Hansen's Sunday Notebook: Aide raid of Adia Barnes' Cats shows program is on the right path

Wildcats lose two assistants — but, finally, the program is on track

The easiest prediction of the Pac-12 basketball offseason was that Arizona’s women’s program would be poached by those looking to upgrade their coaching staffs.

And sure enough, 12 days after Adia Barnes' team won the WNIT and sold out McKale Center, two assistant coaches left Tucson.

The first was a no-brainer. Former UConn NCAA championship player Morgan Valley went home to be the head coach at Hartford University. The second — UA assistant coach April Phillips taking a similar job at Cal — created some political ripples inside the league.

The unwritten rule in Pac-12 sports has forever been not to raid one another’s coaching staff.

But those days are becoming old news. Anything goes. It happened twice last week: Arizona State’s Bobby Hurley lost assistant coach Anthony Coleman, who chose to accept an offer to coach for Tad Boyle at Colorado. Coleman is seen by some as one of the league’s top recruiters.

You don’t need long to count the number of Arizona assistant coaches who’ve jumped to other Pac-12 schools:

It began in 1981 when a rising star in the business, Mike Frink, sensing the end of Fred Snowden‘s regime in 1981, left to coach at league powerhouse Washington.

Baseball assistant coach Mark Wasikowski left Andy Lopez‘s staff for a significant raise in compensation for Oregon, 2011, missing out on Arizona’s 2012 national championship.

Track assistant coach Sheldon Blockburger, among the best jumps coaches in the industry, left for USC in 2015, but surprisingly returned to Arizona last summer.

Arizona offensive line coach Jim Michalczik, perhaps sensing the end of Rich Rodriguez‘s days in Tucson, jumped to a struggling Oregon State program a few days before Christmas in 2017.

One that didn’t get much attention was UA assistant women’s golf coach Justin Silverstein jumping to the USC golf program in 2013. Silverstein’s move has worked well; later promoted to head coach, Silverstein coached the No. 1-ranked Trojans’ women’s golf team to the Pac-12 championship last week.

The job market for assistant coaches in college sports is forever fluid, here and everywhere.

When Joan Bonvicini‘s Arizona women’s basketball program became of Top 25 caliber, she lost assistant Curtis Loyd to Virginia. Fellow assistant Clemette Haskins became the head coach at Dayton.

And when Lute Olson started rolling at Arizona, his cornerstone assistants both left: Scott Thompson became the head coach at Rice and Ken Burmeister the head coach at UTSA.

The other side of losing assistant coaches is that, given Arizona’s community support and quick rebuild under Barnes, she now is likely to be able to hire assistant coaches from a higher level, and, perhaps, offer more compensation.

Most head coaches appoint someone as “assistant head coach,” but Barnes has chosen not to do that. Her husband, Salvo Coppa, is clearly among the handful of most qualified assistant coaches in Pac-12 women’s basketball. Whoever Barnes hires — and expect her to do so quickly — will be joining one of the more promising young staffs in women’s college basketball.

Ten things to know about the week in Tucson sports

1. Arizona grad Bob Baffert isn’t yet a year removed from winning horse racing’s 2018 Triple Crown with his remarkable horse, Justify. Now, two weeks before the Derby, Baffert trains three horses who appear to be among the top four favorites: Roadster, Game Winner and Improbable. At 66, Baffert remains at the top of his game.

2. Catalina Foothills opens the boys tennis state championships Tuesday ranked in a familiar spot, No. 1. The Falcons, under fourth-year coach Jeff Bloomberg, are 13-0, which means Bloomberg is 64-0 in his dual meets at the school, with state championships in 2016, 2017 and 2018. High school tennis has a rich history in Tucson, and Bloomberg appears to have a shot someday to rival the 128-1 record achieved by Tucson High tennis coach Ted Kissell in the late 1970s. Bloomberg, who is in the South Dakota tennis Hall of Fame, won two state championships in Pierre before moving to Tucson.

3. According to the American Hockey League, the Tucson Roadrunners averaged 4,294 fans per game at the Tucson Arena this season. That tops their first two seasons, when they averaged 4,217 and 4,054. How good is that? It’s No. 23 in the AHL, not even half of division rival San Diego Gulls’ 9,021. But it’s not bad for a franchise with 34 home games, 10 of them in mid-week.

4. UA sophomore shot-putter Jordan Geist has been sensational. His throw of 70 feet 10 inches last week is the school record and No. 1 in the NCAA this season. Those in the track and field business speak in reverent tones about “22-meter” shot-putters, a barrier equivalent to, say, high-jumping 7-6. Geist’s 70-10 throw is 21.59 meters. If he is to challenge for a spot on the 2020 USA Olympic team, he’ll have to exceed 22 meters. The Pac-12 record is exactly 22 meters (or 72-2 ¼) set in 1995 by the great John Godina of UCLA. Geist is now No. 4 in Pac-12 history.

5. Arizona sophomore golfer Tianlang Guan, who made the cut at the 2013 Masters when he was just 14 years old — he shot 73-75-77-75 at Augusta — had his most productive tournament as a Wildcat last week in the Western Intercollegiate. Guan, known to his Arizona teammates as “Langley,” shot 66-70 the final two days, his best back-to-back performances as a Wildcat. Coach Jim Anderson‘s team enters the Pac-12 championships Monday in Eugene, Oregon, and will look to contend for the title for the first time since 2005. Arizona hasn’t finished in the top six at the Pac-12 meet since 2008.

6. The Tucson Sugar Skulls have four regular season home games remaining at the Tucson Arena, and all will be played at 6 p.m. on Saturdays. The first three Sugar Skulls home games were played at 3 p.m., on Sundays, which is not good for attendance. It’s a good time for a nap. Those Saturday night games could draw close to 6,000 each. The Sugar Skulls are averaging 4,435 at the gate.

7. Tucson’s leading high school football program, Salpointe Catholic, opens spring workouts this week. Coach Dennis Bene‘s program is scheduled to host coaches/recruiters from Texas, Oklahoma and Nebraska this week, and Alabama offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian next week. Four prospects — Lathan Ransom, Bruno Fina, Bijan Robinson and Jonah Miller — have been offered scholarships by Power 5 conference schools, and sophomore QB Treyson Bourguet seems set to become the fifth in that group. Bourguet, who is expected to sit out the first five games of the 2019 season under AIA transfer rules, is already 6-3 and close to 190 pounds with exceptional passing skills.

8. Can’t-miss TV viewing for Tucson golfers this week: Fox Sports’ classic TV series featuring America’s leading golf facilities — “18 Holes of Golf” — will broadcast a one-hour special on the Ventana Canyon Golf Club this week. Fox Sports Arizona will air the series Monday at 9 a.m., Thursday at 5 p.m., Friday at 8:30 a.m., and Saturday at 12:30 p.m. It is the first Southern Arizona course to be featured on the program; one of the guest hosts is former UA golfer Natalie Gulbis.

9. Kelly Pierce, who coached her alma mater, Salpointe Catholic, to back-to-back state soccer championships in 2018 and 2019, has added to her coaching duties. She is the new head coach of FC Tucson Women, replacing Amy Garelick, who resigned after six strong seasons and a 31-20-10 record. Pierce will coach the FC Tucson Women in their first game June 1 at Kino North Stadium.

10. Local golf is one of the top resources for fund-raising in almost any American community. Tucson has a remarkable history of raising tens of millions of dollars through golf — the Conquistadores alone have raised more than $25 million for Tucson charities. Here’s an example: Last week at the Highlands at Dove Mountain, golf pro Preston Otte staged the second annual PGA HOPE Foundation event to raise money for Southern Arizona’s Wounded Warriors. The event, in which many of Tucson’s golf pros participated, raised $10,332 in cash and another $5,000 in donated golf clubs, golf balls, hats and apparel for military veterans. Dove Mountain’s event came a day after the Conquistadores announced they raised $600,000 for Southern Arizona charities at the 2019 Cologuard Classic. Outstanding.

Pat Benites was one of Tucson’s best

In 1975, Rincon High School outfielder Pat Benites hit a Tucson-high .455, becoming an all-city selection for the first of two seasons. He went on to play at Pima College and NAIA power Emporia State with a group of other Tucson ballplayers.

Benites was part of a rich era of high school baseball in Tucson, a contemporary of future Arizona Wildcat standouts Scott Stanley and Jeff Morris of Catalina, Palo Verde’s Clark Crist, as well and future major-leaguers Tom Wiedenbauer and John Butcher of Sahuaro.

Benites later became the head baseball coach at Pueblo High School, and ultimately a Tucson firefighter.

Sadly, Benites died early this month. He was 61. But he left a strong legacy, in sports and in the community.

His daughter, Polly, married former Catalina Foothills football standout Elliott Mayfield, the son of Palo Verde state championship football coach Todd Mayfield, whose father, Ollie Mayfield, became an iconic football coach at Tucson High, winning back-to-back state championships in 1970 and 1971.

Polly and Elliott Mayfield last year welcomed a baby girl into their family. They named her Ollie. That would make any grandpa proud.

My two cents: NFF banquet is once again a can't-miss event

The Southern Arizona Chapter of the National Football Foundation did the considerable legwork responsible for getting Tedy Bruschi, Rob Waldrop and Chuck Cecil inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

That’s what gets the most attention, but it’s just a piece of what the organization does in the community.

For example, the annual luncheon/banquet for the Southern Arizona Chapter — Saturday at noon at the DoubleTree Hotel — will provide scholarship assistance for 13 football scholar-athletes, ranging from Pusch Ridge Christian’s Casey Way and Marana’s Trenton Bourguet to Cienega’s Thomas Webb Jr. and Empire’s Wyatt Jeffries.

It will also honor former UA defensive back Malcolm Holland with a $1,000 scholarship as he continues working on his double-major at Arizona; Holland hopes to become a CPA when his education is completed.

The Hall of Fame committee, led by former Cienega football coach Nemer Hassey and Tucson attorney Rick Gonzales, will honor two of the leading names in Tucson football history at Saturday’s banquet. (Ticket information: email Rick72@aol.com)

Cleo Robinson, a Marana native and one of the leading referees in high school and college football history – Robinson has worked 19 bowl games – will receive the Mike Lude President’s Award, an honor created in the name of the former Washington and Auburn athletic director who was instrumental in founding the Southern Arizona Chapter of the Hall of Fame 25 years ago.

Former UA football coach Dick Tomey will receive the Joe Kearney Leadership Award, named after the former commissioner of the WAC who retired to Tucson and helped Lude create the Hall of Fame chapter here. Unfortunately, Tomey, who has lung cancer, will not be able to attend the banquet.

This year’s guest speaker will be Arizona’s 1983 All-Pac-10 cornerback Randy Robbins, a three-time Super Bowl player for the Denver Broncos and former Arizona assistant coach.

One of the most compelling moments of the year in Tucson sports is when longtime Tucson emcee Dana Cooper conducts Q&A sessions with all 13 scholar-athlete honorees at the banquet. Cooper is exceptional — funny and insightful — in getting to the personalities of the young men being honored.

if you attend one local sports awards banquet a year, I strongly recommend this one.