The Star's longtime columnist has updates on travel in the Pac-12, Fred Batiste's big day, and what Oklahoma's softball spending means for the Arizona Wildcats:
NCAA officiating czar got start at Lakeside rec center
Chris Rastatter officiated 404 college basketball games the last four full seasons, including the 2021 Baylor-Houston Final Four game and the 2021 Pac-12 championship game. By any definition, he was a hot ticket in college basketball, one of the game’s 10 or 20 leading referees.
A few months ago, J.D. Collins, the NCAA’s coordinator of men’s basketball officiating, phoned Rastatter after Collins announced he was retiring.
"J.D. kind of gave me a push to pursue his job," Rastatter remembers. "He said, 'You really need to do this.' The more I looked into it, the more my interest grew."
Finally, after being interviewed at NCAA headquarters by an eight-person selection committee, Rastatter and his wife, Kim, flew to Cabo San Lucas while waiting for the NCAA’s decision.
"Kim and I were sitting by the pool when a number from Indianapolis came up on my phone," says Rastatter. "It was Dan Gavitt (senior vice president of the NCAA). He offered me the job. We had a pretty good celebration that day."
Rastatter, a 1980 all-city basketball player at Rincon High School who went on to graduate from the UA, has reached the summit of college basketball officiating. It has been a remarkable climb.
He officiated his first basketball game about 35 years ago at the Lakeside recreation center on East Golf Links Road. "A referee didn’t show up and I was asked to take his place," he says with a laugh. "I was paid $9. I never saw a Final Four in my future."
Now he is in charge of more than 500 college basketball officials. Not bad for a young man whose post-college days included jobs at the Omni Tucson National Golf Club, for North American Van Lines and as the owner of several soft-pretzel restaurants at, among other locations, the Tucson Mall.
His first high school coaching assignment was at Cholla High School. His first junior college game was at Northland Pioneer JC in Holbrook. Rastatter has since officiated Division I men’s basketball for 27 years, which includes 19 merit-based selections to the NCAA Tournament officiating crews.
"I’ll still be flying all over the country for six months of the year, but this time it won’t be a 5 o’clock flight out of Lubbock to West Virginia, followed by a 4 a.m. flight the next day to Reno or Seattle. Now I’ll spend three or four days in one city, in one hotel, meeting with a coordinator of officials from the Big Ten or SEC, studying game film, attending games, meeting as many people as I can. It’s a lot of responsibility, but it’s a challenge I’m eager to tackle."
Rastatter, 60, believes college basketball officiating is in a good place. "We’re much better than we were five or 10 years ago," he says. "A focus of mine will be developing young officials. There are so many young officials knocking on the door, way more than when I started. I intend to improve the product."
As a younger man, Rastatter worked under the top basketball officials in Tucson history, men like Bobby Rauh and Boyd Baker, and began his Pac-12 career after Lute Olson recommended him to former Pac-10 director of officiating Booker Turner.
"I’ve been blessed," says Rastatter. "I’ve never considered officiating work. It’s almost like I’ve never worked a day in my life. I can’t wait to get this rolling."
Head coach Dave Rubio, center, talks to his players in a huddle during a match against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the Wildcat Classic at McKale Center in Tucson, Ariz. on September 16, 2022.
Arizona's travel experience a warning to USC and UCLA
When Arizona’s Pac-12 rivals USC and UCLA join the Big Ten in 2024, they will be making regular cross-country trips to play such opponents as Rutgers, Maryland and Penn State in under-the-radar sports such as volleyball.
Those games won’t be celebrated like a USC-Ohio State football game in Columbus, but the demand on the athletes in non-revenue sports at UCLA and USC will be formidable.
Arizona volleyball coach Dave Rubio took the Wildcats to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, earlier this month for back-to-back games against Wake Forest and North Carolina, a journey that began with a 3 a.m. wakeup call on Sept. 1.
"We landed at 3:30 p.m. eastern time, in Raleigh," Rubio says. "Walking out of the plane I felt completely wrung out." He took the Wildcats for a quick lunch and to an evening practice at UNC.
"The three-hour time change was brutal," Rubio remembers. "A day later, we weren’t sharp as a team but managed to win in four sets against a good Wake Forest team." A day later, Arizona lost to the Tar Heels in five sets.
"The next morning our flight left at 8 a.m., which isn’t bad, but the wakeup call was at 6, which is 3 a.m. in Tucson," he said. "Our flight home went smoothly. We arrived at noon. But, again, I felt completely wiped out. Our student-athletes were walking around like zombies. That was just one trip. I can’t imagine doing that every other weekend.’’
It’s a cautionary tale about a possible Pac-12 merger with the ACC or Big 12, which includes West Virginia.
Rubio, whose team was 9-1 entering Saturday’s final game in the Wildcat Classic, said that the UCLA-USC move to the Big Ten will create "an outcry" from student-athletes. "It’s definitely not in their best interests," he warns.
Fred Batiste was a football and track star at Tucson High who went on to play running back at the UA.
Fred Batiste's family basks in HOF induction
Arizona gracefully inducted Tucson High grad Fred Batiste into its Sports Hall of Fame a week ago. Batiste, a football and track standout, was the UA’s first Black athlete to earn a varsity letter, 1949. Batiste, who died in 1978 at age 51, was represented by his daughter, Renee McDonald, who has quite a link to Arizona athletics. Her husband, Glenn McDonald, was a starter on Lute Olson’s 1973-74 Long Beach State basketball team that went 24-2 and finished No. 10 in the AP poll. Her son, Mike McDonald, was a starting guard at Stanford during the Cardinal’s epic 31-3 2000-01 season, ranked No. 1 when Stanford beat Arizona 85-76 in a January 2001 showdown at McKale Center. All attended Batiste’s induction ceremony in Tucson. …
Cats' home schedules lacking
It’s a bit disappointing that Tommy Lloyd’s first full offseason to develop a nonconference home schedule includes just one marquee team, Tennessee, on Dec. 17. The Vols, however, have a legit Top-10 roster. It’s equally disappointing to learn that Adia Barnes’ 2022-23 nonconference home schedule includes just one team of note, Kansas — although the KU women’s team is not a certified Top-25 program. When the Pac-12 chose to play just 18 conference games in women’s basketball, Arizona got a bad draw and will not play UCLA or USC at McKale Center. But the Pac-12 women’s home schedule at McKale is otherwise loaded. Oregon had the nation’s No. 2 recruiting class, Oregon State was ranked No. 3 and Stanford No. 5. ….
Former UA basketball coach Bruce Larson coached the Wildcats from 1961-72 following a playing and assistant coaching career.
UA to honor ex-coach Bruce Larson on Thursday
The UA will honor former head basketball coach Bruce Larson Thursday at the Campus Recreation building's north conference room. The title of the celebration is "Keep Moving," a look back at the impact Larson had both as a basketball coach and in more than 20 years as one of the key operatives in the school’s physical education and recreation organization. Larson, who coached at the UA from 1961-72, died last year at 92. His family members and others will hear and tell stories about Larson’s remarkable career. Refreshments will be served. ….
Cats continue to land pitchers
The chief reason Arizona hasn’t won a NCAA softball championship since 2007 is that the Wildcats have had just one Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year — Danielle O’Toole, 2017 — dating to 2004. It is thus encouraging news for the UA’s new coaching staff that earlier this month it got a commitment from Sarah Wright, the Washington Gatorade Player of the Year, who was 18-1 with an 0.46 ERA last season. Wright is a Class of 2024 recruit. Equally impressive, Arizona got a commitment three months ago from Elk Grove, California, pitcher Aissa Silva, who has gone 35-9 with 552 strikeouts in 310 innings the last two seasons. Silva, a five-star recruit, is in the Class of 2023. In college softball, if you don’t have a dominating pitcher, you aren’t going to sniff a national championship. …
Annika's profile grows in retirement
Arizona’s 1992 NCAA golf champion Annika Sorenstam is expanding her brand. She will be the host of the November 2023 LPGA Tour’s The Annika event in Tampa, Florida. In 2014, Sorenstam became the host of the NCAA’s The Annika Invitational in Minneapolis, a 12-team event at which Arizona has played six times in the event’s first eight seasons. Sorenstam’s celebrity continues to rise; she threw out the first pitch of the Minnesota Twins-Kansas City Royals last week.….
Boston Red Sox's Bobby Dalbec hits a two-run single during the first inning of a baseball game against the Tampa Bay Rays, Saturday, Aug. 27, 2022, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
Bobby Dalbec back to minors
After two full years as a Boston Red Sox starter at first and third base, 2016 Arizona All-Pac-10 third baseman Bobby Dalbec has been sent to Triple-A Worcester to finish the season. Dalbec hit just .211 at Boston this year as his home run total diminished from 25 last year to 11 this season. He struck out in 33% of his plate appearances. Dalbec has another 10 days in the Triple-A season, which now runs through September. He was hitting .209 through nine games on Friday and was replaced on the Red Sox roster by top prospect Triston Casas, a first baseman who was a No. 1 draft pick in 2018.
Former Arizona receiver Drew Dixon is now attending Limestone University in South Carolina.
Updates on 3 Southern Arizonans
• Drew Dixon, who quarterbacked Sabino High School to the 2016 state championship game, and started four games as a receiver as an Arizona sophomore in 2019 — with 14 receptions for 143 yards and two touchdowns — is now attending Limestone University in South Carolina, a Division II school. Dixon, who opted out of the UA’s 2020 season during COVID-19 issues, is sitting out this season and hopes to play for Limestone next year.
• Jonah Miller, a four-star offensive line recruit who became a prominent recruit as a Salpointe Catholic High School junior in 2019, is playing for Santa Rosa Junior College in California. Miller spent last season as a reserve offensive lineman at Oregon before entering the transfer portal in April.
• Brian Anderson, who was both a standout pitcher and outfielder Canyon del Oro High School and the UA from 1999-2003, will temporarily leave his role as a Pima College assistant baseball coach to be part of the Team New Zealand coaching staff in the World Baseball Classic qualifying tournament beginning Sept. 30 in Panama City, Panama. Anderson, the 17th overall pick in the 2003 MLB draft, will serve as New Zealand’s pitching coach. Two teams from the Panama City bracket — the field includes Nicaragua, Panama, Argentina, Pakistan, Brazil and New Zealand — will advance to the WBC Championships next spring.
My two cents: Cost containment lost on Oklahoma
Arizona set the college softball standard for success, facilities and coaching salaries for a quarter-century. But now, the Oklahoma Sooners are taking softball into a money-is-no-object place that will surely force change the game.
Last week, OU announced it will pay head coach Patty Gasso a total compensation of $1.625 million a year. By comparison, Arizona last season paid first-year coach Caitlin Lowe $225,000. Arizona’s eight-time NCAA championship coach Mike Candrea’s highest UA salary was $550,000.
The Sooners are also in the process of building a new facility with an approved budget of $42 million for Love’s Field. A groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled later this month. That’s about five times what Arizona paid to remodel Hillenbrand Stadium two years ago.
It’s also more than double the $17 million Oregon spent to build Jane Sanders Stadium in 2015.
Spending at the highest levels of college athletics hasn't slowed since former Arizona athletic director Cedric Dempsey became executive director of the NCAA in 1994 with a platform of "cost containment." Now, all these year laters, it's not spend less; it's spend much more.
