The Star's longtime columnist crunches some numbers and provides perspective after a busy week in Tucson sports.
Arizona led Pac-12 in attendance
A few days ago, Utah athletic director Mark Harlan used social media to proclaim that the Utes had proudly drawn 587,758 fans to home athletic events for the 2021-22 season. It was an attention-getting post.
The Utes’ image has soared the last few years as Utah’s football program moved past Oregon and USC to take command of the Pac-12, pushing its home sellout streak to 70 consecutive games.
Thank you all!!!! https://t.co/4qX5pFY4ez
— Mark Harlan (@MarkHarlan_AD) June 9, 2022
So I wondered: How good is drawing 587,758 fans per season? I’ve never seen figures documenting department-wide athletic popularity in the Pac-12. Are the Utes No. 1?
As it turns out, Arizona is No. 1. The Wildcats drew 748,272 fans for the just completed home season. Utah is a distant No. 5 … yet it’s the Utes who added to their image by sharing the seemingly huge number of 587,758.
In the 2021-22 sports year, Arizona led the Pac-12 in total home attendance for eight core sports: Football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, softball, volleyball, soccer and women’s gymnastics. Here’s the final, somewhat surprising count — given Arizona’s diminishing home football attendance:
Arizona: 748,272
Arizona State: 688,101
Oregon: 683,501
Washington: 653,274
Utah: 587,758
UCLA: 525,783
Arizona led the Pac-12 in men’s basketball attendance at 228,040, which is 100,000 more than any other team. And a lot of it is because Arizona drew 117,300 for women’s basketball, 100,226 for baseball and 74,028 for softball. That more than makes up for its deficit in football attendance. Arizona is No. 1 in attendance for softball, men’s and women’s basketball and in per-game average for baseball.
If that doesn’t make Tucson the top college town in the Pac-12, what does?
Utah’s social media boast of 587,758 fans is an example of the power of football. While I strongly believe Harlan, an Arizona grad and long-time UA assistant athletic director, is among the best of his profession, the Utes’ total athletic department is in the lower tier of the Pac-12.
The Utes are exceptional in football, skiing and women’s gymnastics (Utah drew 58,047 total fans for home gymnastics meets; Arizona drew less than 10,000). But otherwise, the Utes don’t truly have a top-25 program, although its women’s basketball and volleyball teams last year reached the NCAA Tournament.
But let’s not get carried away. Yes, Arizona led the Pac-12 in total attendance with 748,272 fans, but the Texas Longhorns drew 1,018,285 in just three sports: football, men’s basketball and baseball.
As has been the case for the last 50 years, the Pac-12 has miles and miles to go to develop passionate fan-bases to match those of the SEC, Big 12 and Big Ten.
Oklahoma players cheer Jocelyn Alo home after hitting a home run against Texas during Game 1 of the NCAA Women's College World Series championships.
Don't anoint OU the best-ever yet
Three things on the just completed college softball season:
• ESPN’s wall-to-wall coverage of the Women’s College World Series was full of superlatives. ESPN’s announcers and analysts repeatedly referred to Oklahoma's 59-3 national champions as the best team in college softball history. That would be strongly challenged by four Pac-12 national championship teams: UCLA’s 56-6 club of 2019; ASU’s 66-5 champs of 2008; and Arizona’s 65-4 team of 2001 and its 64-3 club of 1994. But the Sooners do belong in the conversation. OU raised eyebrows by hitting .371 this season. But Mike Candrea’s Wildcats hit .385 in 1998 and .383 in 1995.
• ESPN also kept proclaiming Oklahoma slugger Jocelyn Alo as the "greatest hitter of all-time." Alo finished her career with 122 homers and 333 RBIs, which was aided by an extra 24 games in the incomplete COVID-19 season of 2020. But in Jenny Dalton Hill’s four years at Arizona, 1994-97, she bettered Alo by driving in 328 runs, and also scored more runs than Alo, 293 to 281. Arizona's star also hit .412 in her career. Maybe it’s a push, but Alo’s numbers don’t merit a clear "best-of-all-time" label.
• The Pac-12 wisely chose Arizona’s Hillenbrand Stadium as the host site for its inaugural Pac-12 postseason softball tournament next May. The league’s No. 2 softball facility, Oregon’s Jane Sanders Stadium, averaged 1,880 fans per game last season. That’s about 700 empty seats per game. Plus, the risk of rain in early May is a concerning issue. Hillenbrand, at about 2,800 per game, is likely to sell out weeks before the 2023 tournament begins. Moreover, the Pac-12 smartly chose a single-elimination format. There are few things in college sports more boring than the Pac-12’s double-elimination baseball tournament format, in which four-hour games seem to drag on forever, blowing up pitching staffs and putting what few fans buy tickets to sleep.
“I try to make the game very, very simple, very positive,” Tucson's Susie Meyers, named in 2023 one of American's 100 leading golf instructors by Golf Magazine, said back in 2016. “You can’t play in fear.”
Susie Meyers makes Pima County Sports Hall of Fame
Susie Meyers, who was often the No. 1 golfer on Arizona’s women’s team in the late 1970s and early 1980s, went on to play in four U.S. Opens during her days on the LPGA Tour. After her playing career, she has become one of America’s leading golf instructors; in 2019, Golf Magazine named her one of the nation’s Top 100 teachers. She also wrote a book about golf instruction: "Golf From Point A," and was the chief teacher/mentor for two-time PGA Tour champion Michael Thompson of Rincon/University High School. Last week, Pat Darcy — president of the Pima County Sports Hall of Fame — announced that Meyers has been selected to the PCSHOF Class of 2022. She will be inducted in a banquet at the DoubleTree Hotel on Nov. 13.
Pima Community College player Jeremy Harden smiles while stretching during practice on Jan. 26, 2010.
Ex-Aztec Jeremy Harden hired at Idaho
In 2010, Jeremy Harden led Pima College to the NJCAA national championships where the Aztecs finished No. 7 nationally. Last week, Harden was hired to be an assistant coach for the Idaho Vandals. He had spent the last five seasons as head coach at Wenatchee Valley College in Washington. Harden, who was a standout basketball player at Tucson High, has also spent three seasons on the staff at Boise State.
Younger Heeke on staff at Central Michigan
Arizona athletic director Dave Heeke followed more than Arizona in this month’s NCAA baseball regionals. His son, Max Heeke, is the director of budget and financial operations at Central Michigan, which won the Mid-American Conference championship and reached the NCAA regionals, ultimately losing two games to the Florida Gators. Max Heeke, who completed his CMU degree work in Tucson during COVID-19 shutdown, also played baseball at CMU, where for 12 years his father was the athletic director before arriving in Tucson five years ago.
Ex-UA assistant's son named AD
As a teenager and college student, Jon Fagg spent considerable time at Arizona Stadium, an invested fan of Dick Tomey’s first four Arizona teams, 1987-90. His father, Dave Fagg, who was Tomey’s mentor in all things life and football, was Arizona’s assistant head coach in those years. Dave Fagg left Tucson in 1990 to become the head coach at Davidson, his alma mater, where he had coached with Tomey in the late 1960s. Jon Fagg, who earned a UA degree in child psychology and development in 1992, decided to make a career in college athletics. Last week, he was hired as the athletic director at UT-Arlington; he has been the No. 2 man in the Arkansas athletic department for the last 14 years. Jon Fagg worked his way up the college athletics ladder while working at Fresno State and North Carolina State.
NDSU fans face logistical problems
North Dakota State athletic director Matt Larsen, whose football team has gone 59-2 and won four consecutive FCS national championships over the last four full seasons, was not shy about buying into the Bisons’ Sept. 17 game at Arizona Stadium. He bought 3,000 tickets and sold out that allotment in a few weeks. But Bison fans are having difficulty arranging transportation to Tucson. A school-sponsored charter flight will accommodate about 250 Bison fans, but others are finding that the cost of airfare creates pause. As of Friday, a round-trip ticket from Sept. 16 to Sept. 18 on Delta Airlines was $2,207. United Airlines was slightly lower at $1,488. Drive to Tucson, you say? It’s 1,806 miles from Fargo to Tucson, or close to 28 hours. Let’s see, at $5 per gallon of gas, that would be about $400 for gas and at least three nights in a hotel.
Lindsey Weaver-Wright hits off the 18th tee during a playoff in the ShopRite LPGA Classic golf tournament last weekend.
Former Cat cashes in
Lindsey Weaver-Wright, a first-team All-Pac-12 golfer at Arizona in 2014 and a second-team All-American for coach Laura Ianello’s Wildcats in 2015, had her one shining moment on the LPGA Tour last week. Weaver-Wright finished tied for the lead at the LPGA ShopRite Classic in New Jersey before losing to Brooke Henderson in a playoff. Weaver-Wright was paid $161,222, her biggest payday as a pro. She has now earned $764,718 in three full years on the LPGA Tour.
Warriors assistant coach Bruce Fraser, right, has become a confidant to star Stephen Curry, left, and coach Steve Kerr with the Warriors.
Bruce Fraser's unique path leads him to NBA title
Lost amid the celebration of big-name Golden State Warriors such as Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and coach Steve Kerr was Bruce Fraser, whose career arc since leaving Arizona in 1989 has been an American success story of note.
Fraser, a backup point guard to Kerr from 1984-87, scored a mere 14 points as a Wildcat, but became a popular figure on campus and in the community for embracing his role as a "Gumby," the visible and supportive UA bench players.
After helping Lute Olson as a graduate assistant, Fraser’s career became Hollywood-like. He got a job in the early 1990s working for 20th Century Fox as an assistant producer. He worked on such movies as "Home Alone" and "Schindler’s List."
Then, while visiting ex-UA teammate Sean Elliott at a San Antonio Spurs homestand, Frasier hit it off with Spurs coach Larry Brown, who subsequently hired him to be part of the Indiana Pacers' staff. He also worked with NBA players such as Michael Jordan in a sports marketing role for Oakley.
When Kerr was hired as general manager of the Phoenix Suns in 2004, he brought Fraser in as a scout. They reconnected in 2014 at Golden State, where Fraser has become a prominent player development coach, most notably with Curry, and a confidant to Kerr.
What a wild ride, one that began as far back as 1972 when Fraser’s father, Bill Fraser, replaced Olson as head coach at Long Beach City College. A dozen years later, when Olson became Arizona’s head coach, he recruited Bill Fraser’s son to play point guard for the Wildcats.
My two cents: Transfer decisions come down to playing time
The NCAA transfer portal isn’t difficult to figure out. Check the transfer’s playing time, or lack thereof.
Four Arizona softball players who have been reported to have entered the transfer portal were seldom-used. They include infielder Allie Enright, who got six at-bats last season; infielder Amber Toven, who got 14 at-bats; pitcher Jesse Fontes, a No. 4 option who pitched 27 innings; and utility player Giulia Koutsoyanopulos, limited to 27 starts.
Incoming UA basketball shooter/wing Courtney Ramey of Texas was reduced from the Longhorns’ No. 3 scoring option to No. 4. His total shot attempts diminished from 322 in the 2019-20 season to 277 this season. He scored in single digits in nine of the Longhorns’ last 12 games.
Perhaps just as discouraging for Ramey, Texas went from a fast-paced team under coach Shaka Smart — ranked No. 148 overall in tempo two years ago — to No. 336 in tempo under Smart’s replacement, slow-and-go coach Chris Beard this season.
With Arizona wings Benedict Mathurin and Dalen Terry departing for the pros, Ramey was surely attracted to Tommy Lloyd’s offense, ranked No. 9 in tempo nationally, and the opportunity to be the club’s No. 2 scoring option behind Azuolas Tubelis.
Shots, at-bats and playing time have become bigger sellers than a school’s historic reputation, community support and academic status.
