On UA men’s basketball’s challenges, Becky Burke’s decisions and more | Michael Lev

Current and former Arizona Wildcats are making news. We’ve got views.

News: The UA men’s basketball team loses two in a row while also dealing with injury and illness.

Views: We knew adversity would strike the Wildcats at some point. It was a matter of “when,” not “if.”

We also knew Arizona’s schedule was filled with landmines over the final month. I didn’t expect Texas Tech at home to be one of them, but it isn’t surprising considering how good a coach Grand McCasland is; how smart and tough his team is; the in-game injury suffered by Koa Peat; and the absence of Dwayne Aristode.

The severity of Peat’s injury was not known as of this writing. Nor had the initial availability report for Wednesday’s home game vs. BYU been released.

Obviously, the trajectory of Arizona’s season changes drastically if Peat is out for a long period of time. Although he’s been struggling a bit lately, he’s still a force inside and a big factor in the Wildcats’ ability to wear down opponents.

Arizona had remarkable injury luck before Saturday, with only Ivan Kharchenkov missing a portion of one game because of a sprained ankle. That sort of good fortune doesn’t last forever either. Just ask BYU.

The Cougars lost one of their best players for the season when sharpshooting wing Richie Saunders suffered a torn ACL vs. Colorado on Saturday. BYU barely survived in overtime on its home court. You can’t just replace a Richie Saunders, just like you can’t just replace a Koa Peat.

Tommy Lloyd didn’t try to replace Peat or Aristode, who was out with flu-like symptoms, preferring to go with six players aside from one-plus minute of Sidi Gueye in the second half.

Will we see that again Wednesday if Peat and Aristode are unavailable? I hope not. Lloyd needs to give Gueye and point guard Evan Nelson some run in meaningful moments. You never know when something unforeseen will happen again.

News: The UA women’s basketball team loses in overtime to ASU.

Views: I’ve already gone on record saying that the Wildcats’ record this season doesn’t matter. This year is all about Becky Burke establishing the foundation of her program.

That said, I can understand why fans would be frustrated by the outcome of Saturday’s game vs. the Sun Devils — in particular, Burke’s decision not to play forward Blessing Adebanjo.

Adebanjo hasn’t been consistent by any means, and she remains an unpolished player who’s still learning how to play big-time college basketball in the U.S. But she’s had her moments, in particular against Kansas State, when she was arguably the biggest reason Arizona won. Adebanjo is athletic, and she can block shots. Those skills are sparse on the current UA roster.

But Burke coaches game by game, and practice by practice, and nothing is guaranteed if you don’t practice well or fit the game plan for a particular opponent. Adebanjo played less than a minute in the previous matchup vs. ASU, and that was only because Nora Francois had fouled out.

This wasn’t a disciplinary decision, which is probably the best way to categorize Francois and Noelani Cornfield not playing — or even being on the bench — earlier in the week at Cincinnati. It’s fair to say that Arizona would have won that game if they had played. But as much as Burke loves winning — and hates losing — establishing a culture supersedes all.

This column was written and filed before Tuesday night’s game vs. Colorado, one of two winnable games remaining on the regular-season slate. (Houston at home on Feb. 24 is the other.) The Wildcats are staring at a bottom-three seed in the Big 12 Tournament, which features a double-bye setup.

It’s hard to envision them winning more than one game in Kansas City. But again, that’s OK. As soon as this season ends, Burke and her staff can get on to the business of building for future seasons.

News: McKale Center is renamed “McKale Center at Alkeme Arena” in a 15-year, $27.7 million naming-rights deal.

Views: Another one to file under the “inevitable” category. But UA athletic director Desireé Reed-Francois and Alkeme Insurance had to thread a needle in this case, and they succeeded.

I know for a fact that Reed-Francois was steadfast about keeping the “McKale” name front and center. It means a lot to her — she was in law school here when the Wildcats won the national championship — and she knows how much it means to UA fans.

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She had to find a partner who’d be willing to go along with that — one who’d accept the concession that their company’s name could easily be lopped off.

(The construction reminds me of when MLB’s Angels were renamed the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Predictably, they became the Los Angeles Angels. The real ones just call them the Angels.)

That person turned out to be Alkeme’s CEO, Curtis Barton, who just so happens to be a UA alum, a Wildcats fan and the parent of a current student. I can’t remember ever seeing a “suit” not wear one during one of these events. Barton went with a navy UA hoodie paired with a white Alkeme baseball cap. Well played, sir.

Even though fans and local media likely will continue to refer to McKale Center as, well, McKale Center, Saturday provided evidence that the deal will work for Alkeme: The ESPN graphic referred to Arizona’s basketball arena by its new full name, and play-by-play announcer Dan Shulman referenced it as well. I have no idea how much that exposure is worth, but I’m guessing it’s a lot.

Regardless of how you feel about McKale Center no longer just being McKale Center, or Arizona Stadium now being called Casino Del Sol Stadium, you have to give Reed-Francois credit: She got both deals done within the first two years of her tenure. Prior to her arrival, naming rights — which are a necessary evil in modern college athletes — were talked about but never acted upon. Reed-Francois walked the walk.

News: UA football coach Brent Brennan and coordinators Seth Doege and Danny Gonzales receive contract extensions.

Views: This is another example of how Reed-Francois just gets it.

Did Brennan need to get extended through 2030 after one losing season and one winning one? No. But giving him that security, locking up his top lieutenants and increasing the overall assistant salary pool sends a message: Arizona is serious about football.

Reed-Francois has mentioned many times how important football is to the financial health and well-being of a power-conference athletic department. The new deals with Brennan, Doege and Gonzales are an investment toward that end.

Brennan’s annual average salary of $4.7 million places him in the middle of the pack in the Big 12, but he has a chance to earn more. He’ll get a $200,000 bump if Arizona notches eight wins in regular-season play. Shouldn’t all coaches’ contracts be constructed that way?

Extending Doege and Gonzales through 2028 doesn’t guarantee they’ll be around that long. But they wouldn’t have signed deals of that length — which undoubtedly include financial incentives to stick around — if they didn’t want to be here or didn’t want to work with Brennan.

It’s one thing to say how much you love being at Arizona; it’s another to put it in writing.

The coordinator extensions are a further illustration of the athletic department’s commitment to football. Arizona has not traditionally given assistant coaches contracts longer than two years.

It’s something of substance the staff can present to current players who might be considering transferring, recruits who might be on the fence and fans who haven’t fully bought in yet.

News: UA softball goes 5-1 in the Bear Down Fiesta.

Views: By far the most significant development for the Wildcats during the tournament was the debut of freshman pitcher Rylie Holder.

Arizona already was flirting with danger by having only four pitchers on this year’s roster. When I had former UA pitcher-turned-ESPN analyst Kenzie Fowler on “The Wildcast” before the season, she said the sweet spot for a modern-day softball roster is six pitchers. The Wildcats had eight last year. Caitlin Lowe and her staff decided to go with half that many this year — and they were banking on Holder being a big part of that mix.

Holder missed the first weekend because of an undisclosed injury. She made her first career start Saturday vs. Utah Valley, throwing five shutout innings.

This column was written and filed before Tuesday evening’s game vs. Nevada — the first of six games this week. Arizona hits the road for the first time, facing defending national champion Texas twice and host Stanford once in the DeMarini Invitational. The Wildcats can’t survive that gauntlet — or the upcoming Big 12 slate — with only three pitchers.

Senior transfer Jalen Adams looks the part of a front-of-the-rotation workhorse, but she needs help. It’ll have to come from underclassmen Jenae Berry, Sarah Wright and Holder.

Despite her youth, Holder was someone Lowe talked about as an instant-impact freshman. Assuming she remains healthy, Holder will get a taste of big-time college softball at Stanford. It’s the next-best opportunity for her to learn, grow and, ideally, develop into a reliable No. 2 behind Adams.