Hansen's Sunday Notebook: Catalina Foothills shortchanged as it prepares for first-ever state title game
- Updated
Star sports columnist Greg Hansen offers his opinion on recent sports news.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Three pertinent items about Catalina Foothills’ impressive burst into football’s state 4A championship game against unbeaten Scottsdale Saguaro:
1. The game will kick off Saturday at 10 a.m. at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale. That’s 131 miles away. As of Saturday, Foothills was uncertain whether it would have to drive from Tucson, leaving about 5:30 a.m., on game day, or if it could raise money for a Friday night hotel.
The AIA, which often makes dreadful logistical decisions for Southern Arizona teams, did something similar to Foothills coach Jeff Scurran’s 2008 Santa Rita state championship game team, forcing it to play Phoenix Notre Dame at 11 a.m., at Sun Devil Stadium.
“We left at 5 a.m., that day,” Scurran said. “It wasn’t good.” His team lost 30-26.
Initially, the AIA negotiated with the UA to play the 4A title game at Arizona Stadium on Saturday, but that all changed when UOP Stadium became available about three weeks ago.
Saturday’s three state championship games begin at 10 a.m., 2:30 p.m., and 7 p.m. A more reasonable schedule for the young men involved would’ve been noon, 4 and 8.
2. Foothills QB Rhett Rodriguez has thrown for 8,404 passing yards and 77 touchdowns in four seasons. Scurran says RhettRod “reminds me of a golfer that doesn’t have a bad club in his bag. Short game, putting, driving. He can do it all.”
RhettRod is moving close to the Fab Five QBs in Tucson prep history. I’d rank them like this: 1, Rodney Peete, Sahuaro, 1985; 2, Fred W. Enke, Tucson High, 1945; 3, Pat Flood, Tucson High, 1952; 4, Jim Krohn, Amphi, 1975; 5, James MacPherson, Mountain View, 1998. All became Division I starters at USC, Arizona, Navy, Arizona and Wake Forest, respectively.
3. Scurran is outspoken about powerhouse Phoenix schools escaping Class 6A and 5A to play against smaller schools. “The clear secret to success in Arizona football is dropping down a class and having open enrollment,” he said. “Most of the football powers in Phoenix don’t play in the top divisions because they don’t have to.”
Before beating Gilbert Higley in Friday’s semifinal, Scurran told me “we are the only true 4A team remaining.”
Over the last decade, football-centric Saguaro has defeated title-worthy Tucson teams CDO and Sabino in state championship games.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
After three games, UA freshmen Lauri Markkanen, Kobi Simmons and Rawle Alkins are the club’s leading scorers, with a combined 47 points per game. That’s 60 percent of the team’s average. The only time in the last 50 years three freshmen have finished 1-2-3 in UA scoring was 1972-73, when Coniel Norman averaged 24 points per game, Eric Money 18.9 and Al Fleming 12.8, or 66 percent of the team’s production.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
The Pac-12’s most interesting award this season might be Freshman of the Year, rather than Player of the Year. Markkanen will be challenged by Washington point guard Markelle Fultz, who is averaging 32.5 points per game; Cal guard Charlie Moore, who scored 38 against UC Irvine last week; and UCLA’s T.J. Leaf and Lonzo Ball. Leaf is averaging 20 points and 10 rebounds and Ball is averaging 15 points, 7.7 rebounds and 8.3 assists. Of course, once those five begin playing against Top 50-type teams, their numbers will likely shrink.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Arizona’s first-year women’s basketball coach Adia Barnes inherited a bizarre schedule from Niya Butts’ staff. The Wildcats flew across country to play low-key George Mason on Friday and now must play at home against North Texas on Tuesday before facing small-school Southern Utah on Saturday night in Cedar City, Utah. The Thunderbirds drew 200 fans for their season opener against Antelope Valley. No other Pac-12 school has ever played in Cedar City.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Dave Cosgrove’s Pima College’s men’s soccer team, ruled ineligible for the NJCAA men’s district championships, would’ve faced a very difficult road to the national title. The team that won PCC’s district bracket, Trinidad (Colorado) State, was forced to play 22-0 Tyler (Texas) JC on Tyler’s home field, losing 2-1.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Mike Candrea released his softball team’s 2017 schedule last week and it wouldn’t be much of a surprise if the Wildcats opened 26-2 or thereabouts entering Pac-12 competition. The two must-see games are in California against 2016 Women’s College World Series powers Oklahoma and Florida State, although games against BYU and Louisville, both NCAA tournament clubs in 2016, should be tense.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Pima College women’s basketball coach Todd Holthaus won his 200th game at the school last week, pushing his record to 200-101. More impressive, he was 160-64 at Flowing Wells High School, giving him 360 victories entering the weekend. Beyond that, his top assistant, Jim Rosborough, entered the season with 623 career victories as the No. 2 guy at Arizona, 258 at Iowa and 22 at Tulsa, or 903 total. It would be sweet to see Rosborough hit 1,000 and Holthaus 400 at about the same time.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Over the past decade or so, Arizona Stadium and McKale Center lost hundreds of coveted parking spots with the construction of Sitton Field and the school’s rec center near Arizona Stadium. But by the 2017-18 school year, an $18.5 million parking garage will be built nearby, on Sixth Street and Warren Avenue, which is scheduled to have about 1,000 parking places. The parking near every Pac-12 football and basketball facility is chaotic and not nearly enough. The worst: Cal. No contest. The best: Utah, which has a light-rail system that delivers fans to Huntsman Center and Rice-Eccles Stadium.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
One of Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott’s many “initiatives” certainly isn’t giving student-athletes a reasonable travel schedule. The Pac-12 is making the No. 16 Utah volleyball team travel to Tucson for a 4 p.m. game Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, and then fly back to Salt Lake for a 1 p.m. Friday game against Colorado. And the UA-Utah game isn’t even scheduled around a Pac-12 Networks telecast; there is no TV coverage. If Dave Rubio’s Wildcats can finish the season beating Stanford on Sunday, Utah on Wednesday and winning Saturday at ASU, the Wildcats are likely to host an NCAA regional in the first week of December. One of Arizona’s leading players, outside hitter Kalei Mau, a potential all-conference selection, has an intriguing background. She not only moved from Hawaii to Minnesota to open her college volleyball career, her full name, according to the Daily Wildcat, is Tyler-Marie Kalei Hulu Mamo O Mohala Mau. Awesome.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
During his remarkable running career at Salpointe Catholic, Andy Trouard won state championships in the 800, 1,600 and 3,200 meters. On Saturday, he topped that, finishing 37th in the NCAA men’s cross country finals, helping Northern Arizona to a rousing national championship. Trouard, who is a redshirt junior at NAU, was fourth of the Lumberjacks’ five runners. In addition, Tucson’s Nicolas Montanez, who ran for coach Tim Bentley at St. Augustine High School, was No. 9 of the 250 runners, helping BYU finish seventh in the country. Montanez is a senior. Arizona did not qualify a runner for the NCAA meet.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Arizona alumna Jennie Finch was inducted into the ASA/USA Softball Hall of Fame last week in Shreveport, Louisiana. Not to say that the ASA/USA people are working on a serious logjam of deserving Hall of Famers, but Finch and former UA first baseman Leah O’Brien-Amico are the only players from the UA’s vastly successful softball program in the Hall of Fame. That should change. Jenny Dalton, Susie Parra and Nancy Evans are way overdue for induction.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Former UA basketball recruit Terrance Ferguson’s profile in last week’s New York Times had a few holes in it. He spoke about being paid in the “mid six-figures” for an Australian pro team, where he was averaging 5.9 points per game as a reserve guard. But Ferguson comes up far short in life experiences that are so valuable to an 18-year-old. How do you put a price on that? I cherish so much about the away-from-sports aspects of my college life, the seriousness of the sink-or-swim academic challenges. The nightlife. The people you meet who become friends for life. The bridge between being a teenager and an adult. In a life perspective, my college experience was worth far more than the “mid six-figures” and averaging 5.9 points per game.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Tucson’s most traditional high school basketball tournament, the Salpointe Catholic Tipoff, enters its 24th year Monday with eight teams from Southern Arizona and eight from Phoenix playing to reach Saturday’s 8 p.m. championship game. Coach Brian Holstrom’s tournament has been so good that the host Lancers haven’t won it since 2010. One of the most appealing games is a Wednesday 8 p.m., showdown, Salpointe v. Sunnyside, in which Division I prospects Majok Deng and Cameron Miller of the Lancers meet Nikc Jackson, Mikey Silva and Santino Duarte of Sunnyside. One of Monday’s top games is an 8 p.m., clash between Rich Utter’s Rincon/University Rangers and Catalina Foothills, which is led by Division I prospect Sam Beskind.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
In his first four NBA D-League games, Kaleb Tarczewski averaged 12.3 points and 9.3 rebounds, both above his UA senior season averages. He is playing for the Oklahoma City Blue. His former UA teammate, Grant Jerrett, is back in the D-League. He was signed Friday by the Canton (Ohio) Charge.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
The Tucson Roadrunners averaged 3,927 fans through their first six games at the Tucson Convention Center Arena. That’s a distant 27th among 30 American Hockey League teams; the leader in attendance, the San Diego Gulls, average 8,702. The AHL schedule-makers didn’t do the Roadrunners much of a favor by giving them six home games in a 10-day period from Nov. 18-27, including games Tuesday and Wednesday night.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Brian Peabody’s Pima College men’s basketball team staged a compelling comeback Friday night against the defending NJCAA champions Salt Lake CC. The Aztecs lost 102-95 but might’ve identified two key (local) players that will help them contend for the ACCAC title and the 2017 playoffs: Salpointe grad Emilio Acedo made seven 3-pointers for a career-high 22 points, and former Cienega standout Isaiah Murphy, a freshman, scored a team-high 28. The Aztecs are entertaining; they’ve averaged 122 points through six games.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Little by little, the Territorial Cup football game has slipped, losing appeal, perhaps because the sports landscape in this state has grown to include the NFL, MLB and NHL.
The Wildcats and Sun Devils are no longer the only game in town, as was the case when every game between the rivals was played to capacity crowds (or close) from 1950 to 2000.
It’s uncertain Friday night’s UA-ASU game will even draw 50,000 at Arizona Stadium.
The smallest Tucson attendance for the rivalry was 47,005 in 2002, the beginning of the end for coach John Mackovic.
ASU (5-6 this season) did not fill Sun Devil Stadium for the Territorial Cup in 2001, 2003, 2005 and 2009, three times drawing crowds below 56,000 in the 72,000-seat stadium (now reduced to about 57,000 capacity).
Sun Devil athletic director Ray Anderson has already said ASU coach Todd Graham will return in 2017. About the only thing that can be determined in Friday’s game is whether Greg Byrne will say the same thing about Rich Rodriguez.
What else is there to gain?
Three pertinent items about Catalina Foothills’ impressive burst into football’s state 4A championship game against unbeaten Scottsdale Saguaro:
1. The game will kick off Saturday at 10 a.m. at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale. That’s 131 miles away. As of Saturday, Foothills was uncertain whether it would have to drive from Tucson, leaving about 5:30 a.m., on game day, or if it could raise money for a Friday night hotel.
The AIA, which often makes dreadful logistical decisions for Southern Arizona teams, did something similar to Foothills coach Jeff Scurran’s 2008 Santa Rita state championship game team, forcing it to play Phoenix Notre Dame at 11 a.m., at Sun Devil Stadium.
“We left at 5 a.m., that day,” Scurran said. “It wasn’t good.” His team lost 30-26.
Initially, the AIA negotiated with the UA to play the 4A title game at Arizona Stadium on Saturday, but that all changed when UOP Stadium became available about three weeks ago.
Saturday’s three state championship games begin at 10 a.m., 2:30 p.m., and 7 p.m. A more reasonable schedule for the young men involved would’ve been noon, 4 and 8.
2. Foothills QB Rhett Rodriguez has thrown for 8,404 passing yards and 77 touchdowns in four seasons. Scurran says RhettRod “reminds me of a golfer that doesn’t have a bad club in his bag. Short game, putting, driving. He can do it all.”
RhettRod is moving close to the Fab Five QBs in Tucson prep history. I’d rank them like this: 1, Rodney Peete, Sahuaro, 1985; 2, Fred W. Enke, Tucson High, 1945; 3, Pat Flood, Tucson High, 1952; 4, Jim Krohn, Amphi, 1975; 5, James MacPherson, Mountain View, 1998. All became Division I starters at USC, Arizona, Navy, Arizona and Wake Forest, respectively.
3. Scurran is outspoken about powerhouse Phoenix schools escaping Class 6A and 5A to play against smaller schools. “The clear secret to success in Arizona football is dropping down a class and having open enrollment,” he said. “Most of the football powers in Phoenix don’t play in the top divisions because they don’t have to.”
Before beating Gilbert Higley in Friday’s semifinal, Scurran told me “we are the only true 4A team remaining.”
Over the last decade, football-centric Saguaro has defeated title-worthy Tucson teams CDO and Sabino in state championship games.
After three games, UA freshmen Lauri Markkanen, Kobi Simmons and Rawle Alkins are the club’s leading scorers, with a combined 47 points per game. That’s 60 percent of the team’s average. The only time in the last 50 years three freshmen have finished 1-2-3 in UA scoring was 1972-73, when Coniel Norman averaged 24 points per game, Eric Money 18.9 and Al Fleming 12.8, or 66 percent of the team’s production.
The Pac-12’s most interesting award this season might be Freshman of the Year, rather than Player of the Year. Markkanen will be challenged by Washington point guard Markelle Fultz, who is averaging 32.5 points per game; Cal guard Charlie Moore, who scored 38 against UC Irvine last week; and UCLA’s T.J. Leaf and Lonzo Ball. Leaf is averaging 20 points and 10 rebounds and Ball is averaging 15 points, 7.7 rebounds and 8.3 assists. Of course, once those five begin playing against Top 50-type teams, their numbers will likely shrink.
Arizona’s first-year women’s basketball coach Adia Barnes inherited a bizarre schedule from Niya Butts’ staff. The Wildcats flew across country to play low-key George Mason on Friday and now must play at home against North Texas on Tuesday before facing small-school Southern Utah on Saturday night in Cedar City, Utah. The Thunderbirds drew 200 fans for their season opener against Antelope Valley. No other Pac-12 school has ever played in Cedar City.
Dave Cosgrove’s Pima College’s men’s soccer team, ruled ineligible for the NJCAA men’s district championships, would’ve faced a very difficult road to the national title. The team that won PCC’s district bracket, Trinidad (Colorado) State, was forced to play 22-0 Tyler (Texas) JC on Tyler’s home field, losing 2-1.
Mike Candrea released his softball team’s 2017 schedule last week and it wouldn’t be much of a surprise if the Wildcats opened 26-2 or thereabouts entering Pac-12 competition. The two must-see games are in California against 2016 Women’s College World Series powers Oklahoma and Florida State, although games against BYU and Louisville, both NCAA tournament clubs in 2016, should be tense.
Pima College women’s basketball coach Todd Holthaus won his 200th game at the school last week, pushing his record to 200-101. More impressive, he was 160-64 at Flowing Wells High School, giving him 360 victories entering the weekend. Beyond that, his top assistant, Jim Rosborough, entered the season with 623 career victories as the No. 2 guy at Arizona, 258 at Iowa and 22 at Tulsa, or 903 total. It would be sweet to see Rosborough hit 1,000 and Holthaus 400 at about the same time.
Over the past decade or so, Arizona Stadium and McKale Center lost hundreds of coveted parking spots with the construction of Sitton Field and the school’s rec center near Arizona Stadium. But by the 2017-18 school year, an $18.5 million parking garage will be built nearby, on Sixth Street and Warren Avenue, which is scheduled to have about 1,000 parking places. The parking near every Pac-12 football and basketball facility is chaotic and not nearly enough. The worst: Cal. No contest. The best: Utah, which has a light-rail system that delivers fans to Huntsman Center and Rice-Eccles Stadium.
One of Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott’s many “initiatives” certainly isn’t giving student-athletes a reasonable travel schedule. The Pac-12 is making the No. 16 Utah volleyball team travel to Tucson for a 4 p.m. game Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, and then fly back to Salt Lake for a 1 p.m. Friday game against Colorado. And the UA-Utah game isn’t even scheduled around a Pac-12 Networks telecast; there is no TV coverage. If Dave Rubio’s Wildcats can finish the season beating Stanford on Sunday, Utah on Wednesday and winning Saturday at ASU, the Wildcats are likely to host an NCAA regional in the first week of December. One of Arizona’s leading players, outside hitter Kalei Mau, a potential all-conference selection, has an intriguing background. She not only moved from Hawaii to Minnesota to open her college volleyball career, her full name, according to the Daily Wildcat, is Tyler-Marie Kalei Hulu Mamo O Mohala Mau. Awesome.
During his remarkable running career at Salpointe Catholic, Andy Trouard won state championships in the 800, 1,600 and 3,200 meters. On Saturday, he topped that, finishing 37th in the NCAA men’s cross country finals, helping Northern Arizona to a rousing national championship. Trouard, who is a redshirt junior at NAU, was fourth of the Lumberjacks’ five runners. In addition, Tucson’s Nicolas Montanez, who ran for coach Tim Bentley at St. Augustine High School, was No. 9 of the 250 runners, helping BYU finish seventh in the country. Montanez is a senior. Arizona did not qualify a runner for the NCAA meet.
Arizona alumna Jennie Finch was inducted into the ASA/USA Softball Hall of Fame last week in Shreveport, Louisiana. Not to say that the ASA/USA people are working on a serious logjam of deserving Hall of Famers, but Finch and former UA first baseman Leah O’Brien-Amico are the only players from the UA’s vastly successful softball program in the Hall of Fame. That should change. Jenny Dalton, Susie Parra and Nancy Evans are way overdue for induction.
Former UA basketball recruit Terrance Ferguson’s profile in last week’s New York Times had a few holes in it. He spoke about being paid in the “mid six-figures” for an Australian pro team, where he was averaging 5.9 points per game as a reserve guard. But Ferguson comes up far short in life experiences that are so valuable to an 18-year-old. How do you put a price on that? I cherish so much about the away-from-sports aspects of my college life, the seriousness of the sink-or-swim academic challenges. The nightlife. The people you meet who become friends for life. The bridge between being a teenager and an adult. In a life perspective, my college experience was worth far more than the “mid six-figures” and averaging 5.9 points per game.
Tucson’s most traditional high school basketball tournament, the Salpointe Catholic Tipoff, enters its 24th year Monday with eight teams from Southern Arizona and eight from Phoenix playing to reach Saturday’s 8 p.m. championship game. Coach Brian Holstrom’s tournament has been so good that the host Lancers haven’t won it since 2010. One of the most appealing games is a Wednesday 8 p.m., showdown, Salpointe v. Sunnyside, in which Division I prospects Majok Deng and Cameron Miller of the Lancers meet Nikc Jackson, Mikey Silva and Santino Duarte of Sunnyside. One of Monday’s top games is an 8 p.m., clash between Rich Utter’s Rincon/University Rangers and Catalina Foothills, which is led by Division I prospect Sam Beskind.
In his first four NBA D-League games, Kaleb Tarczewski averaged 12.3 points and 9.3 rebounds, both above his UA senior season averages. He is playing for the Oklahoma City Blue. His former UA teammate, Grant Jerrett, is back in the D-League. He was signed Friday by the Canton (Ohio) Charge.
The Tucson Roadrunners averaged 3,927 fans through their first six games at the Tucson Convention Center Arena. That’s a distant 27th among 30 American Hockey League teams; the leader in attendance, the San Diego Gulls, average 8,702. The AHL schedule-makers didn’t do the Roadrunners much of a favor by giving them six home games in a 10-day period from Nov. 18-27, including games Tuesday and Wednesday night.
Brian Peabody’s Pima College men’s basketball team staged a compelling comeback Friday night against the defending NJCAA champions Salt Lake CC. The Aztecs lost 102-95 but might’ve identified two key (local) players that will help them contend for the ACCAC title and the 2017 playoffs: Salpointe grad Emilio Acedo made seven 3-pointers for a career-high 22 points, and former Cienega standout Isaiah Murphy, a freshman, scored a team-high 28. The Aztecs are entertaining; they’ve averaged 122 points through six games.
Little by little, the Territorial Cup football game has slipped, losing appeal, perhaps because the sports landscape in this state has grown to include the NFL, MLB and NHL.
The Wildcats and Sun Devils are no longer the only game in town, as was the case when every game between the rivals was played to capacity crowds (or close) from 1950 to 2000.
It’s uncertain Friday night’s UA-ASU game will even draw 50,000 at Arizona Stadium.
The smallest Tucson attendance for the rivalry was 47,005 in 2002, the beginning of the end for coach John Mackovic.
ASU (5-6 this season) did not fill Sun Devil Stadium for the Territorial Cup in 2001, 2003, 2005 and 2009, three times drawing crowds below 56,000 in the 72,000-seat stadium (now reduced to about 57,000 capacity).
Sun Devil athletic director Ray Anderson has already said ASU coach Todd Graham will return in 2017. About the only thing that can be determined in Friday’s game is whether Greg Byrne will say the same thing about Rich Rodriguez.
What else is there to gain?
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