University of Arizona basketball head coach Lute Olson holds the Division I NCAA Championship trophy with his team after they defeated Kentucky in the national championship in Indianapolis in 1997.
– When Arizona honors its 1997 NCAA championship basketball team at the late September Red and Blue Showcase at McKale Center, it would be nice to see the '97 club's strength and conditioning coach, Marc Hill, as part of the celebration. Hill, who served in that role from 1995-99, was hired last week as the senior associate athletic director at Big 12 rival BYU. He has been serving in a similar position at Kentucky for the last 15 years. Hill's connection to the UA runs deep: He is married to Jenny Dalton, the 1996 NCAA Softball Player of the Year at Arizona.
– Back on the map: Marcel Yates was Arizona's defensive coordinator from 2016-19. He has since coached at Cal, Oregon and Texas Tech. Yates sat out the 2025 college football season but is now the cornerbacks coach on the new staff at Kansas State. Yates is a good man who made the mistake of joining Kevin Sumlin's ill-fated Arizona staff and was fired after Sumlin mailed it in for two years.
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– Arizona athletic director Desireé Reed-Francois lost one of her longest-tenured fund-raisers last week when Pepperdine hired Ryan Hastings to be the chief of its athletic development staff. Hastings worked as a UA athletic fund-raiser since 2016; Hastings' bio on the Pepperdine website says he raised $22 million for the UA athletic department and was responsible for about 200 clients. He was hired by Greg Byrne out of Eastern Illinois University a decade ago. The UA fundraising staff is currently listed with nine employees.
– No surprise: Pima College's men's soccer team, coached by Hall of Famer Dave Cosgrove, is ranked No. 3 in the NJCAA preseason poll. The Aztecs have won two NJCAA championships and played in three "Final Fours'' under Cosgrove, including last season's national tournament. This figures to be another battle royal between ACCAC men's soccer powers Pima and Phoenix College. Phoenix is ranked No. 1 in the preseason poll.
– After UA men's golf coach Jim Anderson guided the Wildcats to the NCAA "Final Four'' in May, the Wildcats lost star-level golfers Filip Jakubcik and Zach Pollo. But if the ongoing U.S. Amateur is any indication, the Wildcats have reloaded. Seniors Taishi Moto and Tianyi Xiong both advanced to the playoffs (the top 64) from an original field of 320 golfers. Moto beat No. 1 seed Josh Ryan in Wednesday's first round of match play and advanced to the round of 32. What's more, Anderson added Arizona state champion Joseph Nelson of Gilbert Hamilton High School. He is the first Arizona state champ the UA has landed since Johnny Walker of Hamilton in 2019. The top Arizona state champion ever to enroll at Arizona is Ted Purdy, a future PGA Tour winner, who played at Brophy Prep in 1992.
– Arizona's 2022 All-Pac-12 catcher Daniel Susac, who won the San Francisco Giants catching job this season, will unfortunately miss the remainder of the season with a broken kneecap. Susac fouled a ball off his knee against Detroit Aug. 9. He was hitting .243 with three home runs through 53 games before the injury.
– UA product Rob Gronkowski is on the Pro Football Hall of Fame ballot for the first time. His chances of being selected? Overwhelmingly good. Gronk caught 92 touchdown passes in the NFL, third among tight ends behind Hall of Famers Antonio Gates' 116 and Tony Gonzalez's 111. Gronk caught passes for 9,286 yards, fiourth behind Gates, Gonzalez and Shannon Sharpe. There are 10 tight ends in the Hall of Fame, and all are legends: Gonzalez, Gates, Sharpe, Mike Ditka, John Mackey, Kellen Winslow, Dave Casper, Jackie Smith, Charlie Sanders and Ozzie Newsome. Gronk should make it 11.
Arizona rankings expose Tucson prep football’s steep decline | Greg Hansen
