Hansen's Sunday Notebook: These six Wildcats have chance to shine as freshmen
- Updated
Star sports columnist Greg Hansen offers his opinion on recent sports news.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
The Super Six, my choices as the six leading freshmen recruits at Arizona for the 2016-17 season:
1. Dejah Mulipola, softball. Flo Softball ranks the catcher from Pacifica High School near Los Angeles as the No. 5 overall player in the Class of 2016. This summer she was selected to the Louisville Slugger Hit Club, as one of the 10 leading players in America. Mulipola was a four-time AAU national champion in summer ball dating to 2012.
2. Lauri Markkanen, men’s basketball. On paper, the 7-footer from Finland probably ranks with Chris Mills, Eric Money, Mike Bibby, Brian Williams and Gilbert Arenas as the most game-ready newcomer in UA basketball history. I ranked Mulipola over Markkanen because she’s likely to play four college seasons to Markkanen’s one.
3. Kirsten Jacobsen, swimming. Most recruiting services list the freestyle sensation from Barrington, Illinois, as the No. 1 or No. 2 incoming freshman in that specialty. She is part of the school’s No. 1 freshman recruiting class packaged by swimming coach Rick DeMont. It includes prep All-Americans Kennedy Lohman of Prospect, Kentucky; Hannah Cox of Hartland, Vermont; and Mallory Korenwinder of Tulare, California.
4. Justice Summerset, high jump. The Mountain View High School product compares favorably to UA All-American and national champion Nick Ross, who entered school in the fall of 2009 with a career best of 7 feet 3 inches. Summerset won the national junior Olympics title a month ago with a leap of 7-2½ and set the state record in April at 7-1½. Like Ross, a basketball player in high school, Summerset was known mostly for another sport (football) at Mountain View. Now he’ll concentrate on improving in the high jump the way Ross did, clearing a UA record 7-7, and finishing third at the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials.
5. Nick Quintana, baseball. Few expected the shortstop from Las Vegas to bypass the MLB draft, including the Boston Red Sox, who flew Quintana to Fenway Park on July 8 and introduced him around the Red Sox clubhouse, where he posed for photos with, among others, David Ortiz. But Quintana, who initially committed to USC, bought what UA coach Jay Johnson was selling after hitting 15 homers, hitting .438 and driving in 58 runs in the high school season. Quintana was named a MaxPreps All-American and made the 2016 Rawlings Perfect Game All-American team.
6. Liz Shelton, volleyball. When UA coach Dave Rubio told me Shelton “has a chance to be one of the top players ever to put on a UA volleyball uniform,” I bought it. She is a 6-2 outside hitter from Edwards Air Force Base in California who is only now concentrating fully on volleyball; she also played basketball and was a track standout in high school. Rubio is hoping to redshirt Shelton this year so that he will have her through 2021. Shelton is a 4.0 student.
As for the top recruiting prospects in Southern Arizona this year, it’s a two-way race for No. 1. Tucson High diver Delaney Schnell, who finished sixth in the U.S. Olympic Trials and has already committed to Arizona, and Rio Rico middle distance runner Allie Schadler, who has already won eight state championships, are elite recruits on the national level.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Tucson’s top three athletes of the summer:
1. Majok Deng, boys basketball. The Salpointe Catholic sophomore forward played 61 AAU games in the offseason and has been offered scholarships by ASU, Portland, TCU and New Mexico. He is taking an unofficial visit to New Mexico this weekend. Deng, an explosive 6-5 forward, didn’t start playing basketball until his family left Kenya in 2011. He averaged 9.5 points per game for the Lancers as a freshman.
2. Jacob Allen, baseball. The Ironwood Ridge senior was invited to USA Baseball’s 17-U national team tryout camp in North Carolina. He is playing on the Baseball Next Level travel team and for Bryan Huie’s Yankee Scout team after hitting .467 for at I-Ridge as a junior.
3. J.J. Matijevic, baseball. The UA junior hit .376 and would have won the batting crown if he had enough at-bats in the Cape Cod League after arriving from the College World Series. Last week, Matijevic was selected to the all-league team.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
This weekend is the 30th anniversary of Tucson International Little League’s stunning advance to the championship game of the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa. The ’86 Tucson team was led by Rich Barcelo, Danny Fregoso and Marty Walker. They lost to Taiwan in the title game. Only Barcelo remains in sports; he is the head pro at Tiger Woods’ new golf course, Blackjack National, in Montgomery, Texas. Barcelo will be inducted into the Nevada Wolf Pack Sports Hall of Fame on Sept. 16; he was the 1998 Big West Player of the Year at Nevada after a standout career at Sahuaro High School and Pima College.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Although he wasn’t on the USA Olympic team for the first time since 2000, Tucsonan Abdi Abdirahman, 39, hasn’t stopped running. He earned $3,000 and finished sixth in the Falmouth Road Race last week in Massachusetts, one of the leading stops on the U.S. Road Runners circuit. The race was won by former UA All-American Stephen Sambu, who was paid $10,000 for finishing first in the seven-mile race.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Former Sabino High football standout Andrew Mike will open the season as the No. 2 right guard/tackle for the Florida Gators in Saturday’s UF debut against UMass. Mike is a redshirt sophomore.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Catalina Foothills coach Jeff Scurran never dodged a challenge at Sabino, Santa Rita and Pima College in his Tucson coaching years, but rarely has he faced a game like the Falcons will encounter Friday night in Scottsdale. Foothills will face three-time defending state champ Scottsdale Saguaro, which has won eight state titles in 10 years and is absurdly out of place in the state’s third-highest division against Foothills. Saguaro beat SoCal powerhouse Junipero Serra in the Los Angeles area last week. Saguaro is a Class 4A school, which is the same as enrollment-challenged Palo Verde, Pueblo and Amphi.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Arizona’s seven-time NCAA swimming champion Kevin Cordes was honored a Saturday’s Chicago Bears-Kansas City Chiefs exhibition game at Soldier Field, pictured with a gold medal around his neck. Cordes, who was born in Naperville, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, swam in the preliminary heats of USA’s 4x100 medley relay gold medal team, but was replaced by teammate Cody Miller in the finals at Rio. But Cordes got a gold medal anyway, the same way Arizona’s 1996 NCAA Swimmer of the Year Chad Carvin did without swimming the finals at the Sydney Olympics. At 23, the timing wasn’t right for Cordes and if he stays with swimming and attempts to make the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, he is still unlikely to win an individual medal in his best event, the 100 breast stroke. The competition is so intense; in the 2012 U.S. trials, Cordes swam a then-best 1:00.58 in the 100 breast. This year he cut it to a career-best 58.94 (and 59.22 in the Olympic finals). But he needed 58.87 to get a medal. International swimming is a game of inches like few others and Cordes is Exhibit A. Somehow he needs cut another second off his best effort.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Salpointe Catholic and UA grad Jonathan Khan, who is now on the PGA Tour’s affiliate Canadian Tour, had the pro event of his life last week. He shot a lights-out 62 on Saturday to lead the National Capital Open, with nine birdies, a career-best for the 27-year-old Tucsonan. Alas, Khan was not able to better his career-best finish of 20th; he shot 78 in the final round to drop to 26th place and earn $1,365. Khan has three tournaments remaining on the 2016 schedule.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
The price of being a leader in college football continues to climb to ridiculous levels. If you think Greg Byrne’s $74 million Lowell-Stevens Football Facility project is as good as it gets, consider what Clemson is building now. Clemson’s football plant will include mini golf, a grill area, sand volleyball court, nap room, arcade, bowling alley and a barbershop. One of Byrne’s nice touches on the near-complete $7.5 million UA sports academic center across from McKale Center was to make space for two 18-wheel TV trucks. For decades, Enke Drive was virtually shut down on UA basketball weekends, overloaded with 18-wheelers.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
When the AIA scheduled the 2010 state basketball championships to be played at an arena in Prescott Valley, it turned into the Tucson Invitational, although seen by fewer than 500 fans. Now, in retrospect, it’s amazing to see how good those Tucson teams — Amphi, Palo Verde and Santa Rita — were. Four of those players are now professionals in the EuroLeague. Palo Verde’s Bryce Cotton of Providence last week signed to play with Anadolu Efes of Turkey; Amphi’s Lester Medford of Baylor last week signed with Falco KC of Hungary; Amphi’s Tim Derksen of USF last month signed with Marin of Spain’s EuroLeague; and Santa Rita’s Terrell Stoglin of Maryland is playing for Sagesse of the Lebanon league.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Tucson Roadrunners GM Doug Soetaert compiled a remarkably conflict-free home schedule for the team’s inaugural season (2016-17). The Roadrunners will play 21 weekend games at the TCC and only four of them — January 27-28 and February 24-25 — will possibly be opposed by Arizona’s Pac-12 games, with the Washington and Los Angeles schools. The first nine Roadrunners weekend home games will be opposed only by a Nov. 18 basketball game against Sacred Heart.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Levi Wallace was an All-Southern Arizona football defensive back/receiver at Tucson High under Justin Argraves. In 2012, Wallace was second on the Badgers with 41 tackles and he caught 19 passes for 363 yards. Now, four years later, Wallace is on scholarship for No. 1 Alabama. Coach Nick Saban awarded Wallace a scholarship last week; Wallace mostly plays special teams and is a backup safety. His brother, Lawrence Wallace, Arizona’s 2015 state long jump champion, is a sophomore on the Crimson Tide track team.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
At 23, Grant Jerrett has played just 51 minutes in the NBA after leaving Arizona in 2012-13 as a freshman. After sitting out the 2015-16 season with shoulder surgery, Jerrett is on the Portland Trail Blazers roster. The Blazers have 14 guaranteed contracts and 15 available spots. Jerrett is one of three men invited to compete for that 15th spot when training camp begins in October.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Arizona will put Miles Simon’s jersey on permanent display at McKale Center, joining those of Sean Elliott, Steve Kerr, Jason Terry, Mike Bibby and Jason Gardner.
It’s good that the UA has changed its requirements for jersey displays; Gardner is not one of the top 15 or 20 players in school history, yet his name is honored for posterity because someone chose him the national freshman of the year in 2001.
Simon had a much more significant career. But if you display Simon’s jersey, what about Damon Stoudamire’s No. 20? Stoudamire was clearly a better player.
At least now the UA appears more flexible when it comes to matters of historic significance.
One more thing: Central Florida last week approved a statue of former football coach George O’Leary, who was 81-60 in 12 seasons. Really.
Lute Olson coached Arizona to 25 consecutive NCAA Tournaments, four Final Fours and changed the identity of the school’s athletic department. There is no statue of Lute Olson anywhere.
The Super Six, my choices as the six leading freshmen recruits at Arizona for the 2016-17 season:
1. Dejah Mulipola, softball. Flo Softball ranks the catcher from Pacifica High School near Los Angeles as the No. 5 overall player in the Class of 2016. This summer she was selected to the Louisville Slugger Hit Club, as one of the 10 leading players in America. Mulipola was a four-time AAU national champion in summer ball dating to 2012.
2. Lauri Markkanen, men’s basketball. On paper, the 7-footer from Finland probably ranks with Chris Mills, Eric Money, Mike Bibby, Brian Williams and Gilbert Arenas as the most game-ready newcomer in UA basketball history. I ranked Mulipola over Markkanen because she’s likely to play four college seasons to Markkanen’s one.
3. Kirsten Jacobsen, swimming. Most recruiting services list the freestyle sensation from Barrington, Illinois, as the No. 1 or No. 2 incoming freshman in that specialty. She is part of the school’s No. 1 freshman recruiting class packaged by swimming coach Rick DeMont. It includes prep All-Americans Kennedy Lohman of Prospect, Kentucky; Hannah Cox of Hartland, Vermont; and Mallory Korenwinder of Tulare, California.
4. Justice Summerset, high jump. The Mountain View High School product compares favorably to UA All-American and national champion Nick Ross, who entered school in the fall of 2009 with a career best of 7 feet 3 inches. Summerset won the national junior Olympics title a month ago with a leap of 7-2½ and set the state record in April at 7-1½. Like Ross, a basketball player in high school, Summerset was known mostly for another sport (football) at Mountain View. Now he’ll concentrate on improving in the high jump the way Ross did, clearing a UA record 7-7, and finishing third at the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials.
5. Nick Quintana, baseball. Few expected the shortstop from Las Vegas to bypass the MLB draft, including the Boston Red Sox, who flew Quintana to Fenway Park on July 8 and introduced him around the Red Sox clubhouse, where he posed for photos with, among others, David Ortiz. But Quintana, who initially committed to USC, bought what UA coach Jay Johnson was selling after hitting 15 homers, hitting .438 and driving in 58 runs in the high school season. Quintana was named a MaxPreps All-American and made the 2016 Rawlings Perfect Game All-American team.
6. Liz Shelton, volleyball. When UA coach Dave Rubio told me Shelton “has a chance to be one of the top players ever to put on a UA volleyball uniform,” I bought it. She is a 6-2 outside hitter from Edwards Air Force Base in California who is only now concentrating fully on volleyball; she also played basketball and was a track standout in high school. Rubio is hoping to redshirt Shelton this year so that he will have her through 2021. Shelton is a 4.0 student.
As for the top recruiting prospects in Southern Arizona this year, it’s a two-way race for No. 1. Tucson High diver Delaney Schnell, who finished sixth in the U.S. Olympic Trials and has already committed to Arizona, and Rio Rico middle distance runner Allie Schadler, who has already won eight state championships, are elite recruits on the national level.
Tucson’s top three athletes of the summer:
1. Majok Deng, boys basketball. The Salpointe Catholic sophomore forward played 61 AAU games in the offseason and has been offered scholarships by ASU, Portland, TCU and New Mexico. He is taking an unofficial visit to New Mexico this weekend. Deng, an explosive 6-5 forward, didn’t start playing basketball until his family left Kenya in 2011. He averaged 9.5 points per game for the Lancers as a freshman.
2. Jacob Allen, baseball. The Ironwood Ridge senior was invited to USA Baseball’s 17-U national team tryout camp in North Carolina. He is playing on the Baseball Next Level travel team and for Bryan Huie’s Yankee Scout team after hitting .467 for at I-Ridge as a junior.
3. J.J. Matijevic, baseball. The UA junior hit .376 and would have won the batting crown if he had enough at-bats in the Cape Cod League after arriving from the College World Series. Last week, Matijevic was selected to the all-league team.
This weekend is the 30th anniversary of Tucson International Little League’s stunning advance to the championship game of the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa. The ’86 Tucson team was led by Rich Barcelo, Danny Fregoso and Marty Walker. They lost to Taiwan in the title game. Only Barcelo remains in sports; he is the head pro at Tiger Woods’ new golf course, Blackjack National, in Montgomery, Texas. Barcelo will be inducted into the Nevada Wolf Pack Sports Hall of Fame on Sept. 16; he was the 1998 Big West Player of the Year at Nevada after a standout career at Sahuaro High School and Pima College.
Although he wasn’t on the USA Olympic team for the first time since 2000, Tucsonan Abdi Abdirahman, 39, hasn’t stopped running. He earned $3,000 and finished sixth in the Falmouth Road Race last week in Massachusetts, one of the leading stops on the U.S. Road Runners circuit. The race was won by former UA All-American Stephen Sambu, who was paid $10,000 for finishing first in the seven-mile race.
Former Sabino High football standout Andrew Mike will open the season as the No. 2 right guard/tackle for the Florida Gators in Saturday’s UF debut against UMass. Mike is a redshirt sophomore.
Catalina Foothills coach Jeff Scurran never dodged a challenge at Sabino, Santa Rita and Pima College in his Tucson coaching years, but rarely has he faced a game like the Falcons will encounter Friday night in Scottsdale. Foothills will face three-time defending state champ Scottsdale Saguaro, which has won eight state titles in 10 years and is absurdly out of place in the state’s third-highest division against Foothills. Saguaro beat SoCal powerhouse Junipero Serra in the Los Angeles area last week. Saguaro is a Class 4A school, which is the same as enrollment-challenged Palo Verde, Pueblo and Amphi.
Arizona’s seven-time NCAA swimming champion Kevin Cordes was honored a Saturday’s Chicago Bears-Kansas City Chiefs exhibition game at Soldier Field, pictured with a gold medal around his neck. Cordes, who was born in Naperville, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, swam in the preliminary heats of USA’s 4x100 medley relay gold medal team, but was replaced by teammate Cody Miller in the finals at Rio. But Cordes got a gold medal anyway, the same way Arizona’s 1996 NCAA Swimmer of the Year Chad Carvin did without swimming the finals at the Sydney Olympics. At 23, the timing wasn’t right for Cordes and if he stays with swimming and attempts to make the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, he is still unlikely to win an individual medal in his best event, the 100 breast stroke. The competition is so intense; in the 2012 U.S. trials, Cordes swam a then-best 1:00.58 in the 100 breast. This year he cut it to a career-best 58.94 (and 59.22 in the Olympic finals). But he needed 58.87 to get a medal. International swimming is a game of inches like few others and Cordes is Exhibit A. Somehow he needs cut another second off his best effort.
Salpointe Catholic and UA grad Jonathan Khan, who is now on the PGA Tour’s affiliate Canadian Tour, had the pro event of his life last week. He shot a lights-out 62 on Saturday to lead the National Capital Open, with nine birdies, a career-best for the 27-year-old Tucsonan. Alas, Khan was not able to better his career-best finish of 20th; he shot 78 in the final round to drop to 26th place and earn $1,365. Khan has three tournaments remaining on the 2016 schedule.
The price of being a leader in college football continues to climb to ridiculous levels. If you think Greg Byrne’s $74 million Lowell-Stevens Football Facility project is as good as it gets, consider what Clemson is building now. Clemson’s football plant will include mini golf, a grill area, sand volleyball court, nap room, arcade, bowling alley and a barbershop. One of Byrne’s nice touches on the near-complete $7.5 million UA sports academic center across from McKale Center was to make space for two 18-wheel TV trucks. For decades, Enke Drive was virtually shut down on UA basketball weekends, overloaded with 18-wheelers.
When the AIA scheduled the 2010 state basketball championships to be played at an arena in Prescott Valley, it turned into the Tucson Invitational, although seen by fewer than 500 fans. Now, in retrospect, it’s amazing to see how good those Tucson teams — Amphi, Palo Verde and Santa Rita — were. Four of those players are now professionals in the EuroLeague. Palo Verde’s Bryce Cotton of Providence last week signed to play with Anadolu Efes of Turkey; Amphi’s Lester Medford of Baylor last week signed with Falco KC of Hungary; Amphi’s Tim Derksen of USF last month signed with Marin of Spain’s EuroLeague; and Santa Rita’s Terrell Stoglin of Maryland is playing for Sagesse of the Lebanon league.
Tucson Roadrunners GM Doug Soetaert compiled a remarkably conflict-free home schedule for the team’s inaugural season (2016-17). The Roadrunners will play 21 weekend games at the TCC and only four of them — January 27-28 and February 24-25 — will possibly be opposed by Arizona’s Pac-12 games, with the Washington and Los Angeles schools. The first nine Roadrunners weekend home games will be opposed only by a Nov. 18 basketball game against Sacred Heart.
Levi Wallace was an All-Southern Arizona football defensive back/receiver at Tucson High under Justin Argraves. In 2012, Wallace was second on the Badgers with 41 tackles and he caught 19 passes for 363 yards. Now, four years later, Wallace is on scholarship for No. 1 Alabama. Coach Nick Saban awarded Wallace a scholarship last week; Wallace mostly plays special teams and is a backup safety. His brother, Lawrence Wallace, Arizona’s 2015 state long jump champion, is a sophomore on the Crimson Tide track team.
At 23, Grant Jerrett has played just 51 minutes in the NBA after leaving Arizona in 2012-13 as a freshman. After sitting out the 2015-16 season with shoulder surgery, Jerrett is on the Portland Trail Blazers roster. The Blazers have 14 guaranteed contracts and 15 available spots. Jerrett is one of three men invited to compete for that 15th spot when training camp begins in October.
Arizona will put Miles Simon’s jersey on permanent display at McKale Center, joining those of Sean Elliott, Steve Kerr, Jason Terry, Mike Bibby and Jason Gardner.
It’s good that the UA has changed its requirements for jersey displays; Gardner is not one of the top 15 or 20 players in school history, yet his name is honored for posterity because someone chose him the national freshman of the year in 2001.
Simon had a much more significant career. But if you display Simon’s jersey, what about Damon Stoudamire’s No. 20? Stoudamire was clearly a better player.
At least now the UA appears more flexible when it comes to matters of historic significance.
One more thing: Central Florida last week approved a statue of former football coach George O’Leary, who was 81-60 in 12 seasons. Really.
Lute Olson coached Arizona to 25 consecutive NCAA Tournaments, four Final Fours and changed the identity of the school’s athletic department. There is no statue of Lute Olson anywhere.
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