The Star's longtime columnist on Texas poaching Arizona women's golf coach Laura Ianello, the mega-successful year that was for high school and college (UA and Pima) sports programs across Tucson, how college stadium naming rights, like it or not, will be what helps pay college athletes moving forward, and more.
Greg Hansen is the longtime sports columnist for the Arizona Daily Star and Tucson.com
Texas convincing Ianello to lead Longhorns no surprise; coach will be missed at UA
With the equivalent of three "Final Fours" in the last seven years, Arizona has a better women's golf program than Texas. Its new $14.8 million golf compound is far superior to the one Texas built in 2003.
The UA also has a women's golf legacy beyond to that of the Longhorns, producing three NCAA team championships and four NCAA individual champions, Susan Slaughter, Annika Sorenstam, Marisa Baena and Jenna Daniels.
Texas has had just one individual champion in that period, no team champs.
Arizona women's golf coach Laura Ianello, right, and Wildcat Gile Bite Starkute fist bump at the 2023 Pac-12 Championships.
But a week ago Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte — the No. 2 man in Arizona's athletic department from 2000-07 — phoned UA coach Laura Ianello, who was sitting in her state-of-the-art coach's office at Tucson Country Club.
"I'm going to make a change in our women's golf program,'' Ianello recalled Del Conte saying.
He had been briefed on Ianello's stellar career by his former UA colleagues Mike Candrea and Rick LaRose.
Two days later, outfitted in burnt orange Longhorn colors, Ianello told Texas reporters that when Del Conte called, "it was a rush; his name is still talked about at Arizona all the time. This is the opportunity of a lifetime.''
It's not yet known how much the Longhorns will pay Ianello; she was getting $185,000 per year at Arizona, through 2028. She replaces Ryan Murphy, whose 2023 salary was $215,000. But at Texas, as at Alabama, Georgia and Ohio State, money is no issue.
Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte has managed to convince a heavy-hitting lineup of coaches from other big-time athletic programs to lead UT teams, including swim coach Bob Bowman (ASU), softball coach Mike White (Oregon), and now women’s golf coach Laura Ianello.
Texas is a poacher. Del Conte is the King of Poachers. That's life in college sports. Ianello is the fifth big name coach Del Conte has influenced to become a Longhorn since he was hired in 2017. The roll-call:
• ASU's national championship swimming coach Bob Bowman jumped to Texas last month.
• Oregon's five-time Pac-12 champion softball coach Mike White signed with Del Conte in 2019.
• Kentucky track coach Edrick Floreal, the No. 2 finisher in the 2018 NCAA women's track finals, moved to Texas in 2018.
• Mississippi State's 38-2 women's basketball coach of 2018, Vic Schaefer, became a Longhorn a year later.
Said Ianello: "Texas is the best athletic department in the country,''
She might be right. Two weeks ago, Del Conte was named the nation's athletic director of the year by Sports Business Journal. In the audience at the New York City reception was Ianello's husband, Jeff Ianello, who knows a thing or two about big-time college athletics. Jeff is executive vice-president of SeatGeek, a key financial component of college sports.
The Texas women's golf program announced the hiring of 14-year Arizona head coach Laura Ianello for the same role at UT.
Arizona has been vulnerable to poaching as much or more than any Power 5 conference school the last 15 years. That's why Ianello's move hurts more than most.
Two-time NCAA championship swimming coach Frank Busch departed to become director of USA Swimming's national teams; baseball coach Jay Johnson jetted off to LSU for double the salary; athletic director Greg Byrne accepted a no-brainer offer to be Alabama's AD; and soccer coach Tony Amato became head coach of the Florida Gators; football's Jedd Fisch jetted overnight to Washington.
Ianello's move to Texas had much precedence. After the UA women's golf program emerged as a national power 30 years ago, head coaches Kim Haddow (to Florida), Todd McCorkle (to Georgia) and Greg Allen (to Vanderbilt) all left Tucson.
The only surprise would have been Ianello telling Del Conte no.
True, a handful of UA coaches did not bite at big-money schools: Lute Olson famously declined Kentucky offers in 1985 and 1989; Dick Tomey told Oklahoma no in 1994; AD Jim Livengood backed away from a Michigan offer 20 years ago; Adia Barnes did not accept a Baylor overture three years ago.
Who does Arizona AD Desireé Reed-Francois hire? One of her first calls could be to Oregon head women's golf coach Derek Radley, who was Ianello's assistant coach during the 2018 national championship season.
It seems ridiculous to suggest that Radley would leave a big-money school like Oregon to return to Tucson, where he lived from 2012-18. But practicing golf in Oregon's eight-month rainy period has got to be a negative. Oregon's move to the Big Ten, a weak golf conference, isn't attractive. Plus, his wife, Sara Brown, a Salpointe Catholic grad who played on the LPGA Tour, has strong family ties in Tucson.
Radley was paid $212,000 in 2023, which isn't out of the UA's salary boundary.
Either way, Ianello's sparkling 14-year Arizona head coaching career is now in the history books. She will be missed.
Salpointe's Leo Gutierrez (9) slots home the opener past Mica Mountain's Landon Hubbard (27) in the second half of their 4A state championship game at Marana High School, Marana, Ariz., February 22, 2024.
Tucson's just-completed college, high school sports calendar one for the books
The last of Tucson's high school or college sports teams in action during 2023-24 sports year Friday. The UA's track and field team departed the NCAA Championships without scoring a point in men's or women's competition.
But that belies a strong sports season in Tucson, one that produced 14 state high school championships, three Pac-12 championships and a year in which Pima College sent four teams to NJCAA national championships.
Here's one man's look back at the leading college and high school players, teams and coaches of '23-'24.
• Boys high school athlete of the year: Leo Gutierrez, Salpointe Catholic soccer. Gutierrez led the Lancers to another state title, scoring a city-record 45 goals, including three in the state finals against Mica Mountain. No one else in the state scored more than 36 goals.
Pueblo’s America Cazares puts up a leaner against Salpointe in the first quarter of a game on Jan. 11.
• Girls high school athlete of the year: America Cazares, Pueblo basketball. Only a sophomore, Cazares broke the Tucson record for points in a game, 59, and averaged 26.4 points, third highest in Arizona's girls basketball for the season.
• High school team of the year: Canyon del Oro's football team went 14-0 under coach Dusty Peace, beating undefeated Yuma Catholic in the championship game, after which Peace retired.
• Pima College's men's athlete of the year: D'Andre Pickett, a first team NJCAA soccer All-American, a defensive specialist from Tucson High who led the Aztecs to eight shutouts and a berth in the national finals.
• Pima College's women's athlete of the year: Camila Zepeda, the ACCAC softball player of the year, hit .473 with 17 home runs and 63 RBI, a second baseman who was selected to the third-team All-American squad.
• Pima College's coach of the year: Softball's Rebekah Quiroz, whose team won 26 consecutive games, won the Region championship, played in the NJCAA finals and went 43-14.
• UA's men's athlete of the year: First-team ITA All-American Colton Smith, a junior tennis player, who reached the NCAA's Final Four, defeated 19 nationally-ranked players and won 34 matches, most in school history.
• UA women's athlete of the year: Dakota Kennedy, a third-team NFCA softball All-American, hit .400 with 13 homers and was a first-team All-Pac-12 outfielder who also won a national Gold Glove for her play in left field.
• UA coach of the year: Jedd Fisch, whose club went 10-3, finished No. 11 in the AP poll and returned Arizona to relevance for the first time since 2014.
Pueblo, Flowing Wells teams to Hall of Fame
Two dominant state champions — the 1978 Pueblo High School boys basketball team and the 2000 Flowing Wells softball team — have been elected to the Class of 2024 of the Pima County Sports Hall of Fame, as announced last week by PCSHOF president Pat Darcy.
Flowing Wells' Ashley Monceaux was so good in the circle in 2000 that the defense behind her rarely had a chance to make plays.
Flowing Wells won the 2000 state softball championship with a 30-5 record, led by future college softball players Ashley Monceaux, Candace Abrams, Stephanie Nicholson and Blair Holck. Coach Armando Quiroz's team remains one of the most powerful softball clubs in Tucson history.
Pueblo's '78 team, led by future two-time NBA All-Star point guard Fat Lever, went 28-0, the last undefeated team in Tucson prep basketball history. Coach Roland LaVetter's club also included key contributors Tony Mosley, Jeff Moore and Ken Martin.
The great Fat Lever led Pueblo High School past Rincon in the 1978 state championship game.
Both teams will be inducted Nov. 17 at the Reid Park DoubleTree Hotel along with 14 individual honorees, including ex-MBL players Jim Olander and Bob Lacey, ex-PGA Tour regular Rich Barcelo and All-American swimmers Francie O'Leary-Haffner and Eric Finical.
Pittsburgh’s Nick Gonzales hits a two-run home run off Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Walker Buehler during the third inning of the Pirates’ matchup with the Dodgers Thursday in Pittsburgh.
Short stuff: Cienega's Gonzales a hit with MLB's Pirates; Ex-Cats make Olympic hoops cases
• Cienega High grad Nick Gonzales, the Pittsburgh Pirates first-round draft pick, 2020, has 23 RBI since being recalled from Triple-A on May 10. That total, from May 10 through Friday, is the most in the National League, including Shohei Ohtani and everyone else. Gonzales, a second baseman, has hit .308 in that period. What a change from his rookie season, 2023, when Gonzales hit .205 with 13 RBI in 35 games and was returned to Triple-A. ...
• After a productive rookie season in the EuroLeague, Azuolas Tubelis appeared to have a chance to be part of Lithuania's 2024 Olympic team. He was part of the 12-man Team Lithuania roster in February's European Championships. But when Sacramento Kings star Domantas Sabonis committed to Team Lithuania last week, it probably pushed Tubelis off the roster. Former UA point guard Nico Mannion appears to be set for Italy's 2024 Olympic team as a backup guard. Mannion also played in the European Championships. Italy will open the Olympic qualifying on July 2 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Arizona's 2022 Pac-12 player of the year Bennedict Mathurin will not be able to play for Canada's Olympic team. He is out with a shoulder injury. ...
• Nick Byrne, son of former Arizona athletic director Greg Byrne, is leaving his position in the Wildcat Club as a fund-raiser in the UA athletic department, a job he has held for two years. Nick has accepted a similar position in Florida's athletic department. He attended and graduated from the UA, 2014-18, and since then has followed the same type of work-your-way-up ladder that his father did 30 years ago, spending time in the athletic departments at Pepperdine, Florida and Mississippi State. ...
• Arizona's 1996 NCAA softball player of the year Jennie Dalton, remains the NCAA's career RBI leader, with 328. Her record survived a challenge by Oklahoma national champion Tiare Jennings, who finished her career last week with 314 RBI. Another ex-Wildcat softball All-American, Leah O'Brien Amico, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, played a prominent role in last week's Women's College World Series. She was ESPN's radio analyst in Oklahoma City, working with former Tucson radio talk-show host and Tucson Sidewinders play-by-play voice Ryan Radtke, also a UA alumnus. I listened to part of their broadcasts. Very good work. ...
• Former Arizona quarterback Jayden de Laura has been released by the United Football League's San Antonio Bramas. He did not appear in a game, losing the QB battle to former Cal QB Chase Garbers and ex-Central Michigan QB Quinten Dormady. After leaving Arizona in early January, de Laura enrolled at Texas State but not long after left the Bobcats.
My two cents: Like it or not, college stadium naming rights will help pay star athletes
The Arizona athletic department has been working for more than a year to sell naming rights to Arizona Stadium and McKale Center, which now becomes even more important inasmuch as the UA and Division I college athletic departments will soon be permitted to pay athletes $22 million per year.
Some income will come immediately; last week, the NCAA approved each team to sell on-field corporate logos at basketball and football arenas. How much? A school like Arizona could raise possibly $5 million or more per year, combined.
It's almost certain that the next revenue-generator will be for each college team to display corporate logos on basketball/football uniforms, such as those in the NBA and MLB. The Golden State Warriors, for example, are said to earn about $25 million yearly from a deal with Rakuten, an e-commerce tech and communications firm.
It would be unthinkable for the UA to remove the name "McKale Center'' from its basketball operation, but it can and almost surely will go into business with a sponsor, putting its name on the basketball court and change the building's title to something like "McKale Center, sponsored by Corporate Big Shot.'' UCLA has already done so at Pauley Pavilion.
Arizona Stadium seems likely to follow ASU, whose football stadium is now referred to as "Mountain America Stadium.''
Like it or not, finding corporate sources to help pay athletes up to $22 million per year has become as important as recruiting 4- and 5-star athletes.
