1. Until further notice, Dylan Strome is this city’s next big hope for a championship. When the Arizona Coyotes dispatched the 21-year-old center to the Tucson Roadrunners last week, Coyotes GM John Chayka said “the playoffs will say a lot about him.” The Coyotes could’ve given Strome the rest of the year off — he has played 70 games shuttling between the Coyotes and Roadrunners — but a chance to win the Calder Cup is a big deal, even to those in the NHL. “We have high expectations for him,” said Chayka. “He’s been productive his whole life.” Those expectations for the No. 3 overall pick in the NHL’s 2015 draft now apply to Tucson’s bid to win the Calder Cup, beginning this week.
2. Catalina Foothills grad Chaz Mack is on his official recruiting visit to Cornell of the Ivy League this week. To celebrate the occasion — Mack has committed to play for the Big Red — he was selected an NJCAA Division I basketball All-American last week. Mack led the ACCAC in scoring (19.9) for Jerry Carrillo’s Cochise College Apaches and was No. 2 in the league with 10.1 rebounds.
3. Outfielder Johnny Field last week became the fourth player from Arizona’s 2012 College World Series championship team to reach the major leagues. Field played 527 minor-league games in the Tampa Bay Rays system before being activated Friday, joining ex-Wildcat teammate Robert Refsnyder on the Rays’ roster. Field, Refsnyder, ex-Baltimore outfielder Joey Rickard, now at Triple-A Norfolk, and ex-St. Louis shortstop Alex Mejia, now in Triple-A Memphis, all got to The Show. The 2012 club’s franchise pitcher, Kurt Heyer, who was 13-2 that year, unfortunately isn’t likely to make it a Fab Five in MLB. Heyer, who pitched 131 games in the St. Louis system, has signed to pitch for the Southern Illinois Miners of the Independent Frontier League. Last year, Heyer was released by St. Louis and played for the Les Aigles de Trois-Rivières of the Can-Am league.
4. Sahuarita High softball coach Chris Fanning won his 500th career game Friday afternoon, at Florence. He has opened quite a gap between himself and the No. 2 man in Southern Arizona softball coaching victories, Sahuaro’s Billy Lopez, who retired with 425 wins. Fanning’s career at Sahuarita spans 1991-2018; he won state championships in 1999 and 2011.
5. Given his body of work and tenure of three years, Nick Johnson is probably the best player of the Sean Miller years at Arizona. He was the Pac-12’s 2014 Player of the Year, a defensive beast who got the most of his ability. Johnson was named MVP of the NBA G League Finals last week, leading the Austin Spurs to the championship by scoring 17 points twice in victories over Raptors 905.
NICK. JOHNSON. MVP. Get your highlights here ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/lps8U7LGvX
— Austin Spurs (@austin_spurs) April 11, 2018
Can Johnson get back to the NBA? He played 28 games for Houston in 2014-15 and since has played in Germany and the G League. At 25, he’s not going to get any taller, which means he might be destined to be something like the Crash Davis of minor-league basketball.