Utah athletic director Mark Harlan fired basketball coach Craig Smith last week, a rare in-season transaction that might suggest Harlan has long known who he wanted as Smith’s successor. Could it be ex-Wildcat player/coach Josh Pastner? Harlan and Pastner got to know one another well while both were at the UA in the ’90s and 2000s. Harlan is surely seeking an elite recruiter, which is Pastner’s calling card, someone who can fill about 7,000 empty seats at the 15,000-seat Huntsman Center. Pastner went 276-187 in 14 seasons as a head coach at Memphis and Georgia Tech. He’s only 47, in the prime of his career. The Utes’ Smith recruited ineffectively. Pastner could turn out to be a home run hire for the skidding Utes.
Houston Gamblers head coach Kevin Sumlin watches before a USFL football game against Michigan Panthers on April 17, 2022, in Birmingham, Ala.
– Former Arizona football coach Kevin Sumlin is out of the game. He is no longer listed on the coaching staff of the Maryland Terrapins, where he served as an assistant coach in 2023 and 2024. At 60, Sumlin had a rocky stay at Maryland, getting arrested in 2023 for “reckless driving with alcohol” on a recruiting trip in Florida. What was his incentive to keep his shoulder to the wheel? As a head coach at Houston, Texas A&M and Arizona, Sumlin is estimated to have been paid close to $35 million. His son, former Salpointe Catholic tight end Jackson Sumlin, has joined the Maryland staff as a graduate assistant. He completed his playing eligibility at Florida Atlantic last season.
– I was saddened to learn of the death of former Arizona quarterback Bill Demory (1970-73) last week. At 74, Demory died of pancreatic cancer in Phoenix. He started three games for the New York Jets in 1974, relieving injured Joe Namath. No other ex-Arizona quarterback played in an NFL game again until Nick Foles made his debut for the Philadelphia Eagles in 2012. Demory, an educator at Central Arizona College and Mesa Community College, was a wonderful man. I met him in 2003 when he drove to Tucson twice a week to work out with Rincon High quarterback Ryan Darcy, son of ex-Cincinnati Reds pitcher Pat Darcy. “I’m willing to help,” said Demory. “I want to let young players know what it takes to be a better quarterback.”
– UA golfing icon Annika Sorenstam last week suggested the LGPA Tour hire former Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott as its new commissioner. I’m not blaming Sorenstam for such a big miss. She surely didn’t follow the year-to-year missteps by Scott, who ran the Pac-12 aground, leading to its implosion. He has neither the people skills nor the financial skills nor the resume to be considered as the LPGA commissioner for even two seconds. Do you realize Scott spent $92 million for rent of the Pac-12’s high-brow headquarters in downtown San Francisco in 11 years? That’s got to be a record for ineptitude.
Akina
– There wasn’t a tearful, please-don’t-go farewell for former Arizona defensive coordinator Duane Akina when he left to coach at Texas last week. Akina is an acquired taste. Yes, he’s an alpha leader in energy and cornerbacks developed for the NFL, but his stint as Arizona’s defensive coordinator was a football disaster. The UA allowed 414 yards and 32 points per game. Akina is an over-coacher, often not stepping aside when it’s time for others on the staff to take command. Akina is a wonderful cornerbacks coach and a good person, but it’s no surprise he was never a full-blown defensive coordinator at Arizona, Texas or Stanford from 1996-2022.
