The Star columnist puts the importance of Pac-12 Coach of the Year honors into perspective, and explains how Tucson should honor Bob Baffert. Plus, a look at DeWayne Walker's connection to Dick Tomey, Salpointe Catholic's softball juggernaut and Tommy Lloyd's olive branch to Lute Olson's longtime assistant.Β
UA menβs golf coachΒ Jim AndersonΒ last week became the schoolβs 24th coach to be selected Pac-12 Coach of the Year, 1978-2021. Sometime this month, it seems likely that Arizona baseball coachΒ Jay JohnsonΒ will become the schoolβs 25th COY.
That figure is a bit misleading, because Arizona has produced 69 conference coaches of the year. Swimming'sΒ Frank BuschΒ was 12 times the leagueβs COY, softballβsΒ Mike CandreaΒ has been COY 11 times andΒ Lute OlsonΒ seven times.
Itβs not a perfect system. Sometimes there is an element of skepticism when the Pac-12 selects a coach of the year. I mean,Β Adia BarnesΒ has yet to be the Pac-12βs womenβs basketball coach of the year.
That should be Exhibit A of the degree of difficulty of becoming COY In Bill Waltonβs so-called "Conference of Champions."
When someone like Jim Anderson breaks through and becomes a Pac-12 COY, the credit rightfully goes back to Anderson, hired away from the Texas A&M staff. But often the person who βdiscoversββ a coach like Anderson β in this case former athletic directorΒ Greg ByrneΒ β isnβt appreciated for his/her instincts.
Few, if any, athletic administrators in UA history identified and hired more COY than the lateΒ Mary Roby. She was the senior womenβs administrator underΒ Cedric Dempsey, who hired, among others,Β Lute OlsonΒ andΒ Dick Tomey. He approved Robyβs nominations of Busch, Candrea and volleyballβsΒ Dave Rubio, a 500-game winner and 2000 COY.
Roby didnβt just roll the dice. She was so good at her job that when UA womenβs basketball coachΒ Wendy LarryΒ left to become head coach at then-national power Old Dominion in 1987, Roby targeted young Stanford head coachΒ Tara VanDerveer, 31, and offered her the Arizona job. But Vanderveer was paid about $60,000 at Stanford and Arizona only could offer about half that. VanDerveer is now the winningest coach in NCAA womenβs basketball history.
While charged with finding a swimming coach in the winter of 1988-89, Roby told me she had β80 to 100 applicationsββ on her desk.
Those included one from Cal head coachΒ Nort Thornton, who would go on to be selected into the swimming coachesβ Hall of Fame. It included one fromΒ Mike Chasson, a Stanford assistant who would become the head coach at Arizona State. And it included an application fromΒ Dennis Pursley, coach of Team USA at the 1980 Olympics, a swimming coachesβ Hall of Fame selection in 2006.
But Roby was intrigued by Busch, a 38-year-old grinder who was the head coach at Cincinnati. She told Dempsey that βmy instincts about Frank are very strong. He is the epitome of what a coach should be.ββ
Bingo.
As successful as Thornton and Pursley were, Busch took it a step beyond. For the next 22 seasons, he coached Arizona to two NCAA championships and the equivalent of 23 menβs and womenβs Final Fours. In 2011 he left the UA to become director of the USA menβs and womenβs national swimming teams.
Sometime this week, another of Byrneβs hires, menβs tennis coachΒ Clancy Shields,Β seems sure to become the Pac-12 Coach of the Year for the second time in three years. That would give Arizona 70 COYs since joining the league. Hereβs the decade-by-decade breakdown, which also magnifies how the UA athletic department has dipped the last 10 years:
1980s:Β 13 COYs, the first being baseballβsΒ Jerry KindallΒ in 1980.
1990s:Β 22 COYs, including a record five in 1998: Olson, Candrea, Busch, womenβs basketballβsΒ Joan BonviciniΒ and golfβsΒ Rick LaRose.
2000s:Β 20 COYs, including a decade record of seven by Busch.
2010s:Β 13 COYs, two each by cross countryβsΒ James LiΒ and womenβs golf coachΒ Laura Ianello.
Arizona has produced just two COYs in football βΒ Dick TomeyΒ in 1992 andΒ Rich RodriguezΒ in 2014 β and only one baseball COY since 1989,Β Andy LopezΒ in 2012.
Over that same period, UA gymnastics coachΒ Jim GaultΒ exceeded the total of football/baseball COYs. Gault was the leagueβs COY in 1989, 1990, 1993 and 1994. He, too, was a Mary Roby recommendation.
Dan Schneider linked to Mays, Aaron, Maris
In 1967, five years after he set Arizona's single-season strikeout record β a total, 186, that still stands β lefty All-American Dan Schneider of Rincon/University High School stood on the pitcherβs mound at Candlestick Park as Willie Mays stepped into the batterβs box.
Mays grounded out to shortstop.
When the legendary Mays turned 90 last week, Schneider didnβt remember the specifics of pitching to Mays, just that "it was a special moment."
"I pitched against Wlllie and Stan Musial and Hank Aaron; every time one of those men stepped to the plate it was a big," said Schneider, a Tucson insurance executive who pitched five MLB seasons, and was Aaronβs teammate with the 1966 Atlanta Braves.
Given the online access to every conceivable statistic in baseball history, Schneider was able to determine that he pitched against Mays again in 1968. Mays went 0 for 3 against Schneider, who laughed and said β0 for 3, I like it.ββ
Schneider wasnβt so fortunate against Aaron, who hit 755 home runs, including No. 462 against Schneider.
"I still remember Aaronβs home run," said Schneider. "He hit it so hard it ricocheted off a structure in left field and whistled back onto the field."
Those experiences against Mays and Aaron arenβt Schneiderβs only connections to baseball home run legends. When Schneider led Arizona to the schoolβs first-ever No. 1 ranking, any sport, in 1962, his catcher was Charles "Bud" Schoenberg, who still holds the UA record for putouts in a season.
Schoenberg married Karen Maris, the cousin of Roger Maris, who famously broke Babe Ruthβs single-season home run record in 1961. Schoenberg, who died in February, became a pilot for American Airlines after his UA career.
UA assistant has shot at US Open bid
Arizona assistant menβs golf coachΒ Chris NallenΒ shot a 63 to win the U.S. Open local qualifying tournament at Sewailo Golf Course last week.
βHeβs amazing; heβs still got it,ββ said UA head coachΒ Jim Anderson.
Nallen was a four-time All-American at Arizona from 2001-04 and has the lowest stroke average in school history, but after winning his debut event on what is now the Korn Ferry Tour in 2005, his once-promising career was derailed by a serious back injury. If Nallen, now 38, gets through the U.S. Open Sectional qualifying on June 7, he would be in the U.S. Open for the third time. Nallen first made the field of the 2005 U,S. Open at Pinehurst Country Club and made the cut in a field that included five other ex-Wildcats:Β Jim Furyk,Β Ted Purdy,Β Jason Gore, Rory SabbatiniΒ andΒ Robert Gamez.
AD of the Year candidates hold UA ties
Five Power 5 conference athletic directors have been named finalists for the 2021 AD of the Year, an annual award presented by Sports Business Journal. Two of the finalists might ring a bell: AlabamaβsΒ Greg ByrneΒ and BaylorβsΒ Mack Rhoades, who is a UA and Rincon/University High School grad.
Rhoades was aggressive in attempting to hire ArizonaβsΒ Adia BarnesΒ as Baylorβs new women's basketball coach, going as far as to arrange a private jet to fly to Tucson, pick up Barnes on April 30 and return to Texas to introduce her as Baylorβs new coach on May 1. But Arizona ADΒ Dave HeekeΒ acted with purpose to rewrite Barnesβ contract before it was too late. For producing about $2 million more for Barnes on deadline, maybe Heeke should be on the AD of the year list as well.
Arizona CBs coach connected to Dick Tomey
UA secondary coachΒ DeWayne WalkerΒ last week said he applied to be part ofΒ Dick Tomeyβs coaching staff in 1994, when he was a 33-year-old assistant coach under Hall of FamerΒ LaVell EdwardsΒ at BYU. The timing wasnβt right: Tomey was in the process of elevating former Arizona All-Pac-10 safetyΒ Jeff HammerschmidtΒ to a full-time coaching position on a loaded staff that included defensive coordinatorΒ Larry Mac DuffΒ and assistant head coachΒ Rich Ellerson.
Walker said that he and Tomey became friends and that Tomey supported his career, which soon took off β Walker coached 14 seasons in the NFL, was the head coach at New Mexico State and a key assistant at USC, UCLA, Cal and Oklahoma State. Now Walker is in Act IV of his career onΒ Jedd Fischβs staff.
Salpointe chasing perfection
Salponte Catholic High School's softball team, 20-0 after opening the Class 4A state playoffs with an 11-0 victory over Apache Junction Saturday, is in position to do something none of the 51 state softball champs from the greater Tucson area have ever done: go undefeated. The Lancers are so good theyβve won their last seven games by a combined score of 78-1.
Senior pitcher Alyssa Aguilar, who pitched Salpointe to the 2018 and 2019 state titles, is 14-0 with a 1.08 ERA. Freshman Anyssa Wild is hitting .619. If the Lancers win two more games, theyβll be in the 4A state championship game May 17 at 2 p.m. at Hillenbrand Stadium. If Salpointe remains perfect, itβll move past Kelly Fowlerβs 35-1 Canyon del Oro state champs of 2011, Galen Patonβs 33-1 Sabino state champs of 2005 and Billy Lopezβs 25-1 Sahuaro state champs of 1988 with the best record in Tucson history.
Tommy Lloyd welcomes Lute Olson's longtime assistant
UA basketball coach Tommy Lloyd seems to βget it.ββ One of the first things he did while holding workouts with his team was to invite 17-year Arizona assistant coach Jim Rosborough to campus. Rosborough has coached in four Finals Fours and been a Division I head coach.
Lloyd said he wants to get as much "wisdom" as he can from Rosborough, who coached at Arizona from 1990-2006. Lloyd told me he wants Rosborough at McKale Center as often as possible, although Rosborough is committed first to being Todd Holthausβ assistant for the Pima College women's basketball team. During the Sean Miller years, Rosborough was considered an outsider and rarely allowed into practice.
My two cents: Honoring Bob Baffert should be a no-brainer
When NogalesβΒ Bob BaffertΒ was a jockey while in high school and as a UA student, he rode in about 100 races at Rillito Downs, where he later began his legendary career as a horse trainer. Baffert has trained a record seven Kentucky Derby winners.
The old Rillito Downs racetrack is now engulfed by the Rillito Business Park and the Rillito Regional Park, where 11 soccer fields dominate the once-bustling horse racing facility built in 1943.
Other than the general address of 4502 N. First Avenue, there is no listed address or street sign on the avenue that takes you to a parking lot behind the aging clubhouse.
Why not Baffert Way? Or Baffert Avenue? Itβs a no-brainer of no-brainers. It wouldnβt be a stretch to rename the entire facility Bob Baffert Regional Park.
Why not embrace and celebrate his accomplishments the way forward-looking cities would? Tucson has a statue ofΒ Pancho Villa, but nothing on the worldβs most famous figure in horse racing.
Cβmon. Nowβs the time.