Hansen's Sunday Notebook: NCAA makes right call in making softball players wait to commit

New NCAA rules affect Tucson as much as any city

Alexis Kaiser and Isabel Pacho, two of the most productive softball players in Tucson history — both part of state championship teams — were offered and accepted scholarships when they were freshmen. Kaiser is going to Syracuse; Pacho will play at Arizona.

In four years at Canyon del Oro, catcher Kaiser has hit .518 with 29 home runs and 124 RBIs. In her three seasons at Ironwood Ridge, third baseman Pacho has hit .548 with 30 home runs and 145 RBIs.

According to legislation passed last week by the NCAA Division I Council, prospects like Kaiser and Pacho will no longer to able to accept a college scholarship — or even talk to a college coach — until Sept. 1 of their junior season.

Even though he has benefited from early recruiting as much as any coach in softball history, UA coach Mike Candrea lobbied the National Fastpitch Coaches Association to pursue such legislation. Per capita, it affects Tucson as much as any city in America.

Consider this: Amphitheater sophomore shortstop Kristiana Watson committed to a Pac-12 school when she was in eighth grade; Watson, who hit an astonishing .756 as an Amphi freshman, has chosen not to make public the name of the school to which she committed.

Tucson High sophomore first baseman Carlie Scupin committed to Arizona when she was 14. In her two varsity seasons, Scupin has hit an incredible .622 with 24 home runs.

And that’s not all: CDO’s Ellessa Bonstrom, who has hit .443, .495, .451 and .420 in her four years as a Dorados starter, committed to Utah when she was 14.

Candrea further offered a scholarship to Capistrano Valley High slugger Giulia Koutsoyanopulos when she was 13 — she accepted — and to Southern California pitcher Jessie Fontes, now at Simi Valley’s Grace Brethren High School, when she was 14. She also accepted and will join Koutsoyanopulos in Arizona’s Class of 2020. How’s Fontes doing? She has struck out 358 batters in 164 high school innings.

When the NCAA last week changed softball’s recruiting parameters, Candrea told ESPN for Women “for myself, it’s difficult talking to a seventh-grader and trying to understand what they are looking for in life.”

Once approved by the NCAA Board of Directors this week, the early-recruiting legislation will not affect college basketball or football. Those two revenue sports continue with their own rules, but it makes sense that sooner or later the NCAA should establish uniformity among recruiting in all sports.

“When a young athlete is 13 or 14, you don’t know what kind of student they are going to be,” said Candrea. “You don’t know if they will still be playing softball by the time they get to college. It’s just a big gamble.”

Tucson has been fortunate that young players such as Kaiser, Pacho, Scupin, Bonstrom and Watson continue to excel after their early commitments. They have avoided the potential for burnout and change-of-direction that makes it a risk for both player and coach.

UA's spring football camp supplied few answers

Arizona’s spring football camp was like most: It came and went with almost no one except the 10 assistant coaches on Kevin Sumlin’s staff understanding what was (or wasn’t) accomplished.

About all that matters now is that Arizona’s 2018 schedule is a keeper: no games against Stanford or Washington, and home games against BYU, USC, Arizona State and Oregon.

The schedule alone should compensate for the lack of a “wow” factor in spring ball; the Wildcats are likely to sell at least 55,000 tickets for the opener against BYU; beating the Cougars would be a marketing campaign in itself.

Sumlin did not go overboard — he didn’t even dip his toe in the water — when asked about the development of quarterback Khalil Tate. Once defensive coaches at USC, Oregon, ASU and Purdue had time to establish a Tate-centric game plan late last season, the Tate Train was slowed considerably.

At first glance, offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone’s offense might not look a lot different than the Rich Rodriguez offense of 2017, but it will be. It’s up to Tate to make those changes.

“It’s not a huge departure,” said Sumlin. “What is a lot different is the terminology.”

Sumlin will use one word to call a play. Tate must know where four receivers and a running back will be on all of those one-word calls. That’s what the public doesn’t often realize; the memorization of the playbook can be overwhelming.

“The quarterback’s got to know all the words and what they mean and sometimes that gets confusing,” said Sumlin. “Instead of calling ‘200 jet spider wide banana’ we’ve got one word for that. It puts a lot more pressure on the quarterback.”

In the go-fast and go-faster, no-huddle world of college football offenses, those one-word play-calls can sometimes catch a defense unprepared and, if nothing else, wear them down.

Don’t expect to see much of Khalil Tate on the beach this summer.

Hitting or pitching? Take the pitchers

The Stanford baseball team arrived at Hi Corbett Field for a weekend series against Arizona ranked No. 3 nationally, leading the Pac-12.

After beating Arizona 8-2 on Friday, the Cardinal improved its 40-year conference record against the Wildcats to 110-76. Of the four California schools from the old Pac-10 “Six-Pac” that is by far the most lopsided series.

Stanford is a pitcher’s school. It has led the Pac-12 in staff ERA 10 times since the North-South divisions were abolished in 1999. By comparison, Arizona has led the league in ERA just once (2008) dating to 1979.

Yet the Wildcats led the Pac-10/12 in team batting average 16 times since joining the league.

Stanford’s hitters? They led the league in hitting just once, 2002.

Either way, Stanford has ruled the series. Good pitching beats good hitting, right?

In the last nine years, Arizona has produced six Pac-12 batting champions: Dillon Baird, Johnny Field, Brandon Dixon, Scott Kingery, twice, and JJ Matijevic.

Only one Stanford hitter, Jed Lowrie in 2004, has ever led the Pac-10/12 in hitting.

But over that long period, Cardinal coach Mark Marquess, who retired last season, was the Pac-10/12 Coach of the Year nine times. Arizona’s national championship coaches, Jerry Kindall and Andy Lopez, combined to be Coach of the Year four times.

Predictably, the Stanford pitching staff that will complete the series at Hi Corbett Field Sunday leads the Pac-12 with a 2.69 ERA.

Tucson's top sports team of the month earns trip to Massachusetts

The Tucson Soccer Academy’s Boys 2000 team finished the regular season with a 29-3-9 record, against club teams from California, Colorado, Nevada, Illinois, Phoenix and even a team from England. That qualified coach Dave Cosgrove’s team of high school juniors-seniors to play in the Elite National Premier League finals June 29 to July 3 in Massachusetts. It’s the first time a Tucson boys team has reached the ENPL championships. Cosgrove, who is also the men’s soccer coach at Pima College, has six of his future Aztecs on the Massachusetts-bound team: Sahuaro’s Alec Nguyen, Sabino’s Martin Cardenas, Catalina Foothills’ Conner Cosgrove, St. Augustine’s Osvaldo Miranda, Salpointe’s Hunter Knox and Tucson High’s Michael Pallanes.

Former UA football players have unusual reunion

UA football players Michael Dersam, Class of 1992, and Joe Lohmeier, Class of 1994, have more in common than winning the school’s Jim Ewing Award, which is awarded each football season to the senior with the highest GPA. They were together again last week at the Oasis Hospital in Phoenix. Dersam, an orthopedic surgeon, performed a total knee replacement procedure. It is the knee Lohmeier injured in the final minute of the 1994 Territorial Cup when he collided with ASU’s Pat Tillman, and was helped off the field. Dersam graduated from medical school at the UA and is now the Arizona Cardinals’ head orthopedic surgeon, and also an associate surgeon for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Lohmeier, a Sahuaro High grad, lives in Salt Lake City; he is vice president of Proofpoint, the world’s largest cybersecurity company. As for his reunion with Dr. Dersam, Lohmeier said “I’ve never trusted anyone more.”

Ex-Cat Jefferson will be a TV star after playing career is done

A day after former UA basketball player Richard Jefferson was a co-host of Arizona’s annual CATSYs program, he was the in-studio guest on the Colin Cowherd Show on Fox Sports 1. He was a revelation. Jefferson, 37, has played in 1,181 NBA games and been paid $114 million. If he chooses to go into broadcasting after his basketball career, he will be a superstar. He will be on those ESPN studio shows and be in high-demand.

Sarah Sellers' overnight success can be traced to Weber State

After Banner-UMC nurse anesthetist Sarah Sellers finished second in the Boston Marathon last week, she became something of an overnight celebrity to a variety of organizations. Vanity Fair contacted Sellers, hoping to do a magazine piece on her. The chairman of the Lost Dutchman Mine Marathon made contact, hopeful that she will run in their event in Apache Junction. She talked to The New York Times and Washington Post. Sellers was a nine-time Big Sky champion at Weber State, where her coach Paul Pilkington has a story of similar overnight success. At the 1994 Los Angeles Marathon, Pilkington was hired to be a pacesetter, to run with a group of elite runners and keep them on pace to threaten American records. Pilkington, then 32, a former Weber State standout, didn’t drop out of the marathon, as most pacesetters in any distance race do. He kept going. He won the L.A. Marathon. He watched last week’s Boston Marathon, but not with the intent to see Sellers, who was ranked No. 42 among all women entrants. But when the race reached the 21st mile, Pilkington thought he saw Sellers in the background when TV cameras were showing the women’s leaders. Indeed, it was Sellers. She was in 11th place at the time. Pretty good story.

Gronkowski banks on ... Gronkowski

Rob Gronkowski’s investment in Kentucky Derby contender “Gronkowski” should get him as much TV time as playing for the New England Patriots. When the Derby horses leave the paddock after the singing of “My Old Kentucky Home” at the May 5 race, Gronk will surely walk alongside “Gronkowski” with the owners and trainer, from the paddock to the track, which is always a made-for-TV event. Gronk, who is only 28, is surely the most recognizable former UA athlete today or ever.

My two cents: Earle Bruce's decision to say no to UA helped Cats in long run

In early January 1987, Earle Bruce, who died this week at 87, registered under his own name at Loews Ventana Canyon. The two-time Rose Bowl coach at Ohio State, who had gone 75-22 for the Buckeyes, was in Tucson to negotiate for the head coaching job at Arizona.

Unlike today’s spy vs. spy world, Bruce answered his phone and talked to reporters. He didn’t hide at some remote hotel, as is the today’s modus operandi.

Incredibly, the sitting coach at Ohio State was about to agree to replace Larry Smith as Arizona’s football coach.

In retrospect, Bruce used the Arizona opening to better his contract situation at Ohio State. Arizona offered a five-year deal for about $200,000 per season. At the time, the Buckeyes were low-balling Bruce, paying him about $175,000 per year. Additionally, Bruce was on something of a hot seat at OSU; a streak of 9-3 seasons was not warmly received in Columbus, Ohio.

For at least one night, Arizona athletic director Cedric Dempsey reached agreement with Bruce to coach at Arizona. It would’ve been the story of the year in college football. But overnight, Bruce’s assistant coaches, among others, persuaded him to reconsider and stay at Ohio State. The school soon gave him a raise (although it fired him 10 months later).

Arizona hired Dick Tomey instead. In the end, it got the right man.