Mike Montgomery is only the third man to coach at two Pac-10 schools: Stanford and now California.

If USC coach Tim Floyd accepts an offer to jump to Arizona, it will be a rarity. Not many head coaches move from Pac-10 school to Pac-10 school.

In the history of the league, there have been only four head basketball coaches to jump within the conference. Just one of those went directly from one school to the other – Marv Harshman, who went from Washington State to Washington after the 1971 season.

The other two-timers are:

• Mike Montgomery. He spent 18 seasons at Stanford, from 1986 to 2004 before trying his hand at the NBA. He returned to college coaching last season, taking over at Cal and directing the Bears to the NCAA Tournament.

• George Raveling. He coached Washington State from 1972 to 1983 before replacing Lute Olson at Iowa. Raveling returned to the Pac-10 in 1987, coaching USC for seven seasons.

• Forrest Twogood. He led Idaho from 1937 to 1941 when the league was the Pacific Coast Conference. He coached at USC from 1951 to 1966.

Keep in mind that Floyd, 55, has insisted several times in his four seasons at USC that he isn’t going anywhere.

“This will be my last pro or college job. My last job, period,” Floyd said at his introductory press conference on Jan. 14, 2005.

He said the same thing when he was courted by LSU last year.

Wins, not words, count most in the end

University of Arizona athletic director Jim Livengood most likely won't be able to live up to his words of Dec. 1, but even a third, fourth or fifth choice might turn out to be a great catch.

I wonder if Arizona athletic director Jim Livengood regrets ever uttering the words “win the press conference.”

He said that back on Dec. 1, talking about the kind of basketball coach who would make a good fit at Arizona. Has to have a track record. Has to have had recent success.

And then he added:

“We also need to win the press conference – however you phrase that, or however you put that, or however you interpret that.”

That line has gotten miles of mileage, artificially setting a standard of expectations that Arizona apparently won’t be able to meet. That doesn’t mean UA won’t hire a fine college basketball coach, it just means it’s hard to win the press conference with, say, Tim Floyd.

Just so we’re clear, let’s interpret. Winning the press conference: Hiring a coach of such unassailable superiority that the masses couldn’t help but stand and applaud and thank the basketball gods for their good fortune.

Winning the press conference is what Kentucky did Wednesday with John Calipari.

Winning the press conference is what Arizona could have done with Calipari or Rick Pitino or Tom Izzo or Jamie Dixon.

Perhaps those were pipe dreams all along, out of reach because of money or location or because those guys already have really good jobs. Or maybe because Arizona Basketball isn’t the evergreen garden-spot destination that lives in fans’ minds.

The point is, it will be hard for Livengood to live up to his words. He should never have said them.

But, at the end of the day, they will be just that – words.

At this point, no matter who Livengood and school president Robert Shelton have picked, it will be impossible to sell that coach as the school’s first, second, third, fourth or (insert your own number here) choice.

Nobody will buy it.

Doesn’t mean it will be a bad hire.

There are more than five or 10 or three dozen good college basketball coaches in the world. Sometimes you can even find a good one doing radio broadcasts for Arizona State.

You can hire a good – no, great – coach while losing the press conference.

For more on this, see: Carroll, Pete.

Yeah, we’re mixing sports here, and Carroll might be a glorious exception, but he was way down on the list when USC, having fired Paul Hackett, went looking for a football coach after the 2000 season.

USC had pursued Mike Riley, Dennis Erickson and Mike Bellotti, among others, getting only a pile of rejection letters.

After the Trojans selected Carroll – who had twice been fired from NFL teams and who had never been a college head coach – USC received more than 2,500 calls, faxes and e-mails of criticism, according to the Orange County Register.

USC did not, in any way, win the press conference that day.

Since then, it has won a lot of Pac-10 championships.

If it is indeed Floyd – and a Tucson Citizen source said he was in Tucson on Wednesday meeting with UA officials – it won’t be the first time he was somebody’s fall-back pick.

He once said he was about the fifth choice at Idaho, which gave Floyd his head coaching start in 1986.

He once said he was about the fifth choice at Iowa State, where he won 81 games in four seasons and went to the 1997 Sweet 16.

He was USC’s second choice to replace Henry Bibby, who was fired early in the 2004-05 season. The Trojans originally went with Rick Majerus, who had the job for five days before changing his mind.

USC hired Floyd in January 2005 while interim coach Jim Saia finished out the season.

“I fully understand why Rick Majerus was the first choice; he’s a phenomenal basketball coach,” Floyd said at his introductory press conference.

“I thought about it and had to deal with it in my own ego. The best way I could put it in perspective is that I think if my wife was really choosing I don’t think that I would have been her first choice, either.”

Anyway, Floyd ended up being a much better choice than Majerus.

Arizona won’t land any of its dreamboat picks, but it’s funny that when Calipari left for Kentucky, Floyd’s name instantly popped up as a leading candidate at Memphis.

Floyd, apparently, could win the press conference in Memphis.

Could he do the same in Tucson?

As soon as Thursday, you might get to be the judge – even if winning the press conference isn’t much of a measuring stick.

Anthony Gimino’s e-mail: agimino@tucsoncitizen.com

Given ‘new life,’ Martinez leads team in ERA

Martinez

One inning. That was about all Jen Martinez wanted. One inning in an Arizona Wildcat uniform.

That would be her reward for an amazing journey that has taken her to three colleges and through more than one crisis of confidence. At one point, discouraged and beaten down emotionally, she nearly walked away from the game.

One inning.

When she walked on at Arizona in the fall of 2007, even that seemed out of reach.

“She couldn’t throw a damn strike,” UA coach Mike Candrea said.

And now?

“She has come from nowhere,” Candrea said.

This kind of story usually doesn’t happen in major college softball. It certainly doesn’t happen at Arizona. The Wildcats have had an uninterrupted stream of All-American pitchers for nearly two decades.

They don’t need any walk-on pitchers, thank you, other than to throw some batting practice.

But this season is unlike any other in Arizona history, with the Wildcats caught in an uncomfortable valley between former ace Taryne Mowatt and future ace Kenzie Fowler.

Sophomore pitcher Lindsey Sisk has struggled. Junior Sarah Akamine, an infielder converted to full-time pitching duties, has struggled. The team ERA of 2.78 is an all-time high for the program.

Hold the All-American awards, but Martinez, a senior who had an unsightly season ERA of 5.56 the last time she pitched in Division I softball, is Arizona’s best pitcher.

“I feel like I’m part of something bigger than I have ever imagined in softball,” she said.

One inning has turned into 62 1/2 for Martinez. Her ERA is a team-low 2.46. She is the only UA pitcher who is striking out more than one batter an inning. She is the only one allowing less than a hit per inning.

“We started throwing her a little bit, and she has gotten better and better,” Candrea said. “She has worked really hard and gained kind of a new life.”

Martinez has been preparing for this all her softball life.

Her first pitching coach was former UA All-American Susie Parra, and her travel ball coach was another Candrea disciple, former team manager Kurt Ludwigsen. Each helped direct Martinez to Arizona.

“From my very first pitching lesson, I was brought up the Arizona way,” Martinez said.

And that means, from Parra to Ludwigsen to Candrea, she has heard a million times: “It’s the process, not the outcome . . . it’s the process, not the outcome . . .”

Martinez wasn’t heavily recruited out of La Habra (Calif.) High School, signing with Long Beach State. She spent two seasons there, going 2-10 as a sophomore with a 5.56 ERA.

“It wasn’t anything what I was expecting it to be,” she said. “I don’t want to say too much about it, but the coach wore me down mentally to the point where I basically wanted to quit softball.”

Instead, she landed at Division II Cal State Dominguez Hills, where, through attrition, she ended up being the only pitcher. She pitched more than 235 innings, which was good for the softball soul, if not for the arm. It was the process.

“I needed the pitching time to grow and mature on the mound,” she said.

At this point, Parra and Ludwigsen suggested that Martinez walk on at Arizona, and they lobbied Candrea on her behalf.

“She needed to fall back in love with the game,” Ludwigsen said of Martinez’s career after Long Beach State. “The environment I knew she deserved would come from Coach (Candrea).”

It’s true, she admits, that she could hardly throw a strike when she arrived at UA.

Arizona was practicing bunt defense, and her job was to groove pitches down the middle for the hitters.

“I couldn’t find the strike zone, and then I was in my own head,” Martinez said.

Said Candrea: “When she got here, she was in awe, in awe to a point where she had convinced herself she didn’t belong here. That was kind of the feeling I got.”

The 2008 season was a wash. Martinez redshirted while UA had an interim pitching coach after the departure of Nancy Evans.

She took a confidence-building step last summer with Ludwigsen’s NorCal Assault travel team, competing in the women’s division of the Canada Cup against Olympic teams from Australia, Canada and the Czech Republic.

Then UA hired Teresa Wilson, an accomplished head coach, as its pitching coach last fall.

“When she first came here, I talked to her and said, ‘I don’t have a whole lot of time to change, could we please work with what we have?’” Martinez said.

“I felt like I was afraid to change. I was afraid to put my pitching in her hands.”

And then, remembering it’s always about the process, she decided to do just that – put her pitching in Wilson’s hands.

Martinez has responded to a few new tweaks and suggestions. She has the best change-up on the staff, a must-have pitch at this level.

More and more, Candrea has taken to bringing in Martinez in the middle innings and let her try to finish the game.

Martinez will get more chances this weekend as No. 9 Arizona (31-7) takes a key Pac-10 road trip to Washington and UCLA.

“Oh my gosh, I can’t even tell you how much this is a dream come true,” Martinez said.

“I have basically exceeded expectations for myself far beyond what I could ever imagine. I’m getting great coaching, and I love the girls on my team.

“It took a long time to get here, but I would not change anything about the journey I took. Arizona is the perfect fit for me.”

<h4>Follow my lead </h4>

Amateur golfer Kyle Lograsso, 6, celebrates after sinking a birdie putt on the 10th hole during the pro-am round of the LPGA's Kraft Nabisco Championship golf tournament in Rancho Mirage, Calif., on Wednesday. He was paired with Song Hee Kim of South Korea.

&gt; Go to <a href="http://www.tucsoncitizen.com">www.tucsoncitizen.com</a> for more sports photo galleries.

Former Arizona associate head basketball coach Mike Dunlap, who left Tucson on Tuesday, was hired by Oregon on Wednesday.

Dunlap will serve in the same role for the Ducks as he did at Arizona last season – associate head coach.

Dunlap, who made $375,000 in his one season with the Wildcats, will receive a pay bump at Oregon. He will earn $400,000 in each of the next two seasons, plus incentives, and will receive a $300,000 signing bonus, according to the Eugene Register-Guard.

Dunlap, 51, could have been UA’s interim head coach last season, but declined the opportunity following Lute Olson’s retirement in late October. Dunlap has said he wanted to be the full-time head coach, not the interim.

He remained associate head coach when UA elevated Russ Pennell to interim.

Pennell gave Dunlap almost unprecedented responsibilities for an assistant coach – such as leading the huddles during timeouts and freely making substitutions.

Dunlap, known as an excellent strategist, also installed a 1-1-3 zone defense and worked hard behind the scenes in one-on-one instruction with the Wildcats.

“With all the one-on-ones, they felt they were getting absolute attention,” Dunlap said last month.

Oregon was 8-23 last season, finishing last in the Pac-10 with a 2-16 mark. The Ducks return the bulk of a young team.

“I was satisfied, after doing much research into the matter, that Mike Dunlap will help our basketball team be competitive in the Pac-10 once again,” Oregon athletic director Pat Kilkenny said in a news release.

Albertazzi, Elliott win

Teri Albertazzi of Tucson and Lewis Elliott of Scottsdale each won a fourth Tucson Triathlon Series event Sunday.

Albertazzi edged fellow Tucsonan Chrissy Parks in the March Tucson Triathlon event with a personal best of 1 hour, 1 minute, 37 seconds. Parks finished in 1:03:05.

Elliott won in 53:05, also a personal best. Alex Riegart-Waters of Tucson was second at 57:00.

Masters winners Susy Bacal of Tucson, seventh overall, won in 1:10:34 and for the men, Coloradoan Mike Montoya won in 59:08.

Citizen Staff Report

UA women’s golf

The Arizona women’s golf team will travel to Tempe to compete in the PING/ASU Invitational on Friday through Sunday at the Karsten Golf Course. The host Sun Devils are ranked No. 1 in the nation.

The event, including 13 of the country’s top 30 teams, will be the last tournament for No. 26 Arizona before the Pac-10 meet April 24-26 at Palo Alto, Calif.

The Wildcats’ best finish this year was sixth among 17 teams in its own February Wildcat Invitational. Alejandra Llaneza and Brittany Benvenuto have claimed the best Arizona individual season rounds of 69.

Citizen Staff Report

Dallas cop steps down

DALLAS – The police officer who pulled out his gun and threatened an NFL player with jail instead of allowing him inside a hospital where his mother-in-law was dying resigned Wednesday.

Officer Robert Powell had been placed on paid leave pending an investigation of the March 18 incident.

“I made this decision in the hope that my resignation will allow the Dallas Police Department, my fellow officers and the citizens of Dallas to better reflect on this experience, learn from the mistakes made, and move forward,” Powell said in a statement issued through his attorneys.

He had stopped Houston Texans running back Ryan Moats’ SUV outside Baylor Regional Medical Center in suburban Plano after the vehicle rolled through a red light.

The officer pulled out his gun and threatened Moats with jail as the player and his family pleaded to be allowed to go inside the hospital. Powell continued writing Moats a ticket and lecturing him even after a fellow officer confirmed that Moats’ mother-in-law was dying.

Jonetta Collinsworth, 45, died of breast cancer before Powell allowed Moats to go inside the hospital.

The Associated Press

Calhoun backs up talk

HARTFORD, Conn. – The University of Connecticut men’s basketball program showed a profit of just under $6.3 million in the 2008 fiscal year, according to a legislative report.

The program earned $14.07 million in revenue during the year and had $7.8 million in expenses, according to the report compiled last month by the state Office of Legislative Research.

The report was requested in the wake of February’s heated exchange between UConn coach Jim Calhoun and a political activist over the coach’s $1.6 million salary in tough economic times.

“Quite frankly, we bring in $12 million to the university, nothing to do with state funds,” Calhoun said at the time. “We make $12 million a year for this university.”

If the coach was referring to gross revenue, UConn men’s basketball brings in $2 million more than he estimated. Even after expenses, the program turned a profit that was nearly four times higher than Calhoun’s salary.

The Associated Press

Bynum close to returning

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Los Angeles Lakers center Andrew Bynum’s rehab from a torn knee ligament has progressed to small-sided games – and carrying Playboy playmates on his shoulders.

As Bynum expressed confidence on his Web site this week that he’ll return before the end of the season, coach Phil Jackson defended his big man over pictures that have peppered the Internet showing Bynum at the Playboy Mansion last weekend posing with a woman on his shoulders.

“I think there’s a lot being made out of that that is unnecessary,” Jackson said before Tuesday’s game against Charlotte. “This is a young guy. I don’t think Andrew is 22 yet, is he? He’s a 21-year-old guy. He’s been out of basketball 5 1/2-to-6 weeks. He’s got to have some energy and vent and have some fun.”

Bynum was averaging 14 points and 8.2 rebounds when he tore the medial collateral ligament in his left knee on Jan. 31. On Bynum’s Web site Tuesday, he vowed to be back soon.

The Associated Press

NUMBER OF THE DAY

29

Points by UA’s Nic Wise in the first round, the 10th best mark in the NCAA Tournament so far this year. The leaders:

1. Ben Woodside, N.D. State 37

2. Roburt Sallie, Memphis 35

3. Tyreke Evans, Memphis 33

3. Blake Griffin, Oklahoma 33

5. Sherron Collins, Kansas 32

6. Sam Young, Pittsburgh 32

7. Marcus Thornton, LSU 30

QUOTABLE

'I came here to build a great team . . . everything is in place here.'

TONY BENNETT,

Former Washington State hoops coach, on taking over at Virginia

———

ON THIS DATE

1990: UNLV pounds Duke 103-73 to win its first NCAA championship and extend the Blue Devils’ streak to eight Final Four appearances without a title. The Runnin’ Rebels become the first team to score more than 100 points in a championship game and the 30-point margin is the largest ever.

2000: Connecticut wins its second women’s national championship with a 71-52 victory over Tennessee. The top-ranked Huskies beat No. 2 Tennessee for the second time in three meetings this season.

The Associated Press

———

SPORTS SOUND-OFF

Fans not thrilled over Floyd

Re: Tim Floyd to be named UA hoops coach?

• If Livengood keeps his job after this decision, I will lose all hope. You have six months to formulate plans and Tim Floyd is your answer? I just don’t see him being a long-term fit.

CAMELBAK69

• So, a coach that has a rather poor record at USC is good enough for Arizona? I do not get it. Don’t you want a proven winner instead of a turn-around guy?

JOHNCHESS01

• Look I know everyone is mad, I hate (Floyd) too. But look at his recruits. Trust me I think this will work.

ABDUL

• Wait, it is April Fools. Please tell me Tim Floyd is an April Fools joke.

SELLY22

Former Arizona associate head coach Mike Dunlap, who left Tucson on Tuesday, was hired by Oregon on Wednesday.

Dunlap will serve in the same role for the Ducks as he did at Arizona last season – associate head coach.

Dunlap, who made $375,000 in his one season with the Wildcats, will receive a pay bump at Oregon. He will earn $400,000 in each of the next two seasons, plus incentives, and will receive a $300,000 signing bonus, according to the Eugene Register-Guard.

Dunlap, 51, had not returned a call from the Citizen as of early afternoon.

Dunlap could have been UA’s interim head coach last season, but declined the opportunity following Lute Olson’s retirement in late October. Dunlap has said he wanted to be the full-time head coach, not the interim.

He remained associate head coach when UA elevated Russ Pennell to interim.

Pennell gave Dunlap almost unprecedented responsibilities for an assistant coach — such as leading the huddles during timeouts and freely making substitutions.

Dunlap, known as an excellent strategist, also installed a 1-1-3 zone defense and worked hard behind the scenes in one-on-one instruction with the Wildcats.

“With all the one-on-ones, they felt they were getting absolute attention,” Dunlap said last month.

Oregon was 8-23 last season, finishing last in the Pac-10 with a 2-16 mark. The Ducks return the bulk of a young team.

“I was satisfied, after doing much research into the matter, that Mike Dunlap will help our basketball team be competitive in the Pac-10 once again,” Oregon athletic director Pat Kilkenny said in a news release.

Louisville coach Rick Pitino watches his team play Morehead State last month in Dayton, Ohio. Pitino is one of the people rumored to be in the running for Arizona’s head coaching job.

The rumors are still flying, but the stakes have changed.

Arizona might be willing and able to offer a package reasonably north of $2 million per season for a new basketball coach. That’s mighty fine coin, even for the best of the best.

Or it was about 48 hours ago.

Kentucky jettisoned Billy Gillispie after two seasons, and then, in true college basketball blue-blooded fashion, opened the vault for Memphis coach John Calipari.

“Market value is market value,” Arizona athletic director Jim Livengood said in February. “It goes up some days and very seldom does it go down.”

Not even in these trying economic times.

There will come a point when coaches’ salaries reach a breaking point, but that day is not today. Calipari will reportedly earn $35 million for eight seasons at Kentucky, making him the highest paid coach in college athletics.

“That’s a whole different monster,” outgoing Arizona interim coach Russ Pennell said of Calipari’s new salary.

“They’re talking about Monopoly money.”

Arizona might not have much choice but to print some of that itself.

Livengood and school president Robert Shelton can’t afford not to start tossing some around.

The biggest mistake Arizona could make is to not stretch its budget to the limit to try to hook the biggest fish. That is Louisville coach Rick Pitino, who would be a 100 percent lock to do great things at Arizona.

Not to say the more-accomplished Pitino is entirely driven by money – I don’t think he is – but how does he look at Calipari’s new deal and not say, “Give me some.” It might not be about money, but it certainly might be all about ego.

The same is true for any of the other big names out there.

It was reported in Memphis on Tuesday that Calipari told friends Arizona had offered him a “blank check” to be its head coach.

True?

Who knows?

I hope it is.

I never got a chance to ask Livengood, who did not return a message left for him Tuesday afternoon. He is usually great at that sort of thing, so the good news is he must have been really, really busy dealing with, oh, only the most important athletic department decision of the past quarter century.

If it takes money to get it done, then spend away.

Even his detractors would have to admit that Livengood has been fiscally responsible, keeping his program in the black and not taking any state money to run the athletic department.

This is no time for fiscal conservatism, though.

Think of it this way:

Does Alabama regret giving football coach Nick Saban $4 million per year two seasons ago?

Absolutely not.

But the Crimson Tide sure does regret wasting a combined eight seasons with unproven guys like Mike DuBose and Mike Shula. Each could barely eke out a winning record.

Alabama found its way because it spent money. Just as Kentucky did Tuesday.

Did Calipari’s move put Pitino out of Arizona’s price range? Pitino makes $2.3 million per year.

Heck, is he even interested?

I’ve heard a thousand different things – and so have you if you’ve spent would-be productive work hours on fan message boards – very little of which you can take to the bank.

OK, none of it.

Including this farfetched tidbit: A Phoenix source told the Citizen on Tuesday night, through somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody, that Pitino and Arizona had reached an agreement.

Hard to believe, but I’ve been wrong before.

Anyway, it was Livengood himself who set the standard back in the fall when he said it was important for the new coach to “win the press conference.” There aren’t many coaches who could do that simply by showing up.

A young up-and-comer might work out just fine, but it’s not a chance Arizona basketball wants to take. Maybe that’s why this is taking so long – because the Cats are still trying to work something out with the A-list talent.

Meanwhile, the silence is unnerving.

While the Cats fiddle, Kentucky has a new head basketball coach. Alabama does, too. Same for Virginia.

None of it makes it look like Arizona – which has had more than five months to think about it, make third-party contact and arrange back-room deals – is on the right path.

Buy, hey, this is what Livengood wanted. He dropped the cone of silence on this search from the start, so congrats to him for his success in this area.

“I asked Jim who the next coach was going to be,” Pennell said, “and he wouldn’t tell me.”

It might still work out all right, and Arizona might yet win the press conference.

Unfortunately for Arizona, given the developments at Kentucky, the price of achieving that likely just went up.

Anthony Gimino’s e-mail: agimino@tucsoncitizen.com

———

38-12

NCAA Tournament record of Louisville coach Rick Pitino, whose winning percentage (.745) is fifth among active coaches behind Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski (.763, 71-22), Florida’s Billy Donovan (.759, 22-7), Michigan State’s Tom Izzo (.750, 30-10) and North Carolina’s Roy Williams (.746, 53-18)

Pennell

INDIANAPOLIS – Russ Pennell wants to be a head coach again.

His wild ride of a season in the spotlight as the interim head coach of Arizona is over. He’ll be in the UA history books with a 21-14 record and a Sweet 16 appearance next to his name.

“I really enjoyed this year,” Pennell said after a 103-64 loss to Louisville on Friday night.

“I will make a bold statement right now. I will be coaching somewhere next year.”

He paused.

“It might be my daughter’s eighth-grade team.”

He joked, but he did say “absolutely” when asked if he wanted to be a college head coach next season.

“It’s a lot of fun. It’s a big undertaking, a big task, but I would welcome that,” he said.

Pennell, who added that staying on as a UA assistant wasn’t on his “list of things to do,” will soon clear out his office so the incoming coaching staff will be able to move right in once hired.

Until then, he will stay around McKale Center. He said he still will be holding players accountable for going to class and doing the other things they need to be doing.

“Like all of our coaches told these guys, we’ll be by their sides the rest of their life,” Pennell said. “We certainly won’t interfere with what goes on next, but they know they can pick up a phone and talk to us at any time.”

Pennell, who doesn’t have an agent – “my wife,” he joked – reiterated what he has said all along. He won’t take just any head coaching job. He’ll be picky. He also would consider a return to announcing.

“It has to be the right fit for myself and my family, where we’d like to live and where I’d like to work, somewhere we could put down roots,” he said of a coaching job.

Pennell and his wife, Julie, have two daughters – Morgan, 12, and Emily, 9.

First on his to-do list after the team returns to Tucson is go to Phoenix for Emily’s gymnastics meet Sunday.

Sometime later, he will reflect on guiding one of the nation’s top programs and leading the Wildcats to their 25th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance.

“I think if someone had said back in October we’d have 21 wins and a Sweet 16, we’d probably all said, ‘Sign us up for that,’ ” Pennell said.

“All I’m going to say is I’m going to feel really good about 2008-2009. Whether we stay in Tucson or no matter where we end up, I hope I can come back and be welcomed. That would be a nice thing.”

Arizona interim head coach Russ Pennell shouts instructions to his team during Friday's game against Louisville.

Give pause before going nuts about coaching search, praise for unlikely Sweet 16 team

Arizona head coach Russ Pennell feels the game slipping away late in the second half against Louisville, which routed the Wildcats 103-64 in a NCAA Midwest Regional semifinal.

INDIANAPOLIS – Patience, now. The University of Arizona men’s basketball team just went through two basketball seasons like no other team in the history of college basketball. And, you know what? The Cats came through just fine.

Kentucky should be so lucky.

Never mind – if you can – UA’s 103-64 loss to Louisville in the Sweet 16 on Friday night. It was bad. It always had the chance to be bad. That is what top-seeded Louisville, with relentless depth and heartless pressure, can do.

“I’m going to say that’s the best team I’ve played – T-E-A-M,” said sophomore Jamelle Horne.

“They have individual stars at certain times. But those guys definitely love each other as a family. You can tell when they’re on the court.”

So be it. It’s over. It was definitely fun while it lasted.

Pull back from the game and look through the wide-angle lens:

“Regardless of the outcome, we held the line,” said associate head coach Mike Dunlap.

“The tradition of this program is intact, and we didn’t embarrass anybody in terms of the circumstances and guys quitting. We got to the NCAAs in a very turbulent time. I told them, ‘Don’t you dare lose your voice’ (about that).”

Now, after back-to-back seasons of interim head coaches, it’s all up in the air again.

Arizona basketball gave its fans a treat this season, extending the school’s NCAA Tournament streak to 25 and then advancing past the first weekend for the first time since 2005.

Fans might need to return the favor next season.

And, who knows, the year or two after that.

Patience.

No one has any idea what the coaching staff or the roster is going to look like next season. You can guess, though, that the roster will be thin and inexperienced.

Juniors Jordan Hill, Chase Budinger and Nic Wise all have NBA draft decisions to make. Those could come in a week or a month.

Other defections or transfers are always possible in the transition to a new coach.

There is a best-case scenario here, but let’s just say that if you’re expecting Hill and Budinger to go out for UA’s opening tip next season, coached by Rick Pitino, you’re living in a dream land where the stock market is still at 14,000.

As for that new coach, the guess here is that something will happen quickly. Like next week quick. And, yes, that means the new guy is no longer coaching in the NCAA Tournament.

“That’s my guess,” Dunlap said of the timing of an announcement. “They have had a lot of time to figure it out.”

The new coach will have to hit the ground running because the mess of the past two seasons cost UA the bulk of its past two recruiting classes.

Arizona has survived a lot, but how can it continue to survive that – with, likely, another patchwork recruiting class on top of that?

Only one player has committed to UA for next season – lightly regarded 6-foot-7 forward Tremayne Johnson, who didn’t even play this season at Los Angeles Community College.

The new coach could decide to pull that scholarship offer.

Who knows?

For his part, interim head coach Russ Pennell will quietly bow out of the picture. He said he’ll clear out his office, so he isn’t in the way of the new coach.

Pennell isn’t and never was in the running to be the full-time head coach.

He knew it.

It was, in a way, a blessing, freeing him and the coaching staff to simply focus on getting the team through the season intact.

Mission accomplished.

“When we first started this, I thought we were fragmented,” said Pennell, who took over in late October for retired Lute Olson.

“We had guys who kind of did their own thing. They weren’t bad people, but nobody had ever really taken the time to maybe show them that you could be a family, you could be unselfish, you could care for one another, and you get things accomplished.”

Pennell might be otherwise occupied in another job next season, but a Russ Pennell Day at McKale Center sounds like a good idea.

That would bring a smile in what could be an unavoidably long, long rebuilding season.

The program, however, has earned everybody’s patience.

In the days leading up to the Sweet 16 game, senior Fendi Onobun implored his young teammates to completely embrace the moment.

“You don’t know, you might not be here next year. Don’t get used to this,” Onobun said.

“Even though the past 25 teams have been here to the tournament, it doesn’t mean the 26th will. The 26th might be the hardest of them all.”

It almost certainly will.

Arizona forward Chase Budinger is unhappy about a call in the first half against Louisville.

Chance to cash in on a golden opportunity

Arizona's Nic Wise goes against assistant coach Reggie Geary during practice at the NCAA Midwest Regional in Indianapolis in preparation for Louisville's pressure defense. More on how Wise is dealing with the press, Page 1C

INDIANAPOLIS – The message has been the same from the start, even before Lute Olson retired: Hey, guys, this is your team.

Yeah, you, the players. Your team. Take ownership. Speak up. Have your say.

“They looked around like, ‘Is this a trick question?’ ” said Arizona interim coach Russ Pennell.

It wasn’t.

“We were thrown off, naturally, that the coaching staff actually cared what we thought,” sophomore forward Jamelle Horne said Thursday after Arizona’s shoot-around at Lucas Oil Stadium.

“They told us we have all the power.”

And it didn’t go to their heads.

The team’s two seniors – Fendi Onobun and David Bagga – each say this is the closest Arizona team of the past four seasons.

“By far,” Bagga said.

OK, the bar wasn’t set ridiculously high because the Wildcats have been known for their dysfunction, but the trust that flowed from coaches to players, and then player to player, has provided the kind of inspiration that would make Tony Robbins proud.

Will any of that buy Arizona a basket against Louisville’s pressure defense Friday night in a Sweet 16 game?

You know, maybe – in an indirect way – it can.

All that team togetherness, combined with an NCAA Tournament invitation that came as a surprise – that’s coming right from the players’ mouths – has led to a nothing-to-lose, what-me-worry attitude not seen in recent Arizona teams.

Hey, it’s a start.

“Last year, it was tight. Real tight,” Onobun said, describing the locker room atmosphere before Arizona’s first-round loss to West Virginia in the NCAA Tournament. “Everything was just really weird.”

The only thing weird about this season was that it really wasn’t weird – at least not after Russ Pennell was promoted to interim head coach after Olson’s retirement.

There hasn’t been much in-season drama, save for multiple suspensions of freshman guard Garland Judkins. We’ve seen worse. Lots worse.

In the meantime, the coaches pried leadership out of Chase Budinger, Jordan Hill and Nic Wise, juniors who often haven’t been comfortable speaking up, being the center of attention.

Budinger emerged from his shell the most, taking on the bulk of media responsibilities.

“As a staff, we’ve been trying to empower him,” Pennell said.

“You can put a guy on the spot. You can be done with practice and get in the huddle and say, ‘Chase, what do you have for us?’

“He better come with something or they are going to make fun of him in the locker room. You kind of sometimes put him on the spot like that, but he’s stepped forward.”

If Budinger has a message for the team before Friday’s game, it should be this: stay loose.

Arizona is playing with house money, and it knows it. The Wildcats weren’t supposed to be here. Louisville was. Let the Cardinals worry.

Nothing to lose.

And if this is the day the Arizona basketball season ends, it will end in grand style. In a football stadium on a raised court. In a great basketball city. After a surprising run to the Sweet 16.

It could be a fitting conclusion to 25 consecutive seasons in the NCAA Tournament.

These Wildcats, no matter the outcome, have secured a place in fans’ hearts, first by deciding to pull together and then by going on a Sweet 16 run.

Face it, though. Arizona played a couple of teams it could handle, Utah and Cleveland State, in their first two NCAA Tournament games. UA, at its best, was better than those two opponents at their best.

Thing is, if the Wildcats play their best against Louisville, they could still lose. But at least they would have a chance.

What more can you ask for?

Bagga took a look around the locker room after Thursday’s practice and remarked about the loose atmosphere. He then mentioned becoming roommates with Hill several weeks ago.

“We had an hour-and-a-half talk on Saturday night. Just about life, about his family, about my family, about how he has grown up as a person,” Bagga said.

“Neither of us wanted to go to sleep because we just wanted to continue talking. Just the camaraderie of this group is so special. When we all look back at this, that is what everyone is going to remember about this team.”

Their team. The one they took ownership of a long time ago.

Anthony Gimino’s e-mail: agimino@tucsoncitizen.com

Louisville's Terrence Williams tries a trick shot during practice in Indianapolis on Thursday.

INDIANAPOLIS – Louisville’s best player could have been an Arizona Wildcat.

The Arizona coaches had to make a decision about five years ago. Did they want to more strongly pursue Mario Chalmers from Alaska or Terrence Williams from Seattle?

“We had (point guard) Mustafa Shakur at the time,” former UA assistant Rodney Tention said Thursday. “And the decision was, who do we bring in to play next to Mustafa?”

Arizona went full on after Chalmers. He signed with Kansas.

“Lute Olson really wanted Mario Chalmers, and when Chalmers committed to Kansas, they told me they really wanted me,” Williams said Thursday in the Louisville locker room before practice.

“I was like, ‘Nah, I’m not like a second-tier player. So I committed to Louisville. My whole thing with Lute Olson was that I didn’t know how much longer he was going to coach there.

“I didn’t want to go there and have him leave the next year. But it was very serious between Arizona and here.”

Tention said it never got to the point where Arizona offered a scholarship to Williams, but the Wildcats did land the Seattle player who was like a brother to Terrence – forward Marcus Williams, a friend from middle-school days.

Terrence lived with Marcus and his mother, Gayle, at times in high school.

“I don’t know how they could be more like brothers than they are,” Gayle said in a 2006 interview with the Citizen. “There was always a connection there. I feel the same way. I feel Terrence is my son as well.”

Marcus spent two seasons at Arizona before being a second-round pick in the 2007 NBA draft. He is playing for the Austin (Texas) Toros of the NBA Development League. Through a team spokesman, Marcus “respectfully declined” an interview request this week.

Marcus told the Citizen in 2006 he talked to Terrence every day.

“We see how it’s going and how we’re doing. I tell him I love him and good night. I always let him know I love him.”

They still talk every day, Terrence said, and have discussed the Arizona-Louisville matchup in Friday’s Sweet 16.

“I can’t say on camera to you guys what he said about Arizona,” Terrence said.

Few players in the country are like Terrence Williams, a do-it-all 6-foot-6 senior wing who averages 12.7 points, 8.7 rebounds and a team-high 5.0 assists. He has improved his outside shot, hitting 38.4 percent on 3-pointers this season.

“He was kind of the way he is now; he’s just a lot better at it,” Tention said, remembering Williams at Rainier Beach High School.

“He wasn’t a real good outside shooter, but he could get to the basket any time he wanted. He was a point forward, that’s what he was.”

Still is.

“The guy is a great player,” said UA sophomore Jamelle Horne. “I don’t think we have had a matchup like him.”

Forget, for a moment, the matchups, the history, Louisville’s full-court press, Arizona’s on-going coaching search, the possibility of the Disneyesque telling of the Wildcats’ season.

UA coaches literally want the players to stop and smell the roses (or the aroma of popcorn) when they go through Friday morning’s warm-ups at Lucas Oil Stadium.

“The air is going to smell a certain way. There is going to be a certain articulation to the entire environment,” said associate head coach Mike Dunlap.

“Basically, we’re saying, ‘Stop and have a look around.’ This is a rehearsal. That’s exactly what the military does in terms of change of environment and pressure.”

It’s all about getting comfortable.

There are plenty of adjustments to make. The shooting background is different because this is a football stadium. The court is raised above ground floor, which has a unique feel.

UA interim coach Russ Pennell was happy his team was the first to have a workout Thursday because it meant the Cats got an extra 20 minutes on the floor to stretch and soak it all in.

“It’s amazing. It’s huge,” UA freshman Kyle Fogg said of the home of the Indianapolis Colts.

“My shots were really short, but Chase (Budinger) and them kept telling me not to worry about it and that I’ll knock them down in the game.”

INDIANAPOLIS – Some- time recently, Russ Pennell was driving in the car with his younger daughter, Emily, when the subject turned to her dad’s hoarse voice.

Emily, 9, was the family member who had the toughest time with the move to Tucson last spring, when Russ was hired as an Arizona basketball assistant coach.

All she had ever known was the Phoenix area and rooting for Arizona State, where Russ was an assistant from 1998 to 2004. She had never shown much interest in basketball.

“She kind of came kicking and screaming,” Pennell’s wife, Julie, said of Emily. “She was used to hollering for ASU and not cheering for the Wildcats. We have swayed her. She was the last convert.”

She might have become a bigger convert than anyone in the family realized.

Apparently, she wasn’t daydreaming when dad – taking a break from his favorite television show, “24″ – would bring home a scouting DVD and the family of four would sit and watch together as Russ broke down a future UA opponent.

Anyway, on this particular day in the car, Emily asked her dad what was wrong with his throat.

“I’ve been yelling too much,” Russ said.

“Yelling at the players?” she asked.

“Nah, yelling at the refs.”

Emily laughed.

Then she said, “You ought to go Floyd on them.”

Pennell recounted this story for reporters Tuesday, drawing a roomfull of belly laughs.

Emily indeed has been paying attention to her dad’s profession, smartly referencing USC coach Tim Floyd’s meltdown – two technicals and an ejection in the final minute at Arizona State on Feb. 15.

Russ resumed the conversation, saying, “Don’t you think you’d be a little embarrassed if I did that?

“No,” Emily replied. “I think that would be pretty cool.”

Pretty cool sums up the Pennell family life these days, as dad has gone from assistant coach to interim head coach to multimedia star since Arizona advanced to the Sweet 16 last weekend.

When the Pennell’s older daughter, 12-year-old Morgan, went back to school Monday, her locker was adorned with Arizona stuff, courtesy of her classmates.

“She thought that was petty cool,” Russ said.

See. Pretty cool. Again.

The stress of a basketball season, with its ups and downs and endless commentary from the peanut gallery, can take its toll on a family as well as the coach, but the Pennells seem to be coping just fine.

Part of that is an enduring faith that everything always will be OK.

Remember last year’s interim head coach Kevin O’Neill? A basketball nomad, O’Neill said one thing he had learned about housing over the years was this: Rent, don’t buy.

When the Pennells moved to Tucson in the spring, they bought.

They might have to sell and move again right after the season, but they won’t have any regrets about the joy ride.

“The fun outweighs everything else,” Julie said. “I told Russ (Monday) night, I really am proud of you. What our future is, I don’t know.”

Part of the fun has been that Russ hasn’t taken himself too seriously.

He’s had what could loosely be called an entourage. Pennell’s posse.

He typically brought in friends or family members to news conferences after home games, just to have them share in the experience. For the last game, he had Emily sit right next to him at the table; she even answered a question about how her gymnastics meets were going.

For her part, Julie keeps her distance from coverage of the team and college basketball – “I’m embarrassed to say I don’t watch ESPN all that much,” she said – while taking care of the home front.

“You know what, I don’t think anybody still knows who I am. That’s fine by me. I’m a behind-the-scenes kind of wife.

“When Russ gets home, we try to not talk about (basketball) and have family time when he’s here. We really try to keep that as stress-free as possible.

“Morgan is a seventh-grader, and when we first moved here, I don’t think anyone knew who her dad was for a long time. She kept that under wraps for a while.

“You just try to live life as normal as possible.”

Morgan just wrapped up her basketball season. Emily practices gymnastics from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. four days a week.

When he can, Russ will leave UA and pick her up from class on the East Side, saving Julie a 90-minute round trip from the family’s Oro Valley home.

“That is a treat for Emily,” Julie said.

“They can just chat about their day. I know Russ enjoys it, and she does, too.”

Pretty cool. Just some quality father-daughter time. A dab of normalcy amid a crazy five months.

Until someone says, “You ought to go Floyd on them.”

Anthony Gimino’s e-mail: agimino@tucsoncitizen.com

Consider it a test case of loyalty. Do you root for a friend or against your rival school?

Arizona interim basketball coach Russ Pennell spent six years as an assistant at Arizona State, and furthered his ties in Sun Devil country by running a basketball academy in Gilbert the past four years.

He said he heard recently from several of his former ASU pupils, such as Shawn Redhage, who is playing professionally in Australia, Justin Allen and Kyle Dodd.

“You know what they say?” Pennell said Tuesday.

“They say, ‘I cannot believe I’m cheering for U of A.’ But they all say, ‘As soon as you’re gone, never again.’ ”

Pennell laughed.

“There’s always that disclaimer with it,” he said. “Some of them will go as far (as) to say, ‘Well, I’m really happy for you, but I’m not happy for UA.’

“They stay true to the Sun Devils.”

Another one of Pennell’s former players, Kevin Kruger, said the Arizona-Arizona State rivalry “is not always as black and white as people think it is.”

“This is an unbelievable opportunity for him,” Kruger said of Pennell.

“Do I wish it would have been somewhere else? Maybe. I’m not going to cheer for Arizona, but I am going to cheer for him. I’m glad he’s doing well.”

Kruger said he caught about the last five minutes of Arizona’s second-round victory over Cleveland State, pulling up the game live on the Internet.

“I wanted to see his reaction at the end because I know exactly what that feeling is like,” said Kruger, who reached the second round with ASU in 2003.

“He deserves it. He really is the epitome of what you want in a college coach. You’re not going to get a lie. He’s exactly what he is, and he does exactly what he says.

“At ASU, when he talked, everyone listened. He wasn’t going to degrade you. There were no politics, no mind games.”

That is why so many former Sun Devils will tune in to watch Arizona play top-seeded Louisville on Friday. It might be through clenched teeth, but, thanks to Pennell, they’ll root for the Cats.