The Star's longtime columnist checks in with updates on shady T-shirts, Arizona's chances of hosting the NCAA Tournament, Sean Miller's next job, and Lincoln Riley's seaside mansion:
Buyer beware on latest Tommy Lloyd T-shirt
Reflections on one of the most enjoyable college basketball seasons (so far):
• Tommy Lloyd is so new to the game’s elite landscape that even the online marketers don’t know much about him.
Last week, Uniquexstoreus.com began selling Arizona basketball T-shirts with Lloyd holding an Arizona jersey that featured the likeness of Wildcat players. But grammar was one problem. The script on the T-shirt said "I am a Arizona fan." Oops.
Worse than that, the T-shirts — available for $26 and up — clearly photoshopped an image of Lloyd. How do I know? He is wearing a suit, coat and tie.
Lloyd never wears a tie, let alone a suit. He said he has two suits, but they are so old he doesn’t think they fit him anymore. Buyer beware.
• The chances of Adia Barnes’ women’s basketball team playing host to the first- and second-rounds of the NCAA Tournament next weekend are slim and slimmer. In the NET rankings released Friday, Arizona is No. 19. Ideally, the top 16 are granted homecourt games the first weekend.
It wasn’t long ago that money ruled, influencing the first-weekend sites, but as UA athletic director Dave Heeke said Friday, that’s no longer the case.
Arizona’s only real chance to be a host would be geographic need. It’s likely that three Western teams will be granted first-weekend hosting duties. But those spots appear to be unavailable to Arizona. Stanford is ranked No. 2, BYU No. 11, Oregon No. 12.
That’s enough to fit Western qualifiers Montana State, Hawaii, Utah, Colorado, UNLV and maybe even GCU.
Look for Arizona to get a No. 5 seed, but it should just be a one-year issue. With Barnes’ top recruiting class — including 6-foot 4-inch Minnesota Gatorade Player of the Year Maya Nnaji — added to remaining talent for the 2022-23 season, the Wildcats shouldn’t have to worry about Selection Sunday site assignments a year from now.
• Attendance at Friday’s Arizona-Colorado and UCLA-USC semifinal doubleheader at the T-Mobile Arena was 14,158, which left about 5,000 empty seats. It was disappointing because the Bruins and Wildcats are the league’s ranking basketball brands, with both at the top of their games.
That’s a long way from the 2018 semifinals, which included Arizona-USC, which drew 16,501. Moreover, it’s a long fall from the 2017 semis in which Arizona beat UCLA and Oregon with successive crowds of 19,224 and 18,927.
The Arizona entourage this year was as large as ever, maybe 7,500 or more. But the only other Pac-12 school that could conceivably add 4,000 or so to that group is Utah. But the Utes seem a few years away from being a contender again. As always, Los Angeles college basketball fans don’t travel in large numbers, and the logistics and expense of Oregon fans buying more than 2,000 tickets are prohibitive.
ASU? Dream on, right?
Los Angeles head coach Sean McVay holds the Lombardi Trophy after the Rams defeated the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl LVI.
Jedd Fisch's football camp hits the big time
It’s undeniable that one of the reasons Arizona football coach Jedd Fisch has recruited so well is that he has populated his coaching staff with former NFL coaches like Brennan Carroll, Ricky Hunley, DeWayne Walker and Chuck Cecil.
Don’t underestimate the ability to turn the head of an elite recruit by establishing a relationship with someone familiar with what it takes to play in the NFL.
Fisch hit it out of the park again this year when he was able to get Super Bowl champion head coach Sean McVay of the Rams to be a lead speaker at the UA’s Be a PRO Coaching Clinic on March 25-26. Former Washington Commanders head coach Steve Spurrier will also be a speaker, as will Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator Shane Waldron and Dallas Cowboys special teams coordinator John Fassel.
Fisch, who was a high school tennis player in New Jersey before working his way up the coaching ladder from the lowest spot on Spurrier’s Florida Gators staff, has a lot in common with McVay, Fassel and Waldron.
McVay played at Miami of Ohio and started basically as an errand-runner on Jon Gruden’s Tampa Bay staff in 2008. Fassel played at Pacific and Weber State before getting his coaching start at Bucknell. And Waldron played at Tufts before starting a coaching career at UMass.
Youth coaches and high school coaches can attend Fisch’s camp for $95. Seems like a bargain.
Sabino's Kevin Amidan is seen here during a game against St. Mary's (Phoenix) at Tucson Magnet High School.
Kevin Amidan returns to Sabino
Kevin Amidan was a two-way All-City football lineman on Jeff Scurran’s powerhouse Sabino High football teams of 1999-2001, who later helped Scurran coach championship teams at Pima College and Santa Rita High School. Along the way, Amidan became a TUSD administrator at both Tucson High and Palo Verde high schools. Last week, Amidan announced he was returning home, to Sabino. He is the new principal of Sabino High School for the 2022-23 academic year. Talk about a road well-traveled. …
Thoughts with ex-Cat Kyryl Natyazhko
Former Arizona center Kyryl Natyazhko, who was recruited to the UA in 2009 out of a Florida prep school, grew up in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine. After leaving Tucson in 2012, Natyazhko began a EuroLeague career in Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, Kazakhstan, and until last season, for Dnipro in the Ukraine professional league. At 31, after playing just eight minutes a game in the 2020-21 season, Natyazhko was not re-signed to play in the EuroLeague. I’ve been unable to get any information on Natyazhko’s well-being in recent weeks.
Wild ending must eat at Chip Hale
First-year Arizona baseball coach Chip Hale got a not so kind welcome-to-the-Pac-12 debut Friday at Cal. The Wildcats lost an 8-5 lead in the ninth inning and fell to Cal 9-8. What happened? Closer Christian Holden, who had been superb in his first six games against nonconference teams, yielding just three hits and one run and striking out 10 in seven innings, gave up four runs against the Golden Bears. The Cal rally was greatly aided by three wild pitches, a passed ball and a hit batsman. Cal was just 6-6 in nonconference games, but once the calendar flips to the Pac-12, everything changes. It won’t get any easier. Hale’s first homestand against Pac-12 opponents begins next weekend against No. 2-ranked Stanford (8-4), the league’s preseason favorite.
Nico Montanez posts best-ever finish
Tucsonan Nico Montanez, a multiple state champion from St. Augustine High School and All-American distance runner at BYU, had his finest moment as a pro last week, winning the USATF 15-meter championship last week in Jacksonville, Florida. Montanez, who trains in Flagstaff, earned $10,000 for the victory, which included beating Oregon Ducks NCAA champion and Olympian Galen Rupp. Montanez now prepares for next month’s Boston Marathon, in which he stacks up as one of the 10 favorites.
ASU coach Bobby Hurley reacts during the first half of Wednesday’s Pac-12 Tournament loss to Stanford.
Sun Devils stuck in the mediocre middle
On his weekly radio program in Phoenix last week, Arizona State athletic director Ray Anderson was strong in his endorsement of bringing basketball coach Bobby Hurley back for his eighth season, even though Hurley has won just 52% of his games and a single NCAA Tournament game. Said Anderson: “Let’s go into next year and really show that we can manage this portal, this new way of having to put together a roster.” Isn’t that what all ADs of middle-tier programs are always going to say? ASU isn’t going to get the traditional four-star recruits. So it will model itself after transfer-rich Oregon, but who doesn’t want to do that? Utah, Cal, Washington, USC and WSU will do the same thing. Life in the middle is tough. The hot shot 20-year-old transfers of today did not grow up watching Hurley play at Duke 30 years ago. It’s almost like thinking the young Jason Terry of 1996, being recruited by Lute Olson to Arizona, had a recall of 1960s stars Oscar Robertson and Bob Cousy.
Nicole Conway shines in Tucson return
Fourteen years ago, Yale softball pitcher Nicole Conway was a batgirl for the USA Olympic team when it played against Arizona at Hillenbrand Stadium. At that game, she met her idol, Wildcats All-American outfielder and two-time Olympian Caitlin Lowe. Friday night, Conway — who pitched Catalina Foothills High School to the 2016 state championship — was the starting pitcher when Yale met Lowe’s Wildcats. Arizona won 5-1, but Conway pitched well over six innings, shutting UA out until the fifth. Conway has been a success at Yale. She started and runs the "Headbandz for Hope" charity, making and selling headbands for Wipe Out Kids Cancer, an organization dedicated to raising awareness and funding for pediatric cancer research on a national basis, Conway has raised more than $10,000, Her father, Kevin Conway, was the manager of the Arizona football team in the Dick Tomey years.
TV anniversary has Tucson feel
Tucsonans Dan Hicks of Sabino High School, voice of NBC’s PGA Tour broadcast, and Tommy Roy of Salpointe Catholic High School, the leading producer of PGA Tour broadcasts for more than 30 years, are celebrating their 30th anniversary together this weekend at The Players Championship. The two Arizona grads marked the occasion by munching cupcakes bearing their likenesses at the NBC compound in Florida.
Sean Miller will likely wait for the IARP's decision before pursuing another college job.
Wide-open job market may not help Sean Miller, who awaits IARP ruling
In the last few days, coaching vacancies at Missouri, Georgia, Kansas State and Rhode Island joined those at Louisville and Maryland, considered the top available jobs on the 2022 basketball market.
It’s bad timing for Sean Miller, if he hopes to get back as a head coach this season. It’s unlikely any school would hire Miller until the Independent Accountability Resolution Process makes public its decision on an investigation into Arizona’s basketball program.
The five Level I charges filed against Miller’s UA program would likely give pause for any athletic director before considering Miller for an opening.
Ideally, Miller would draw interest from a non-powerhouse program such as Kansas State or Georgia. But until the IARP decision, the names getting the most circulation for the current vacancies are Dana Ford at Missouri State, Ben Jacobson of Northern Iowa, Tim Jankovich of SMU and Grant McCasland of North Texas.
Any coach-seeking athletic director doing proper research would find that there’s a lot more to Miller than his 73% career winning percentage. For example, at 53, is he willing to change his reclusive nature and become active in a new community? Can he put a more positive look to his angry sideline demeanor? Can he recruit successfully at a school without Arizona’s inherent elite platform? Can he update his old-school X’s and O’s?
Or, much like Rich Rodriguez arriving at Arizona after being fired at Michigan, will he show up to his new job unchanged, with the same-old approach that wore out RichRod's welcome in Ann Arbor, and ultimately, Tucson?
My two cents: What collegiate model? USC football coach has a wine cellar
At the Power 5 level, college athletics long ago ditched the collegiate model. Amateur sports? What’s that?
The game took another accelerated step toward money-money-money last week when it was reported that new USC football coach Lincoln Riley purchased a $17.2 million oceanfront estate in Los Angeles.
His new home is 13,000 square feet with seven bedrooms and 12 bathrooms. It has an elevator, seven fireplaces, a movie theater, tennis court, putting green, sauna/steamroom and a 600-bottle wine room.
Beyond that, Riley has been granted unlimited use of a private jet for his personal use. It almost makes Arizona’s $7 million buyout of Kevin Sumlin seem like the minor leagues.
