Lorenzo Romar, left, was the associate head coach under Sean Miller during the trying 2017-18 season. Romar even coached the team during a February loss at Oregon.
UA basketball coach Tommy Lloyd is looking to replace assistant coach Steve Robinson, 67, who served four seasons on Lloyd’s staff as a mentor/coach and voice of reason. After all, Robinson spent 23 years as an assistant at Kansas and North Carolina, and eight years as a head coach at Tulsa and Florida State. If Lloyd is looking for an assistant in Robinson’s mold, a search committee would almost surely suggest Lorenzo Romar, head coach at Washington for 16 years and for the last two years an assistant at LMU. Romar, who coached on Sean Miller’s Arizona staff in 2017-18, is 66. He’s a winner as a person and coach.
– Rory McIlroy’s rousing and dramatic victory at the Masters last week brought to mind the six years he played in Tucson’s Accenture Match Play championships. McIlroy was 19 in his Tucson debut, 2009, when he lost to Geoff Ogilvy in the quarterfinals. McIrroy was the No. 1 seed for the next five years but could not win in Tucson, being eliminated by Oliver Wilson, Ben Crane, Lee Westwood, Shane Lowry and Harris English. Rory’s best Tucson finish was third in 2012.
– Arizona’s first-ever Big 12 championship arrived last week when first-year women’s golf coach Giovana Maymon watched as the Wildcats scored a heart-thumping playoff victory over Arizona State in Texas. When the Wildcats joined the Pac-10 in 1978, it took two years to win a conference title; Jerry Kindall’s baseball team won the 1980 league title, followed by the NCAA championship. This probably isn’t a one-shot win for Maymon, a former assistant coach at Texas A&M. Three of her top golfers, Charlotte Back, Carolina Melgrati and Julia Misemer, who rank 1-2-3 in average scores at Arizona, all are eligible to return in 2026.
– Arizona’s 2021 All-American point guard Aari McDonald hasn’t made a fortune in the WNBA, as many might expect after being the third overall draft pick in 2021. Her first four years in the league found her earning $71,000, $71,500, $78,500, $89,600. She is now trying to make the Los Angeles Sparks roster for what would be a $78,800 salary. That seems absurd given the bloated salaries in almost every other pro sport.
– Cleveland State shooting guard Mickayla Perdue was among the first transfers to sign with new UA women’s basketball coach Becky Burke. Perdue’s two seasons at Cleveland State only included two games against Power 4 teams, but, wow, did she perform in those games. In 2023 against No. 2 Iowa, Perdue scored 24 points; the only person on the court with more was Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark with 38. Last season, Perdue played against No. 14 Ohio State and scored 29, tops on the court. She’s got game, right? In her final game at Cleveland State, Perdue scored a team-high 19 in her team’s WNIT elimination loss to Burke’s Buffalo club.
– The LPGA Tour’s “minor league” tour, the Symetra/Epson tour, will not return to Sewailo Golf Course at Casino del Sol next month for the first time since 2020. It was won in 2023 by ex-Wildcat 2018 NCAA championship golfer Gigi Stoll, now a full member of the LPGA Tour. The Sewailo pro event regularly hosted former two-time Salpointe Catholic state champion Krystal Quihuis, the 2015 Pac-12 Freshman of the Year who played in 59 Symetra/Epson tour events before retiring last year. Quihuis, one of the top three female golfers in Tucson history with Sahuaro’s Cindy Rarick and Salpointe’s Sara Brown Radley, now sells real estate in Tucson.
