Greg Hansen's Notebook: This entry is part of longtime Star columnist Greg Hansen's weekly notebook.
Subscribers can read this week's "Hansen's Notebook" in its entirety in the Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024 edition of the Arizona Daily Star (Page C2) — either in print or at Tucson.com/EEdition. Or, dig into the Hansen archives at Tucson.com/Hansen.
• When Marana High School upset high-rolling Salpointe Catholic 27-24 in Friday’s football season opener for both teams, it broke Salpointe’s 23-game winning streak against Tucson teams, dating to 2017.
Not only were the Lancers 23-0, but they outscored those Tucson opponents 967-158 in that period. The Lancers stopped short of the local winning streak against Tucson schools. Ollie Mayfield’s Tucson High teams of 1968-71 went 27-0 in-city.
Greg Hansen is the longtime sports columnist for the Arizona Daily Star and Tucson.com.
Jeff Scurran’s Sabino teams of 1996-98 went 24-0 against city foes.
Unfortunately, now that Salpointe is in Class 6A with Phoenix-area schools, it has only played two Tucson schools — Cienega and Marana — in the last two years, and doesn’t play another Tucson team this year. ...
• I had to shake my head last week when the NCAA approved basketball teams to hire two more full-time coaches — five overall — combined with six other full-time staffers. It reminded me of the difficult assignment Lute Olson faced in 1995 when the NCAA ordered each team to eliminate one full-time coach from its staff for cost-cutting reasons.
Olson had to choose between Jim Rosborough, Jessie Evans and Tony McAndrews. He then released McAndrews, who had been his assistant on Iowa’s 1980 Final Four team and the head coach at Colorado State. How times change. ...
• Now that Arizona’s 2018 NCAA championship women’s golf coach Laura Ianello is the head coach at Texas, she will face a sensitive break-in at her new school.
For whatever reasons, Texas and Arizona are both scheduled to face one another in the year’s first two tournaments: the Sept. 9-11 Folds of Honor championship in Michigan and the Sept. 20-22 Mason Rudolph championship in Tennessee. I’m sure Ianello, a class act and UA alumna, will handle it with grace. ...
• Tommy Lloyd’s son, Liam, and athletic director Desireé Reed-Francois’ son, Jackson, are now part of the 2024-25 UA basketball roster. That’s rare in UA history. The first son of a UA coach to play for the Wildcats was Fred W. Enke, a football-basketball-baseball player from 1946-48. His father, Fred A. Enke, was then the UA’s basketball coach. Andy Lopez’s two sons, Mike and David, played for Arizona’s baseball teams of 2009-13. Dick Tomey’s son, Richie, was a valuable UA baseball pitcher in the early 1990s. And, of course, Rich Rodriguez’s son, Rhett, was a walk-on QB for the UA football teams of 2018-19. Other than Enke, an eight-year NFL quarterback, perhaps the top athlete of a UA coach to play for the Wildcats was golfer Tom Tatum, who played in 10 PGA Tour events in 1978. His father, Roy Tatum, was the UA’s golf coach from 1966-71.
Hansen's Notebook: Gregory School great Jack Kennedy one of at least 15 NCAA head coaches hailing from TucsonFrom Greg Hansen's Notebook: Jack Kennedy was a basketball and golf standout at The Gregory School 20 years ago. A few weeks ago, he's became the head coach of Colorado State's men's golf team.
From Greg Hansen's Notebook: Arizona AD Desireé Reed-Francois has changed the face of the UA athletic department, hiring new associate ADs, among other positions.
From Greg Hansen's Notebook: Colton Smith, who made the Final Four of the NCAA Men's Tennis singles draw in 2024, is among the leading Arizona Wildcat athletes heading into 2024-25. Other's near the top: Tetairoa McMillan (football), Salpointe alum Mason White (baseball).
From Greg Hansen's Notebook: My good and long-time journalistic “rival’’and golf partner Jack Rickard died last week in Tucson. Rickard, who wrote for the Tucson Citizen for 30 years, probably got 189 years of enjoyment out of his 89 years.
