ESPN won’t erect a “College GameDay” set on the basketball court at Pima College this weekend, but the Game of the Year in Tucson basketball doesn’t include Ducks or Wildcats.
It’ll be the Mesa College Thunderbirds vs. the Pima College Aztecs, which has often been the Game of the Year across the last 14 seasons of ACCAC women’s basketball.
“It’s usually winner takes all,” Pima coach Todd Holthaus said Wednesday. “It’s almost always the best game in the state.”
It includes the most consequential basketball coaching rivalry of Tucson’s last decade or so: Holthaus vs. Mesa’s Kori Stephenson. If you thought Arizona’s Sean Miller vs. Oregon’s Dana Altman was meaningful for a few years, it can’t match the stakes of the Pima-vs.-Mesa series.
Pima College coach Todd Holthaus has won more than 300 games since the Aztecs hired him away from coach Joan Bonvicini's UA staff 15 years ago.
Holthaus and Stephenson have been coaching against one another for 14 seasons; 10 times they’ve met in the Region championship game, with the winner earning a spot in the NJCAA finals.
They are 5-5 in those title games. Overall: Pima 19 wins, Mesa 18 wins.
This goes far beyond a Tucson or Mesa stage. Mesa won the national championship in 2014 and was second a year earlier; Pima finished No. 2 in 2011 and No. 3 in 2009 and 2016.
Predictably, Pima and Mesa are separated by one game in the ACCAC Division II standings. Pima won at MCC two months ago. When they meet at 5:30 p.m. Friday in the Aztecs’ west campus gymnasium it’ll be another of those “Oh, it’s you again” moments.
Take a deep breath and get after it.
Pima College's Angel Addleman, a Palo Verde High School product, is known for both her toughness and basketball savvy.
The Aztecs have won seven straight games since Jan. 22, overcoming some pauses for COVID-19 protocols and other obstacles such as an 18-point deficit last weekend at Scottsdale College, during which four PCC players were unavailable due to injuries and COVID-19 issues.
Holthaus referred to it as “one of the proudest moments of my career.” That’s the type of statement that gets your attention because when you walk in the PCC gymnasium, one of the first things you see are two large banners that list the 12 NJCAA All-Americans who have played for Pima since Holthaus was hired away from the Arizona Wildcats’ staff.
Pima has been so good for so long that Aztecs’ standout freshman guard, Angel Addleman of Palo Verde High School, already a two-time ACCAC player of the week, has been coached by PCC’s 2016 and 2017 All-American Sydni Stallworth, also a former Palo Verde Titan recruited by Holthaus.
“I love it here because it’s super intense and the expectations are so high,” said Addleman. “So many great players have been here before me. It really motivates you.”
Pima's assistant coaches Tim Larsen, left, Jim Rosborough and Pete Fajardo watch the Aztecs' fourth quarter against Frank Phillips in the Bruce Fleck Classic. Rosborough was a Final Four assistant coach under Arizona men's basketball coaching legend Lute Olson.
Aztecs assistant coach Jim Rosborough, who was Lute Olson’s lead assistant coach on Four Final Four teams at Arizona and Iowa, doesn’t resort to superlatives when talking about Addleman. Instead, he simply says: “Oh, boy, she’s tough. Just tough. She just keeps coming at you.”
Holthaus doesn’t have the luxury of sitting back and watching his recruits develop for a few years and then hand-picking replacements. In junior college, it’s a year-to-year puzzle of roster management at which he has thrived.
That’s what makes the Pima-Mesa series so compelling. Neither club has taken time to rebuild.
Already this season four PCC players have been chosen ACCAC players of the week. Holthaus expertly scouted and evaluated those four players without having access to Rivals.com Top 100 lists or video highlights from a McDonald’s All-American game or the big-time prep state championship games in Phoenix.
Pima’s Matehya Aberle blocks a shot by Frank Phillips’ Linda Brice during their Dec. 30 game.
Holthaus found his players of the week at Rio Rico High School (Luisayde Chavez); Tanque Verde High School (Nikya Orange); Palo Verde High School (Addleman); and on a tip from a former Flowing Wells teaching colleague now working in Colorado (Keara Felix).
When Holthaus and Stephenson and their teams meet Friday night, the intensity will share space with respect. When Pima assistant coach Bruce Fleck died in 2011, Stephenson was the first to reach out to Holthaus, sending him an uplifting note and an inspirational book.
“To be honest, Kori is probably the coach that brings out the best in what we do,” Holthaus said. “Obviously, we’re combatants when it comes to basketball games, but we have a friendship that overrides all of that.
“We actually have a lot in common: Kori is from a farming family in South Dakota and I’m from a farming family in Iowa. You have to have a toughness to grow up that way, and I think it is reflected in our teams and the way we play.”
Pima College's Jaden Leslie drives past the defense during the Aztecs' Jan. 1 showdown with Snow College at the West Campus Gym.
The three most notable coaching rivalries in Pima College’s modern sports history are two-time Aztecs men’s national championship soccer coach Dave Cosgrove vs. Yavapai’s seven-time NJCAA champion Michael Pantalione; Pima men’s basketball coach Brian Peabody vs. Cochise College’s Jerry Carrillo, neighborhood friends from the 1980s who both have more than 500 career victories; and now, Holthaus vs. Stephenson.
May the winner take all.
Contact sports columnist Greg Hansen at 520-573-4362 or ghansen@tucson.com. On Twitter: @ghansen711
