Hansen's Sunday Notebook: Was 'McHail Mary' the end for Bobby Hurley at McKale?

The Star's longtime columnist on the 'McHail Mary,' Salpointe soccer star Leo Gutierrez, Jedd Fisch's UA football makeover, the promising future of Wildcat women's basketball and more.

Three thoughts in the aftermath of ASU's 'McHail Mary'

Before getting closure on last week’s McHail Mary — ASU’s 89-88 victory over Arizona on Desmond Cambridge’s 60-footer at the buzzer — I’ve got three issues:

1. Was it Bobby Hurley’s last game at McKale?

Hurley and Cal’s troubled Mark Fox have the two shortest contracts in the Pac-12. Both expire next season. The league’s most successful coaches — Arizona’s Tommy Lloyd, UCLA’s Mick Cronin, Oregon’s Dana Altman and USC’s Andy Enfield — all have contracts that run through 2027, minimum.

Why hasn’t ASU acted to extend Hurley’s contract? Part of it is surely that the Sun Devils finished ninth in 2021 and eighth in 2022. Another part is that Hurley is 1-2 in the NCAA Tournament in seven seasons. He was 71-75 in Pac-12 games after Thursday’s loss at UCLA.

Does that merit a long-term contract? Tough call.

It’s possible that Hurley, 51, believes he can get a better job, and thus hasn’t been active in pursuing an extension. His name still carries clout in college basketball, especially in the East.

If he pursued the vacancy at Notre Dame and the likely opening at Georgetown — Hoya legend Patrick Ewing has gone 2-37 in the Big East the last two seasons – Hurley would be viewed as a home run hire, with more recruiting power than ASU basketball.

Starting over might be more appealing than swimming upstream in Tempe.

At Notre Dame or Georgetown, Hurley would be near his New Jersey roots and would inherit a recruiting platform superior to that of ASU, which was forced to acquire seven transfers this season to stay competitive. That type of player-acquisition approach doesn’t seem sustainable at ASU or anywhere.

The other side? Hurley might believe the Sun Devils can benefit significantly from the UCLA/USC departure for the Big Ten.

Either way, college basketball coaches who are down to the final year on their contracts — Sean Miller at Arizona in 2021, for example — usually aren’t in that situation because they’ve met or exceeded expectations.

2. This is how college basketball’s transfer and “extra year" rules are changing statistics.

ASU’s Cambridge, who made the shot to beat Arizona, was attempting the 1,071st 3-pointer of his six-year college career. He played two full years at Brown, two full years at Nevada, redshirted a year and is now a sixth-year player at ASU. Such movement and longevity have thrown record books out of whack.

The Pac-12 record for 3-point attempts is 891, set by ASU’s Stevin “Hedake" Smith in the mid-1990s. Cambridge will finish with about 300 more than the Pac-12 record. Arizona’s career record is 845, set by Jason Gardner, 2000-03.

It’s not like Cambridge is an all-conference player you want chucking up 3s without discretion. He is simply a volume shooter on a middling team. His career 3-point percentage, 34.1, would put him in 53rd place in Arizona history for players with a minimum of 100 attempts.

Yet Cambridge made the most memorable 3-pointer in McKale Center history, although it had nowhere near the impact of the most infamous buzzer-beating shot in McKale history: the 10-footer made by UCLA guard Darrick Martin in 1992 to end Arizona’s 71-game homecourt winning streak.

3. I researched the last 25 UA-ASU games at McKale Center and found that the McHail Mary was historic in many ways.

ASU shot 53.7% in the game, its highest percentage at McKale in that period. (Its average McKale field-goal percentage across those years was 40.2.) Moreover, the Sun Devils made 36 field goals; they had never made more than 32. Plus, ASU’s 11 3-pointers are the most in the same quarter-century period, as are the 89 points the Sun Devils scored.

When all of those elements come together, you usually win comfortably, not by a 60-foot Hail Mary.

OK, time to move on.

Salpointe's Leo Gutierrez climbs to prominence

You can make a strong case that the three most dominant athletes in Tucson are UA Olympic silver medal diver Delaney Schnell, Sunnyside High School sophomore wrestler Sergio Vega (81-0 in two years with two state championships) and Salpointe Catholic sophomore soccer phenom Leo Gutierrez.

Gutierrez has scored 66 goals in two seasons, both capped by Lancer state championships. Here’s some perspective:

Gutierrez is on pace to become the fourth Tucson prep soccer player believed to score 100 goals: Fernando Gauna scored 115 goals for Salpointe from 2003-06; Vince Bianchi scored 105 for Salpointe from 1984-87; and Scott Leber scored 100 for Salpointe from 1993-96.

All were coached by Wolfgang Weber, who doesn’t temper his praise of Gutierrez.

“He’s absolutely in that class," said Weber, whose 10 state championships are a state record. “Leo really made a giant leap the last two or three years, continuous improvement. "

The unknown about Gutierrez’s future is that a pro soccer organization may tempt him to leave high school competition and train full time in a developmental-type camp, one that includes financial opportunities.

“About 1-3% of all soccer players get a sniff as a pro," Weber said. “We’re advising Leo how important an education is and that going to a college soccer program might be his best option — and then see if he gets drafted."

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UA coach Jedd Fisch’s changes coming into view

Entering his third season at Arizona, football coach Jedd Fisch has almost total ownership of the UA roster. On Friday, Fisch said that 98 of Arizona’s 112 players were recruited by him and his staff.

Yet to outsiders, Arizona is viewed more as an Oregon State of the 1990s, one of the least successful decades by one team in the history of Pac-12 football. Why?

“We’ve had eight winning seasons in 23 years," said Fisch, detailing the UA’s reputation as a bottom-feeder. “We’ve won eight or more games five times in 23 seasons."

Interest eroded. Home attendance has hit lows dating to the early 1970s.

That fits what former UA coach Rich Rodriguez told CBSSports.com last week.

"We always thought, at Arizona, they like football, but I don't know if they really love it," Rodriguez said. "So, once (the players) leave our football building, they're not hearing people talk about football a lot."

A lot of that can be traced to Rodriguez’s lack of recruiting effort, success and his lack of visibility in the community.

Fisch has upgraded every aspect of the UA football program, hiring more talented coaches, attacking recruiting with a 24/7 energy RichRod and Kevin Sumlin did not exhibit and engaging the community with enthusiasm and an unprecedented involvement in charitable projects.

“It’s a totally different program," fifth-year senior tackle Jordan Morgan of Marana High School said Friday. “There’s a buzz about football now. We’ve come a long way."

Short stuff: Jayden de Laura's progress, Jerry Carrillo's honor, Izzy Galindo's excellence

• Arizona junior Jayden de Laura is generally considered No. 5 or No. 6 among the Pac-12’s impressive list of returning QBs, including Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams of USC. But the de Laura we’ll see in 2023 won’t likely be the de Laura we saw in 2022. “Last year I weighed 178 pounds," de Laura said Friday. “Now I’m 208. I want to get to 215." How will the extra bulk help an already extraordinary athlete with world-class escape-the-rush skills? “I’ve actually gotten faster," he said. “I’m stronger, more confident and should be able to withstand more punishment and avoid injuries." He also said he now has full knowledge of the UA’s offense. “I know where everyone is," he said. “I know where the linemen are going to be. It’s a big advantage."

• Tucson native Jerry Carrillo, a Salpointe Catholic and UA grad, has been elected to the NJCAA Men's Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame, Class of 2023. Carrillo is in his 27th season as Cochise College’s head men’s basketball coach and completed the regular season last week with a 22-0 league record, the first team in the ACCAC to go undefeated since 1994. Impressive and then some.

• The Pac-12 named 16 women’s basketball players to the 2022-23 all-conference first team. Whoa. Isn’t that a bit much, diluting the product? There are 60 starters in Pac-12 women’s basketball, which means 26.7% got first-team honors. It’s almost like a participation trophy. The Pac-12 honors 10 first-team choices in men’s basketball, and this year, one of the least productive in league history, I can’t find any more than seven worthy of first-team selection. I would go with UCLA’s Jaime Jacquez and Tyger Cambell, Arizona’s Azuolas Tubelis, Utah’s Brandon Carlson, USC’s Boogie Ellis, WSU’s Mouhammed Gueye and Colorado’s Tristan da Silva. That’s it.

• Former Canyon del Oro football standout Blake Martinez, Class of 2012, has earned more than $5 million from selling a collection of Pokémon cards the last seven months, according to CNBC. He has warehouses in New Jersey and Florida and has 15 employees to help with his Pokémon venture. Martinez, 29, retired after 6½ NFL seasons last fall. He had a robust 706 career tackles but had been sidelined by various injuries the last two years. "It’s nice to wake up without my back hurting or my shoulder hurting," he told CNBC. Martinez made $29 million during his playing career with the Packers, Giants, and Raiders. “When all that hurts are my fingers from opening, like, 1,000 packs of cards per day, I think, ‘I’m going to keep doing this.’”

• If you were to choose someone as Tucson’s leading high school coach of the last 10 years — out of about 500 boys and girls teams in Tucson — you couldn’t go wrong selecting Pueblo High girls basketball coach Izzy Galindo, or putting him near the top of any list. In 2012, Galindo took over a Pueblo team that had gone 19-59 in the previous four seasons — a school with little or no girls basketball success through the years. Galindo has had finishes of 30-3, 26-2, 25-5, 26-5 and 23-8 since 2016, including this year’s rush to the Class 4A state championship game this past week. To make the story even better, Galindo did not play high school sports before dropping out of Tucson High, getting his GED at age 25 and earning a college degree shortly thereafter. Talk about a job well done.

My two cents: UA women's hoops team fades again, but future looks bright

Arizona’s disappointing 0-3 finish to the Pac-12 women’s basketball season was almost a duplicate of Adia Barnes’ 2021-22 team, which also seemed to underachieve a bit.

This year the Wildcats are 21-9. Last year, 21-8.

This year’s shooting-challenged team shot 43.7%. Last year’s club shot 43%.

This year’s club finished 10th in Pac-12 rebounding. Last year’s club finished 11th.

Arizona lost six games by double figures this year, none worse than a 77-50 McKale Center loss to Kansas, a .500 team in the Big 12.

There’s nothing wrong with Barnes’ club that a go-to shooter and an inside force won’t fix. You could say that for any team, but the UA otherwise has had enough talent to be a top-10 team and play deep into the NCAA Tournament.

What hurt this year is that transfer Jade Loville, who averaged 16.6 points last year at ASU, averaged 10.2 at Arizona and shot 39.7%. Transfer Lauren Fields from Oklahoma State saw her scoring average fall from 15.4 at OSU to 4.5 at Arizona.

Next year Arizona should have the inside force necessary to challenge for the Pac-12 title. Injured Lauren Ware will join 2022 McDonald’s All-American Maya Nnaji inside, and they should be pushed considerably by 6-4 freshman Breya Cunningham, a McDonald’s All-American ranked as the nation’s No. 14 overall prospect.

Wait til next year? Arizona should be stacked with as much talent as any Pac-12 team.