Star sports columnist Greg Hansen offers his opinion on recent sports news.
1
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Four things to know about UA basketball as you wonder if Mother Nature forgot it is mid-October in Tucson and keeps dialing up temperatures from early September:
1. So much has changed, so little has changed.
When Miles Simon was about to play his junior season at Arizona, leading to the 1997 NCAA championship, he was academically ineligible for the fall semester. It was news THIS BIG in Tucson.
Whatever he wanted to say, Lute Olson was muted. While asked frequently about Simon’s possible return, Olson would invariably say that federal “FERPA” laws prohibited him from talking about Simon. Olson would often apply the FERPA rules — which protect the privacy of a student’s educational records — to any player eligibility situation, even when it didn’t apply.
Now it’s Sean Miller’s turn. He is unable to speak publicly about whether sophomore forward Allonzo Trier is eligible to play in the regular season. UA athletic director Greg Byrne also declined to speak about Trier on Friday night. Obviously, something’s up.
College athletes are now protected from prying eyes to the point of being in the Witness Protection Program. Access and insight is limited because of a proliferation of untrained website “media” people.
A year ago, it was Elliott Pitts. This year Allonzo Trier. If there is any good to this entanglement, it’s that Trier plays on the wing, the most replaceable position in college basketball.
2. Miller refers to the Red-Blue Game as one of the most important weekends of the basketball season. It’s a celebration of UA basketball. Friday’s event was about as good as it gets in college basketball.
What Miller meant is that 7-foot 1-inch DeAndre Ayton sat in the front row across from the UA bench Friday night. Ayton signed autographs, posed for pictures and seemed to handle his celebrity well. He is the nation’s No. 1 recruit in the class of 2017. He sat near a collection of future McDonald’s All-Americans that, collectively could probably get to the Final Four a year from now.
Arizona’s reach is head-shaking. Sitting next to Ayton was 6-5 Lonnie Walker of Reading, Pa., a class of 2017 shooting guard who is defending national champion Villanova’s top recruiting target. And he was just another face in the crowd.
If you want to see Ayton, he will be at Pima College Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m., when his team, Hillcrest Prep of Phoenix, plays Brian Peabody’s Aztecs in an exhibition game.
3. Pac-12 Network analyst Don MacLean, the league’s career scoring leader, watched Arizona practice last week and quickly deduced that 7-foot freshman Lauri Markkanen is a likely lottery pick.
Markkanen effortlessly scored 14 points Friday. It wasn’t just the numbers in the box score.
“That’s to be expected of him,” said Miller. It was Markkanen’s fluid shooting stroke, his range to 20 feet, his delicate touch with both hands, his court presence. He’ll have to fold his game into Miller’s team-first demand, and that might take a while, but he’ll be a first-team all-conference player barring injury.
4. The Arizona Republic reported that “hundreds” of people turned out Friday night for ASU’s version of the Red-Blue Game at festive Mill Avenue. It was called “Mill Madness” for the Sun Devils’ men’s and women’s basketball programs. By comparison, Miller referred to Arizona’s Red-Blue Game as “sacred.”
2
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
UA athletic director Greg Byrne last week visited football stadiums at Baylor, TCU and Mississippi State. He was accompanied by architects, who are trying to get an idea of what a “new” Arizona Stadium might look like in a few years. Of particular interest, Baylor’s McLane Stadium has a 45,140 seating capacity, and TCU’s Amon G. Carter Stadium seats 45,000. That’s roughly what a remodeled Arizona Stadium is apt to seat, leading to sellouts and creating a demand for tickets.
3
- Greg Hansen
UA baseball coach Jay Johnson, not one to kill time, brought about 100 top high school prospects to Hi Corbett Field for a camp and unofficial recruiting visits this weekend. They attended the UA-USC football game and were to make Sunday an on-field, show-me-what-you’ve-got day.
4
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Bad timing: Arizona will stage the 2016 Pac-12 men’s and women’s cross country championships Friday, Oct. 28, at the Randolph Golf Complex. Unfortunately, coach James Li’s teams are both bottom-feeders, unexpectedly, especially after his women’s team won the Pac-12 title in 2013 and finished No. 2 in the NCAA. Arizona’s tradition of distance runners compares to Oregon, Stanford and Colorado as the best in the league, but for the past two years, the Wildcats have been awkwardly uncompetitive.
5
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Ricky Hunley didn’t play in a bowl game in his UA career. He was a two-time consensus All-American linebacker, 1982 and 1983, but the Wildcats were serving a two-year NCAA bowl probation for violations during the Tony Mason administration of the late 1970s. It was Hunley, more than any Wildcat, who set the foundation for Arizona’s success in the Pac-10.
So it was a touch ironic Friday when Hunley was the guest speaker at the Nova Home Loans Arizona Bowl luncheon at the DoubleTree Hotel.
More than 300 attended, including 1996 Atlanta Olympics gold medalist Kerri Strug; the 90-minute program was a testament to the growth and aggressive progress made by the Arizona Bowl.
I am beginning to believe bowl chairman Ali Farhang‘s vow that at least 30,000 will attend the Dec. 30 (3 p.m.) game at Arizona Stadium.
But it was Hunley’s personality that prevailed Friday.
He might’ve taken a shot at Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez, who strangely did not interview Hunley as part of the UA’s new defensive staff last winter. Instead, Hunley, who has coached on three NFL teams and for USC and the Florida Gators, talked about his fondness for Tucson.
What’s he doing in his year out of football? Last week he went to Lake Powell to jet ski, water board and even rappel down a 60-foot cliff.
Ironically, hHe continues to help the Memphis Tigers football team, which he helped coach to 19 victories the last two seasons. The team, now coached by former ASU offensive coordinator Mike Norvell, recently reached out to Hunley to help counsel Tigers’ star defensive lineman Michael Edwards. His mother died last year; Edwards now takes care of his two younger sisters.
“A lot of that is still hurting Michael,” said Hunley. “But we’ll get him back on track. He’s scheduled to graduate this year.
“He’s going through some tough stuff, but we’re going to make sure he knows we are with him.”
6
- Greg Hansen
Arizona volleyball coach Dave Rubio ended a 19-match losing streak to Stanford on Friday, beating the No. 12 Cardinal in California, capping a telling streak in which Arizona has beaten USC, UCLA and Stanford — all Top 25 teams — on the road. It is one of the most defining periods of Rubio’s 25 Arizona seasons. It doesn’t get easier. Top 25 foes Washington State and Washington play at McKale Center next weekend. “I knew we had the potential for a very good team this year,” Rubio told me last week. “But to get to the point that you can win on the road on the Pac-12, and keep it up, requires you to be at the highest level in volleyball. There’s a long, long way to go.” Arizona has 13 Pac-12 matches remaining. Dozens of former Rubio players will return to Tucson to celebrate his 25th anniversary for the early November UCLA-USC series at McKale.
7
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Arizona point guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright ran the mile in 5 minutes, 20 seconds in the UA’s preseason conditioning program. It was the best time for a scholarship player in the Miller years. But it’s nothing new. In 1966, Flowing Wells High all-state guard Pat McAndrew, who became a starter at Arizona that year, ran the mile in 5:12 in a preseason conditioning session under coach Bruce Larson. McAndrew, a notable musician locally and a high school teacher, died at 60 in 2007.
8
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Mark this week on your calendar as the high school football Week of the Year in Tucson, Part I: Marana at Desert View Friday at 7 p.m. The 7-1 Jaguars are led by halfback Alex Courtemanche, who is averaging 221 yards per game rushing. He is a leading candidate as the Southern Arizona Player of the Year. Marana, 6-2, has a terrific QB tandem, senior Connor Leavens and sophomore Trenton Bourguet, who have combined to pass for more than 2,000 yards. Leavens was terrific Friday in a 52-14 victory over Poston Butte, playing in honor of his father, Todd Leavens, who died two days earlier at 53.
9
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Part II: Catalina Foothills, 7-1, plays at Salpointe, 6-2, Friday at 7 p.m. The Lancers will be difficult to beat as emerging sophomore halfback Mario Padilla is averaging 8.5 yards per carry and has 1,260 total yards. The Falcons have a strong defense, with senior linebacker Brandon Smith having made a team-high 67 tackles.
10
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Part III: 8-0 Cienega at 7-1 Ironwood Ridge. Pat Nugent vs. Matt Johnson, two of the state’s most accomplished coaches. It’s a shame all three games are on the same night. Picking one to attend is not easy.
11
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Two Salpointe and UA grads, Jonathan Khan and Brian Prouty, breezed through the first stage of the Web.com Qualifying School last week near Phoenix. Khan was sixth of all golfers, shooting 68-74-65-68, and Prouty shot 66-70-71-70. The second of three stages will be held in two weeks.
12
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
At a 28-minute media session last week, UA softball coach Mike Candrea spoke frankly about his 10 years as the USA Olympic softball coach. Arizona last won the NCAA title in 2008, which was Candrea’s final year with USA Softball.
The double-dipping surely cost Arizona recruiting continuity; no person has enough time to do both jobs properly, not even an eight-time national champion with Candrea’s skills. With softball likely to return to the Olympics in 2020, Candrea’s only involvement now is writing a monthly article for USA Softball.
“Ten years of my life went by so fast it got a little scary for me,” he said. “I want to get this program back to where it deserves to be. No one has the energy to do both at the level you need it. That’s one thing I learned form that experience, you can’t do both.”
Candrea believes his 2017 team could be the best at the school in almost a decade; he has recruited well of late. The pitching staff is loaded. Middle of the lineup hitters Alyssa Palomino and Katiyana Mauga could be as formidable as any 1-2 punch in college softball, or close.
In the meantime, Candrea is aggressive in a remake of Hillenbrand Stadium. He said a complete facelift is possible.
“There is a price to pay for success,” he said.
“Give me $3.5 million and we can make this facility what it needs to be,” he said. “The next big venture will be to put in a new press box, and a couple of suites on both sides, with an open patio area to the sides of those that we can sell and entertain. We hope to build a shade structure, get some new seating, new dugouts and away we go.”
For a decade, Hillenbrand was the showpiece of college softball. Now, at 23, it is showing its age.
Fortunately, Candrea is not.
More like this...
- Greg Hansen
Four things to know about UA basketball as you wonder if Mother Nature forgot it is mid-October in Tucson and keeps dialing up temperatures from early September:
1. So much has changed, so little has changed.
When Miles Simon was about to play his junior season at Arizona, leading to the 1997 NCAA championship, he was academically ineligible for the fall semester. It was news THIS BIG in Tucson.
Whatever he wanted to say, Lute Olson was muted. While asked frequently about Simon’s possible return, Olson would invariably say that federal “FERPA” laws prohibited him from talking about Simon. Olson would often apply the FERPA rules — which protect the privacy of a student’s educational records — to any player eligibility situation, even when it didn’t apply.
Now it’s Sean Miller’s turn. He is unable to speak publicly about whether sophomore forward Allonzo Trier is eligible to play in the regular season. UA athletic director Greg Byrne also declined to speak about Trier on Friday night. Obviously, something’s up.
College athletes are now protected from prying eyes to the point of being in the Witness Protection Program. Access and insight is limited because of a proliferation of untrained website “media” people.
A year ago, it was Elliott Pitts. This year Allonzo Trier. If there is any good to this entanglement, it’s that Trier plays on the wing, the most replaceable position in college basketball.
2. Miller refers to the Red-Blue Game as one of the most important weekends of the basketball season. It’s a celebration of UA basketball. Friday’s event was about as good as it gets in college basketball.
What Miller meant is that 7-foot 1-inch DeAndre Ayton sat in the front row across from the UA bench Friday night. Ayton signed autographs, posed for pictures and seemed to handle his celebrity well. He is the nation’s No. 1 recruit in the class of 2017. He sat near a collection of future McDonald’s All-Americans that, collectively could probably get to the Final Four a year from now.
Arizona’s reach is head-shaking. Sitting next to Ayton was 6-5 Lonnie Walker of Reading, Pa., a class of 2017 shooting guard who is defending national champion Villanova’s top recruiting target. And he was just another face in the crowd.
If you want to see Ayton, he will be at Pima College Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m., when his team, Hillcrest Prep of Phoenix, plays Brian Peabody’s Aztecs in an exhibition game.
3. Pac-12 Network analyst Don MacLean, the league’s career scoring leader, watched Arizona practice last week and quickly deduced that 7-foot freshman Lauri Markkanen is a likely lottery pick.
Markkanen effortlessly scored 14 points Friday. It wasn’t just the numbers in the box score.
“That’s to be expected of him,” said Miller. It was Markkanen’s fluid shooting stroke, his range to 20 feet, his delicate touch with both hands, his court presence. He’ll have to fold his game into Miller’s team-first demand, and that might take a while, but he’ll be a first-team all-conference player barring injury.
4. The Arizona Republic reported that “hundreds” of people turned out Friday night for ASU’s version of the Red-Blue Game at festive Mill Avenue. It was called “Mill Madness” for the Sun Devils’ men’s and women’s basketball programs. By comparison, Miller referred to Arizona’s Red-Blue Game as “sacred.”
- Greg Hansen
UA athletic director Greg Byrne last week visited football stadiums at Baylor, TCU and Mississippi State. He was accompanied by architects, who are trying to get an idea of what a “new” Arizona Stadium might look like in a few years. Of particular interest, Baylor’s McLane Stadium has a 45,140 seating capacity, and TCU’s Amon G. Carter Stadium seats 45,000. That’s roughly what a remodeled Arizona Stadium is apt to seat, leading to sellouts and creating a demand for tickets.
- Greg Hansen
UA baseball coach Jay Johnson, not one to kill time, brought about 100 top high school prospects to Hi Corbett Field for a camp and unofficial recruiting visits this weekend. They attended the UA-USC football game and were to make Sunday an on-field, show-me-what-you’ve-got day.
- Greg Hansen
Bad timing: Arizona will stage the 2016 Pac-12 men’s and women’s cross country championships Friday, Oct. 28, at the Randolph Golf Complex. Unfortunately, coach James Li’s teams are both bottom-feeders, unexpectedly, especially after his women’s team won the Pac-12 title in 2013 and finished No. 2 in the NCAA. Arizona’s tradition of distance runners compares to Oregon, Stanford and Colorado as the best in the league, but for the past two years, the Wildcats have been awkwardly uncompetitive.
- Greg Hansen
Ricky Hunley didn’t play in a bowl game in his UA career. He was a two-time consensus All-American linebacker, 1982 and 1983, but the Wildcats were serving a two-year NCAA bowl probation for violations during the Tony Mason administration of the late 1970s. It was Hunley, more than any Wildcat, who set the foundation for Arizona’s success in the Pac-10.
So it was a touch ironic Friday when Hunley was the guest speaker at the Nova Home Loans Arizona Bowl luncheon at the DoubleTree Hotel.
More than 300 attended, including 1996 Atlanta Olympics gold medalist Kerri Strug; the 90-minute program was a testament to the growth and aggressive progress made by the Arizona Bowl.
I am beginning to believe bowl chairman Ali Farhang‘s vow that at least 30,000 will attend the Dec. 30 (3 p.m.) game at Arizona Stadium.
But it was Hunley’s personality that prevailed Friday.
He might’ve taken a shot at Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez, who strangely did not interview Hunley as part of the UA’s new defensive staff last winter. Instead, Hunley, who has coached on three NFL teams and for USC and the Florida Gators, talked about his fondness for Tucson.
What’s he doing in his year out of football? Last week he went to Lake Powell to jet ski, water board and even rappel down a 60-foot cliff.
Ironically, hHe continues to help the Memphis Tigers football team, which he helped coach to 19 victories the last two seasons. The team, now coached by former ASU offensive coordinator Mike Norvell, recently reached out to Hunley to help counsel Tigers’ star defensive lineman Michael Edwards. His mother died last year; Edwards now takes care of his two younger sisters.
“A lot of that is still hurting Michael,” said Hunley. “But we’ll get him back on track. He’s scheduled to graduate this year.
“He’s going through some tough stuff, but we’re going to make sure he knows we are with him.”
- Greg Hansen
Arizona volleyball coach Dave Rubio ended a 19-match losing streak to Stanford on Friday, beating the No. 12 Cardinal in California, capping a telling streak in which Arizona has beaten USC, UCLA and Stanford — all Top 25 teams — on the road. It is one of the most defining periods of Rubio’s 25 Arizona seasons. It doesn’t get easier. Top 25 foes Washington State and Washington play at McKale Center next weekend. “I knew we had the potential for a very good team this year,” Rubio told me last week. “But to get to the point that you can win on the road on the Pac-12, and keep it up, requires you to be at the highest level in volleyball. There’s a long, long way to go.” Arizona has 13 Pac-12 matches remaining. Dozens of former Rubio players will return to Tucson to celebrate his 25th anniversary for the early November UCLA-USC series at McKale.
- Greg Hansen
Arizona point guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright ran the mile in 5 minutes, 20 seconds in the UA’s preseason conditioning program. It was the best time for a scholarship player in the Miller years. But it’s nothing new. In 1966, Flowing Wells High all-state guard Pat McAndrew, who became a starter at Arizona that year, ran the mile in 5:12 in a preseason conditioning session under coach Bruce Larson. McAndrew, a notable musician locally and a high school teacher, died at 60 in 2007.
- Greg Hansen
Mark this week on your calendar as the high school football Week of the Year in Tucson, Part I: Marana at Desert View Friday at 7 p.m. The 7-1 Jaguars are led by halfback Alex Courtemanche, who is averaging 221 yards per game rushing. He is a leading candidate as the Southern Arizona Player of the Year. Marana, 6-2, has a terrific QB tandem, senior Connor Leavens and sophomore Trenton Bourguet, who have combined to pass for more than 2,000 yards. Leavens was terrific Friday in a 52-14 victory over Poston Butte, playing in honor of his father, Todd Leavens, who died two days earlier at 53.
- Greg Hansen
Part II: Catalina Foothills, 7-1, plays at Salpointe, 6-2, Friday at 7 p.m. The Lancers will be difficult to beat as emerging sophomore halfback Mario Padilla is averaging 8.5 yards per carry and has 1,260 total yards. The Falcons have a strong defense, with senior linebacker Brandon Smith having made a team-high 67 tackles.
- Greg Hansen
Part III: 8-0 Cienega at 7-1 Ironwood Ridge. Pat Nugent vs. Matt Johnson, two of the state’s most accomplished coaches. It’s a shame all three games are on the same night. Picking one to attend is not easy.
- Greg Hansen
Two Salpointe and UA grads, Jonathan Khan and Brian Prouty, breezed through the first stage of the Web.com Qualifying School last week near Phoenix. Khan was sixth of all golfers, shooting 68-74-65-68, and Prouty shot 66-70-71-70. The second of three stages will be held in two weeks.
- Greg Hansen
At a 28-minute media session last week, UA softball coach Mike Candrea spoke frankly about his 10 years as the USA Olympic softball coach. Arizona last won the NCAA title in 2008, which was Candrea’s final year with USA Softball.
The double-dipping surely cost Arizona recruiting continuity; no person has enough time to do both jobs properly, not even an eight-time national champion with Candrea’s skills. With softball likely to return to the Olympics in 2020, Candrea’s only involvement now is writing a monthly article for USA Softball.
“Ten years of my life went by so fast it got a little scary for me,” he said. “I want to get this program back to where it deserves to be. No one has the energy to do both at the level you need it. That’s one thing I learned form that experience, you can’t do both.”
Candrea believes his 2017 team could be the best at the school in almost a decade; he has recruited well of late. The pitching staff is loaded. Middle of the lineup hitters Alyssa Palomino and Katiyana Mauga could be as formidable as any 1-2 punch in college softball, or close.
In the meantime, Candrea is aggressive in a remake of Hillenbrand Stadium. He said a complete facelift is possible.
“There is a price to pay for success,” he said.
“Give me $3.5 million and we can make this facility what it needs to be,” he said. “The next big venture will be to put in a new press box, and a couple of suites on both sides, with an open patio area to the sides of those that we can sell and entertain. We hope to build a shade structure, get some new seating, new dugouts and away we go.”
For a decade, Hillenbrand was the showpiece of college softball. Now, at 23, it is showing its age.
Fortunately, Candrea is not.
Lake Mead's drops raise prospect of unaffordable Hoover Dam electricity
