The Star's longtime columnist on the wild finish between Arizona and ASU at McKale Center, Jedd Fisch's latest community outreach endeavor, a stacked Cologuard Classic, Bog Logan's new book, Steve Kerr's spot-on criticism of AAU ball, the risky Pac-12 media strategy and more.
On an epic finish at McKale Center and what it means for UA, ASU
Arizona president Robert C. Robbins was the first person to reach the winner’s locker room Saturday afternoon. But it was the wrong locker room in the wrong corridor at McKale Center.
ASU coach Bobby Hurley opened the door wearing an oversized white T-shirt exchanged for his game-day clothing, soaked during a celebratory water bottle shower. Robbins, ever the good sport, congratulated Hurley on beating Arizona, 89-88.
Hurley blew a kiss to his wife and shook Robbins' hand.
In the most epic finish to a UA-ASU basketball game in 40 years — perhaps the only epic finish you and I can remember — there were no visible hard feelings.
Shouldn’t the UA-ASU rivalry be this way all the time?
Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd walked into the McKale press room a few minutes later and said: “I’m looking forward to practice on Monday. … I have already moved on."
No harm, no foul. Lloyd understood it was a classic college basketball game between rivals, of which there have been too few, both in Tucson and Tempe and in the Pac-12.
“As you might imagine,’’ said Hurley, who surely earned a renewal of his contract that expires next season, “there’s a lot of euphoria. It was just an epic game."
Now that UCLA is leaving the Pac-12, ASU and Hurley are the best fit — perhaps the only good fit — to become Arizona’s big-game rival.
Across the last 40 seasons, dating to 1983-84, Arizona had gone 35-4 against the Sun Devils at McKale. Do you remember any of those games? Any close finishes? I don’t.
Over that period, Arizona has won 36 NCAA Tournament games, the Sun Devils six. Yes, six. That’s 40 years of basketball perdition, which directly affected Arizona, because Pac-12 basketball has been so bland, so blah, that there was always a missing element.
When would ASU finally be relevant the way it was in the '60s and '70s?
Perhaps that day is now.
“I hope people watching can see the level at which this game was played," said Hurley, who knows more than most about the “level at which" quality college basketball games are played, given his Duke bloodlines. “I’ve been in a lot of games like that."
The trick now is for Hurley to take ASU to a higher level and create many more games like Saturday’s, an afternoon when the Sun Devils rose to the occasion, shooting 53% — their second best in a Pac-12 game — and making 36 field goals, their season high.
If you shoot that well, you should win anywhere, home or road, against anybody.
If the Sun Devils did Arizona any favor, it was to show the Wildcats they are not bulletproof. On Saturday, the UA’s defense sprung a leak about every three ASU possessions. The Wildcats shot poorly from the foul line (67.6%), forced too many shots and looked nothing like a potential No. 1 seed in the Big Dance. Or even a No. 2.
Lloyd knows that more than anyone. His body language was that of a coach who went home determined to fix his team’s problems — but also admiring his opponent’s resourceful nature rather than beating himself up.
“It was a special moment for that kid and their team,’’ Lloyd said, referring to Desmond Cambridge’s 60-footer at the buzzer. “What are the chances a team makes a shot like that? Very slim. Very slim. Ninety-eight out of 100 times we’re sitting here talking about a different thing.’’
Now, people in this state and the Pac-12 are talking about the Sun Devils. It is long overdue.
Arizona coach Jedd Fisch always seems to be a step ahead. His latest effort to connect with the Tucson community and build support for the UA football program is through Next Level Flag Football.
Jedd Fisch building community connection via flag football
Rather than take a weekend or two off before spring football practice, Arizona coach Jedd Fisch spent last Sunday at Arizona Stadium to help grow the game through his latest community outreach endeavor: the Next Level Flag Football program.
About 350 Tucsonans aged 6-10 play on 33 flag football teams every Sunday across a 10-week season. These young people, accompanied by their parents and friends, practice for an hour inside the Davis Sports Center and then walk across the street to Arizona Stadium to play the games. Four games are played simultaneously on 40-yard fields.
Why didn’t someone think of this sooner?
“For many of us, it’s the first time we’ve been inside the stadium," said Alex Romero, whose 8-year-old son, David, plays on one of the many teams that wear different colors of Wildcats T-shirts, all with their names across the back shoulders. “We can’t wait to go to a game next season. It has really been an introduction to UA football for us. Now we know who they are and where they play."
Fisch appointed former UA receiver and NFL player Syndric Steptoe to operate the league; Steptoe is the UA’s director of player and community relations. It has been a home run.
“This organization was created in California by Tom Brady’s high school school coach, Patrick Walsh," Fisch said. “Syndric got it going here, and it’s really taking off in the community."
To make the flag football league more attractive, all 33 teams are coached by Fisch’s current players. Among the head coaches are quarterback Noah Fifita, tight end Keyan Burnett, running back Jonah Coleman, cornerback Ephesians Prysock and lineman Julian Savaiinaea. The games are also officiated by UA football players, among them linemen Josh Baker and Jonah Savaiinaea.
The ever-aggressive Fisch has been a step ahead of most Pac-12 teams in acquiring a Next Level Flag Football program. Cal coach Justin Wilcox and Colorado coach Deion Sanders are the only other Pac-12 coaches to do so. Earlier, TCU coach Sonny Dykes opened a Next Level franchise in Texas.
“A lot of the parents I talk to now feel like they are part of the UA football family," Romero said. “We’ve already got our tickets to the opener against NAU. I don’t think I’ve been to a game here for 10 years or more."
Tucson favorite Jim Furyk is just one of several big names committed to play in the upcoming Cologuard Classic at Omni Tucson National Resort. The tournament begins Friday, March 3.
Cologuard Classic gets all the big names
I ran my finger down the top 100 of the current Schwab Cup standings of the PGA Tour Champions and made a list of who I believe to be the 10 biggest names. Here’s what I got: Steve Stricker, Jim Furyk, Ernie Els, Bernhard Langer, Justin Leonard, Mark O’Meara, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Retief Goosen, Darren Clarke and Colin Montgomerie.
All are entered in this week’s Cologuard Classic at Tucson National. It actually has more “names" than this weekend's PGA Tour Honda Classic.
The competition to get in the field is such that Monday’s qualifier at the Oro Valley Country Club, with four berths available in the Cologuard Classic, includes former Arizona All-Americans Robert Gamez, Harry Rudolph and David Berganio, plus former PGA Tour champions Jay Don Blake, Bob May, Willie Wood, Frank Lickliter, Gary Hallberg, Omar Uresti and Sam Randolph.
Now all Tucson golf fans need is for the weather gods to provide three sunny and warm days.
Short stuff: Bob Logan's compelling 'Path,' Steve Kerr's wise words, Katie Daily's continuing ascent
• If you plan to attend the Tucson Festival of Books next weekend, I recommend a visit to the Independent Author Pavilion from 1:30-4:30 p.m. Saturday at which former Arizona assistant football coach and fundraiser Bob Logan of Salpointe Catholic High School will be available to chat about his book, “Let Your Path Find You." Logan, who played football at Salpointe, Air Force and NAU, was part of Larry Smith’s Arizona coaching staff from 1984-87. He devotes one chapter to the epic 1986 Territorial Cup game, a 34-17 victory over ASU’s Rose Bowl-bound Sun Devils. It’s known more as the “Chuck Cecil game," in which Cecil returned an interception 106 yards for a touchdown to clinch the historic victory. Let’s just say there was some unexpected drama — and good fortune involved — leading up to Cecil’s unforgettable interception.
Golden State Warriors coach and former Arizona star Steve Kerr isn’t a big fan of AAU basketball, which, he says, doesn’t promote team-first ball.
• In an interview with Bay Area reporters last week, Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr, a foundational part of Arizona’s 40-year rise to basketball success, spoke out against the AAU travel-ball system. “What troubles me is how much winning is devalued in the AAU structure," Kerr said. “Teams play game after game after game, sometimes winning or losing four times in one day. Very rarely do teams ever hold a practice. If mom and dad aren’t happy with their son’s playing time, they switch club teams and stick him on a different one the following week. The process of growing as a team basketball player — learning how to become part of a whole, how to fit into something bigger than oneself — becomes completely lost within the AAU fabric.” Well said.
• Gary Bernardi began his 43-year college coaching career as a 26-year-old, low-level assistant at Arizona in 1979. He was a recruiter extraordinaire, among other things. Bernardi helped to recruit UA franchise players such as Byron Evans, Cecil, Max Zendejas and David Adams, a period in which Arizona went 43-22-2, twice knocking ASU out of the Rose Bowl and beating No. 1 USC. Last week, after a remarkable career at Arizona, USC, UCLA, Colorado and San Diego State, Bernardi said he is retiring from coaching. He was one of the best at his craft.
• My nomination as Tucson’s athlete of the week: UA pole vaulter Katie Daily, a Flowing Wells High School grad who became the first Tucson female ever to clear 14 feet. In the Ken Shannon Invitational on Friday in Seattle, she jump 14 feet, 1¼ inches. She is one of three UA pole vaulters ever to clear 14 feet, joining Andrea Dutoit (2001) and Amy Linnen (2002). What’s compelling is that three-time Olympic pole vaulter Dominic Johnson of Amphitheater High School — a UA All-American in 1998 — is Daily’s coach. How long that lasts is uncertain; the NCAA is in the process of trying to eliminate volunteer coaches in track and field and other non-revenue sports. Daily has gained three feet to her pole-vaulting height since being coached by Johnson. Why would the NCAA, or anyone, want to eliminate volunteer coaches? Doesn’t make sense.
Sunnyside coach Anthony Leon, shown during the AIA state high school wrestling championships on Feb. 18 in Phoenix, is part of a Blue Devils program that has won 36 state titles.
• When Sunnyside’s wrestling team won its 36th state championship earlier this month, it put coach Anthony Leon’s club within range of even more historic accomplishments. It seems inevitable that over the next decade the Blue Devils will pass the only two Arizona 4A to 6A schools with more state championships: Xavier Prep’s girls golf program has won 37 state titles, and Brophy Prep’s boys swimming teams have won 42. From a Tucson perspective, Sunnyside has a wide lead on Tucson High’s 29 state baseball championships won from 1912 (coached by Pop McKale) to 1988.
Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff is taking a huge risk if streaming is a significant part of the league’s next media-rights deal.
My two cents: George Kliavkoff's streaming strategy is fraught with risk
One way for Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff to blow up what remains of the Pac-12 might be to sign a streaming service as a major component to the league’s next media-rights package.
Kliavkoff is walking on a ledge. Streaming may be the future of TV sports, but does that mean 2030 or 2040? Yet it might be his only option. Kliavkoff walked into a less-than-desirable media-rights market.
Remember how underwhelming the Barstool Arizona Bowl was two months ago? It was the only of 40 bowl games not on linear TV. It reportedly drew 130,000 concurrent viewers.
By comparison, the low-brow Independence Bowl, Louisiana-Lafayette vs. Houston, drew a reported 2.4 million viewers on ESPN.
If you put Pac-12 sports behind a paywall — such as Apple TV+ or Amazon's Prime Video — it will surely invite millions of potential West Coast viewers already not known for passionate support of the league to find something else to watch.
If you think the Pac-12 Networks have difficulty getting viewers, wait until an Arizona-Oregon State football game is available only on a premium streaming service. It will lead to one word — click.
