With Wisconsin hire, speculation around Arizona's Reed-Francois ends | Greg Hansen

– Wisconsin last week hired Texas Longhorns assistant athletic director Shawn Eichorst to be the Badgers' new athletic director. It paid him $1.6 million per year. That ends speculation that Arizona AD Desireé Reed-Francois will take the Wisconsin job. Not that Reed-Francois was paying much attention this week. She is in Australia to run in a marathon, one of what she hopes to be seven marathons run in a different continent over the next few years.

– Devan Newman, who previously coached on the women's basketball team at Weber State and played at Louisville, has been hired to be an assistant coach on Becky Burke’s UA women's basketball program. Newman has a strong tie to the UA; her father, Don Newman, was ASU's interim head basketball coach in the 1997-98 season, replacing Bill Frieder, who had been fired. Don Newman was also an assistant coach at Washington State under Kelvin Sampson, now the highly successful coach at Houston.

– After the Portland Trail Blazers acquired shooting guard Ja Morant and next season's return of all-pro guard Damian Lillard, it was clear Caleb Love’s playing time would be impacted. However, Love, who played 49 NBA games for Portland on a two-way contract last year, was set to sign a two-way G League contract Friday with the Philadelphia 76ers.

– Former Arizona shooting guard Pelle Larsson, who started 54 games for the Miami Heat last year and averaged 11.4 points, apparently lost his starting job last week when the Heat traded for Tim Hardaway Jr. Also, Koa Peat’s projected playing time as a Phoenix Suns rookie took a hit last week when the Suns traded for Miles Bridges, a star-level player who also plays power forward. The Suns also have another power forward, Ryan Dunn, who has started 60 games the past two seasons. Patience is suggested for Peat.

– New ASU men's basketball coach Randy Bennett last week used words not heard by a Sun Devils' coach for 25 or 30 years, maybe dating to Ned Wulk in the 1970s. "I'd say I'm impressed at how powerful this place is," said Bennett, referring to antiquated Desert Financial Arena, which is currently under remodel. "We have the resources we need to be good. We think we can be really good." Part of it could be that Bennett spent the last two decades at low-brow Saint Mary's. Let's see how he reacts once he plays road games at full-capacity arenas at Iowa State, Texas Tech, Houston, Arizona, Kansas, BYU and Baylor. It's not going to be easy for Mr. Bennett.