Hansen's Sunday Notebook: RichRod's makeover is Act II

RichRod's makeover is Act II 

Arizona will open the 2016 football season with an entirely new defensive coaching staff. Starting over isn’t unprecedented at Arizona.

After Dick Tomey struggled in 1991, finishing 4-7. With his job at stake, he, too, made dramatic changes. He made over his entire offensive coaching staff.

After the ’91 season, UA quarterbacks coach Gerald Carr went to North Carolina. Offensive coordinator Pat Hill went to the Cleveland Browns. Receivers coach Mike Flores became recruiting coordinator. Special teams/tight end coach John Baxter went to Maryland.

So Tomey started over with what had been an offense-challenged program.

He hired retired Army coach Jim Young and ex-Wildcat lineman and NAU coach Charlie Dickey to coach the offensive line. He hired Iowa State’s Norm Anderson to coach receivers.

More boldly, Tomey made secondary coach Duane Akina the UA’s offensive coordinator. He replaced Akina with Rich Ellerson, who had been Hawaii’s defensive coordinator. Ellerson was outstanding.

How did it go?

The next three seasons were the Desert Swarm years at Arizona, with each team, 1992, 1993 and 1994, spending time ranked in the top 10.

In retrospect, those coaching changes 24 years ago were a thing of football genius. Now it’s up to RichRod to show it can be done again.

Catalina's Paddley joins Tucson's rare 50-point club 

At halftime of Friday’s Catalina-Thatcher boys basketball game, Catalina scorekeeper Mike Davidson turned the page back to the Trojans’ Wednesday game at Douglas.

“Look at that,” he said pointing to the name Hunter Paddley. “Look at all those 2s and 3s. That’s 52 points.”

Davidson recounted the many 2s and 3s and all the free throws.

“That’s 26 points in the first half and 26 in the second half,” he said. “Quite a night.”

On Wednesday at Douglas, Catalina sophomore guard Paddley, who is probably 5-foot-7-inches and 130 pounds, became the eighth boys basketball player in Tucson history to score 50 or more points.

None were more unlikely.

“Hunter sat out last year to concentrate on academics, but the more I saw him in the gym with the junior varsity, the more I liked him,” said Catalina coach Eric Peterson, a Salpointe Catholic grad who coached Globe to the 2002 state championship game. “He’s come so far; we’re a very young program, rebuilding the culture, but what Hunter has done is encouraging.”

So far this season, Paddley has scored 34 against Sahuarita and 26 against Rincon/University, one of Tucson’s top teams. He scored 73 over a three-game tournament in Benson.

But 52? It wasn’t that he shot to excess; Paddley made 16 of his 28 field-goal attempts.

“Hunter’s got a lot of room to grow,” Peterson said. “He’ll get stronger, work on his pull-up jumper, work on everything. He’s like everyone on our team.”

On Friday, Catalina didn’t even score 52 as a team. It lost 58-28 to Thatcher. Paddley, a Native American, was limited to 14.

Here’s the list of Tucson’s other 50-point scorers, to which Paddley now belongs:

58: Aromeo Grigsby, Pueblo, 2003

57: Anthony Lever-Pedroza, CDO, 1997

54: Smiley Contreras, Pueblo, 2001

53: George Walls, Salpointe, 1970

53: Mark Jung, CDO, 1978

50: Jim Pyers, Santa Rita, 1979

50: Sammy Wade, Pueblo, 1998

What happened to those who preceded Paddley? You name it.

Grigsby, whose record has endured for a dozen years, played basketball at Division III Simpson College in Iowa, earned a degree in biology and has since played professionally in Lorrach, Germany, where he is now a teacher.

Wade, former road manager for Lil Wayne, is now in the rap music industry.

Jung, who played at Colorado State, is an insurance executive in Tucson. Walls, who played at Denver, has worked extensively for TUSD. Lever-Pedroza, son of former NBA All-Star Fat Lever, who played at Oregon, runs his own promotion and marketing company in Mexico and in Phoenix.

From Tucson to the Crimson Tide 

Levi Wallace is a backup wide receiver for the Alabama Crimson Tide. He wears No. 44, and — following Monday’s win over Clemson — a national championship ring.

Wallace, a two-way standout for Tucson High coach Justin Argraves, chose to walk on at Alabama rather than play for a Division II or Division III school. He made the roster as a backup receiver, although he did not see game action this season.

Why Alabama?

“He always had his heart on attending Alabama and was able to attend school there for free through the GI Bill since his father (Walter), was in the service,” said Argraves.

Walter Wallace, who died in Tucson of Lou Gehrig’s disease last year, spent 21 years in the Air Force. He grew up in Alabama. When Levi moved to Tuscaloosa, he wasn’t alone: he has aunts and uncles in Alabama who are Crimson Tide fans.

Levi has since been joined by his brother, Lawrence Wallace, who won the state long jump championship for the Badgers last spring. Lawrence, who jumped 25-feet ½ inch, the fifth-longest jump in Arizona history, is now on the Alabama track team.

ESPN networks a big hit for Arizona basketball 

Here’s the power of ESPN as opposed to others who broadcast Arizona basketball games: The UA-UCLA game on ESPN2 drew an audience of 695,000 viewers, according to the Nielsen ratings. But when Arizona played Washington on Thursday night on Fox Sports 1, the Nielsen ratings were 151,000 viewers. By comparison, the BYU-Gonzaga game the same night, on ESPN2, drew an audience of 309,000. 

UA hoops, Pasternack heavily involved in foreign recruiting

Australian Harry Froling, a 6-foot-9-inch basketball prospect, attended Thursday’s Arizona-Washington game and left Tucson on Friday to fly to Colorado for Saturday’s Buffaloes-Oregon game. He will attend the SMU-Houston game this week in Dallas and is then likely to make a selection. His twin sisters, Alicia and Keely, both play at SMU. Arizona is more heavily involved in foreign recruiting now than at any time in school history. A lot of the work is being done by assistant coach Joe Pasternack; he was the key behind-the-scenes recruiter on Dusan Ristic of Serbia and incoming freshman Lauri Markkanen of Finland. In the future, most top-25 programs will need someone like Pasternack to work globally. 

Tucson High, Pima standouts meet again 

Two of the top players in Pima College men’s basketball history, Shakir Smith and Murphy Gershman, met last week in a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference game. Gershman’s Colorado School of Mines swept the season series against Smith’s Adams State. Smith is Adams State’s top scorer, at 22.4 per game. Gershman has struggled, averaging just 2.9 points. Both played at Tucson High School.

Future golf stars in Tucson presents chance for UA programs

This is a top recruiting weekend for UA women’s golf coach Laura Ianello and UA men’s coach Jim Anderson. The AJGA Tour for boys and girls 12-15 — the Junior All-Star Championship — is being played at El Conquistador Golf Club through Monday. More than 100 of the world’s top young amateur golfers are in the field, including 14-year-old Tucsonan Jacob Goode, who last month won the JGAA Winter Classic title in Phoenix. Salpointe Catholic sophomore Annabelle Huether is the only Tucsonan in the girls field. 

Ianello, No. 10 Cats add Moore 

Ianello’s women’s team, which is ranked No. 10 by Golfweek, opens Feb. 7 in Los Angeles. The Wildcats, defending Pac-12 champs, added the school’s top mid-year enrollee, Haley Moore, who completed her high school work in San Diego in December and is expected to be eligible immediately. 

Ex-UA coach, Hall of Famer LaRose still making moves 

Rick LaRose, who coached Arizona’s men’s and women’s teams to NCAA championships in the 1990s, is still at it. The Hall of Fame golf coach was in Melbourne, Australia, last week to coach a two-man American team in the Australian Master of the Amateurs. One of those LaRose coached is Aaron Wise, a sophomore at Oregon ranked No. 8 in the world amateur standings. 

Former Wildcat Furyk recovering from wrist surgery 

LaRose’s top pro product, Jim Furyk, will not make his PGA Tour debut this year until the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on Feb. 11. Furyk is recovering from wrist surgery. 

Tucson High grad Wilhelmsen signs with Rangers 

In his five years with the Seattle Mariners, closer Tom Wilhelmsen of Tucson High earned $3.34 million. Last week he agreed to a 2016 salary of $3.1 million with his new team, the Texas Rangers. It is a one-year deal for the 32-year-old right-hander. He had 13 saves in 15 chances for Seattle last year.

Antelopes a natural addition to UA schedule 

Statistic of the week: Through games of Thursday, Arizona State averaged 5,432 fans per game at Wells Fargo Arena. Across town, the Grand Canyon Antelopes (15-2) were averaging 5,426. The UA’s decision to schedule a home game against GCU next season was inevitable. For McKale Center fans, it’s a better option than, say, Long Beach State or Cal-Irvine. 

Cats could finish first half of Pac-12 play under .500 

Statistic of the week part II: Arizona’s losses at UCLA and USC put into play the possibility of the Wildcats finishing the first half of Pac-12 play under .500. How rare would that be? After his first season at Arizona, Lute Olson never finished the first half of the Pac-10 below .500. Lute’s worst record through nine conference games was 5-4, and that was in his final season, 2006-07. In the two years before Olson was hired, Arizona went 0-9 and 1-8 in the first half of the conference season. 

Legendary ex-Amphi coach Friedli to be honored 

Retired Amphitheater High School football coaching legend Vern Friedli will be honored Saturday in Phoenix with the Paving the Way award, presented annually to an Arizona teacher/coach who dedicated his/her career to educating youth. The Phoenix American Leadership Academy is staging the ceremony at 3155 S. San Tan Village Parkway at 11 a.m. 

I-Ridge wrestling coach Berrier deserves honor 

Tim Berrier has coached Ironwood Ridge to three state wrestling championships as well as three No. 2 finishes. He was deservedly honored last week by the National State High School Association as one of 22 prep coaches of the year, in any sport. Few coaches in Tucson have ever paid their dues the way Berrier did; he previously coached at Pueblo and Salpointe Catholic dating to1991. Berrier has been at it so long that his once-in-a-lifetime wrestler, four-time Salpointe state champion Nick Frost of the 1990s, now a systems engineer for General Dynamics in Scottsdale, is the wrestling coach at Red Mountain High School.

My two cents: Mickelson's 1991 Tucson triumph helped launch career 

Thursday was the 25th anniversary of Phil Mickelson’s stunning victory at the 1991 Tucson Open. Stunning? He was an amateur, a senior at Arizona State.

Mickelson did not get a penny of the $180,000 winner’s check at what was then called TPC Starpass. Now 45, Mickelson has won 42 championships, including two Masters and the British Open.

What I most remember about Mickelson’s weekend at what is now called Starr Pass — a new nine holes, designed by Arnold Palmer, has since been added to the course — is that he had a triple-bogey 8 at the long, uphill par-5 on Sunday afternoon. And still won.

On Thursday, Mickelson told Golf Channel that he was not surprised by his victory in Tucson.

“I wrote down my goals for (1991) and put them in a vase and then we were going to open them a year later,” he said. “I had forgotten that I had written this down, but one of the three goals that I had written for 1991 was to win the Tucson Open.”

Mickelson, who would later win the 1995 and 1996 Tucson Open, was not without nervous anticipation the night before the ’91 finals.

“I remember walking around the hotel parking lot by myself, thinking how this could affect my career and the opportunities I might have,” he said. “I think it turned out pretty good.”

Pretty good? Mickelson has gone on to win more than $84 million in prize money alone.

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