The Star's longtime columnist on: Dan Hicks' Hall of Fame résumé ... the rest of the Pima County class of 2023 ... Azuolas Tubelis' falling draft stock ... another middling Directors' Cup finish for UA ... Ryan Maddox's potential impact ... more.
NBC's Hicks is a no-brainer Hall of Famer
In the late 1970s, Sabino High School’s Dan Hicks would sometimes sit in the bleachers at Hi Corbett Field, tape recorder in hand, and perform his own play-by-play account of Tucson Toros baseball games.
So began one of America’s most successful sports broadcasting careers. Sunday, Hicks will be the play-by-play voice of NBC’s coverage of the U.S. Open, the 23rd time Hicks has been NBC’s lead voice in America’s biggest golf event.
The one-time Sabino basketball standout, a UA grad who grew up captivated by late-night radio broadcasts of Los Angeles Dodgers legend Vin Scully, is also the lead play-by-play voice of NBC’s Summer and Winter Olympics in swimming and skiing.
Hicks last week became one of 11 to be voted into the Pima County Sports Hall of Fame class of 2023, said Pat Darcy, president of the PCSHOF. Hicks is scheduled to be inducted into the Hall of Fame at the DoubleTree Hotel on Nov. 12.
I first became aware of Hicks and his budding talent while sitting in the football press box at Arizona Stadium in the mid-1980s. Hicks would announce the official details of each play to guests in the luxury suites and those sitting on press row.
At one point, Hicks described a short run that ended when a running back stumbled and fell in the open field as “self-tackleization."
Everyone laughed. It was typical of his refreshing approach to a same-old, same-old business. Over the last 40 years, every announcer inside the Arizona Stadium press box has carried on Hicks’ “self-tackleization" declaration.
From there, he became the PA announcer for women’s basketball at McKale Center and the PA voice of Arizona baseball games. He soon was hired by a Tucson radio station and, ultimately, as a weekend sports anchor at Channel 4. It wasn’t long until CNN hired him to be one of its lead studio sports personalities, which led to his move to NBC 30 years ago.
HIcks joins an impressive PCSHOF class of 2023 that includes the following:
Tucson High star Willie Morales played for the Baltimore Orioles in 2000, then spent time playing for the top minor-league affiliates of the Rockies, Cardinals and Diamondbacks.
• Willie Morales. After leading Tucson High School to back-to-back state baseball championships in 1987 and 1988, Morales became an All-Pac-10 catcher at Arizona and, ultimately, a catcher for the Baltimore Orioles.
• Jeff Kiewel. After a standout football career at Sabino, Kiewel became an All-Pac-10 tackle at Arizona and, subsequently, a three-year lineman for the Atlanta Falcons.
• Tyler DeBerry. A state champion swimmer at Sabino, DeBerry went on to be a 13-time All-American at Arizona.
• Rich Hall. After completing his football career as a UA lineman in the early ’70s, Hall began to officiate Tucson prep football games, leading to an 18-year career as an NFL official.
• Todd Holthaus. The Pima College women’s basketball coach won his 500th career game last season, leading the Aztecs to the NJCAA quarterfinals. Holthaus earlier won 160 games at Flowing Wells High School and spent three years on the UA women’s basketball staff.
• Ashley Monceaux. An all-city softball and basketball player at Flowing Wells, Monceaux went on to lead Pima College to the 2004 NJCAA national championship. She was a first-team All-American who became an All-Big 12 first baseman for Baylor’s WCWS team.
• Marty Parker. The native Tucsonan became a three-time swimmer in the Paralympics, winning a gold medal in 1996 at Atlanta and setting more than 20 American records in Masters swimming.
• Carla Garrett. A three-time NCAA champion in the shot put and discus at Arizona, Garrett has become a prominent strength and conditioning coach at Pima College and Salpointe Catholic High School.
• Stacy Redondo. A key member of Arizona’s 1991 and 1993 NCAA champion softball teams, Redondo later coached softball at Salpointe Catholic and Pima College. She died in April after suffering a stroke.
• Tom Wiedenbauer. A standout quarterback and baseball player at Sahuaro High School in the 1970s, Wiedenbauer made baseball his life’s work. He reached MLB, playing for the Houston Astros in 1979, and spent four decades coaching in the big leagues at the minor-league level.
• Heather Moore-Martin. Salpointe’s girls volleyball coach won her ninth state championship this season in beach volleyball, a run that began by coaching the Catalina boys volleyball team to the 2010 state title.
Arizona forward Azuolas Tubelis, right, runs into Princeton guard Ryan Langborg as he drives to the basket during the first half of their first-round game in the NCAA Tournament in Sacramento, Calif., Thursday, March 16, 2023.
After examination, Tubelis unlikely to be drafted
How can Azuolas Tubelis, a second-team All-American and backbone of Arizona teams that went 61-11 the last two seasons, not be a future NBA player or even a second-round draftee on Thursday? How do those who make a living evaluating draft-eligible players see him?
Here’s how: The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie, that organization’s senior writer and NBA draft analyst, annually produces one of the most insightful looks into the NBA Draft. His thorough exam of Tubelis leaves no stone unturned. He lists Tubelis at No. 65 overall. Here’s what Vecenie says:
“Tubelis doesn’t do a lot of the things modern NBA big men are asked to do. He has significant defensive concerns. He has good hand-eye coordination, so occasionally produced offensive plays when Arizona would hedge him on middle ball screens. But there’s not much else positive.. He’s not a real rim protector. Not a great shot blocker. Wasn’t awesome as a post defender. More importantly, though, he can’t guard on the perimeter. He was blow-by city a lot of the time.
“Offensively, he can be a bit turnover prone as a passer and driver. Don’t love him as a driver if he must put the ball on the deck one or two times. Doesn’t play above the rim. He’s also not a shooter at this point."
Summary: “I think Tubelis is likely to have a hard time in the NBA unless he really improves defensively. I thought he was often at the root of a lot of Arizona’s defensive issues the last couple of years. He was extremely valuable and useful offensively. But defensively, he was a bit too easily exploited in big moments.
“The worst-case scenario for Tubelis is he becomes one of the best players in the EuroLeague over the next decade. But if he can become just a bit more mobile with his footwork and a bit more polished as a shooter, significant money in the NBA could occur as an offensively minded backup center."
Arizona sitting at No. 43 in Directors' Cup
When the Learfield Directors' Cup was created for the 1993-94 school year — a sport-by-sport points measurement of every college athletic department — Arizona was a blueblood.
The Wildcats ranked No. 6 in 1994, followed by successive finishes of No. 4, No. 7, No. 6, No, 6 and No. 9. The 1990s were the glory years of UA sports.
This year Arizona is No. 43, which is ninth in the Pac-12. That’s about the UA’s average finish of the last decade. Only baseball is left to be counted, and the Wildcats are projected to move up only a spot or two when their NCAA Tournament points are added.
What’s changed? More than anything, the proliferation of non-revenue sports now controls the Directors' Cup standings. Stanford has clinched the No. 1 athletic program in Division I athletics this year, which is no surprise. It’s not about the high-profile sports.
Stanford golfers celebrate with Rose Zhang, second from right, after she won the NCAA individual championship at Grayhawk Golf Club, Monday, May 22, 2023, in Scottsdale.
Even though the Cardinal earned no points in football and men’s basketball, they scored a max value of 100 points in women’s rowing and women’s water polo and close to that amount in women’s golf, softball, women’s tennis and men’s track and field.
Those Pac-12 schools that thrive on non-revenue sports were again highly ranked. USC is No. 4, UCLA No. 11. Even No. 28 Utah will post its best-ever finish, but that’s a bit misleading: The Utes won the NCAA title in skiing and scored heavily in gymnastics and men’s lacrosse.
No. 33 ASU again will finish ahead of Arizona, but not because of anything the Sun Devils did in high-profile sports. ASU outscored Arizona in the Directors' Cup because of high-level finishes in men’s swimming, men’s and women’s indoor track and gymnastics.
Short stuff: Incoming Cat in elite company; ex-OSU coach has a point; Nnaji cashes in
Incoming UA freshman softball pitcher Ryan Maddox of Clovis North High School near Fresno was named California’s Gatorade Player of the Year last week. She was 21-1 with an 0.64 ERA and is the No. 3 overall prospect in softball’s recruiting class of 2023. Oh, how the Wildcats need her to be good ASAP.
California’s Gatorade Player of the Year has often become a high-profile collegian. Witness recent UCLA All-Americans Rachel Garcia, Bubba Nickles and Megan Faraimo, and two of Oklahoma’s best players this year, Nicole May and Tiare Jennings.
Arizona has deployed three California POYs this century, all pitchers: Alicia Hollowell, Taylor McQuillin and current UA sophomore Sydney Somerndike. Hollowell was a first-team All-American and McQuillin a first-team All-Pac-12 pitcher. ...
Oregon State assistant coach Tim Shelton, left, and Stephen Thompson, assistant athletic director of player development, look on during warmups before the Beavers’ game against Oregon in Corvallis, Ore., Saturday, Feb. 25, 2023.
• Former Oregon State assistant basketball coach Tim Shelton — who left OSU last week for a similar position at Colorado State — said what many in college basketball believe when he left Corvallis:
The Beavers can’t compete in NIL opportunities. It’s not an even playing field in recruiting. “We’re never going to be Arizona," Shelton told a Portland newspaper.
Said Shelton, whose comments drew the ire of OSU athletic director Scott Barnes: “My biggest fear is that the guys here don’t feel like we have enough resources to keep them. We’re asking them to do that for very little to nothing."
Follow the money: The Beavers have gone 6-34 in the Pac-12 the last two seasons. ...
• Arizona’s 2019-20 Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, Zeke Nnaji, celebrated joyously with his Denver Nuggets teammates in last week’s downtown Denver parade that drew an estimated 1 million people. And why not? Nnaji will receive a bonus of close to $1 million for being part of the Nuggets active roster during the playoffs.
Nnaji, a 6-9 forward, played just 29 seconds in Denver’s championship series victory over Miami. He did not play at all in a four-game Western Conference Finals sweep of the Los Angeles Lakers. But he is smiling all the way to the bank. He earned $2.6 million this season and will be paid $4.3 million next season in guaranteed salary.
Arizona addition Paulius Murauskas of Lithuania dribbles during the FIBA U18 European Championships on Aug. 1, 2022, at Izmir, Turkey.
My two cents: Give Tubelis assist for recruiting Murauskas
One of the unwritten legacies of Azuolas Tubelis is the role he played in the recruiting pursuit of versatile 6-8 Lithuanian shooter Paulius Murauskas, who, I believe, based on his video highlights, will be an impact player in the Pac-12.
In a Twitter message before signing with Arizona last week, Murauskas wrote: “I weighed all the options, but since Azuolas played there, we know the coach and the University of Arizona. I played there last summer. We asked Azuolas a lot of questions about everything last summer, and he really helped.
“Looking at it now, with a Lithuanian player there (7-2 recruit Motiejus Krivas) I think it will be stronger and more fun because of that. "
No coach in the Pac-12 has the global recruiting network of Tommy Lloyd. True, he inherited Tubelis from the previous staff, but you can’t say he didn’t get the most out of him, both on the court and off.
