Hansen's Sunday Notebook: Sean Miller's persistence paid off in pursuit of Brandon Williams

Sean Miller’s pursuit of SoCal point guard Brandon Williams was so purposeful that Miller flew to California four times in 44 days to watch Williams play: March 6, March 21, April 9 and April 18.

That’s the prescribed routine in basketball recruiting: Make your presence felt.

But this time Miller was dealing with an unprecedented variable: fallout from an FBI investigation into illegal recruiting. His once-dazzling Class of 2018 was blown to smithereens, leaving him to chase a grad transfer from Samford, of all places, and for lesser known players who probably wouldn’t have been given any attention by Arizona before the FBI intervened.

But Miller’s persistence was the right formula with Williams, who on Saturday, for the second time, said he will play for the Wildcats in 2018-19.

Why did he choose Arizona? I think it’s as simple as believing more shots and more minutes will be available in Tucson than at Oregon or Gonzaga.

This isn’t an absolute fix for Arizona basketball. Remember Josiah Turner? Mustafa Shakur? A team that has performed three consecutive pratfalls in the NCAA Tournament needs more than a four-star freshman point guard to return to the high standards of 1988-2015.

Many times, uncelebrated recruits like Steve Kerr and T.J. McConnell become the real difference-makers.

But getting Brandon Williams stops Arizona’s agonizing eight-month losing streak in off-field events, and it’s sure better than watching him suit up for the Oregon Ducks next season.

The five best things about Tucson’s remarkable high school baseball season, in which five teams were still alive in the chase for a state championship in classes 3A to 5A, heading into Saturday’s action:

1. Flowing Wells, which isn’t a traditional power, went 1-26 in coach Erick Estrella’s first season, 2014. The next year wasn’t much better, 3-26. But now the 19-9-1 Caballeros are one of six remaining in the Class 5A playoffs. Player to watch: Juan Pablo Ruedaflores, who is hitting .495 and has struck out 59 batters in 46 innings.

2. Tucson High senior shortstop Alex Kelch, whose season is over, is the current leader as Tucson’s Player of the Year. Kelch hit a city-high .544 with six home runs and 43 RBIs, which also led all regular-season hitters.

3. Sabino coach Mark Chandler took a 26-3 record in Saturday’s Class 3A quarterfinals against the Catalina Trojans. Junior Preston Clifford is hitting .402 and is 7-0 with 80 strikeouts as a pitcher. Sabino’s 1-2 punch is one of the best: Tyler Wiltshire won Friday’s state opener and is 9-0 as a pitcher with a .378 batting average.

4. Catalina Foothills, 23-7, is already 3-0 in the Class 4A playoffs and seeded No. 2 overall. Chris Kowalcek is hitting .409 with 19 stolen bases and Matt Cullen is hitting .419. They await further winner’s bracket play Wednesday.

5. After winning the 2011 state championship, the Catalina Trojans went 52-103 and failed to make the playoffs until this year. Coach Shane Folsom’s team, 24-5 through Friday, remains alive in the 3A playoffs as Jack MacDonald, hitting .458, and sophomore Logan Johnson, hitting .406, have keyed an impressive turn-around.

The five best things about what I consider to be Tucson’s most successful individual high school sport, girls softball:

1. Sophomore stars. Although the season is over for Tucson High’s Carlie Scupin and Amphi’s Kristiana Watson, their numbers won’t go away: Scupin hit .619 with 11 home runs; Watson hit .716 with 14 home runs and 54 RBIs. Her batting average is No. 11 in the nation.

2. Salpointe Catholic, 30-4, has reached Thursday’s Class 4A semifinals. That’s what happens when you’ve got someone like Yannira Acuna hitting .632 with 29 extra-base hits and Malaea Rocha hitting .519, and junior Diana Montano with eight home runs and 62 RBIs, which is No. 18 in the nation.

3. Catalina Foothills pitcher Nic Conway pitched the Falcons to the 2016 state championship, and although her supporting cast wasn’t quite at that level this season, she was terrific. Conway struck out 309 batters, which is No. 9 in the nation, and hit .505 with 39 RBIs.

4. Canyon del Oro, 26-8, the leading girls softball program in Tucson history, is one of six still in contention for the 4A title. The  Dorados have two .500 hitters: Alexis Kaiser and Ellessa Bonstrom. Kaiser has 10 home runs, third in the city.

5. Cienega’s two-time state championship coach Eric Tatham has three powerful hitters: freshman Breezy Hayward is hitting .531, sophomore Blaise Biringer is at .548 and senior Kaitlyn Anderson is hitting .484 with 10 home runs. Six teams remain in play for the 5A title and Cienega seems likely to run into 26-8 Ironwood Ridge in its attempt to win the state title this week. Ridge’s leading hitter is Isabel Pacho, at a remarkable .656.

Four years after he won his eighth NCAA championship as an Arizona distance runner, Lawi Lalang is back on the scene. He was in a world-class field Friday at Stanford’s Jordan Invitational, running 13 minutes 24.09 seconds over 5,000 meters. That’s 24 seconds off Lalang’s UA-record set in 2012, but it put him just three seconds behind Salpointe Catholic grad Andy Trouard, a senior All-American at NAU who will be one of the favorites in the NCAA championships next month. Lalang gained his U.S. citizenship since leaving the UA and then joined the Army and the American Distance Project.

How is this for a pair of unlikely teammates? Arizona’s 2001 Final Four center, Loren Woods, 39, and Santa Rita’s 2010 state championship point guard Terrell Stoglin, 26, are together on the Al Ahli franchise in the Asia-Euro basketball league. Both have played around the world. Stoglin’s career includes teams in Greece, France, Ukraine, Poland, Lebanon, Italy, Turkey, China and Qatar.

At 29, Arizona’s 2007 Pac-10 Freshman of the Year, Chase Budinger, is back in pro ball. But it’s not the NBA, where Budinger played seven years and was paid $19 million. He made his Pro Volleyball beach debut Friday in Los Angeles in the FIVB Huntington Beach Open. Budinger, who in 2006 was named Volleyball Magazine’s high school player of the year, lost to a two-man team from the Netherlands. Talk about tough competition: That Netherlands team won the bronze medal at the 2016 Olympics. Budinger completed his basketball career a year ago in Spain.

Rather than compete for a state tennis championship last week — in which he would’ve been favored — Salpointe Catholic’s Harsh Parikh won the USTA National Level 3 championships at the Reffkin Tennis Center, undefeated in all sets. Parikh, who finished third in the prestigious Easter Invitational in Indian Wells, California, a few weeks earlier, thus climbed to No. 7 in the USTA rankings for boys-16 in the United States. He rejoined Salpointe on Saturday to compete for the team state championship. Parikh’s brother, Yash Parikh, a two-time state champion, recently completed his freshman year at Davidson with a 14-10 record in combined singles and doubles. Only a handful of Tucson tennis players have climbed into the USTA’s top 10 over the years, from Maddie Pothoff and Robert Seby to Carlos and Dominic Bermudez.

Sunnyside High’s four-time undefeated state champion Roman Bravo-Young was selected Friday as the Arizona prep wrestler of the year by the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, and is under consideration as the national wrestler of the year. That award will be announced Tuesday in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Andrew Mike, a Sabino High School grad who played in 27 games at Florida and twice made the SEC football Honor Roll, is leaving the Gators as a grad transfer. At Sabino, Mike played on Sabercats teams that went 30-6. He is 6 feet 6 inches and 300 pounds and although he hasn’t said if Arizona will be on his list of potential teams, the UA has a strong need for offensive linemen.

One of the top recruits of the Mike Stoops years at Arizona, safety Robert Golden, will be back on campus this week. Now in his first year with the Kansas City Chiefs, Golden completed his degree requirements last month and plans to participate in graduation ceremonies at the UA. Undrafted after the 2011 season at Arizona, Golden played six years with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He turns 28 in September.

Former Arizona lineman Charlie Dickey, who later coached under Dick Tomey and John Mackovic, was in Tucson last week to offer Salpointe Catholic running back Bijan Robinson a scholarship to Kansas State. After that, Dickey spent time at Pima College and offered 6-3, 260-pound defensive lineman Sam Moala a scholarship. Robinson now has scholarship offers from Arizona, ASU, Washington, USC, Utah, Illinois and Coastal Carolina.

Virgil Grant arrived on Arizona’s football team as an undersized offensive lineman from Carlsbad, New Mexico, in the fall of 1960. By the time he completed his UA career in 1964, he established a reputation as one of the toughest players in school history. On the 8-1-1 team of 1961, behind quarterback Eddie Wilson and running backs Bobby Thompson and Joe Hernandez, Grant become the starting right guard even though he weighed just 180 pounds. Grant died last week at 75. After leaving Arizona, Grant earned a master’s degree at Pepperdine University and became a championship football coach at Fremont High School in Los Angeles, before going into the grocery business.

Proof that this is a new age of college football: The family of Arizona junior quarterback Khalil Tate created a “Fan Site,” www.ktate14.com, that calls attention to Khalil’s interviews, statistics, photographs and a “what the media is saying” category.

Maybe that works in the NFL, or at Ohio State or Florida, but it’s unbroken ground at a football school like Arizona.

Tate won’t need an organized marketing campaign by the UA or anybody to be seriously considered for the Heisman Trophy next season. That stuff is no longer necessary.

Tate is on the map, known by all in the football community, and his play will — or won’t — speak loudly. His performances will be tracked by all media at all levels.

If Arizona opens 4-0 and is in the Top 25 when it plays host to USC on Sept. 29, Tate will get more attention than even those in Trojan uniforms.

By then, maybe we can all agree on a universal nickname for him.