Lev: Chip Hale didn’t say what fans wanted to hear after sweep at ASU, but message was delivered

PHOENIX — Before Sunday, the last time I had set foot in Phoenix Municipal Stadium was March 31, 2019 — an infamous afternoon in recent UA baseball annals.

That was the day Arizona lost to Arizona State in utterly preposterous fashion, walking 15 batters and committing four errors in a 17-16 setback that lasted 5 hours and 10 minutes.

It was just the warmup for then-Wildcats coach Jay Johnson’s postgame diatribe. He lit into his players for roughly an hour — no exaggeration — after Arizona suffered its sixth consecutive Pac-12 loss and second straight sweep away from Hi Corbett Field.

Sound familiar?

The Wildcats lost their sixth conference game in a row Sunday. Just like in 2019, they were swept by UCLA and ASU on the road. At the time, Arizona’s Pac-12 record stood at 2-7 — one game worse than the current 3-6.

Chip Hale, the Wildcats’ current coach, did not react the same way Johnson did. Sunday’s 10-6 loss wasn’t nearly the debacle that 2019 game was; the latter ended, almost appropriately, on a walk-off error.

Johnson questioned his team’s “character and toughness” and called the defeat “as discouraging a loss as I can ever remember being a part of.”

Hale — whose postgame address lasted about five minutes — said he was proud of his players for the way they battled all weekend and how they carried themselves in a heated, hostile environment.

As soon as I tweeted out Hale’s full quote, I turned to colleague Brian Pedersen of Arizona Desert Swarm in the press box and said: “I liked Chip’s message, but the fans won’t.”

Narrator: And they did not.

The vast majority of responses were negative — some extremely so. What Hale said wasn’t what the fans wanted to hear. They wanted him to rip his players and say it was unacceptable to lose to the “Team Up North.”

I totally get it. No one likes to lose. UA fans especially don’t like to lose to ASU. They wanted Hale to express the frustration they were feeling.

I don’t know Hale as well as I got to know Johnson. But I do know this: Hale cares deeply about UA baseball. This matters to him. You think he wasn’t ticked about losing three in a row to ASU?

Hale had two choices after the game: He could try to lift his players up or he could tear them down. He sensed they needed the former.

Would you rather have Ted Lasso as your coach or Nathan Shelley?

(I’m not saying Johnson is Nate in this analogy. I believe Johnson to be a man of integrity, no matter how awkward his departure was from Arizona. But the coach and the character do share a ruthless competitiveness. And they’re about the same height. So ...)

Hale isn’t the UA coach who’s most often compared to the relentlessly optimistic Apple TV+ protagonist. That would be football coach Jedd Fisch — aka, Jedd Lasso.

Fisch began his UA tenure with eight straight defeats. Yet he delivered an upbeat message after each and every one of them.

I don’t recall a social-media backlash to Fisch’s approach. The difference — and this applies to so many aspects of life — stems from expectations.

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Fisch inherited a team that had lost 12 in a row. The program was so far beneath rock bottom that it could feel the heat from the Earth’s core.

Everyone knew “the build” would take time. Fisch even said as much. He also recruited at a high level from the jump, attracting a top-25 class and giving the fanbase hope.

Hale inherited a team that reached the College World Series for the second time in five tries. (We’re not counting the COVID-shortened 2020 season.) Say what you will about the way Johnson left, but he unquestionably elevated the program. Hale was expected to guide it to an even higher plane.

Last season was something of a mixed bag. Arizona lost a ton of talent to the MLB draft and the transfer portal, but the Wildcats made the NCAA Tournament and ousted host Miami (Fla.) in the Coral Gables Regional before losing for a second time to eventual national champion Ole Miss.

Speaking of the Rebels, did you know they’re 0-6 in the SEC? And that Mississippi State, which won the 2021 CWS, is as well?

The Pac-12 standings are just as wacky. ASU (.833) has the best winning percentage in conference play, and USC (.778) was solo second entering Monday. They’re partying like it’s 1979.

The usual suspects, Stanford and UCLA, are next. But the Bruins just lost two of three at home against Washington. It’s also worth noting that the Cardinal started Pac-12 play last season at 1-5 — including getting swept by Arizona — before going on a tear and making it all the way to Omaha.

This Arizona team isn’t as talented as that Stanford club; the Cardinal were a consensus preseason top-five pick.

But these Wildcats do have a chance to turn their season around and make a third straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament.

Their next eight games are at home, where they’re 9-2 and have won nine straight. It is inarguably the most important stretch of the season. Arizona has left itself little margin for error.

What will it take for the Wildcats to pull themselves out of this funk? The obvious answer is better starting pitching. Veteran shortstop Nik McClaughry offered this:

“I think we just need to remember how good we were when we won nine straight games. We were hitting the ball really good. Pitching was good. Defense was good. I think sometimes we tend to forget that when stuff like this happens.

“I think it's important to, especially the younger guys, remind them that they're good players. If you stay with it, stuff’s gonna happen. Good stuff’s gonna happen, not just the bad stuff.”

The 2019 Wildcats rallied. They won their final 10 games, and 13 of their last 14, to force the NCAA Selection Committee to reconsider their résumé. They were among the first four teams out. They were also, by season’s end, the team no one wanted to face.

You could argue that Johnson spoke that turnaround into existence. Will Hale’s kinder, gentler approach work?

I honestly don’t know. But I’d be shocked if his Wildcats at least didn’t put up a fight.