Hansen's Sunday Notebook: NCAA sanctions shouldn't define UA swimming legend Rick DeMont

When Rick DeMont retired as Arizona’s swimming coach in the spring of 2017, he told me he had begun the retirement process in late 2016, getting documents in order and thus planning to end 30 years as one of the most accomplished and respected coaches in UA history.

I remarked that he probably had the most difficult coaching job on campus. “I wouldn’t disagree with that,” he said.

DeMont’s successor, Augie Busch, now has the most difficult coaching job in Arizona’s athletic department.

The Pac-12’s two national swimming powers, Stanford and Cal, employ two head coaches for their swimming programs — one for the men’s team and one for the women’s team. That’s a much better idea, but other Pac-12 schools choose not to invest that much money in their swimming operations.

At Arizona, one head coach (and three assistants) oversee a program of approximately 50 male and female swimmers. They are assisted by a swimming operations director.

It is complicated. A diving program, with an additional seven or eight athletes, is often folded inside a college swimming program. Those diving programs have a separate head coach with separate recruiting and practice schedules.

There are so many moving parts it almost invites personnel problems.

Compare that to Kevin Sumlin’s football program of about 100 players. Sumlin has 10 full-time assistants and 26 full-time employees, including a full-time assistant athletic director, Dennis Polian, who is essentially the general manager of UA football.

Last week, the NCAA Committee on Infractions said that DeMont did not “promote an atmosphere of compliance” when it was determined that former UA diving coach Omar Ojeda committed multiple recruiting violations. The Wildcats were put on two years’ probation. Ojeda received a show-cause penalty.

Arizona offered DeMont a two-year contract extension in the spring of 2017. Last week, athletic director Dave Heeke said that DeMont “did not uphold the values … I have for all staff members.”

It scarred DeMont’s otherwise remarkable coaching career, and it’s unfortunate.

In my opinion DeMont is about the last guy on earth who would knowingly break an NCAA rule. He spent 22 years coaching for Frank Busch, who was the working definition of integrity in college sports. DeMont learned the system from the best.

After DeMont’s retirement, former UA swimmer Steve Wyatt wrote to Swimming World magazine, saying “I swam with Rick at Arizona during the ’78, ’79 and ’80 swim seasons. He taught me something I have never forgotten, and that was medals and trophies don’t define an athlete or a person, but if you give it your best effort then you will always be a winner.”

In his last months as a swimming coach, his move to retirement in process, DeMont failed to properly monitor his diving program. That should not define an otherwise exemplary 30-year coaching career.

1. I’m holding off on any Bobby Hurley-for-president declarations. When USC beat Arizona 80-57 a week ago, the Trojans played zone defense for the entire game. “I’ve never done that before in my career,” USC coach Andy Enfield told reporters. “But it was working.”

Arizona shot 28 percent, its lowest figure since a 1998 Elite Eight loss to Utah.

Hurley chose to play a more friendly man-defense Thursday night against Arizona. It was befuddling: The UA is last in the Pac-12 in shooting, at 43.1 percent. That’s the lowest shooting percentage at Arizona since 1972, when the Wildcats shot 42.2 percent.

Hurley ignored USC’s defensive success and the Wildcats feasted, making a season-high 14 3-pointers and forcing overtime.

It was Arizona’s soft defense — and not Hurley’s defensive gameplan — that cost the Wildcats the game.

2. ASU’s Wells Fargo Arena, built in 1974, remains clean and useful. But it comes off as McKale Center of the 1990s. At some point soon, if they hope to be a top-25 program, the Sun Devils are going to have to spend $100 million or so to renovate the old place.

It’s not the worst in the Pac-12: Wazzu’s Friel Court and Oregon State’s Gill Coliseum are ancient by McKale terms, and Stanford’s Maples Pavilion is something you’d expect to see at, say, Ball State or Tulane. Now that it’s ambitious in basketball for the first time in decades, ASU needs to create a rebuilding plan and raise some money.

3. Arizona’s should aim for a winning record. Winning three (or more) of its remaining Pac-12 games would give Arizona — now 14-8 — a winning mark for the season. With Cal, Wazzu and Stanford on the schedule, it’s more than do-able.

The UA hasn’t had a losing season for 35 years. Every other Pac-12 school except Oregon has posted a losing season 2013. The Ducks had their last losing season in 2009.

Junior offensive lineman Michael Eletise, who has chosen to transfer from Arizona, was probably the highest-ranked recruit of Rich Rodriguez’s six seasons.Eletise is one of six four-star recruits since 2009 who did not play to that level for the Wildcats, joining Jamardre Cobb, Marquis Ware, Salpointe Catholic’s Cam Denson, Kyle Kelley and Palo Verde’s Adam Hall. The only four-star UA recruits in that 10-year period who were productive were Ka’Deem Carey, Marquis Flowers and, to a lesser degree, Anu Solomon. No wonder Arizona went 67-61 in that stretch. … 

When Cholla High School grad Abram Carrasco reached the 1,000-point barrier at Pima College last week, he put himself in play to become the leading scorer in PCC history. Although PCC’s records over a 46-year period aren’t fully documented, my research suggests that former Sunnyside Blue Devil Greg Cook scored 1,243 points in 1979 and 1980 for the Aztecs, a bit ahead of Tucson High product Murphy Gershman’s 1,210 in 2014 and 2015. Seven-foot center Horacio Llamas, who ultimately played in the NBA, scored 1,108 for Pima in the mid-1990s. Carrasco might have as many as 13-14 game remaining, depending on post-season success. … 

The resounding victory by coach Jim Anderson’s Arizona men’s golf team in the Arizona Intercollegiate last week — a school-record-tying 37-under par — heralds the UA’s return as a Pac-12 contender. Other than No. 4 USC, the league does not have a dominant force this season. Arizona entered last week’s event ranked No. 64 nationally but behind Salpointe Catholic grad Trevor Werbylo, who shot 11-under par, the Wildcats appear capable of making a notable move upward. Anderson’s team plays in Hawaii, Mexico and San Diego before returning home on mid-March for its final local competition of the year.

During his days as a Final Four guard at Arizona, Kenny Lofton earned a degree in television and film production. He then played 16 big-league baseball seasons, which included six All-Star Games. Lofton has now turned to Hollywood, forming the FilmPool Inc., production company. He will make his Tucson film debut on Feb. 17 at 2 p.m. at the Screening Room, 127. E. Congress St. Lofton will be at the theater for a Q&A session after his latest film “Chokehold” is shown. It’s a movie about women’s empowerment involving a MMA athlete who gets involved with the Russian mob. Seats are $10. …

Arizona State forward Zylan Cheatham grabbed 22 rebounds against Arizona on Thursday, the most for a UA opponent since Cal’s Mark McNamara had 22 in a 1982 game. How good is 22 rebounds? Deandre Ayton‘s high at Arizona was 20. Longtime NBA center Jordan Hill had a UA-high of 22. Not even Derrick Williams, with a career-high of 19, and Final Four center A.J. Bramlett, also with 19, could hit 20 in an Arizona game. … 

Arizona’s hiring of 33-year-old offensive line coach Kyle DeVan from Ball State last week fit with the Pac-12’s current model of offensive line coaches – younger and more liable to recruit with effectiveness. Nine of the 12 league schools now have offensive line coaches in either their first or second year in the Pac-12. UCLA’s Justin Frye, Stanford’s Kevin Carberry, Washington’s Scott Huff, WSU’s Mason Miller and Colorado’s Chris Kapilovic are all 30-something newbies up from schools like Nevada, Boise State and Boston College. Old-school offensive line coaches still exist — Cal’s Steve Greatwood is 60, Oregon State’s Jim Michalczik is 52 and ASU’s Dave Christensen is 58 — but there is an undeniable shift to younger coaches. 

Southern Arizona’s high school basketball teams complete their regular season this week, and here’s how I rank them:

Boys basketball

1. Salpointe Catholic, 23-2. Jim Reynolds’ team lost its first game to a Tucson team on Friday, falling 72-60 to Catalina Foothills.

2. Sabino, 21-3. Coach Marty Roth has taken the Sabercats from a 6-20 season to Class 3A state title hopeful this year.

3.Catalina Foothills, 17-5. The 6-foot-9-inch Will Menaugh scored 20 to lead Friday’s upset over Salpointe Catholic.

4. Cholla, 16-4.Masai Dean’s Chargers are 159-56 in his eight years.

Waiting list: Amphitheater, 18-3, could crack the list if it can beat Salpointe on Monday night.

Girls basketball

1. Sabino, 9-16. The AIA forced the Sabercats to forfeit nine victories for a self-reported recruiting violation, but they are still eligible for the Class 3A state playoffs.

2. Sahuaro, 22-3. Sophomore Alyssa Brown is averaging 23.4 points per game.

3. Salpointe Catholic, 20-4. Sophomore Jaya Nelson leads the Lancers at 13.8 points per game.

4. Pueblo, 23-3. Senior Summer Fox is scoring 18 points a game for coach Izzy Galindo’s Warriors.

Waiting list: Tanque Verde already has 20 victories.

My first assignment as a freshman reporter for the Utah State student newspaper was to cover the Aggie Invitational Golf Tournament.

The winner was BYU senior Johnny Miller, who set the course record with a 61. I had never heard of him. Four years later, Miller won the U.S. Open with an unprecedented final-round 63.

By then, I played on the “Logan Paint” softball team, whose owner, Steve Gregoire, was Miller’s best friend while growing up in San Francisco. Gregoire had previously arranged to have Miller give a clinic and a fundraiser at the Logan Golf and Country Club in the summer of 1973. Miller had been a caddy for Gregoire’s dad at the famed Olympic Club in San Francisco.

Imagine the surprise, three days after the U.S. Open, when Miller made good on the promise to his old San Francisco friend. Miller gave a clinic at my boyhood golf course. He was the first pro athlete I ever interviewed.

I couldn’t imagine a more personable and friendly interview subject than Johnny Miller. A year later, Miller won the first of three consecutive Tucson Opens — golf’s “Desert Fox” was born — and in 1975 had rounds of 65-69-67-61 at Tucson National, or 25-under par, which was a PGA Tour record.

Many have forgotten that Miller returned to Tucson to win again in 1981.

He spent the last 29 years as NBC’s golf analyst, forging an identity as the most candid TV analyst in golf, and perhaps any sport with the exception of the late Howard Cosell.

When NBC broadcast the 2006 WGC-Accenture Match Play championships at Dove Mountain, Miller arrived a day early and agreed to an interview, as arranged by Salpointe Catholic grad Tommy Roy, NBC’s executive golf producer.

I told Miller I covered his victory at the Aggie Invitational a lifetime earlier, and fondly remembered the day he spent the afternoon playing my hometown golf course as the newly-crowned U.S. Open champion.

“Steve Gregoire and I are still good friends,” he said. “We go fishing and duck-hunting together. I’ll tell him you said hello.”

The Miller connections to Tucson haven’t ended. Last week, BYU played in the Arizona Intercollegiate tournament at Sewailo Golf Club. His son, Todd, is the Cougars’ director of golf.

On Saturday, Miller made his final appearance as an NBC golf analyst. I will sure miss him. For Johnny Miller, it was a job well done.