Even for Mike Candrea, who experienced so much in his legendary career as Arizona’s softball coach, Wednesday afternoon’s press conference at McKale Center was a new one.
It was the first time he was in front of Tucson’s media as the University of Arizona’s interim Athletic Director.
“I wish I was sitting here talking about a game that we just won but (this is) something a little bit different,” Candrea said up front, adding that he took a call from UA president Robert Robbins a little more than two weeks ago at his Tucson home after finishing a round of golf.
Robbins asked Candrea to step in to the interim role in place of Dave Heeke, who was the university’s athletic director since April 2017.
Robbins fired Heeke last month as the UA faces an ongoing, university-wide financial crisis which includes a number of debts accrued by the athletic department — namely a $55 million loan from the university to athletics during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Candrea said he told Robbins “yes” because he loves the UA — the same institution where he spent 36 years on campus collecting more than 1,600 wins, eight national championships and 10 league titles as arguably the most revered coach his sport has ever seen.
In the two years since his retirement from the softball program, he’s served in an advisory role in the UA athletic department, adding Wednesday that he’s involved in Arizona’s transition to the Big 12, which happens this summer.
One week into the role, Candrea said he was putting an emphasis on culture and communication — just like he did when he coached.
Candrea touched on his role and where UA Athletics is right now during Wednesday’s wide-ranging press conference.
On what’s expected of him in this role:
“All I know is how to build a culture. And one of the big things in athletics and on your team is just solid communication. You got to know what everyone’s doing.
”Those are some things that I’m trying to enhance a little bit is how do we communicate all of this information so that the right people are on the same page? Anything that goes out of this office is being thought through, with a fine tooth comb and it’s one collective voice. That has been my theme is when you get in tough situations like this: You have to rely on your people. We have very good people here. But on the other hand, it has to be a collective effort moving forward because (these are) trying times — revenues and expenses aren’t quite matching up for a lot of different reasons.”
On his approach to the job:
“The first thing that we did is (UA coach) Tommy (Lloyd) and I got together and did (a) social for our people — just to let them know that we’re going to be alright. I think sometimes not hearing anything is the worst thing and so I wanted to comfort them knowing that I’m here to help them. I’m here to serve them.”
On the department’s evolution over the decades:
“I look around the department we have some very good coaches that are doing great jobs. But there’s a price to pay that is different than it was 10 years ago, five years ago. I think moving forward, we have to look at a different model to make this all happen. Right now, we’re just trying to go back to a little bit of history as to how did we get here and what do we need to do to find something that can be affordable, yet keep our programs competing for national championships? Because moving into the Big 12, we have an opportunity to be in the top part of that conference.
”There are a lot of moving parts that I think have gotten us in this position. I can’t really pick one thing. But I do think that we need to take a snapshot of it all and try to formulate a plan moving forward that we can all work with.”
On new models for college sports:
“I have my thoughts. I would not want to speculate on it at this moment.
”The days of a department being self-sufficient, I think it’s getting tougher and tougher because of a lot of things that are that have happened right now.”
On the possibility of cutting UA sports:
“The escalation of football and (men’s) basketball have caused us to take a look at everything else and that the average is what 17 sports in the Big 12? I’m hoping that we don’t get to that point for a lot of different reasons. But I can’t say that that’s not going to be something that will be looked at.
”I don’t think cutting sports is the answer to the problems that we have right now. You have to look at Title IX — there are a lot of different things that go into this.
”Just because 17 is the number in the Big 12 does not necessarily mean that that’s the right number at the University of Arizona.”
On outside forces:
“We’re not the Lone Ranger.
”There are a lot of people that are in the same position (around the country) trying to face some of these things that have occurred over the last three years. Covid was a tough thing for us.
”We’ve done a lot of the right things. But I think now we’ve put the brakes on and said ‘Wait. Moving forward, what do we need to do to make this thing work?’ That’s the information piece that I don’t have everything in front of me right now. But I promise you that we have very talented people here that have a passion for this place, that are going to make this place better. I go back to telling them all, ‘Let’s make it 1% better every day and we’ll crawl out of this.’”(tncms-asset)2d63ad9e-bb5d-58db-be45-06d3c9d11b9a[0](/tncms-asset)
