When Arizona inducts its sports Hall of Fame Class of 2025 on Friday at the Westin La Paloma, one of the featured ex-Wildcats will be Margo Geer. From 2011-14, Geer was a 27-time All-American, and three-time NCAA champion, putting herself in class with Crissy Perham, Amanda Beard and Lacey Nymeyer John as the most successful female swimmers in UA history. Geer made such an impression on then-Arizona athletic director Greg Byrne that he hired her as Alabama’s head swimming coach, men and women, even though she had never been a head coach and was only 28. Byrne recently extended Geer’s contract through 2028 for $180,000 annually.
Arizona softball coach Caitlin Lowe gives instructions from behind the hitting turtle at Hillenbrand Stadium.
– Caitlin Lowe’s Arizona softball recruiting class is ranked 25th nationally by Softball America, which is No. 1 in the Big 12. The top prospect. pitcher Lilly Hauser of Murrieta, Calif., is the club’s highest-ranked prospect, No. 69 overall. It’s a head-shaking tale about how far the UA softball program has dropped in the national picture. The Wildcats of the Mike Candrea days were routinely ranked No. 1 in recruiting, or No. 2 behind UCLA. Times have changed. When Lowe was an All-American center fielder at Arizona from 2003-07, the UA’s roster included star-level players such as Alicia Hollowell, Callista Balko, Taryne Mowatt, Kristie Fox, Autumn Champion and on and on. It’s not just Arizona that has declined. Once-mighty UCLA is ranked no better than 19th in last week’s recruiting rankings.
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– Palo Verde High School grad Bryce Cotton, a five-time MVP of the Australian Basketball League, continues to get better, if possible. After signing a $3 million free agency deal to jump from the Perth Wildcats to the Adelaide 36ers this year, Cotton averaged 27.3 points in the first month of the ABL season, including 39 in his 36ers debut. Cotton is 35 and said to be the best player in ABL history.
– When Dave Heeke was Arizona’s athletic director from 2017-24, one of UA president Robert C. Robbins‘ lead staffers was Elizabeth Cantwell, who is now the president at Washington State. Cantwell last week fired WSU athletic director Anne McCoy, caught in the rubble of the Pac-12 breakup. If I’m Cantwell, who knows Heeke well, he’s on my list of those to interview. Now 62, Heeke was a victim of Robbins’ irresponsible spending at Arizona and also Robbins’ interference that led to the hiring of Kevin Sumlin, which torpedoed the UA football program. Heeke was a highly-regarded AD for 11 years at Central Michigan before moving to Tucson. He could provide the damage control and vision that Wazzu needs to get its program in order again, although Cantwell might have trouble convincing anyone of Heeke’s stature to (a) take on WSU’s financial problems and (b) want to live in remote Pullman, Washington.
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