The Star's longtime columnist on the pluses and minuses of the Pac-12 baseball tournament, news on the upcoming Lute Olson documentary, and his thoughts on 8 p.m. kickoffs this fall:
Arizona's Tommy Splaine slides into third base during Saturday's Pac-12 Tournament game in Scottsdale. Top-seeded Stanford eliminated the Wildcats from the first-ever league tournament.
Pac-12 tourney not a huge draw
Over the first three days of the inaugural Pac-12 postseason baseball tournament, temperatures hit 100 degrees in all but two 9 a.m. games. Average attendance at the 12,000-seat Scottsdale Stadium was roughly 1,800, with no game drawing more than 3,173, and that figure looked exaggerated in TV screen shots.
What’s more, the first 10 games averaged 3 hours and 42 minutes, with the Oregon State-Washington game requiring 4:32, the Stanford-Arizona game 4:34 and the Cal-UCLA game 4:25.
Does even the most avid baseball fan (or baseball player) enjoy playing in those conditions? TV broadcasts on the Pac-12 Networks seemed to never end. (Anyone for seven-inning college baseball games?)
Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff said the league plans to rotate the Pac-12 tournament year to year, but there is probably not enough interest (or suitable facilities) at Cal, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Washington and Washington State to play host. Oregon and Oregon State might draw capacity crowds of about 3,500 for Pac-12 Tournament games, but the rainy spring weather in Oregon is a risky factor.
Arizona would probably draw the league’s largest crowds at Hi Corbett Field, but only if the Wildcats were a strong contender, playing after sundown.
Ten years ago, Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott began momentum toward a baseball postseason tournament. The initial plan was to stage the event in Salt Lake City, at the Triple-A ballpark downtown, but Scott’s interest waned. One of the few things I’ll give Scott credit for is that he correctly read the league's community interest in college baseball. Outside of Tucson and Corvallis, it is mild, at best.
At the SEC Tournament last week in Hoover, Alabama, former Arizona coach Jay Johnson — now at LSU — played back-to-back games against Tennessee and Alabama that drew 12,215 and 9,697. At the ACC Tournament at the Triple-A Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina, two out-of-town teams, Virginia Tech and Clemson, drew 7,117 on opening night
Kliavkoff and his staff face a significant challenge to find a good fit for the postseason baseball tournament.
More baseball:
• Arizona baseball coach Chip Hale won’t have to totally rebuild for the 2023 season, given expected losses of All-Pac-12 players such as catcher Daniel Susac and outfielder Tanner O’Tremba. Hale last fall signed former Canyon del Oro High School infielder/outfielder Kiko Romero, who appears on target to be named a first-team NJCAA All-American this week. Romero led Central Arizona College to the NJCAA World Series, which is ongoing in Colorado. Romero hit a triple and home run in the West Regional championship game against Salt Lake Community College. Romero is hitting .361 with 19 homers and 73 RBIs entering the NJCAA World Series.
• The Pac-12 chose 35 players to the first-team all-Pac-12 team last week. That’s almost like Little League organizations giving trophies to all players on all teams. When Arizona won the national championship in 2012, the Pac-12’s first-team all-conference squad included 25 players. That makes more sense.
Lute documentary in the works
CBS college basketball commentator Seth Davis is among those at Podium Pictures in the process of developing a documentary on Lute Olson. The working title is "Sizzle." That fits.
Podum Pictures has some credibility. Two years ago it released "Weight of Gold," a remarkable documentary on the mental health of American Olympic athletes, headlined by swimmer Michael Phelps — a show that included work on Apolo Anton Ohno, Bode Miller, Lolo Jones and others. It has also completed a documentary of "Dodgertown," a look at Jackie Robinson’s early days with the Dodgers.
In the production of "Sizzle," the Podium Pictures crew has already interviewed Steve Kerr, Sean Elliott, Gilbert Arenas, Jason Terry, Luke Walton, Andre Iguodala, former Phoenix Suns owner Jerry Colangelo and former Arizona athletic director Jim Livengood. The release date has not yet been set.
Victor Yates played at Arizona following a state championship run at Palo Verde High School. He then went to work in Arizona State’s athletic department.
Victor Yates honored by alma mater
Victor Yates returned home to Palo Verde High School last week, the featured commencement speaker at his alma mater. Yates is a remarkable success story. In 2005, he led coach Todd Mayfield’s PVHS Titans to the state football championship, overcoming poverty and a splintered family situation. He then played five years at Arizona as a walk-on, where he helped to make ends meet by becoming the Housekeeping Manager of a school dormitory in the summers. After earning his UA degree in 2010, Yates was hired to work at Ball State, UTSA and Arizona State as a major athletic fundraising executive. Yates is now the chief Philanthropic Officer for the Phoenix Children’s Hospital. Well done. …
Tennis rules hurt Cats
After UA men’s tennis coach Clancy Shields coached the Wildcats to their first-ever Pac-12 championship in May, his club was assigned to play on the road in the NCAA Tournament, losing in the second round to North Carolina. It was Exhibit A of how unfair it can be to play road matches in any NCAA Tournament. The Wildcats lost on North Carolina’s home courts, failing to reach the Sweet 16. North Carolina was then assigned a road match at No. 2 Florida, losing. The NCAA men’s tennis tournament couldn’t possibly be a money-maker — small crowds don’t pay premium prices for tickets to an Arizona-North Carolina match. So why not play all NCAA tennis tournaments on neutral courts? Arizona’s season ended much too soon, and all because it was assigned to travel about 3,000 miles where it bumped into the Tar Heels’ homecourt advantage. ….
University of Arizona announced on Thursday a new golf facility, Bill Clements Golf Center, at Tucson Country Club that's worth over $14 million.
Cats' new facility will be among nation's best
Arizona’s soon-to-be-built $14.6 million Clements Golf Facility at Tucson Country Club will surely be among the top five or six in college golf when completed next year. It will rival those at Wake Forest, Arkansas, North Carolina State and Stanford, often ranked in "best of college golf" lists. Oregon is in the process of building a $6 million golf complex, and ASU is in its third year at the $10 million Thunderbird Golf Complex, inspired, in part by Phil Mickelson. …. More on college golf: I felt badly for Oregon’s women’s golf team, which lost in the NCAA finals to Stanford last week at Scottsdale’s Grayhawk Golf Club. In 104-degree heat, teeing off at 2 p.m., the Ducks wore all-black uniforms, including long-sleeve golf shirts and black hats. Stanford more sensibly wore red and white outfits. I’ve played golf in 100-degree plus weather hundreds of times in Tucson and know all too well how wearing black clothes is a negative factor, draining your energy. But the Ducks always seem to want to make a splash in uniforms — the urge to be different. This time, it might've cost them a national title.
Callista Balko headed to Pima County Sports Hall of Fame
Callista Balko’s softball career began with a bang: As a freshman in 2001, she helped Canyon del Oro High School win the state softball championship. Moving from shortstop to catcher, she was a vital part of Mike Candrea’s 2006 and 2007 NCAA championship teams, hitting 26 home runs over her last two seasons. Balko has now been elected to the Class of 2022 of the Pima County Sports Hall of Fame and will be inducted in a November banquet at the DoubleTree Hotel. Balko, who is married to former Arizona football standout Ricky Elmore, has worked for the UA athletic department since 2012. She is now regional director of developing and fundraising in Maricopa County. …
Christian Koloko a smooth shooter
I watched a 57-second video of former Arizona center Christian Koloko on his pro day at the NBA Combine last week. It was a revelation. In those 57 seconds, Koloko swished four consecutive 3-pointers from beyond the foul line. He did so after receiving a pass, not setting up and measuring his shot. Koloko’s form looked smooth. In his Arizona days, Koloko was a mere 0 for 5 on 3-point shots, discouraged from shooting from that distance. But as we’ve seen, Koloko is an achiever. He improved his field-goal shooting percentage at Arizona from 48% as a freshman to 64% last season. His foul-shooting percentage went from 35% to 74%. He is looking more and more like a first-round pick. Koloko is represented by the Klutch Sports Group, which also represents NBA players Draymond Green, Trae Young and ex-Wildcat Aaron Gordon. ….
Experience matters when it comes to the NBA
Former North Carolina basketball All-American James Worthy, a seven-time NBA All-Star for the Los Angeles Lakers, last week spoke with wisdom about the rush of college basketball players like Arizona’s Dalen Terry to get to the NBA. "I mean, Kareem (Abdul-Jabbar) had four years with John Wooden, Michael Jordan and I had three years with Dean Smith. So you learned the fundamentals," Worthy said. "Not only that, you learned how to live. You learned how to balance your freaking checkbook in college. When you don’t get that, guys are coming to the NBA who are not fundamentally sound. All they do is practice 3s, lift weights, get tattoos, tweet and go on social media. That’s it.’ So you don’t have that sound player; you have an athletic player. And that’s what’s happening to the game." Well said, Mr. Worthy. ….
Pricey, fancy seats coming to McKale
Beginning next season, the floor seating areas at McKale Center will take on more of the look of an NBA arena, where premium, high-price seats get more and more space next to the playing surface. The UA will create second "Scholarship Row" areas behind those court seats already in use on the west side, behind the north and south baselines. They won’t be cheap. Some of those seats will go for $15,620 per season plus a $25,000 donation. The "cheapest" of the new floor level seats will be available for $3,500 per seat plus a $5,000 donation. It’s one way athletic director Dave Heeke can help to pay down the crazy amount of debt service owed by most Division I athletic departments. Don’t expect other Pac-12 teams to follow with squeeze-’em-in, NBA-type floor seating. I don’t think there’s enough interest in Pac-12 basketball, either at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion or Oregon’s Matthew Knight Arena to follow Arizona’s lead.
My two cents: When it comes to kickoff times, follow the (TV) money
Arizona has been assigned 8 p.m., start times for its first two home football games, against North Dakota State and Mississippi State in September, both televised on Fox Sports 1. That’s predictable given that ESPN and Fox have agreed not to assign Arizona and ASU to home day games in September.
It would be so much more appealing if those games started at 7 p.m. or 6:30. It might make a difference in more than 5,000 people per game at Arizona Stadium. But that’s life as ESPN and FS1 fill their Saturday night programming windows. Those dreary late-night starts pay significant TV revenue, but also discourage attendance.
Defending Pac-12 champion Utah didn’t get a good draw when start times were announced last week. The Utes’ two September home games began at 11:30 a.m. against Southern Utah — when temperatures in Salt Lake City average in the low 90s — and an 8 p.m. start a week later against San Diego State.
It’s a strong reminder that college football is ruled by TV money, not by giving fans the most convenient logistics.
