Hansen's Sunday Notebook: Anderson's A+ effort keeps Cats in Pac-12 hunt

Anderson's A+ effort keeps Cats in Pac-12 hunt

Arizona has produced so many Pac-12 Players of the Week (39) that the school no longer lists them in the yearly media guide.

It almost got to be so … so … so what?

Chris Mills was seven times the league’s basketball Player of the Week. Sean Elliott? Six times. Salim Stoudamire, five. Jason Terry, four. It became so routine that Ivan Radenovic was twice POW. Why, the coaching staff of the Golden State Warriors has five Pac-12 Player of the Week ribbons: Steve Kerr, three, and Luke Walton, two.

But when Arizona senior Ryan Anderson put the final touches to the UA’s weekend sweep of the Washington schools on Saturday, the award regained its esteem. The Wildcats couldn’t have beaten the Huskies on Saturday without Anderson’s 22 points and especially his free-throw shooting, 10 for 11.

Anderson will surely be selected as the league’s Player of the Week. At WSU and in Seattle he scored 53 points, pulled down 27 rebounds and shot 57 percent. Without Anderson, the Wildcats would essentially have been eliminated from the Pac-12 race Saturday.

Since being swept at UCLA and USC early last month, Anderson has been as productive as almost any UA basketball player in history. Over those eight games, he has averaged 18.2 points, 10.1 rebounds, shot an astonishing 69 percent (55 for 79) and forced opposing defenses to deal with him so thoroughly that he has attempted 60 foul shots.

That’s the way to stay alive in the stampede to the Pac-12 championship.

The appeal of Pac-12 basketball is that so many meaningful games, involving so many teams, fill the coming schedule.

USC plays in Tucson next Sunday and then goes to Cal.

Oregon still has road games at USC, UCLA and Cal.

Utah has yet to make its Los Angeles trip and awaits a Feb. 27 showdown at the Huntsman Center against Arizona.

Somehow, Arizona was resourceful enough to win at Washington while committing 20 turnovers, shooting 39 percent and allowing the Huskies eight rim-shaking dunks.

In the end, Ryan Anderson was the best player on the court, the league’s top player of the week, and that’s how you win a road game to sustain a chance to catch Oregon over the next month.

Nymeyer’s long-standing record broken

Arizona will induct Salim Stoudamire into the Pac-12 Hall of Honor next month, the 15th Wildcat so honored. He is deserving, but I think it’s time Arizona stepped back to induct several from earlier generations.

It’s time for Ed Nymeyer to be Arizona’s yearly honoree. And after him Ernie McCray and Warren Rustand, two former all-conference standouts.

When Nymeyer left Arizona in 1958, he was the school’s career leading scorer (1,255 points). He remains No. 31, which is astonishing, considering all of the top players who have come and gone.

Nymeyer, who went on to be a Hall of Fame volleyball/basketball coach at Flowing Wells High School, turns 80 this year. He was back in the news recently because his long-standing school record of 46 points at Globe High School, set in 1953, was broken.

B.J. Burries, a freshman at Globe, scored 68 points against Florence High School, which is an Arizona Division IV record (the equivalent of Class 2A in the old days). Nymeyer has watched video of Burries and likes what he sees.

“He’s a lefty, and he also scored 46 in an earlier game,” said Nymeyer, whose granddaughter, Lacey Nymeyer John, is a 2008 Olympic swimming silver medalist and the 2009 NCAA Woman of the Year. “There was nothing flukish about it.”

Precedent for honoring older players is established; Arizona State this year is honoring 1962 star Art Becker at the Pac-12 tournament. Utah is inducting Vern Gardner, who played from 1946-49.

Nymeyer set the Globe record, 46 points, against Florence 63 years ago. He plans to visit his alma mater and see Burries play as soon as he can arrange the trip.

RichRod set to unveil new D-line coach 

Arizona football coach Rich Rodriguez is likely to hire former Arizona State defensive lineman Vince Amey to be the UA’s defensive line coach this week. Amey, part of the Sun Devils’ 1996 Rose Bowl team, has been a strength and conditioning coach at Arizona for three years, and in 2015 was an analyst on the defensive staff. His only true coaching background is from Scottsdale Chaparral High School. Hiring Amey would mean that Arizona passed on three notable Tucson coaches, all with extensive defensive line backgrounds: Ricky Hunley, Osia Lewis and Mike Tuiasosopo. 

Tucsonans fired up about new PGA Tour Superstore 

Late Friday night, about 100 people were camping outside Tucson’s new PGA Tour Superstore on Oracle Road, awaiting Saturday’s 9 a.m., grand opening. The temperature was dropping into the 40s. Have you ever heard of something like that? There must’ve been 15 tents stacked up, with golfers eager to get inside to spend money. The PGA Tour Superstore got off to a good start in Tucson by donating $15,000 to the First Tee of Tucson. Something’s got to give with the opening of a store of that magnitude. The downside? Van’s Golf Shops, which has two Tucson locations and a strong reputation for quality product and service, is apt to be hurt financially. 

Ex-Cat Pastner taking heat for Memphis' woes 

Josh Pastner is only 38, serving his seventh season as head coach of the Memphis Tigers. He is under fire like few other high-profile coaches in college basketball. The Memphis Commercial Appeal recently wrote “it’s over” after the Tigers lost home games to East Carolina, Tulane, Texas-Arlington and Stephen F. Austin. Attendance at the FedEx Forum has dropped about 5,000 per game. Memphis would owe Pastner a $10.6 million contract buyout if it fires him. Stay tuned. 

Pueblo girls hoops ends Safford's impressive streak 

Pueblo High School’s girls basketball team broke Safford’s 24-game winning streak last week, at Safford, and finished the regular season 22-3. It was as impressive as any victory in coach Izzy Galindo’s four years at Pueblo. The Warriors are ranked No. 6 in Division III, which doesn’t figure. Safford is No. 4. 

Former Wildcat Ashley to play in D League's All-Star Game 

Since Jan. 16, Brandon Ashley has had games in which he scored 30, 29, 26 and 25 for the NBA D League’s Texas Legends. He will play in the league’s All-Star Game Sunday, which will be televised on NBA TV at noon Tucson time. 

Santa Rita grad Shumpert playing in D League 

Santa Rita High grad D.J. Shumpert, once a walk-on at Arizona who completed his basketball career at Cal State-San Bernardino, has played 10 games for the D League’s Los Angeles Defenders this season, although he is now not on the active list. Shumpert is averaging 9.5 points with a career-high of 13. 

New York Wildcats? 

The New York Jets have become a haven for ex-Arizona Wildcats. The Jets last week hired Desert Swarm-era linebacker Brant Boyer to be their special teams coach. Boyer had been the assistant special teams coach for Indianapolis for five years. Boyer then hired 1988 Arizona All-Pac-10 safety Jeff Hammerschmidt to be the Jets’ assistant special teams coach. Hammerschmidt was an Arizona assistant coach during Boyer’s playing days. The Jets also employ quarterbacks coach Kevin Patullo, who worked under ex-UA offensive coordinator Mike Canales here from 2004-06. Boyer and Hammerschmidt will work with Jets kicker Nick Folk, now in his ninth NFL season. Ironically, Boyer replaced Bobby April with the Jets; April was an Arizona assistant coach from 1980-86. 

Tucsonan Abdirahman to miss Olympic Marathon trials 

Tucsonan Abdi Abdirahman, a four-time Olympic distance runner, will not be able to compete in next week’s U.S. Olympic Marathon trials in Los Angeles. Abdirahman, a Pima College and UA grad, has a calf injury. At 39, he now plans to run the 10,000 meters at June’s Olympic Track and Field Trials. He was a U.S. 10,000-meter Olympian in 2000 and 2004. 

Tucsonan Lagat attempting to make one last Olympic team 

Abdirahman’s frequent training partner, Tucsonan Bernard Lagat, announced last week that he will attempt to make his fifth Olympic team, at 5,000 meters, in June. He is 41. “I would have retired at the end of the 2015 season, but something inside was telling me, ‘Why retire one year before the Olympics? You can still do this,’” he told Flotrack.com. 

Sahuaro grad Snyder, Purdue to face Cats 

When Arizona opens its softball season with the Hillenbrand Invitational this week, it is likely to oppose former Sahuaro High pitcher Gina Snyder of Purdue. Arizona and the Boilermakers will meet on Saturday; Snyder is Purdue’s No. 2 pitcher after going 7-3 with a 3.45 ERA in her freshman season in the Big Ten. She lists Arizona’s 2007 NCAA championship pitcher, Taryne Mowatt, as her favorite softball player. 

Ex-UA assistant Ray won't make appearance at Hillenbrand 

Southern Utah will also play in the Hillenbrand Invitational, but one-time Thunderbirds assistant coach Larry Ray is no longer part of the Southern Utah coaching staff. Ray, a long-time UA assistant — and the Wildcats’ interim head coach during the 2004 and 2008 Olympics — recently left Southern Utah for a similar position at Division III Emory University in Atlanta. 

Ex-Cat Fogg, Tucson's Stoglin lighting up European leagues 

Kyle Fogg, who was Finland’s EuroLeague’s player of the year in 2014, is the leading scorer in the German Euroleague this year, averaging 17.4 points a game. He was a 2012 All-Pac-12 player at Arizona; Fogg plays for Bremerhaven. Additionally, Santa Rita High grad Terrell Stoglin is the leading scorer in the EuroLeague for Turkish players in the TBL league. Stoglin is averaging 27.4 for Adanaspor. 

Sunnyside boys hoops notches 20 wins 

I admire the work of Sunnyside High School boys basketball coach Rob Harrison, whose Blue Devils were the first Tucson big school boys team to win 20 games this season. Harrison is 84-31 in his four seasons at Sunnyside, and has climbed to No. 4 in the state Division II rankings despite losing 6-foot 6-inch, two-year starting center Santino Duarte for the year with a knee injury. Jacob Inclan leads the Blue Devils with a 19.4 scoring average. Among Tucson’s big schools, only Rincon/University center Brendan Rumel, averaging 24.4 points and 12.8 rebounds, is having a better season statistically. Rumel has had 22 double-doubles, which ranks No. 4 nationally. 

Incoming UA recruit Markkanen posts impressive game 

Incoming Arizona freshman recruit Lauri Markkanen flew from Helsinki, Finland, with his club team, HBA Marsky, to play in the vast National Prep School Invitational this weekend in Rhode Island. Markkanen was impressive Friday, scoring 24 points and gathering 10 rebounds against Kentucky-bound McDonald’s All-American center Wenyen Gabriel, who was held to two points by Markkanen. 

UA's soccer recruiting class features Tucson ties 

The 10-person recruiting class signed by Arizona soccer coach Tony Amato last week included a strong Tucson connection. Phoenix Sunnyslope’s Brynn Moga, who scored 42 goals in her freshman and sophomore seasons, is the daughter of former Sabino High running back Chris Moga, a 1,000-yard rusher in 1985 before accepting a scholarship to Kentucky. Moga chose UK over Arizona and LSU and after graduating from Kentucky has become a senior sales manager for McKesson, a health technology firm in Phoenix. 

My two cents: Attention nice, but Sewailo accolades off target 

Golfadvisor.com last week ranked Tucson’s Sewailo Golf Course as Arizona’s No. 1 golf course. It’s one of the few times any golf outlet has strayed beyond Phoenix or Flagstaff to truly examine Southern Arizona’s 51 golf facilities.

It also ranked Golf Club of Dove Mountain No. 7, Tucson National No. 8, Arizona National No. 10, Starr Pass Golf Club No. 11 and Ventana Canyon Golf Club No. 15.

Golf courses are different things to different levels of players. I don’t think Sewailo is anywhere near No. 1 in this state or this city. It’s tricked up, too hard for the average golfer, wind-blown and both too remote and too expensive. Golfadvisor.com ranked the Tubac Golf Course No. 25 in the state.

Tubac is a better golf experience than Sewailo, and for that matter so is the Dell Urich Golf Course. Strangely, the Gallery Golf Club’s north course was not in the top 25, nor was the Stone Canyon Club, which are Tucson’s two leading golf facilities in my poll.

But I don’t have a vote.

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