Hansen's Sunday Notebook: RichRod displeased by 2015 schedule

Every football team in the Big Ten, Big 12, SEC and ACC have byes next season. Baylor, Kansas State and West Virginia all have two.

But the Pac-12 chose not to give Arizona and Colorado a week off in 2014. Why? That’s the way the mathematical cards fell; the league says that in its 13-week rotation, every team gets a week off.

It gave Arizona Week 13 off (Nov. 28). Apparently, one school will suffer the same fate/nonsense every season.

Among the 65 Power 5 conference schools, the Wildcats and Buffaloes are the only two without a break.

That can’t be good.

“We play 12 straight weeks; I don’t know if this has ever happened here,” UA coach Rich Rodriguez said last week. “If the folks in the Pac-12 are listening, I’m not saying anything to get fined, but I don’t know how that happens.”

Colorado chose to add a 13th consecutive game — talk about picking your poison — by opening at Hawaii. The Buffaloes will make some extra money, but as RichRod said last week “if you play 12 straight, with no open date at this level, you’d better have a lot of guys ready to play.”

Research suggests that any team unfortunate enough to be on a no-week-off cycle will pay dearly.

ASU’s last no-byes season, 1991, resulted in a 6-5 record and the firing of coach Larry Marmie.

Oregon last attempted a no-bye schedule in 2004. The Ducks went 5-6, their last losing season. They lost the final game 50-21 to Oregon State.

UCLA’s last no-byes season was 2003; the Bruins went 6-7 and lost their last five games after opening 6-2.

RichRod benefited from a wonderful scheduling touch while building his reputation at West Virginia. His first Mountaineer team of note, 11-1 in 2005, had byes on Oct. 22 and Nov. 16.

A year later, finishing 11-2, RichRod’s team had byes on Sept. 30 and Oct. 27.

Arizona and Colorado aren’t anywhere close to being deep enough to survive a 12-week gauntlet, especially in the Pac-12 South. Injuries will become a significant factor.

The Wildcats last played a no-byes season in 1980, a transitional year in which Larry Smith replaced fired coach Tony Mason.

The UA, then 5-5, was so plainly out of gas in its final game, at home against an average (6-4) ASU club, that it lost 44-7.

The no-byes narrative will become much bigger news as the ’15 season wears on and on and on, and it can all be traced to the Pac-12 office.

Not only is Arizona playing 12 straight weeks, but three of its final four games are on the road (at Washington, USC and ASU). And poor Colorado must finish on the road at Washington State and Utah.

Palo Verde High School grad Bryce Cotton was voted to the NBA D-League’s Feb. 15 All-Star game last week and is ranked the league’s No. 7 overall prospect by NBA.com. No wonder: the Austin Spurs guard scored 30 or more points in five January games and had a career-high 40. He is averaging 21.5 points, which is sixth in the D-League. How does that compare? In 19 D-League games, ex-Wildcat guard Nick Johnson is averaging 20.3. The D-League All-Star game will be broadcast on NBA TV from the Brooklyn Nets’ home court. The way things are progressing for Cotton, it probably won’t be his last game in an NBA arena. 

The state’s Division II high school boys basketball playoffs begin this week and it is clearly one of the most contested seasons ever in Tucson. Cholla is 22-1 overall and has won 18 straight. Sunnyside is 23-4, Cienega is 22-3, Sahuaro is 24-4 and Nogales is 22-6. They’re all ultimately trying to unseat defending state champion Phoenix Shadow Mountain, which is without star guard Michael Bibby, who is out with a knee injury. Wednesday’s doubleheader at Cholla High School — Cienega vs. Sahuaro and Sunnyside vs. Nogales — is virtually a state Final Four in itself. 

Sahuaro High School basketball coaches Jim Henry and Steve Botkin helped to raise $1,350 for the American Cancer Society in a recent game at their gymnasium. Cathy Gary, the mother of Sahuaro players Devan and Brendan Gary, is suffering from cancer. All proceeds were donated to the American Cancer Society. Excellent. 

Miles Simon will forever be known as MVP of the 1997 Final Four, but his work for ESPN, as a game analyst and studio host, has been exemplary. In his early UA days, Simon was a reluctant interview subject, at times combative and very brief with his answers. Ultimately, his personality emerged and he became a team leader. After starting at the bottom in the TV business, getting West Coast Conference games, Simon has found his calling. He works nationally now, calling games that include Duke, Wisconsin, Kansas, you name it. He is on the A list.

The Tucson Classic added to its strong field last week, getting a confirmation from 1992 U.S. Open champion Tom Kite, winner of 19 PGA Tour events. Golf Channel confirmed it will televise the March 20-22 Champions Tour event from 6-10 p.m. on Friday, March 20 (taped), and live from 3-5 p.m. on that Saturday and Sunday. 

Since shooting 39.7 percent from the field in its December loss to Arizona, Mark Few’s Gonzaga team not only leads the NCAA with a 53.3 shooting percentage, but it’s the highest since Duke shot 53.6 in 1991-92. The mystery about the lightly scheduled Zags is how they’ll perform against a ranked team in March. Their top two shooters, Greg Wiltjer and Kevin Pangos, who shoot a combined 52.2 percent, were just 9 for 26 at McKale Center.  

One of the most anticipated sports events of the coming week is the Wanamaker Mile at Saturday’s NYRR Millrose Games in Madison Square Garden. Tucsonans Bernard Lagat and Lawi Lalang will be matched against 21-year-old Oregon star Edward Cheserek. It will be televised on NBC Sports Network from 4-6 p.m., Tucson time. 

Tony Bouie was a consensus All-American safety during Arizona’s Desert Swarm days, and now the former Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive back has a new job: He was appointed last week as director of the Arizona State Lottery. He previously worked as chief operating officer for Tucson’s Parkinson Wellness Recovery center.

When Arizona stunned No. 1 USC at the Los Angeles Coliseum in 1981, the key play of the 13-10 victory was a spectacular one-handed catch by UA tight end Mark Keel, extending a touchdown drive. Until Rob Gronkowski came along, Keel was Arizona’s most productive tight end of the Pac-10 years, catching 59 passes. Keel gave back to his alma mater last week when his top player at Central Kitsap (Washington) High School signed to play football at Arizona. Brion Anduze is a versatile, 6-foot-4-inch, 235-pound athlete at Central Kitsap, where Keel has coached for 18 years. The UA’s link to a rare recruit from Washington is offensive line coach Jim Michalczik, who grew up in Port Angeles, Washington, and recruited Keel’s area when he was an assistant coach at Oregon State. The last former UA football player who became a high school coach to send a player to Arizona was 1980s guard John Brandom, of Corona (California) High School, who sent defensive lineman Johnathan Turner to the Mike Stoops-led roster. 

The UA also used Michalczik to get a recruit from British Columbia, 260-pound offensive lineman Harper Sherman of New Westminster High School. That’s not unbroken ground for Arizona. The top player the Wildcats ever had from Canada was Chris Schultz, a starter for the 1981 and 1982 Wildcats who became a seventh-round draft pick of the Dallas Cowboys and spent two seasons in the NFL. 

The UA did not recruit a Polynesian high school player this year, and doesn’t appear to be active in Hawaii and Samoa any more. The rest of the Pac-12 signed a cumulative 13 players from Hawaii, Pago Pago and Samoa. Oregon signed three players from Hawaii, home of Marcus Mariota but, strangely, no players from Oregon. RichRod’s philosophy on recruiting faraway precincts is a good one: “Are we chasing a ghost here? You’ve got to fly over a lot of good football programs to get to Arizona.” 

By comparison, Pima College football coach Jim Monaco signed 11 players from Hawaii and Guam last week. It’s unlikely all will ultimately arrive in Tucson and play for the Aztecs, but it’s a reflection of how hard Monaco is working to make Pima football relevant. 

Tucson is playing host to 18 Division II women’s softball teams this weekend in the National Fastpitch Coaches Association Leadoff Classic at the east side’s Lincoln Park. It is the launch of the annual Tucson Invitational Games spring baseball/softball season in which Tucsonans Jim Tiggas and his son, Mark Tiggas, have arranged for 120 college softball teams to play (and spend tourist money) here mostly in March.

Marana flag football coach Toby Bourguet’s 14-U flag football team won the national championship in a seven-on-seven tournament in the lead-up to last week’s Super Bowl in Phoenix.

Tucson Turf Elite Football went 13-0 (which included a regional qualifying tournament in Oakland) before being a guest of the NFL at the finals in Phoenix. It completed a year in which Bourguet’s team went 83-3 with a team of local middle-school players.

The 14U roster included quarterback Trenton Bourguet and athletes Terrell Hayward, Mario Padilla, Rene Valenzuela, Diego Miranda, Malik Smith, Railan Peace, Steven Leon and Isaac Oliver.

The Tucson team’s honorary coach was Arizona Cardinals lineman Calais Campbell. The championship game was filmed by NFL Films and is available on Nickelodeon.

Retiring Tucson basketball referee Steve Ganson, who has worked local high school basketball games for 40 years, is among those (me included) who think college basketball is infested with too many stoppages. Too many TV replays.

“I personally think colleges go to replay too much,” said Ganson. “How many times do the officials stop play to determine if two-tenths of a second should be put back on the clock? I think they overdo it. Hey, college basketball worked well without replays for about 100 years. It has lost its flow.”

In last week’s Auburn-LSU game on ESPN, seven timeouts were called and 18 free throws attempted in the final 4 minutes 48 seconds. The game seemed like it would never end.

Worse, in Thursday’s Oregon-Washington game, seven timeouts were called in the final 3:37, and officials stopped play twice to view TV replays on ticky-tack issues.

What college basketball needs is a commissioner — a man in charge — who can help to organize change and implement common sense. TV programming usually schedules college basketball games for two-hour blocks. Many now take 2:15 or longer.

Joined-in-progress has become the bane of what should be a fun and much faster viewing experience.

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