Hansen's Sunday Notebook: Laura Ianello tasked with keeping champion Arizona Wildcats together

Coaches' challenge: Keep national champion Wildcats together

A day after Arizona won the NCAA women’s golf championship, the Wildcats caught a flight to Phoenix and drove to Tucson in luxury-sized black SUVs with “National Champions” logos affixed to the front doors.

For UA coaches Laura Ianello and Derek Radley, it was the first day of the rest of their lives. At some point soon, they’ll begin working to keep the gang together.

Juniors Bianca Pagdanagan and Haley Moore will surely explore the possibility of playing in the revamped LPGA Qualifying School in the fall. So, too, might freshman standout Yu-Sang Hou.

Elite college golfers are no different than top college basketball players. The retention rate of golfers such as Pagdanagan, Moore and Hou — keeping them for a full college career — is minimal.

But on the drive from Phoenix to Tucson, Radley got a call from Ya-Chun Chang, the No. 3 overall recruit in the Class of 2018 according to Golfweek’s analytics.

Chang, from Chinese Tapei, committed to the Wildcats last month and on Thursday told Radley she will indeed enroll at Arizona and play for the 2018-19 Wildcats. How good is Chang? She finished second, at 12-under-par, in the LPGA’s January Hitachi Classic in Taiwan. Chang has played golf and studied at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, for the last three years.

“Her nickname is ‘Money,’” Radley said with a smile. “No kidding. Money. It fits. She’s terrific.”

Ianello knows how fluid a college golf roster can be. Over the holidays in December, Arizona’s No. 2 player, Krystal Quihuis, left school to play on the Symetra Tour, which is the LGPA’s version of the men’s Web.com Tour. Further, junior Gigi Stoll, whose clutch play helped Arizona upset UCLA and Stanford during the NCAA finals, also informed Ianello she planned to leave Arizona. Stoll began looking for another school at which to complete her eligibility.

Fortunately, Stoll and Ianello came to an agreement that allowed Stoll to remain on the UA roster.

If all goes well — if Pagdanganan, Hou, Moore, Chang, Stoll and Sandra Nordaas are on Arizona’s roster when play resumes in September — the Wildcats are almost certain to open the year ranked No. 1.

Stay tuned.

Pac-12 pitching stopped Arizona short of softball World Series

Although college softball has changed thoroughly since Arizona won its first NCAA championship in 1991 — better playing facilities, higher pay for coaches, more national exposure and a considerably deeper pool of available high school talent — pitching still rules the game as it did in ’91.

Arizona went 0-11 against the Pac-12’s current superpowers, UCLA, Oregon and Washington. Why? It couldn’t effectively hit the pitching aces at those schools: Oregon’s Megan Kleist, Washington’s Taron Alvelo and UCLA’s Rachel Garcia.

The numbers are extraordinary.

Those pitchers went 9-0 against Arizona with a 1.04 ERA, allowing just six runs. They struck out 81 Wildcats in 52 innings.

More daunting: all of them return next season.

If Mike Candrea’s 2019 club — which returns mostly intact — is to get to the World Series, it will have to climb from good to a much higher level in the pitching circle.

Get this: UA junior Taylor McQuillin, the 2015 Gatorade national softball player of the year, was 28-3 with a 1.03 ERA and 248 strikeouts in 198 innings when NOT pitching against UCLA, Oregon or Washington. She was almost unhittable.

But against the Ducks, Huskies and Bruins, McQuillin was 0-9 with a 7.14 ERA.

Candrea adds the top high school prospect in Arizona for the ’19 season, pitcher-hitter Marissa Schuld of Phoenix Pinnacle High School. Not to put any additional pressure on Schuld, but if she’s not immediately ready to pitch at a high-level in the Pac-12, it’s difficult to picture Arizona breaking an eight-year streak without reaching the Women’s College World Series.

Schuld went 33-2 her last two seasons, striking out 398 batters in 207 innings She also hit .574 with 16 home runs this season as Pinnacle won the Class 6A state title.

“She’s a bulldog,” Candrea said.

It’s getting more and more difficult to project – to guess – how elite high school pitchers will do once they get in a league as talent-rich at the Pac-12. Since 2012, Arizona has landed some of the top pitching prospects in the West: Shelby Babcock, Nancy Bowling, Michelle Floyd and Trish Parks.

None became an ace, or even close.

Cienega product Nick Gonzales continues to rake in Las Cruces

Second baseman Nick Gonzales hit .543 for the Cienega High School baseball team a year ago, earning a scholarship to New Mexico State. He got better in Las Cruces. Gonzales was named the WAC Freshman of the Year last week, with a .364 batting average and nine home runs. He was second in the WAC with a .723 slugging percentage. As the Aggies went 3-0 to reach the WAC championship game Saturday night in Phoenix, Gonzales hit an even .300.

State title for Sabino's Preston Clifford fits with family of athletes

Sabino High School junior Preston Clifford produced a season for the ages as he pitched and hit the Sabercats to a 29-3 season and the 3A state championship. He hit .398 and was 8-0 as a pitcher. Maybe we should’ve seen this coming. His father, BJ Clifford, was one of Tucson’s top athletes of the 1990s, an all-city football running back and baseball player at Santa Rita High School who went on to play baseball at New Mexico for coach Rich Alday. Preston’s grandfather, the late Rich Bartke, was a first-team all-city basketball and baseball player at Palo Verde High School in 1964 and 1965, part of a first-team all-state baseball team. Some exceptional athletic genes there for sure.

Former all-state player at CDO now all-conference at UNLV

UNLV junior first baseman Nick Ames, an all-state player on CDO’s 2015 state championship team, was selected to the all-Mountain West Conference second team last week. Ames hit .295 with 18 home runs and 71 RBIs.Ames now has 31 home runs at UNLV. If he does not turn pro this summer, Ames will have a legitimate shot to break the school record of 48 home runs set by former Diamondbacks third baseman Matt Williams.

Former Pima, Salpointe standout caps Wazzu career in style

Ryan Ramsower was honored before Saturday’s Utah-Washington State baseball game as one of nine seniors in his last game for the Cougars, then singled in his final at-bat to finish with a .405 batting average. Ramsower hit .360 at Pima College in 2016. He was an all-city player at Salpointe Catholic in 2014. Not many Tucsonans have played at WSU in any sport. Ramsower joins former Santa Rita High golfer Ryan Witz as one of the best. Witz, a first-team NJCAA golfer at Pima College in 2003, was a starter for the Cougars’ golf team in 2005 and 2006.

Sarah Sellers' schedule is packed following Boston Marathon showing

Much has changed for Tucson nurse anesthetist Sarah Sellers, who made global news by finishing second in the Boston Marathon last month. She now has an agent, a shoe deal and endorses Special K cereal for Kellogg’s. She continues to work four 10-hour shifts weekly at Banner-University Medical Center, and will run her first race since Boston on June 9. The women’s-only New York Mini 10K will feature the top three Boston Marathon finishers. The winner will be paid $10,000. Sellers will then run in the July 24 Salt Lake Deseret News 10K, close to her hometown of Ogden, Utah. There’s some history involved: her sister-in-law, Natalie Callister, won the Deseret News half-marathon in 2015. Small world: Sellers’ shoe deal is with Altra, which was created and manufactured by ICON Fitness in Logan, Utah, a global fitness company started by my high school classmate Scott Watterson.

Ex-Wildcats forward, Catalina Foothills grad involved in Suns' decision

Part of the Phoenix Suns pre-draft operation — will the Suns select ex-Arizona power forward Deandre Ayton? — includes 2007 Catalina Foothills High grad Louis Lehman. A Colorado graduate, Lehman spent last season as the general manager of the Suns’ G League team, the Northern Arizona Suns in Flagstaff. Lehman has been in the G League for three seasons. He also spent two years as basketball operations manager for the Suns.

Decision on Pima College athletics coming June 13

Pima College chancellor Lee Lambert is in the process of deciding whether to eliminate football, or any sport. PCC said Lambert will announce his decision on June 13. Lambert’s professional background is mostly in the legal business and does not include much work in or near sports. He was the president of Shoreline Community College near Seattle for seven years before taking over at Pima. Shoreline’s athletic department was about a third of the size of the Pima sports operation: Shoreline had just seven sports, but not football, track, tennis or golf.

Former Tucson High standout, Adia Barnes assistant takes job at Belmont

At Tucson High, Christine Clark was a star-level basketball player and high-jumper. She then attended Harvard and was a three-year captain of the Crimson women’s basketball team. After Harvard, Clark played professionally in Italy and returned to Tucson to be part of Adia Barnes’ coaching staff in 2016-17. Last year she was on the Florida Gators staff, mostly as a recruiter. Last week, Clark continued her journey, becoming a full-time assistant coach at Belmont, the same school that produced now-graduated UA basketball player Talbott Denny.

Kevin Sumlin says old wound won't heal

Arizona football coach Kevin Sumlin returned to Texas to speak to the Houston Touchdown Club last week, which was almost an annual part of his schedule when he coached at Houston and Texas A&M. This time he spoke about coaching Arizona against Houston on Sept. 8 at the Cougars’ on-campus stadium. “They say time heals all wounds,” Sumlin told the audience Thursday. “We’ll see. Somehow I don’t think time has healed this wound.”

No need to worry about UA, ASU jumping ship

The work never ends for Kevin Sumlin, or any college football coach. The Pac-12 last week announced that Arizona finished last in the league’s football Academic Progress Rate (APR), with 946 points. It was the first time Arizona has ever finished last in the league’s football APR numbers. Worse, it was a distant 12th. UCLA was 11th with 967 points. Even ASU had a better academic performance, with 975 points, No. 5 overall. Big 12 Conference newspapers in Kansas City and Dallas last week speculated that the relatively low financial return from the Pac-12 would prompt Arizona and ASU to consider jumping to the Big 12 at some point. That will never happen. The UA treasures its academic partnership with Stanford, USC, UCLA and Cal. No UA regent or president would ever consider giving that up just so it could make more media rights money in the Big 12, or anywhere.

My two cents: Women's golf win should boost sagging Learfield Cup showing

At this time last week, Arizona’s athletic department was ranked No. 62 in Learfield Directors’ Cup competition, a formula that measures the excellence of athletic departments in all sports.

It was like a punch between the eyes. Arizona routinely ranked in the top 10 from 1995-2005, but has since had difficulty remaining in the top 25. That’s what happens when a swimming program, a distance running program, a women’s basketball team, a men’s golf team and two sagging tennis programs go through almost 10 years of difficulty.

It’s hard to believe, but Arizona trailed Denver, New Hampshire and Harvard. It was only two places in front of No. 64 NAU. Even Cal was at No. 11.

But winning the NCAA women’s golf championship, and getting significant points in softball and, perhaps, men’s track, should put Arizona somewhere closer to No. 30 when final results are tallied next month.

Either way, there’s nowhere to go but up.