan Anderson. His production diminished so significantly down the stretch that he was, for a time, benched for lack of effort. He scored eight points against Wichita State and six against Oregon in his last two games. Every player in the UA rotation is replaceable, and when was the last time you said that?
2. Bill Walton, Larry Scott, Sean Miller and a chorus of voices inside the Pac-12 declared this was the league’s best season in (a) forever or (b) a long, long time.
Nuts. In 1997, the league won 13 NCAA Tournament games. Arizona won the national title, UCLA reached the Elite Eight, Stanford and Cal fought on to the Sweet 16. In 2001, the league won 13 NCAA Tournament games. Arizona played for the national title, USC and Stanford reached the Elite Eight and UCLA got to the Sweet 16.
The old Pac-10 was better in 2002, 2003 and through the mid-1990s, when Stanford, Arizona and UCLA were consistent national powers. Nothing like that now.
This year’s Pac-12 has a handful of fairly good teams who set a league record (2-5) for first-round exits. All of that buildup was quickly torn down.
3. Arizona is not what it used to be. In the last 15 years, the Wildcats are 22-13 in the NCAA Tournament, with no Final Fours. In the previous 15 years (1987-2001), Arizona was 30-14 with four Final Fours. But it’s close. One Final Four will make the aftertaste of losing to Wichita State and Wisconsin vanish.
4. Wichita State met the same fate of those teams that earlier shocked Arizona in first-round games — East Tennessee State in 1992, Santa Clara in 1993 and Miami of Ohio in 1995. All lost the next game.
5. Incredibly, Arizona has been whipped/blown out just three times in its last 80 NCAA Tournament games, which includes Thursday’s loss to Wichita State. The hangover didn’t last long.
In 2002, Oklahoma routed Arizona 88-67 in the Sweet 16. A year later, Arizona went 28-4, won the Pac-10 and reached the Elite Eight.
In 2009, Louisville humbled Arizona 103-64 in the Sweet 16. The Wildcats hired Miller a month later and were 30-8, an Elite Eight team, two years later.
Oregon is now the team to beat in Pac-12 hoops, but by St. Patrick’s Day, 2017, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Arizona, USC, UCLA or Washington at the top.
- Greg Hansen
Tom Sanders: Mr. Bear Down
Tom Sanders arrived on campus as a UA freshman in the mid-1960s, a Phoenix kid with an interest in sports. Over the next 50 years, he became one of the most enduring figures in the school’s sports history.
He died last week at 70, way too young. He still had hundreds of miles to swim and endless stories to tell about Pop McKale, Button Salmon, Art Luppino and the ranking characters of Arizona’s last 100 years.
Sanders was The Expert, the unofficial curator of UA sports memories, the man who literally established the Jim Click Hall of Champions and knew the important details about all those in the UA Sports Hall of Fame.
As the department’s chief fundraiser from 1986 to 2000, Sanders made it possible to build Hillenbrand Stadium, Hillenbrand Aquatic Center, Enke Plaza, the Button Salmon/Bear Down memorial, Robson Tennis Center and much more.
After major back surgery in January, Sanders was overwhelmed by an infection and died. He had so much he still wanted to accomplish.
Almost every time I went to interview an Arizona swimmer or coach, I would see Sanders putting in his daily mileage next to an All-American like Ryk Neethling or Amanda Beard. He attended all of the UA’s serious runs at NCAA swimming championships.
Two weeks before he died, Sanders and I met for lunch, as we did regularly. In the back of his car he had all of his golfing gear: balls, clubs, shoes, hats — you name it. He said his back injury no longer permitted him to golf.
“It’s all yours,” he said.
I told him I’d rather have those silver trays with engraved tributes to Pop McKale discovered in an old Arizona Stadium stockroom. Or the 1954 game film of Luppino, the Cactus Comet’s legendary 224-yard game (on six carries) against New Mexico State.
“I left all of that to the UA,” he said. “I trust they are in good hands.”
Talk about a tough act to follow.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
UA’s Quihuis among likely favorites at Pac-12 tourney
Tucson’s athlete of the week: UA sophomore golfer Krystal Quihuis won the Wildcat Invitational last week, a field that included seven ranked teams. What’s more, the Salpointe Catholic grad shot 7 under par over three days, a score exceeded in school history only by Marisa Baena, Leta Lindley, Natalie Gulbis, Jenna Daniels, Lorena Ochoa, Manon Gidali and UA senior Lindsey Weaver. All but Gidali played on the LPGA Tour. Quihuis was the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year in 2015, a two-time state champ for Salpointe who is likely to enter next month’s Pac-12 championships as one of the handful of individual favorites. Gulbis, who has not played in an LPGA event this year, attended last week’s tournament at Sewailo Golf Club; she spent time with ex-UA coach Greg Allen, who recruited her to Arizona. Allen is now the head coach at Vanderbilt.
- Greg Hansen
Krist home run helps Arizona beat ASU
UA freshman Joelle Krist hit a last-inning home run to beat ASU 2-0 on Friday, her first-ever Pac-12 softball game. Krist had a previous UA connection while growing up in Petaluma, California. Her AAU summer travel-ball coach was Phil Wright, Scooby’s father. Scooby, incidentally, is back in Tucson and will get a final chance to impress NFL scouts Thursday in the school’s annual Pro Day.
- Greg Hansen
Pima softball coach wins 400
Pima College softball coach Armando Quiroz not only won his 400th career game for the Aztecs last week, his team is off to a 26-9 start and again a contender for the NJCAA Division II World Series. This year, Quiroz’s ability to restock with quality players from year to year had a link to his days at Flowing Wells High School. (Quiroz coached the Caballeros to state titles in 2000 and 2002.) He signed freshman pitcher/hitter Bailey Critchlow, who has already been the state and national Player of the Week, hitting .455 with 36 RBIs in 35 games. Critchlow’s mother, Teddie Smith Critchlow, was a volleyball player at Flowing Wells in the 1980s. Her daughter was an all-state softball player at Grantsville (Utah) High School.
- Greg Hansen
Center Markkanen will play big part for Cats next season
The key figure to the remake of Arizona’s basketball roster is 7-foot Lauri Markkanen of Finland. Markkanen completed his high school exams last week and went through a graduation ceremony Friday. He will play two more games for HBA-Marsky in the Finnish semipro league, attend two camps with the Finland national team, and plans to move to Tucson on May 11. That’s quite a head start on the 2016-17 season.
- Greg Hansen
Rastatter referees for NCAA Tournament
Tucsonan Chris Rastatter was selected to referee in the NCAA Tournament for the seventh straight year. The Rincon/University grad worked the Texas-Northern Iowa game on Friday and his first-ever Pac-12 championship game last week. Tucsonan Bob Scofield, who regularly works Pac-12 women’s games, officiated the Big Sky championship game last week between Idaho and Idaho State. Scofield earlier worked a Pac-12 Tournament semifinal game.
- Greg Hansen
CDO track and field stars
A year ago, CDO freshman Turner Washington won the state discus championship with a toss of 172 feet, 8 inches. Last week, he shattered the state record (equivalent of Division II) with a throw of 201-4. He has 2½ years to pursue the best throw ever by an Arizona prep athlete (212-11), set in 1987 by Tempe High’s Dwight Johnson. It was also a good week for another CDO track and field state champion, Jaide Stepter. Now a senior at USC, Stepter became an All-American at the NCAA indoor finals, running 400 meters in 52.22 seconds, which is a Trojans school record. She was sixth overall at the NCAAs.
- Greg Hansen
St. Augustine High gymnast Leon has bright future
St. Augustine High sophomore Angel Leon, who is building toward a potential 2020 Team USA Olympic gymnastic berth, will have a rare home meet showcase Sunday. The two-time national junior all-around champion is competing in the Arizona Boys State championships at Sporting Chance Center. Leon, who trains under longtime USA Olympic team selection committee member and coach Yoichi Tomita, is one of Tomita’s 32 gymnasts in the meet. The final 72 qualify for Sunday’s finals.
- Greg Hansen
PCC's Wu has a memorable golf tournament
Pima College sophomore Frankie Wu, a CDO grad, had the golf tournament of his life last week. He shot 71-63 to win the Mesa Community College Invitational. Wu, who grew up in Taiwan, shot 67 when he was 11 years old. Combined with Cienega grad David Rauer, Wu gives PCC one of the top 1-2 combos in all of junior-college golf.
- Greg Hansen
Soelter scores 13
Salpointe Catholic grad Shawn Soelter was a key figure in NCAA Division III Benedictine University’s 31-0 run to Saturday’s national championship game. The junior forward scored 13 points to help Benedictine win its first three tournament games and reach the final, which it lost to 82-76 to St. Thomas.
- Greg Hansen
My two cents: Byrne searching hard for UA women's hoops coach
Arizona and Colorado dismissed their women’s basketball coaches within 24 hours of each another this month. CU hired a search firm to help identify a new coach; Arizona’s Greg Byrne does that himself.
He has been so good at these searches, he could someday run a consulting business for college ADs. Byrne seems to revel in the voyage of discovery.
Byrne didn’t fly with the UA basketball team to Rhode Island last week. He took an overnight red-eye flight from San Francisco to Charlotte, North Carolina, sleeping on the plane, searching for a successor to Niya Butts.
He’s apt to hire a coach late this week or early next week. It wouldn’t be a shock if he gave long consideration to San Francisco Dons coach Jennifer Azzi, who has rebuilt USF into an NCAA Tournament team from a place even worse than Butts left Arizona’s women’s program.
But Azzi, one of the great players in Stanford history, is 47 and viewed by many as the likely successor to Stanford legend Tara VanDerveer. Byrne won’t lack for good choices.
Although many Tucsonans yawn at the mention of women’s basketball, Byrne sees potential. On Friday night, ASU drew just 3,134 as a host of a first-round NCAA Tournament game against New Mexico State.
If Arizona’s next women’s basketball coach can ever get the Wildcats into the position to host a tourney game, the crowd would likely double that one in Tempe.
But first Byrne must hire the right coach and catch up on his sleep.
More like this...
- Greg Hansen
Arizona was an average team in an average league in 2015-16
I departed the Dunkin’ Donuts Center at 1:45 a.m. Friday and walked a few blocks to a downtown Providence, Rhode Island, hotel. On the way, I passed Murphy’s Irish pub.
Last call? The doors were locked.
A few hours earlier, on my walk to the Arizona-Wichita State game, the streets and sidewalks were almost impassable. The sun was out and the St. Patrick’s Day party was like nothing you ever see in Tucson.
Hope was in the air; anything was possible.
But in the wee hours Friday morning, only a few stragglers remained at Murphy’s. The streets were littered with empty green beer cups. It was raining. The party was over.
It was, I thought, a symbolic end to Arizona’s basketball season.
This is what I learned:
1. If you run your finger down Arizona’s roster, you do not, as in most seasons, tell yourself “we’re really going to miss that guy.” Best example: Ryan Anderson. His production diminished so significantly down the stretch that he was, for a time, benched for lack of effort. He scored eight points against Wichita State and six against Oregon in his last two games. Every player in the UA rotation is replaceable, and when was the last time you said that?
2. Bill Walton, Larry Scott, Sean Miller and a chorus of voices inside the Pac-12 declared this was the league’s best season in (a) forever or (b) a long, long time.
Nuts. In 1997, the league won 13 NCAA Tournament games. Arizona won the national title, UCLA reached the Elite Eight, Stanford and Cal fought on to the Sweet 16. In 2001, the league won 13 NCAA Tournament games. Arizona played for the national title, USC and Stanford reached the Elite Eight and UCLA got to the Sweet 16.
The old Pac-10 was better in 2002, 2003 and through the mid-1990s, when Stanford, Arizona and UCLA were consistent national powers. Nothing like that now.
This year’s Pac-12 has a handful of fairly good teams who set a league record (2-5) for first-round exits. All of that buildup was quickly torn down.
3. Arizona is not what it used to be. In the last 15 years, the Wildcats are 22-13 in the NCAA Tournament, with no Final Fours. In the previous 15 years (1987-2001), Arizona was 30-14 with four Final Fours. But it’s close. One Final Four will make the aftertaste of losing to Wichita State and Wisconsin vanish.
4. Wichita State met the same fate of those teams that earlier shocked Arizona in first-round games — East Tennessee State in 1992, Santa Clara in 1993 and Miami of Ohio in 1995. All lost the next game.
5. Incredibly, Arizona has been whipped/blown out just three times in its last 80 NCAA Tournament games, which includes Thursday’s loss to Wichita State. The hangover didn’t last long.
In 2002, Oklahoma routed Arizona 88-67 in the Sweet 16. A year later, Arizona went 28-4, won the Pac-10 and reached the Elite Eight.
In 2009, Louisville humbled Arizona 103-64 in the Sweet 16. The Wildcats hired Miller a month later and were 30-8, an Elite Eight team, two years later.
Oregon is now the team to beat in Pac-12 hoops, but by St. Patrick’s Day, 2017, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Arizona, USC, UCLA or Washington at the top.
- Greg Hansen
Tom Sanders: Mr. Bear Down
Tom Sanders arrived on campus as a UA freshman in the mid-1960s, a Phoenix kid with an interest in sports. Over the next 50 years, he became one of the most enduring figures in the school’s sports history.
He died last week at 70, way too young. He still had hundreds of miles to swim and endless stories to tell about Pop McKale, Button Salmon, Art Luppino and the ranking characters of Arizona’s last 100 years.
Sanders was The Expert, the unofficial curator of UA sports memories, the man who literally established the Jim Click Hall of Champions and knew the important details about all those in the UA Sports Hall of Fame.
As the department’s chief fundraiser from 1986 to 2000, Sanders made it possible to build Hillenbrand Stadium, Hillenbrand Aquatic Center, Enke Plaza, the Button Salmon/Bear Down memorial, Robson Tennis Center and much more.
After major back surgery in January, Sanders was overwhelmed by an infection and died. He had so much he still wanted to accomplish.
Almost every time I went to interview an Arizona swimmer or coach, I would see Sanders putting in his daily mileage next to an All-American like Ryk Neethling or Amanda Beard. He attended all of the UA’s serious runs at NCAA swimming championships.
Two weeks before he died, Sanders and I met for lunch, as we did regularly. In the back of his car he had all of his golfing gear: balls, clubs, shoes, hats — you name it. He said his back injury no longer permitted him to golf.
“It’s all yours,” he said.
I told him I’d rather have those silver trays with engraved tributes to Pop McKale discovered in an old Arizona Stadium stockroom. Or the 1954 game film of Luppino, the Cactus Comet’s legendary 224-yard game (on six carries) against New Mexico State.
“I left all of that to the UA,” he said. “I trust they are in good hands.”
Talk about a tough act to follow.
- Greg Hansen
UA’s Quihuis among likely favorites at Pac-12 tourney
Tucson’s athlete of the week: UA sophomore golfer Krystal Quihuis won the Wildcat Invitational last week, a field that included seven ranked teams. What’s more, the Salpointe Catholic grad shot 7 under par over three days, a score exceeded in school history only by Marisa Baena, Leta Lindley, Natalie Gulbis, Jenna Daniels, Lorena Ochoa, Manon Gidali and UA senior Lindsey Weaver. All but Gidali played on the LPGA Tour. Quihuis was the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year in 2015, a two-time state champ for Salpointe who is likely to enter next month’s Pac-12 championships as one of the handful of individual favorites. Gulbis, who has not played in an LPGA event this year, attended last week’s tournament at Sewailo Golf Club; she spent time with ex-UA coach Greg Allen, who recruited her to Arizona. Allen is now the head coach at Vanderbilt.
- Greg Hansen
Krist home run helps Arizona beat ASU
UA freshman Joelle Krist hit a last-inning home run to beat ASU 2-0 on Friday, her first-ever Pac-12 softball game. Krist had a previous UA connection while growing up in Petaluma, California. Her AAU summer travel-ball coach was Phil Wright, Scooby’s father. Scooby, incidentally, is back in Tucson and will get a final chance to impress NFL scouts Thursday in the school’s annual Pro Day.
- Greg Hansen
Pima softball coach wins 400
Pima College softball coach Armando Quiroz not only won his 400th career game for the Aztecs last week, his team is off to a 26-9 start and again a contender for the NJCAA Division II World Series. This year, Quiroz’s ability to restock with quality players from year to year had a link to his days at Flowing Wells High School. (Quiroz coached the Caballeros to state titles in 2000 and 2002.) He signed freshman pitcher/hitter Bailey Critchlow, who has already been the state and national Player of the Week, hitting .455 with 36 RBIs in 35 games. Critchlow’s mother, Teddie Smith Critchlow, was a volleyball player at Flowing Wells in the 1980s. Her daughter was an all-state softball player at Grantsville (Utah) High School.
- Greg Hansen
Center Markkanen will play big part for Cats next season
The key figure to the remake of Arizona’s basketball roster is 7-foot Lauri Markkanen of Finland. Markkanen completed his high school exams last week and went through a graduation ceremony Friday. He will play two more games for HBA-Marsky in the Finnish semipro league, attend two camps with the Finland national team, and plans to move to Tucson on May 11. That’s quite a head start on the 2016-17 season.
- Greg Hansen
Rastatter referees for NCAA Tournament
Tucsonan Chris Rastatter was selected to referee in the NCAA Tournament for the seventh straight year. The Rincon/University grad worked the Texas-Northern Iowa game on Friday and his first-ever Pac-12 championship game last week. Tucsonan Bob Scofield, who regularly works Pac-12 women’s games, officiated the Big Sky championship game last week between Idaho and Idaho State. Scofield earlier worked a Pac-12 Tournament semifinal game.
- Greg Hansen
CDO track and field stars
A year ago, CDO freshman Turner Washington won the state discus championship with a toss of 172 feet, 8 inches. Last week, he shattered the state record (equivalent of Division II) with a throw of 201-4. He has 2½ years to pursue the best throw ever by an Arizona prep athlete (212-11), set in 1987 by Tempe High’s Dwight Johnson. It was also a good week for another CDO track and field state champion, Jaide Stepter. Now a senior at USC, Stepter became an All-American at the NCAA indoor finals, running 400 meters in 52.22 seconds, which is a Trojans school record. She was sixth overall at the NCAAs.
- Greg Hansen
St. Augustine High gymnast Leon has bright future
St. Augustine High sophomore Angel Leon, who is building toward a potential 2020 Team USA Olympic gymnastic berth, will have a rare home meet showcase Sunday. The two-time national junior all-around champion is competing in the Arizona Boys State championships at Sporting Chance Center. Leon, who trains under longtime USA Olympic team selection committee member and coach Yoichi Tomita, is one of Tomita’s 32 gymnasts in the meet. The final 72 qualify for Sunday’s finals.
- Greg Hansen
PCC's Wu has a memorable golf tournament
Pima College sophomore Frankie Wu, a CDO grad, had the golf tournament of his life last week. He shot 71-63 to win the Mesa Community College Invitational. Wu, who grew up in Taiwan, shot 67 when he was 11 years old. Combined with Cienega grad David Rauer, Wu gives PCC one of the top 1-2 combos in all of junior-college golf.
- Greg Hansen
Soelter scores 13
Salpointe Catholic grad Shawn Soelter was a key figure in NCAA Division III Benedictine University’s 31-0 run to Saturday’s national championship game. The junior forward scored 13 points to help Benedictine win its first three tournament games and reach the final, which it lost to 82-76 to St. Thomas.
- Greg Hansen
My two cents: Byrne searching hard for UA women's hoops coach
Arizona and Colorado dismissed their women’s basketball coaches within 24 hours of each another this month. CU hired a search firm to help identify a new coach; Arizona’s Greg Byrne does that himself.
He has been so good at these searches, he could someday run a consulting business for college ADs. Byrne seems to revel in the voyage of discovery.
Byrne didn’t fly with the UA basketball team to Rhode Island last week. He took an overnight red-eye flight from San Francisco to Charlotte, North Carolina, sleeping on the plane, searching for a successor to Niya Butts.
He’s apt to hire a coach late this week or early next week. It wouldn’t be a shock if he gave long consideration to San Francisco Dons coach Jennifer Azzi, who has rebuilt USF into an NCAA Tournament team from a place even worse than Butts left Arizona’s women’s program.
But Azzi, one of the great players in Stanford history, is 47 and viewed by many as the likely successor to Stanford legend Tara VanDerveer. Byrne won’t lack for good choices.
Although many Tucsonans yawn at the mention of women’s basketball, Byrne sees potential. On Friday night, ASU drew just 3,134 as a host of a first-round NCAA Tournament game against New Mexico State.
If Arizona’s next women’s basketball coach can ever get the Wildcats into the position to host a tourney game, the crowd would likely double that one in Tempe.
But first Byrne must hire the right coach and catch up on his sleep.
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