The Star columnist checks in to explain why McKale Center "is trending toward the kind of crowd you get at an ASU-Cal game," the steps to retiring Aari McDonald's jersey, and why Arizona Stadium is in dire need of reconstruction.Β
An unfamiliar number buzzed my phone at 1:12 Wednesday afternoon. I answered because it was a 621 prefix, the same as most UA athletic department numbers.
It wasΒ Tommy Lloyd. Rather, it was a recording of the Arizona basketball coach describing the need for greater fan support. Lloyd asked to please stay on the line to speak with an agent from the UA ticket office.
I almost couldn't believe what I had just heard.
Do you thinkΒ Lute OlsonΒ ever felt the need to encourage fans to fill empty seats at McKale Center and get loud? He coached; the fans took care of the rest. That sort of teamwork made McKale Center nationally prominent and feared by all opponents.
Yet a few weeks ago, Lloyd turned and pumped his arms to the fans in a "stand up" motion. That plea for support hasnβt been seen at McKale since, when 1983? Whatβs next, putting up a curtain to block off 4,000 upper deck seats that have been mostly empty all season?
You can blame the lack of noise, enthusiasm and numbers on COVID-19 issues all you want, but it goes beyond that. Even the COVID-reduced crowds of 10,000 or so at McKale have been subdued.
This isnβt 2007 any more, which was Olsonβs final season. Those were the days my friend, we thought theyβd never end. But they have.
Little by little, the demographics of McKale Center have changed over those 15 years.
A generation or two of McKale fans from the 1980s and 1990s has diminished in numbers. Many of their replacements seem to have a sense of entitlement. They expect to be entertained and donβt understand that it's the fans themselves that provide much of the entertainment.
Lloyd and his staff are surely concerned that when they bring a blue-chip recruit on a welcome-to-McKale visit that, for the first time in almost 40 years, the recruit wonβt be impressed by the energy and passion of a sellout crowd.
No longer do the names "old timers" likeΒ Steve ElliottΒ andΒ Damon StoudamireΒ andΒ Mike BibbyΒ influence a five-star recruit to play at Arizona. With this new generation of college basketball, the McKale Center crowd would be wise to change with it.
When Arizona won a wild 83-79 game at Illinois last month, Lloyd, his players and those in the UA traveling party saw what McKale used to be. It was so loud that Lloyd had difficulty being heard during timeouts. The Illinois pep band stationed a crew of drummers next to the UA bench specifically to be disruptive.
Arizonaβs game-day environment has become more warm and friendly than a feared and referee-intimidating home-court advantage.
This UA team leads the nation in scoring. After a dozen years of slow-and-go basketball captained by a dour and distant coach, this is much-sought entertainment, with charismatic, likeable figures such as Lloyd,Β Christian KolokoΒ andΒ Bennedict Mathurin.
And yet even taking the COVID-19 absentees into consideration, game day at McKale is trending toward the kind of crowd you get at an ASU-Cal game.
Aari McDonald honored, but thatβs just Part I
βThank you for falling in love with our team,β Aari McDonald told fans after Fridayβs win. βIβm forever in debt with Tucson and their fans, so thank you.β
Adia BarnesΒ isnβt sure, but she thinks she was playing for Mersin BB in the Turkish womenβs EuroLeague when her name was placed into the Ring of Honor at McKale Center in 2004. She was the first UA womenβs basketball player so honored, but didnβt return for a ceremony.
Perhaps thatβs why Barnes was so proactive in pushing forΒ Aari McDonaldΒ to be honored while the memories of her UA career are still alive. On Friday, after a ceremony before 7,378 fans at McKale Center, McDonald said she thought it would take "like, five years" for her name to be recognized in the Ring of Honor.
But the process moved quickly, which is a credit to UA athletic directorΒ Dave Heeke.
I asked Barnes last week what the process is for McDonald to next have her jersey retired at McKale Center. She said that decision will be made at the administrative level.
There are nine retired jerseys hanging on the wall of McKale Center; the stated requirement is to be a national player of the year. Itβs a requirement with a history of flexible interpretation. As such, McDonald appears to qualify as the 2021 Ann Meyers Drysdale national shooting guard of the year.
Aari McDonald's name is lit up in the Arizona Ring of Honor at Mckale Center in Tucson, Ariz. on January 7, 2022. McDonald was honored after Arizona beat Washington State.
Arizona All-Pac-10 centerΒ Shawntinice Polkβs jersey was retired following her death two months before her senior season, 2005. Hereβs how the other eight were judged to have qualified:
β’Β Sean ElliottΒ was college basketballβs consensus player of the year in 1989. His jersey was retired in 1996.
β’Β Steve KerrΒ was named the nationβs "most courageous" player of the year in 1988. His jersey was retired in 1999.
β’ Volleyball All-AmericanΒ Kim GlassΒ was named the national freshman of the year in 2002. Her jersey was retired in 2011.
β’ GymnastΒ Heidi HornbeekΒ was selected the nationβs senior gymnast of the year in 2000. Her jersey was retired in 2007.
β’ Point guardΒ Mike BibbyΒ was named national freshman of the year in 1997. His jersey was retired in 2004.
β’ Basketball All-AmericanΒ Miles SimonΒ was chosen the Most Outstanding Player at the Final Four in 1997. His jersey was retired in 2016.
β’ Point guardΒ Jason TerryΒ was chosen as the nationβs basketball player of the year by CBS and by Sports Illustrated in 1999. His jersey was retired in 2015.
β’ Point guardΒ Jason GardnerΒ was named national freshman of the year in 2000. His jersey was retired in 2005, only two years after his final UA game.
When former UA athletic directorΒ Jim LivengoodΒ implemented the Ring of Honor at McKale Center and helped to establish a system to recognize the schoolβs most honored athletes, he told me that "we need to embrace our past; weβve got such a proud history."
Moving quickly to honor Aari McDonald was another step in staying true to Livengoodβs legacy.
Tough slate looms for Jedd Fisch
Arizona head coach Jedd Fisch leads his team through the Wildcat Walk to Arizona Stadium to face Washington, Tucson, Ariz., October 22, 2021.
This is a brief "Smiling Season" for UA football coach Jedd Fisch. Fisch and his family sat in UA president Robert C. Robbinsβ front-row seats at Fridayβs Arizona-Washington State women's basketball game. The crowd gave him a warm ovation, which has to be the first ever for a coach coming off a 1-11 season. A lot of it is that Fisch has recruited with unexpected success.
But the smiling stops soon enough.
On Saturday, Arizonaβs nonconference home game Sept. 17 against North Dakota State changed to "trouble ahead." The Bison easily won the FCS national championship game, 38-10, and have now gone 59-2 in the last four full seasons. More daunting, North Dakota State is 5-0 against Power 5 opponents the last 11 seasons, going on the road to beat Iowa, Iowa State, Minnesota, Kansas and Kansas State. Fischβs β22 schedule was already tough enough; the Wildcats will be the so-called guest victim on Sept. 3 to play the debut game in San Diego Stateβs new Snapdragon Stadium.
Between the SDSU and North Dakota State games, Arizona plays at home against Mike Leachβs Mississippi State club, which returns quarterback Will Rogers, who passed for 4,739 yards, breaking Dak Prescottβs once-unbreakable school record.
A pair of Tucsonans makes moves in the NFL
Jeff Cotton, working out with a 50-pound kettlebell at JET Sports Training in Tucson, was signed by the Chargers as an undrafted free agent after the 2020 NFL draft.Β
Former Mountain View High School and Pima College receiver Jeff Cotton made his NFL debut last week, playing 14 snaps on special teams and one at receiver for the Jacksonville Jaguars. He had spent three months on the Jaguarsβ practice squad. He thus becomes the 36th player from a Tucson high school to play in the NFL. He was preceded this year by former Sabino/BYU tight end Matt Bushman, who played in two games for the Las Vegas Raiders β 21 total snaps β before being released. The Kansas City Chiefs signed Bushman to their practice squad last week.
Flowing Wells Invitational Wrestling Tournament moved to TCC
Marana's Kaylon Israel, finished with matches for the day, catches a nap while others continue to compete at the state Division II, Section I wrestling tournament at Flowing Wells High School, Saturday, February 2, 2019, Tucson, Ariz.
One of Tucsonβs most successful and traditional sporting events, the 55th Flowing Wells Invitational Wrestling Tournament, has moved to the Tucson Convention Center this year. On Friday and Saturday, the TCC will accommodate more than 1,000 boys and girls' wrestlers of all classifications from about 100 high schools in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado. Flowing Wells athletic director Mark Brunenkant said he believes it is the largest athletic event sanctioned by the AIA. Families and spectators are encouraged to attend but must wear a mask to follow COVID-19 protocols.
Former Arizona boss joins brother's staff
Arizona head coach Mike stoops, center, is congratulated by longtime Wildcat supporter and Tucson business icon Jim Click and other fans after his team defeated Southern California, 21-17, in Los Angeles on Dec. 5, 2009.
When Mike Stoops was fired as Arizonaβs football coach in mid-season, 2011, it put him and defensive line coach Joe Salaveβa on a decade full of job hops. Stoops coached on the staffs at Oklahoma, Alabama and Florida Atlantic until last week, when he joined the staff of his brother, Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops, who was Arizonaβs defensive coordinator from 2004-09. Salaveβa last week became a defensive line coach at Miami, ending his post-Arizona trek from Washington State to Oregon. What a business, huh?
New Pac-12 commish a breath of fresh air
New Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff, speaking in McKale Center in September, believes the league needs to invest more in football facilities and coaches.
Four thumbs-up observations:
β’ Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff last week told Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News that he is consulting "my 12 bosses" about increasing the investment of each Pac-12 school in football operations. Bosses? Isnβt that refreshing? For the previous decade, the commissioner presented himself as the ultimate boss, with all the answers, a one-man band that finally upset so many athletic directors that Larry Scott was ultimately (and wisely) forced out.
β’ Arizona cornerbacks coach DeWayne Walker, who coached in the NFL for 14 years and at USC and UCLA before joining Jedd Fischβs staff, last week tweeted one of the most perspective-laden messages about the business of college football. Said Walker: βPlease ask yourself, why do we do this? Some coaches chase the money, some chase the status, some chase the power, I get it. The focus should be, being part of building a winner, building something special. Focus on the process, itβs more rewarding. That other stuff will come.ββ Spoken like a man who has learned to do the right thing over a 33-year coaching career.
β’ Newbury Park High School near Thousand Oaks, California, a football recruiting-rich area, last week hired 1990s Arizona starting offensive lineman Joe Smigiel as its head football coach. Thatβs promising for Arizona, which lost its connection to the Newbury Park pipeline during the Rich Rodriguez and Kevin Sumlin years. Utahβs Rose Bowl QB Cameron Rising went to Newbury Park, but didnβt give Arizona a sniff. Smigiel and Arizonaβs 1998 Holiday Bowl quarterback Keith Smith, another NPHS grad, have served as assistant coaches at their alma mater in recent years. Fisch and his staff have already offered Smigielβs son, freshman-to-be quarterback prospect Brady Smigiel, a scholarship.
β’ Arizonaβs menβs tennis team opens the season ranked No. 15 nationally, which wouldβve been a preposterous idea before coach Clancy Shields arrived at the UA in 2016. But after finishing in the Sweet 16 last season, Shieldsβ club has increased its potential by adding No. 7 national recruit Colton Smith of Seattle. Arizona is actually ranked ahead of No. 16 Stanford, possibly the No. 1 menβs tennis school in the NCAA the last 40 years, with 17 national titles.
Oregon State made quite a social media presence Friday when it released a video of the implosion of the west side of Reser Stadium. The Beavers are spending about $150 million to rebuild the 68-year-old football bleachers and press box.
Someday soon, Arizona will do the same to the 92-year-old west side of Arizona Stadium. There might not be a video-worthy implosion; the press box and suites above the west grandstands stand independent of the rest of the structure, much of it built from 1927-29.
But the demolition of the "bones" of the west side will be a signal that Arizona is finally all-in on the inevitable arms race of Pac-12 football.
My two cents: Time is now for stadium reconstruction
COVID-19 issues put the planned rebuild of Arizona Stadium on pause, but now that Oregon State has begun its face-lift, it becomes imperative that the Wildcats follow ASAP. Every Pac-12 football stadium β even that at little old Washington State and especially that at rival ASU β has been rebuilt over the last 20 years.
