Hansen's Sunday Notebook: Miller, USA one win from gold

Miller, Team USA one win away from gold 

Attendance at the ongoing 19U World Basketball Championships was so small in pre-weekend rounds, perhaps no more than 250 people, that you could clearly hear U.S. coach Sean Miller's coaching instructions during YouTube streaming broadcasts.

It was neither X-rated nor a laugh riot, but until Saturday’s 82-76 semifinal victory over Greece, it was reason to continue watching Team USA blow out a series of out-manned opponents. If nothing else, it exhibited Miller’s intensity.

"Oh my God! Oh my God! That’s a travel?" Miller shouted during Wednesday’s 93-45 victory over Argentina.

Many times he shouted "No fear! No fear!" Another time during the Argentina game he became exasperated when Oklahoma State-bound guard Jawun Evans sloppily threw a pass out of bounds.

"What are you doing?" Miller barked. "Come on, it’s crazy. Nuts. You’ve got five turnovers. Pass to the guys in white."

Once, a referee stopped in front of the USA bench and said something to Miller, who responded "I don’t know what you mean."

No wonder. The referees in that game were from Greece, France and Slovenia.

Miller was sometimes so relaxed in the early games — team USA went 5-0 to reach Saturday’s semifinals winning by an average of 32 per game  — that he allowed assistant coach Ed Cooley of Providence College to commandeer a time-out session. That never happens during an Arizona game.

Cooley could often be heard riding the officials. "This guy should get an Academy Award for getting to the foul line," he yelled.

The crowd at Greece’s Heraklion Arena grew for Friday’s quarterfinals (and appeared to be at capacity in Saturday’s victory over Greece) and Miller’s voice was no longer audible on an ESPNU broadcast. But, oddly, he was whistled for a technical foul in the blowout. He did not get a technical foul during the 2013-14 or 2014-15 seasons at Arizona.

After watching UA freshman Allonzo Trier play three games – he is averaging 15 minutes and nine points – my thought is that he isn’t likely to leave for the NBA after one Arizona season, and may struggle to start.

Miller didn’t use Trier in the fourth quarter Saturday. It’s likely Trier is going to need significant work and improvement on ball-handling, defense and shot selection, among other things. He is no longer able to bully smaller high school opponents.

"Zo, be solid!" Miller shouted in Wednesdays’ game. "Be solid! Slow it down, Zo."

Better now than during October practices at McKale Center.

Tucsonans Lagat, Abdirahman absent 

When the U.S. track and field team leaves late this month for the World Championships in China, it will be without two of America’s leading distance runners of the century, Tucsonans Bernard Lagat and Abdi Abdirahman.

Neither qualified for the team. But Lagat, 40, and Abdirahman, 38, have said nothing about retiring. Abdirahman plans to run in the USA Olympic marathon trials next February. Lagat is expected to return to the European Diamond League circuit this month.

Lagat has won nine U.S. titles (and five world championship medals) at 5,000 meters in the last decade. He had qualified for the last six U.S. World Championship teams.

After finishing 10th in the 5,000 meters in the U.S. finals, Lagat became emotional and was teary-eyed when his two small children met him near the track.

“I was going to do it for them,’’ he told reporters in Oregon.

Abdirahman was the U.S. 10,000 meter champion four times from 2001-08 and made the 2012 Olympic team in the marathon.

“Number five is what motivates me,’’ he said last month. “That’s why I’m still running’’

It was Abdirahman’s way of saying he hopes to make his fifth consecutive U.S. Olympic team next year. He was eighth in his last major race, the New York City 10K in May.

The world’s top distance runners of the modern era were not competitive by the time they reached Abdirahman and Lagat’s age. Jim Ryun retired at 27; Kip Keino walked away at 34; Said Aouita was done at 33; Haile Gebrselassie ran until he was 37, but won his last major event at 34.

Lagat and Abdirahman are treading in the no-man’s land of distance running, but neither seems daunted by the challenge.

UA's Cunningham wows crowd at amateur event 

UA sophomore golfer George Cunningham emerged on the national scene last week, finishing second in the North and South Amateur at Pinehurst, N.C., one of the world’s top amateur golf events, one that has been won by Jack Nicklaus, Curtis Strange and Hal Sutton. Cunningham was the overall medalist of the 150-man field, and then beat golfers from South Carolina, Washington and Florida before losing 3 and 1 in Friday’s match play finals. Cunningham is expected to attempt to qualify for August’s U.S. Amateur this month. 

Salpointe sophomore Harris headed for Junior Open 

Salpointe Catholic sophomore Haylin Harris won the qualifying sectional in Battleground, Indiana last month, and will be in the field for the U.S. Girls Junior Open in Tulsa that begins July 20. 

Tucson sports performance of the week 

Former South Tucson police chief Sixto Molina shot his age last week at Silverbell Golf Course. But there was nothing "aged" about it; Molina shot a six-under-par 64 and said it could’ve been a 62. Molina has been a scratch-type golfer in Tucson for more than 25 years. 

Tucson High's Schnell on USA squad for Pan American Games

Tucson High junior Delaney Schnell leaves for Canada this week as part of Team USA’s diving squad for the Pan American Games. Schnell is no stranger to international competition; she has already competed (and won medals in) England, Russia and Mexico. She will compete in the 10-meter platform diving event between July 10-13. 

Cats' chances will hinge on Solomon's health, development

This is the ballot I returned to the Pac-12 for the league’s football media day poll: 

I picked Todd Graham's Sun Devils to win the Pac-12 title game against Oregon. The South division is so wickedly difficult that I wouldn’t be surprised if my No. 5 choice, Utah, spends time in the Top 25 all season, and seriously challenge for the league title. If QB Anu Solomon remains upright and improves on his freshman season, Arizona is as good a choice as anyone else. 

RhettRod to participate in Manning camp 

Rhett Rodriguez, son of UA football coach Rich Rodriguez, will participate in the high-profile Manning Brothers Passing Camp July 9-12 at Nicholls State in Louisiana. Many of the nation’s top high school QBs will be there. Rhett is entering his junior season at Catalina Foothills. 

Salpointe grad Orozco chooses rookie league over UA 

Salpointe Catholic right-hander Jio Orozco, a 14th-round draft pick of the Seattle Mariners, chose to go to the Arizona Rookie League and be part of 70 consecutive night games at the Peoria Sports Complex rather than pursue his commitment to pitch for Arizona. The Mariners have 22 pitchers in Peoria and put a premium on arm care and development over innings. Orozco made just one appearance and pitched just two innings in his first two weeks as a Mariner minor-leaguer. 

Ex-Sahuaro standout Verdugo has big June 

Former Sahuaro High outfielder Alex Verdugo, a second-round pick of the Dodgers last year, had a terrific June for the Class A Great Lakes Loons of the Midwest League. Verdugo hit .365 after a slumping month of May in which he hit .191. With his $914,000 signing bonus, Verdugo bought a 1965 Chevrolet Impala and is working to restore it.

With Match Play gone, Goodman moves on 

Gerald Goodman, who presided over the demise of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championships the final three years at Dove Mountain, has been hired by the PGA Tour to operate the Charles Schwab Cup for the Champions Tour. His Match Play/Tucson predecessors similarly found top employment: Wade Dunagan is director of golf for Phil Mickelson’s upscale Chaparral Pines operation in Payson; Michael Garten is the managing director of a marketing/creative services firm in San Diego. 

How things change 

I found a Sunday morning tee time at the Dove Mountain Golf Course – formerly the PGA Tour’s Ritz-Carlton Golf Course – for $24 last week. During the height of the match play era, you couldn’t get a weekend morning tee time on that course for less than $100, even in July. 

UA grad DeLao elected new AIA president 

UA grad Mike DeLao, a school board executive in Safford who works in the Eastern Arizona College athletic department, has been elected the new president of the Arizona Interscholastics Association for 2015-16. That’s a terrific transaction for Tucson high schools. A former athletic trainer at the UA and for the Tigers, Astros and Braves minor-league baseball systems, DeLao gives Southern Arizona a voice in the AIA affairs that is dominated by Phoenix politics. 

NBA Summer League begins 

The NBA Summer League begins this week in Salt Lake City and Orlando. Rondae Hollis-Jefferson finds himself on a Brooklyn Nets team with Wisconsin’s Josh Gasser, and Aaron Gordon will be part of the Magic’s summer league teams that include ex-Sun Devils Jahii Carson and Jordan Bachynski. The Indiana Pacers have asked 2014-14 starter Solomon Hill to play a partial Summer League schedule; he will be paired with Xavier’s Matt Stainbrook. Remember him? He was the part-time Uber driver from Xavier who played so well against Arizona in the Sweet 16. 

Basketball season never ends

At the Nike Basketball Academy this weekend in Los Angeles, Arizona’s Kaleb Tarczewski and Kadeem Allen are matched against 2015-16 opponents Jakob Poeltl of Utah, Cal’s Tyrone Wallace and Gonzaga’s Domantas Sabonis and Kyle Wiltjer. The basketball season never seems to end.

My two cents: New HOF inductees had varied careers, successes

Arizona’s 2015 Sports Hall of Fame class is one of the best ever. What’s intriguing, is how the lives of those being inducted varied after leaving Tucson.

Golfer Susan Slaughter, who won the 1990 NCAA championship, did not make it to the LPGA Tour after suffering a series of injuries in two automobile accidents. She has been a teaching pro near her home in Virginia and is married to a man, Scott Rardin, who owns 27 McDonald’s franchises. The couple has three children.

Erica Blasberg, a consensus golf All-American in 2003 and 2004, never finished in the top 100 of the LPGA money list and, according to Las Vegas police, committed suicide in 2010. She was 25.

Right-handed pitcher Dave Baldwin, who was 12-0 on Tucson High’s 1956 state championship team, and 23-5 in three banner seasons at Arizona, pitched in 176 MLB games. He later earned a UA masters degree in genetics, and a doctorate in engineering. He has become a published author — his autobiography “SnakeJazz’’ is highly recommended — a poet and, at 76, lives in Yachats, Oregon, where he is a part-time librarian.

The other two individual inductees are retired UA baseball coach Andy Lopez, whose career ended prematurely after heart surgery, and UA all-Pac-10 outfielder Trevor Crowe, a 2005 first-round draft pick of the Cleveland Indians whose baseball career was scuttled by injuries, forcing him to retire at 29.

One school. Five Hall of Famers, whose lives couldn’t be more different.

Click the photo below to check out Greg Hansen's 2014-15 Southern Arizona Sports Awards.

Click the photo below to check out Greg Hansen's Top 100 Southern Arizona sports figures of 2014.

Click the photo below to check out the Greg Hansen archive.