Hansen's Sunday Notebook: Recruiting is key to keep up with Pac-12
- Updated
Star sports columnist Greg Hansen offers his opinion on recent sports news.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Cats must recruit all year to keep up with Pac-12 football powers
The staff directory for Arizona’s athletic department lists three new special assistants to the athletic director: Jeff Casteel, Bill Kirelawich and David Lockwood.
Those are three of Rich Rodriguez’s former defensive assistant coaches who were fired in December. They remain on payroll through June 30 for a composite payoff close to $600,000.
That’s one of the reasons RichRod concluded spring drills Friday by telling reporters, “We’ve got to get more (defensive) people, and I’m not convinced right now that we’ve got a lot of people we can win with.”
We won’t know until October or November if RichRod acted soon enough to fix Arizona’s eroding defensive system, which began with ineffective recruiting four years ago and became manifest when the Wildcats yielded 12,397 yards over two seasons, almost 1,000 yards more than any two-year period in school history.
That $600,000 isn’t meant to fix X’s and O’s. It is meant to change the way Arizona recruits. RichRod’s staff was purposely made to be younger and more aggressive.
It costs a lot of money to fix a Power 5 conference football program, and double-dipping at three coaching staff positions is part of it. One transaction that didn’t get much attention was that RichRod was permitted to hire another full-time recruiting guy, Chris Singletary.
That was as important as any of the offseason changes.
Is it working?
By my count, in the last two weeks alone, the following prospects have been at the Lowell-Stevens Football Facility on unofficial recruiting visits: Chris Brooks, Thomas Graham Jr., John Chatman, Kurtis Brown, Jack Spears, Brian Hightower, Zelan Tupuola, Corey Selenski, Shammah Tupua, Rhedi Short, Drew Dixon, Darnay Holmes, Hunter Echols, Brendan Radley-Hiles, Warren Jackson, Joey Ramos, Kylan Wilborn, Cody Shear and Lee Pitts.
I probably missed two or three more. In addition, the UA offered scholarships to at least six other players in those two weeks. It was similar in February, too. Dozens of prospects were in town. More were offered scholarships.
Nothing like this has ever happened in the history of Arizona football. Customarily, February and March is catch-up-on-your-sleep time in the UA football department. That has all changed.
At no time, under any coaching staff, have the Wildcats recruited with such earnestness and in such volume.
That’s what it takes to stay competitive in a league with Oregon, USC and Stanford. The only question is whether it’s too late to affect the 2016, 2017 and 2018 seasons.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Camarena-Williams flourishes in comeback
At 30, two-time USA Olympic shot-putter Jill Camarena-Williams might’ve retired after the 2012 London Olympics. Despite having a serious back injury, she chose to have a baby, Miley, with her husband, UA athletic department trainer Dustin Williams. But Williams capped a terrific comeback last week by finishing fifth in the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Oregon, throwing the shot 59 feet 7½ inches. The great Michelle Carter won the event with a throw of 66-3¾. Camarena-Williams, 34, now trains for the U.S. Olympic Trials in June.
- Greg Hansen
Ex-Cat Barrett has new rival heading into Olympics
UA grad Brigetta Barrett, the 2012 Olympic high jump silver medalist, chose not to compete at the world indoor finals. She is training in Los Angeles with her former UA coach, Sheldon Blockburger, now USC’s throws coach. While Barrett missed most of the 2015 season with an injury, a new name emerged on the world high-jumping stage: Las Vegas Bishop Gorman High School senior Vashti Cunningham won the world indoor title last week, jumping 6-5. Cunningham is the daughter of ex-NFL quarterback Randall Cunningham. She signed an endorsement deal with Nike last week and is now likely be Barrett’s top rival leading to the Rio Olympics.
- Greg Hansen
Sabino grad Popovich makes jump to NFL
Sabino High grad Jeff Popovich lost his job as UT-San Antonio’s secondary coach when Larry Coker resigned in January, but Popovich wasn’t out of work long. He was hired to be the assistant to Indianapolis Colts head coach Chuck Pagano last week. How did that happen? Pagano was the secondary coach of the Miami Hurricanes when Popovich was a four-year UM letterman from 1996-99. Popovich earned a biomedical engineering degree at Miami but hasn’t put it to use yet; he coached at Florida International and UTSA before moving to the NFL last week.
- Greg Hansen
Must-see TV event features potential future Cats
Suggested TV viewing this week: UA recruit Kobi Simmons and potential Wildcats Josh Jackson and Terrance Ferguson — in addition to future UCLA players T.J. Leaf and Lonzo Ball— will be in the McDonald’s All American Game on Wednesday at 6 p.m. on ESPN.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Scooby's draft position is anybody's guess
Given the interest in Scooby Wright’s Pro Day last week at the UA, it will be fascinating to see who drafts him — and when. Will the NFL people put more priority on his lack of speed and his relatively smaller (by NFL standards) lower body, along with his inability to drop into pass coverage effectively? Or will they buy into his instincts, work ethic, toughness and nose for the ball? Scooby is like a .255-hitting MLB infielder who bats eighth but always seems to make a play to win a game.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
World Series-winning Cats making appearances in spring training
Four players from Arizona’s 2012 College World Series championship team have played for their MLB teams in spring training. The most impressive is Baltimore outfielder Joey Rickard, who was hitting .388 with 49 at-bats through Friday, and is expected to make Baltimore’s opening day roster. Yankees infielder Robert Refsnyder is hitting .267 in 30 at-bats, Tampa Bay outfielder Johnny Field is at .300 in 20 at-bats, and ex-Cienega third baseman Seth Mejias-Brean is 4 for 11 for Cincinnati. Sahuaro grad Alex Verdugo, an outfielder who will enter his third season in the Dodgers’ system, made his MLB spring training debut by playing twice for the Dodgers last week. He had two hits in five at-bats.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Pac-12's All-Century baseball ballot features the greats
The ballot for the Pac-12’s All-Century baseball team overflows with greatness. Making that All-Century team might be the most difficult of all the Pac-12’s special teams. Jackie Robinson, anybody? Arizona has 11 players on the list: Alan Zinter, J.T. Snow, Alex Mejia, George Arias, Chip Hale, Trevor Crowe, Shelley Duncan, Terry Francona, Scott Erickson, Preston Guilmet and Kurt Heyer. Tucsonan Brent Strom, who pitched for USC and is the Houston Astros’ pitching coach, is also on the ballot.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
CDO grad Meyers golfing at Stanford
CDO grad Chris Meyers, a freshman on Stanford’s No. 9 men’s golf team, will not redshirt. He played at Stanford’s own The Goodwin tournament last week, and also in The Prestige championships a month ago in La Quinta, California. The gulf between Stanford and UA men’s golf teams is almost shocking. UA entered Saturday’s play 23rd of 25 teams at The Goodwin; one Wildcat shot 91 on Friday.
- Greg Hansen
Abdirahman won't attempt to make fifth Olympic team
Tucsonan Abdi Abdirahman has abandoned his dream to become the first American track and field athlete to make five Olympic teams. The Pima College and UA All-American missed the Olympic marathon trials in February with a calf injury. His coach, Dave Murray, said last week that Abdirahman will not attempt to make the Olympic team in the 10,000 meters, his event at the 2000, 2004 and 2008 Olympics. Abdirahman has relocated to Flagstaff to begin training for the road running season.
- Greg Hansen
Foothills grad, ex-Cat Brase shines in first year as coach
Catalina Foothills and UA grad Matt Brase coached the NBA D-League’s Rio Grande Valley Vipers to the playoffs in his first year as a head coach. Brase’s club clinched a playoff berth Friday night, with a 26-20 record. The Vipers are tied for first place in the Southwest Conference with the Austin Spurs, which is Nick Johnson’s team. Johnson was averaging 10.8 points through Friday.
- Greg Hansen
UA to honor late Gayle Hopkins
The funeral service for Arizona’s 1964 NCAA long jump champion and Tokyo Olympics long jumper Gayle Hopkins is Monday at 11 a.m., at Brings Funeral Home, 6910 E. Broadway. At 3 p.m., Monday, the UA will honor Hopkins, an associate athletic director at the school for 27 years. A celebration of his life will be held at the Jim Click Hall of Champions. The UA will plant a tree on the lawn adjacent to McKale Center in Hopkins’ memory.
- Greg Hansen
Sunnyside's Inclan has perfect partnership with coach
This is when you know you played for the right coach: After starting for Sunnyside High School for three years, leading the Blue Devils to a 67-22 record, forward Jacob Inclan went to Texas last week to examine schools at which he might play college basketball. Blue Devils coach Rob Harrison drove Inclan to Texas for the visits. Talk about a good partnership.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Arizona baseball drawing above-average crowds
Arizona drew 6,736 for its Thursday-Friday baseball games at Hi Corbett Field against UCLA. That’s way above industry numbers. Jay Johnson‘s first Arizona team is now blessed with a state-of-the-art scoreboard in left-field that has five times more space than the old relic from the Tucson Toros’ days. It’s a terrific recruiting tool, as well. Now they just need to bring the outfield fence in about 25 feet.
- Greg Hansen
UA women's swimming not what it used to be
The long fall of the UA women’s swimming program, a consistent NCAA finisher in the top three and four for almost 20 years, is pronounced. At the NCAA championships last week, the UA didn’t have a single swimmer in the finals, not even a relay. Arizona used to be the nation’s top relays school. The Wildcats finished 12th.
- Greg Hansen
Late-night games kill TV ratings
The Oregon-Utah finals of the Pac-12 basketball tournament had a TV audience of 388,000 on Fox Sports 1. That’s not good. Compare it to the Arizona-Wichita State NCAA Tournament game that drew 2.6 million, or the Gonzaga-Utah NCAA game that had a TV audience of 1.8 million. Those late-night starting times are ratings killers.
- Greg Hansen
My two cents: Garagiola had big impact on Tucson sports
The death of 90-year-old Mr. Baseball, Joe Garagiola, last week was felt in Tucson as much as anywhere.
For seven years Garagiola was the host of the PGA Tour’s Tucson Open. His name was on the marquee, and he gave it special attention. He didn’t go home early or rush back to his home in Scottsdale.
Tucsonan Pat Darcy, a former Cincinnati Reds pitcher, remembers Garagiola phoning periodically, checking on former MLB players Darcy knew who had health or financial problems. If they needed help, Garagiola would arrange for intervention from the Baseball Assistance Team (BAT), which he helped to create.
I was introduced to Garagiola at the Tucson Open and told him I was a Yankees fan. He said something funny and went on his way. The conversation took no more than 30 seconds. Later that day, a man from the Conqustadores walked into the media room and said Garagiola wanted to see me. He was sitting in the bleachers at the 18th green.
I asked what was up. He said to follow him.
I walked to the 18th green and up the stairs to Joe’s seat. He was sitting by Yogi Berra.
“Greg,” he said, “I want you to meet Yogi.”
Thank you, Mr. Baseball.
More like this...
- Greg Hansen
Cats must recruit all year to keep up with Pac-12 football powers
The staff directory for Arizona’s athletic department lists three new special assistants to the athletic director: Jeff Casteel, Bill Kirelawich and David Lockwood.
Those are three of Rich Rodriguez’s former defensive assistant coaches who were fired in December. They remain on payroll through June 30 for a composite payoff close to $600,000.
That’s one of the reasons RichRod concluded spring drills Friday by telling reporters, “We’ve got to get more (defensive) people, and I’m not convinced right now that we’ve got a lot of people we can win with.”
We won’t know until October or November if RichRod acted soon enough to fix Arizona’s eroding defensive system, which began with ineffective recruiting four years ago and became manifest when the Wildcats yielded 12,397 yards over two seasons, almost 1,000 yards more than any two-year period in school history.
That $600,000 isn’t meant to fix X’s and O’s. It is meant to change the way Arizona recruits. RichRod’s staff was purposely made to be younger and more aggressive.
It costs a lot of money to fix a Power 5 conference football program, and double-dipping at three coaching staff positions is part of it. One transaction that didn’t get much attention was that RichRod was permitted to hire another full-time recruiting guy, Chris Singletary.
That was as important as any of the offseason changes.
Is it working?
By my count, in the last two weeks alone, the following prospects have been at the Lowell-Stevens Football Facility on unofficial recruiting visits: Chris Brooks, Thomas Graham Jr., John Chatman, Kurtis Brown, Jack Spears, Brian Hightower, Zelan Tupuola, Corey Selenski, Shammah Tupua, Rhedi Short, Drew Dixon, Darnay Holmes, Hunter Echols, Brendan Radley-Hiles, Warren Jackson, Joey Ramos, Kylan Wilborn, Cody Shear and Lee Pitts.
I probably missed two or three more. In addition, the UA offered scholarships to at least six other players in those two weeks. It was similar in February, too. Dozens of prospects were in town. More were offered scholarships.
Nothing like this has ever happened in the history of Arizona football. Customarily, February and March is catch-up-on-your-sleep time in the UA football department. That has all changed.
At no time, under any coaching staff, have the Wildcats recruited with such earnestness and in such volume.
That’s what it takes to stay competitive in a league with Oregon, USC and Stanford. The only question is whether it’s too late to affect the 2016, 2017 and 2018 seasons.
- Greg Hansen
Camarena-Williams flourishes in comeback
At 30, two-time USA Olympic shot-putter Jill Camarena-Williams might’ve retired after the 2012 London Olympics. Despite having a serious back injury, she chose to have a baby, Miley, with her husband, UA athletic department trainer Dustin Williams. But Williams capped a terrific comeback last week by finishing fifth in the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Oregon, throwing the shot 59 feet 7½ inches. The great Michelle Carter won the event with a throw of 66-3¾. Camarena-Williams, 34, now trains for the U.S. Olympic Trials in June.
- Greg Hansen
Ex-Cat Barrett has new rival heading into Olympics
UA grad Brigetta Barrett, the 2012 Olympic high jump silver medalist, chose not to compete at the world indoor finals. She is training in Los Angeles with her former UA coach, Sheldon Blockburger, now USC’s throws coach. While Barrett missed most of the 2015 season with an injury, a new name emerged on the world high-jumping stage: Las Vegas Bishop Gorman High School senior Vashti Cunningham won the world indoor title last week, jumping 6-5. Cunningham is the daughter of ex-NFL quarterback Randall Cunningham. She signed an endorsement deal with Nike last week and is now likely be Barrett’s top rival leading to the Rio Olympics.
- Greg Hansen
Sabino grad Popovich makes jump to NFL
Sabino High grad Jeff Popovich lost his job as UT-San Antonio’s secondary coach when Larry Coker resigned in January, but Popovich wasn’t out of work long. He was hired to be the assistant to Indianapolis Colts head coach Chuck Pagano last week. How did that happen? Pagano was the secondary coach of the Miami Hurricanes when Popovich was a four-year UM letterman from 1996-99. Popovich earned a biomedical engineering degree at Miami but hasn’t put it to use yet; he coached at Florida International and UTSA before moving to the NFL last week.
- Greg Hansen
Must-see TV event features potential future Cats
Suggested TV viewing this week: UA recruit Kobi Simmons and potential Wildcats Josh Jackson and Terrance Ferguson — in addition to future UCLA players T.J. Leaf and Lonzo Ball— will be in the McDonald’s All American Game on Wednesday at 6 p.m. on ESPN.
- Greg Hansen
Scooby's draft position is anybody's guess
Given the interest in Scooby Wright’s Pro Day last week at the UA, it will be fascinating to see who drafts him — and when. Will the NFL people put more priority on his lack of speed and his relatively smaller (by NFL standards) lower body, along with his inability to drop into pass coverage effectively? Or will they buy into his instincts, work ethic, toughness and nose for the ball? Scooby is like a .255-hitting MLB infielder who bats eighth but always seems to make a play to win a game.
- Greg Hansen
World Series-winning Cats making appearances in spring training
Four players from Arizona’s 2012 College World Series championship team have played for their MLB teams in spring training. The most impressive is Baltimore outfielder Joey Rickard, who was hitting .388 with 49 at-bats through Friday, and is expected to make Baltimore’s opening day roster. Yankees infielder Robert Refsnyder is hitting .267 in 30 at-bats, Tampa Bay outfielder Johnny Field is at .300 in 20 at-bats, and ex-Cienega third baseman Seth Mejias-Brean is 4 for 11 for Cincinnati. Sahuaro grad Alex Verdugo, an outfielder who will enter his third season in the Dodgers’ system, made his MLB spring training debut by playing twice for the Dodgers last week. He had two hits in five at-bats.
- Greg Hansen
Pac-12's All-Century baseball ballot features the greats
The ballot for the Pac-12’s All-Century baseball team overflows with greatness. Making that All-Century team might be the most difficult of all the Pac-12’s special teams. Jackie Robinson, anybody? Arizona has 11 players on the list: Alan Zinter, J.T. Snow, Alex Mejia, George Arias, Chip Hale, Trevor Crowe, Shelley Duncan, Terry Francona, Scott Erickson, Preston Guilmet and Kurt Heyer. Tucsonan Brent Strom, who pitched for USC and is the Houston Astros’ pitching coach, is also on the ballot.
- Greg Hansen
CDO grad Meyers golfing at Stanford
CDO grad Chris Meyers, a freshman on Stanford’s No. 9 men’s golf team, will not redshirt. He played at Stanford’s own The Goodwin tournament last week, and also in The Prestige championships a month ago in La Quinta, California. The gulf between Stanford and UA men’s golf teams is almost shocking. UA entered Saturday’s play 23rd of 25 teams at The Goodwin; one Wildcat shot 91 on Friday.
- Greg Hansen
Abdirahman won't attempt to make fifth Olympic team
Tucsonan Abdi Abdirahman has abandoned his dream to become the first American track and field athlete to make five Olympic teams. The Pima College and UA All-American missed the Olympic marathon trials in February with a calf injury. His coach, Dave Murray, said last week that Abdirahman will not attempt to make the Olympic team in the 10,000 meters, his event at the 2000, 2004 and 2008 Olympics. Abdirahman has relocated to Flagstaff to begin training for the road running season.
- Greg Hansen
Foothills grad, ex-Cat Brase shines in first year as coach
Catalina Foothills and UA grad Matt Brase coached the NBA D-League’s Rio Grande Valley Vipers to the playoffs in his first year as a head coach. Brase’s club clinched a playoff berth Friday night, with a 26-20 record. The Vipers are tied for first place in the Southwest Conference with the Austin Spurs, which is Nick Johnson’s team. Johnson was averaging 10.8 points through Friday.
- Greg Hansen
UA to honor late Gayle Hopkins
The funeral service for Arizona’s 1964 NCAA long jump champion and Tokyo Olympics long jumper Gayle Hopkins is Monday at 11 a.m., at Brings Funeral Home, 6910 E. Broadway. At 3 p.m., Monday, the UA will honor Hopkins, an associate athletic director at the school for 27 years. A celebration of his life will be held at the Jim Click Hall of Champions. The UA will plant a tree on the lawn adjacent to McKale Center in Hopkins’ memory.
- Greg Hansen
Sunnyside's Inclan has perfect partnership with coach
This is when you know you played for the right coach: After starting for Sunnyside High School for three years, leading the Blue Devils to a 67-22 record, forward Jacob Inclan went to Texas last week to examine schools at which he might play college basketball. Blue Devils coach Rob Harrison drove Inclan to Texas for the visits. Talk about a good partnership.
- Greg Hansen
Arizona baseball drawing above-average crowds
Arizona drew 6,736 for its Thursday-Friday baseball games at Hi Corbett Field against UCLA. That’s way above industry numbers. Jay Johnson‘s first Arizona team is now blessed with a state-of-the-art scoreboard in left-field that has five times more space than the old relic from the Tucson Toros’ days. It’s a terrific recruiting tool, as well. Now they just need to bring the outfield fence in about 25 feet.
- Greg Hansen
UA women's swimming not what it used to be
The long fall of the UA women’s swimming program, a consistent NCAA finisher in the top three and four for almost 20 years, is pronounced. At the NCAA championships last week, the UA didn’t have a single swimmer in the finals, not even a relay. Arizona used to be the nation’s top relays school. The Wildcats finished 12th.
- Greg Hansen
Late-night games kill TV ratings
The Oregon-Utah finals of the Pac-12 basketball tournament had a TV audience of 388,000 on Fox Sports 1. That’s not good. Compare it to the Arizona-Wichita State NCAA Tournament game that drew 2.6 million, or the Gonzaga-Utah NCAA game that had a TV audience of 1.8 million. Those late-night starting times are ratings killers.
- Greg Hansen
My two cents: Garagiola had big impact on Tucson sports
The death of 90-year-old Mr. Baseball, Joe Garagiola, last week was felt in Tucson as much as anywhere.
For seven years Garagiola was the host of the PGA Tour’s Tucson Open. His name was on the marquee, and he gave it special attention. He didn’t go home early or rush back to his home in Scottsdale.
Tucsonan Pat Darcy, a former Cincinnati Reds pitcher, remembers Garagiola phoning periodically, checking on former MLB players Darcy knew who had health or financial problems. If they needed help, Garagiola would arrange for intervention from the Baseball Assistance Team (BAT), which he helped to create.
I was introduced to Garagiola at the Tucson Open and told him I was a Yankees fan. He said something funny and went on his way. The conversation took no more than 30 seconds. Later that day, a man from the Conqustadores walked into the media room and said Garagiola wanted to see me. He was sitting in the bleachers at the 18th green.
I asked what was up. He said to follow him.
I walked to the 18th green and up the stairs to Joe’s seat. He was sitting by Yogi Berra.
“Greg,” he said, “I want you to meet Yogi.”
Thank you, Mr. Baseball.
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