East player Lance Stephenson, of Coney Island, N.Y., scores two of his 12 points during the second half of the McDonald's All-American boys basketball game April 1 in Coral Gables, Fla. The East team won 113-110.

Sean Miller is off and running. Where the new Arizona basketball coach takes the program – and who he lands – is anyone’s guess.

But this much is known: He has three solid signings from forward Solomon Hill, wing Kevin Parrom and center Kyryl Natyazhko.

Whether New York City shooting standout Lance Stephenson, the No. 8 recruit for next season’s class, is in the mix is unclear. But Arizona may not need him to succeed next season.

There’s no question Stephenson is a dynamic player, but his character – given his desire to get to the NBA as quickly as possible – might not be a good fit for Miller’s system. Why risk it? What’s to gain for one season?

Stephenson, a 6-foot-6 guard-small forward from Coney Island, N.Y., and his coach Dwayne Morton did not return calls left by the Tucson Citizen. His other apparent choice is Memphis.

Even people in Memphis, where former UA assistant Josh Pastner is the new head coach, don’t know what to think. The Memphis Commercial Appeal’s Dan Wolken wrote on Wednesday: “Stephenson’s recruitment has been difficult to read, however, and even the coaches involved are not sure where things stand.”

What’s undeniable is how well Miller has done in such a short time after being named UA’s coach a month ago. It shouldn’t come as a surprise, however, because one of the big reasons UA athletic director Jim Livengood pursued Miller was his ability for getting players.

“Spectacular,” said longtime UA men’s hoops fan George Kalil of Miller’s arrival and quick accomplishments. “Everywhere I go and when I get an e-mail or a phone call, people say to me Arizona could not have gotten a better guy or a better coach.

“People absolutely love him.”

It’s the feeling – or vibe – I’ve been getting in Tucson, too. Here it is in early May and people are talking about basketball.

Recruits. Future. Potential.

“I’m thrilled,” Kalil said. “It’s like this town has been born again.”

Not that the climb had to be that high, lest anyone forget UA has gone to 25 consecutive NCAA tournaments, and just two months ago was in the Sweet 16.

But compared to recent previous highs – UA won the 1997 national title and went to the 2001 Final Four – the Arizona program is down. Miller is capable of returning UA to the elite level. He took Xavier to the Elite Eight and Sweet 16 the last two seasons.

He may not contend for a national title right away, but he’s looking at every player possible.

My guess is UA doesn’t get Stephenson, who also has the option of going to Europe for a season or two before making an attempt at the NBA.

Stephenson already has been labeled a one-and-done player for next season, and coaches don’t build programs with those types. Miller never directly talked about such players in a meeting with the media two weeks ago, but he spoke about building a program with players who were good fits.

It’s hard to say if Stephenson is a good fit.

Good talent, yes.

Steve Rivera’s e-mail: srivera@tucsoncitizen.com

Cal might be preseason favorite in weaker Pac-10

California's Theo Robertson (right) drives to the basket past Arizona's Zane Johnson during a game at McKale Center in March. Robertson and the Bears' four other top scorers are returning next season.

Pac-10 basketball has gone from great to good to, possibly, being in the dumps.

Looks like new Arizona coach Sean Miller picked a good time to join the league.

Miller has had a whirlwind first couple of weeks, signing two key players in what was otherwise looking like a lost recruiting class. He added big man Kyryl Natyazhko and wing Solomon Hill, both four-star prospects (out of five) as rated by Rivals.com.

Now, if only point guard Nic Wise comes back for his senior season after testing his NBA draft status.

Arizona, without early-entry draft prospects Jordan Hill and Chase Budinger, can’t be as good as it was last season, when the Wildcats summoned 21 victories and a run to the Sweet 16.

But the rest of the league won’t be as good either. With Wise on board – plus any other recruiting magic Miller can conjure – Arizona doesn’t appear to be worse than a midlevel Pac-10 team in 2009.

Combine that with a couple of key nonconference victories – the basic formula from last season – and there’s hope that the school’s NCAA Tournament streak could reach 26.

Interim coaches have kept that streak going at Arizona in the past two seasons.

Not that anyone is shedding any tears for him, but Kevin O’Neill got the worst of it two seasons ago, taking the Wildcats – amid the uncertainty of Lute Olson’s then-unexplained leave of absence – against arguably the best Pac-10 in history.

A talent drain weakened the conference last season, leaving the league with several good teams with low ceilings. No Pac-10 team really deserved to make the Sweet 16.

No Pac-10 team did, other than Arizona, helped by a favorable tournament path and the nurturing of interim coach Russ Pennell.

Now, the league will be without Arizona State guard James Harden, Hill, Budinger, and USC point guard Daniel Hackett, all of whom are leaving early.

Several key seniors are done – Washington big man Jon Brockman, UCLA point guard Darren Collison, UCLA wing Josh Shipp, ASU forward Jeff Pendergraph, Washington guard Justin Dentmon, Stanford guard Anthony Goods, Stanford forward Lawrence Hill and Washington State guard Taylor Rochestie.

USC freshman DeMar DeRozan put his name into the NBA draft, and is expected to stay there.

USC forward Taj Gibson and UCLA guard Jrue Holiday entered the draft, but they haven’t hired an agent, allowing them to return to school.

Let’s assume the worst and that everyone who is thinking about going pro – including Wise – does. That would leave the Pac-10 with only six of its top 20 scorers and four of its top 14 rebounders from last season.

The leading returning rebounder would be Stanford wing Landry Fields at 6.6 per game.

Your preseason favorite just might be Cal, which could have the two best returning players in the league – point guard Justin Randle and guard Patrick Christopher. The Bears’ top five scorers return, including Theo Robertson.

Defending league champ Washington, with one-time UA recruit Abdul Gaddy joining a backcourt with Isaiah Thomas, will be good. USC, depending on who comes back, could also have Top 25 dreams.

UCLA won’t fall off the map, even without Holiday.

Then . . . Arizona?

Miller, who at 40 years old is the youngest head coach in the league, is still fishing for talent for next season, although junior college center Jarrid Famous picked South Florida over the Wildcats and others Monday.

Still, there is a buzz around Miller and his young coaching staff, filled with top-flight recruiters. All that, coupled with the Arizona brand, gives Miller more recruiting clout than he has ever had.

Arizona still will be picking from the elite of the elite.

As the athletic department’s coaching search meandered after the season, some of the national pundits suggested the Wildcats faced a three-year rebuilding job. Or more.

But with Miller off to a fast start, and the Pac-10 likely fading, that demise was greatly exaggerated.

Next year’s Wildcats could struggle, especially offensively, especially without Wise, but it would be a recession lasting no more than one season.

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

———

PAC-10 DEFECTIONS

Pac-10 players who declared early for the NBA draft:

HAVE AGENTS (CAN’T RETURN)

James Harden G ASU

Jordan Hill F-C Arizona

Chase Budinger F Arizona

Daniel Hackett PG USC

NO AGENTS (CAN RETURN)

DeMar DeRozan G USC

Taj Gibson F USC

Jrue Holiday G UCLA

Nic Wise G Arizona

Tomey remembers ex-ASU coach as ‘good man’

Arizona State football coach Bruce Snyder leaves the field after ASU's 42-27 victory over Arizona in Tempe on Nov. 27, 1999. Snyder's 20-year career as a college football coach included an unbeaten regular season at Arizona State. He died Monday.

Hating your rival can be fun. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

It was never that way between Dick Tomey and Bruce Snyder, whose football teams treated this state to nearly a decade of some of the fiercest, most memorable games in the Arizona-Arizona State football series.

And when that rivalry boiled over to cheap shots and fights on the field – and heaven knows what else in the stands – Tomey and Snyder stood side by side and told everyone to cool it.

Tomey, the former Arizona head coach, remembered those circumstances Monday afternoon after hearing the news that Snyder, at 69, had died earlier in the day after a 10-month fight with cancer.

“Bruce was such a great competitor,” Tomey said. “Nothing could speak to that more than the way he competed since he was diagnosed. He was fighting tooth and nail.

“He was just an exceptional coach. When he was at Cal, when he was at Arizona State, he was just very difficult to beat. And, yet, I really won’t remember Bruce as a coach.

“I will remember Bruce as a good man and a good person. He gave a lot in his life. His life was well-lived. That is the way I remember Bruce Snyder. He was just made out of all the right stuff.”

Tomey was 5-4 against Snyder in the UA-ASU rivalry from 1992 to 2000.

The worst of the rivalry came during the 1996 game, a 56-14 rout by the Rose Bowl-bound Sun Devils in Arizona Stadium.

During the Wildcats’ late-game interception return for a touchdown, ASU offensive linemen Glen Gable, far from the play, broke defensive lineman Daniel Greer’s ankle with an illegal blind-sided clip.

That sparked more on-field fireworks, including UA fullback Kelvin Eafon sprinting off the bench to knock down Gable.

About a week after the game, Snyder and Tomey co-wrote a letter to fans.

It read, in part:

“The events in the past two weeks leave us with some grave concerns. We want you to take a moment and reflect upon what occurred in connection with the rivalry game.

“The two of us spoke this week and agreed that all members of our fine communities must place a high priority on sportsmanship and common courtesy as it pertains to one of the greatest rivalries in college football . . .

“As the head coaches of the teams involved, we pledged that we will create and promote a year-round atmosphere of respect, sportsmanship and conduct that the rivalry richly deserves.”

The result: a clean, hard-fought game in 1997.

“We just felt that the rivalry was deteriorating,” Tomey said.

“The feelings were really raw, and they were going to be even more raw. We were just trying to balance what it all meant.”

Tomey and Snyder didn’t have to hate each other. There was respect, and a friendship, that continued after both coaches were let go after the 2000 season.

Funny how both schools are on their second coach since then, each trying to recapture the heights of the 1990s – two national top five finishes for UA, a Rose Bowl and near national championship for ASU.

“The only time you get upset with another coach is because he’s hard to beat – hard to beat in recruiting, hard to be on the field,” Tomey said.

“His teams certainly were.”

Tomey is 71 now, entering his fifth season as the head coach at San Jose State. He said his health is good. He takes his coaching future on a year-to-year basis.

Former Arizona coach Larry Smith, who preceded Tomey, died in January 2008 because of cancer. He was 68.

“We lost Larry Smith and now we lost Bruce Snyder. We lost two of the best coaches in the history of college football, in my opinion,” Tomey said.

“I’ve been very, very blessed with my health. That’s not lost on me.”

While remembering Snyder, it’s not lost on the rest of us that, even in a furious rivalry, civility can rule the day.

Arizona State coach Bruce Snyder, who died Monday, celebrates a 41-yard field goal by Mike Barth as time expired, giving ASU a 13-10 win over Colorado State on Sept. 16, 2000.

———

SNYDER’S ASU YEARS

Bruce Snyder was 4-5 against Arizona while at ASU but 58-45 overall.

Year vs. UA Overall

1992 W, 7-6 6-5

1993 L, 34-20 6-5

1994 L, 28-27 3-8

1995 L, 31-28 6-5

1996 W, 56-14 11-1

1997 L, 28-16 9-3

1998 L, 50-42 5-6

1999 W, 42-27 6-6

2000 W, 30-17 6-6

———

• His 58 wins rank second on the school’s all-time list

• He is the second-longest tenured head coach in school history

• Led the Sun Devils to four appearances in bowl games

• More than 40 of Snyder’s players were drafted into the NFL, including seven first-round draft choices (Shante Carver, Craig Newsome, Erik Flowers, Adam Archuleta, Todd Heap, Levi Jones and Terrell Suggs)

• Produced more than 100 All-Pac-10 honorees, including one Offensive Player of the Year (Jake Plummer, 1996), two Defensive Players of the Year (Pat Tillman, 1997, and Adam Archuleta, 2000) and one freshman of the year (Terrell Suggs, 2000).

Sean Miller, right, greets Lute Olson and UA booster Paul Weitman on Tuesday.

The Arizona basketball program scheduled only one way under coach Lute Olson – fearlessly – and that’s a lesson not lost on new coach Sean Miller.

Consider that Xavier played last season at LSU, at Cincinnati and against Duke on a neutral court. The Musketeers played against Missouri, Virginia Tech and Memphis in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off.

They played at home against Auburn.

Does this sound like a guy who is afraid of a basketball fight?

The early indication is that he is not, and just add that to the list of positives about Miller’s hiring.

It was suggested in a CBS Sports.com report that Miller’s deal with Arizona had included concessions about “buy” games – we’ll explain in a minute, if that’s an unfamiliar term to you – but he said that’s not true.

“That never came up,” Miller said Tuesday at his introductory press conference.

“You can’t recruit the best recruits in the country and talk about doing great things unless you’re willing to play the best programs in the country. And then once you do that, you have to win some.”

That is what Arizona has done over the years – setting up tough opponents and knocking some of them down. That was the team’s saving grace in each of the past two seasons as the Wildcats squeaked by and extended their NCAA Tournament streak to 25.

UA never would have danced in 2008 or 2009 if it had the easy nonconference schedule of Arizona State.

Of course, the coach has to be smart about what he’s doing, and there’s no need to go scheduling overboard in Miller’s first season. The roster will be thin and won’t include NBA-bound juniors Jordan Hill and Chase Budinger.

You couldn’t blame Miller if he wanted to ease up on the accelerator in his first season, but there’s not a lot he can do about it anyway.

Arizona has a potential of four open dates, although the school has handshake agreements to fill two of those with the beginning of a pair of home-and-home series against unannounced teams.

Athletic department official Ryan Hansen, who helps coordinate the basketball schedule, said those deals likely will stay in place.

UA has two other open dates, both of which will be filled by those “buy” games, otherwise known as “guarantee” games.

That’s when a big school, such as Arizona, will pay a certain amount of money to a smaller school, such as Northern Arizona, to come to Tucson to play one game. NAU likely will fill one of the two open spots next season.

The rest of the nonconference schedule is like this:

• at Maui Invitational (Nov. 23-25) – The early season tournament isn’t quite as loaded as in some years. The other teams in the field are Colorado, Maryland, Cincinnati, Gonzaga, Wisconsin, Vanderbilt and Chaminade. Matchups are not yet determined.

UA will play two home games against unannounced opponents before traveling to Maui.

• vs. UNLV (Dec. 2) – The end of a four-game series. The Rebels have been witness to all of Arizona’s drama, going against UA’s fourth coach in four years.

• at TBA in the Big 12/Pac-10 Hardwood Series (Dec. 6). Hansen knows UA’s opponent, but the conferences haven’t revealed the schedule, so he can’t say who it is.

“It’s a team that played in the NCAA Tournament, though, I’ll tell you that much,” he said.

• vs. Louisiana Tech (Dec. 9) – A “guarantee” game against a decent WAC team. It also will be a homecoming for Bulldogs forward David Jackson, a Rincon High School graduate.

• at San Diego State (Dec. 12) – The end of a two-game set with the Aztecs.

• vs. N.C. State (TBA) – The beginning of a two-game series against the Wolf Pack. Miller used to be an assistant coach at N.C. State under Herb Sendek. Arizona will play in Raleigh in the 2010-11 season.

Arizona fans – especially those who pay big money for the home games – have come to expect good value for their entertainment dollar. They deserve the same under Miller.

“It doesn’t sound too different,” Hansen said of Miller’s philosophy.

“We met and I said what my job duties are, and his first words were, ‘I think we’re going to have a good time talking.’ ”

Further out, Arizona has a contract to play a neutral-court game against Kansas in the 2010-11 season as part of the Las Vegas Invitational.

Miller scheduled aggressively at Xavier in order to help offset a weaker conference. He should do the same at Arizona because it’s simply the right thing to do.

“Balance is the key,” Miller said. “The balance of schedule that Arizona has done in the past will continue.”

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

Miller embraces legacy established by Olson

New UA head coach Sean Miller (right) greets former coach Lute Olson (middle) and booster Paul Weitman before his press conference on Tuesday.

First impressions from Sean Miller’s introductory news conference:

It took less than 15 seconds for Miller to get it right.

Miller entered the McKale Center court and walked toward an impromptu press area. Before he reached the interview table, he stopped and made a quick right turn to where former UA coach Lute Olson was sitting behind the media.

Miller walked up, giving Olson a light embrace. They spoke briefly.

When Miller had a chance to make his opening remarks he acknowledged the presence of the 74-year-old Olson, who retired due to health reasons before last season.

“Before I even thank the appropriate people, I want to make sure I thank coach Olson for being here at this press conference. It means the world to me,” Miller said, turning to face Olson.

“Just so you know, one of the reasons I sit here today is because of the great legacy you built. The feeling that the world and nation have about Arizona basketball stems from you.”

Former UA star Steve Kerr, the general manager of the Phoenix Suns, sat next to Olson.

“I’m glad to see coach Olson here, and I’m glad to see Sean reached out to him,” Kerr said. “It’s important to keep that connection to the past, for sure.”

It sounds like a no-brainer that a new coach would figuratively – and literally – embrace Olson, who had a Hall of Fame career than spanned 24 seasons in Tucson.

But let me say this: Not all coaches – perhaps because they’re too self-absorbed or because they would want to run from comparisons – would have made Miller’s gestures.

Well played.

• • •

I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of athletic director Jim Livengood’s recent e-mails.

When the coaching search seemed to be spinning sideways, Livengood was taking a beating on Internet message boards.

“The multitude of e-mails that I received . . . that referred to my ancestry and where I came from is brutal,” Livengood said. “It’s absolutely brutal.”

Now that the process is over and Livengood delivered the goods, it would be nice if he got a few e-mails of thanks.

He said after the news conference he felt “fulfilled.”

“Not fulfilled for me, but for our community and for our university,” he said. “It’s worth going through all of the agony and all of the criticism. I think (Miller) is that special.”

• • •

One more thing about Livengood. He seemed to have a bit of a thin skin early in the news conference when he emphasized that the only coach to officially reject Arizona was USC’s Tim Floyd.

“Let me tell you how I feel in terms of how that stands,” he said of Arizona’s name being linked to other coaches. “That is absolutely, completely false. Nobody (else) turned that job down. You need to know that.”

Livengood is playing some word games, though, when he talks about having made only two official offers.

There was a lot of window shopping and flirting with other coaches. Just because none of that rose to the level of an official interview and offer doesn’t mean UA didn’t have a wandering eye before smartly putting the full-court press on Miller.

• • •

True confession: I was a big fan of Miller when he was the point guard at Pittsburgh. He was on the 1988-89 team that lost to Arizona at McKale Center in the Fiesta Bowl Classic.

“Sean Elliott had about seven dunks in a row. It got loud in this building,” Miller said.

“One thing I thought about when Jim and I first talked is McKale Center and what it means. I didn’t realize that recently we have won 71 home games in a row.”

Note the use of “we.”

Miller used a lot of “we” and “our” in regard to Arizona on Tuesday.

It’s his program now.

• • •

Good line from Miller about arriving at McKale Center for the first time as a coach:

“When you make a right and go down a street called National Championship Drive, I think that says it all about where you’re at.”

• • •

Arizona distributed two pages detailing Miller’s compensation – $2 million per year, plus perks and incentives.

Knowing that such a lucrative contract can be sensitive in tough economic times, the university took the unusual step of noting at the top of its release that all the compensation comes from a self-sufficient athletic department. Livengood said that was a message “we’re probably going to repeat over and over again.”

Good. It needs to be repeated, because it is a fact that hasn’t sunk in over the years.

Bottom line: The market is the market, and Arizona is not underpaying Miller according to the market.

Is it fair he is making so much during belt-tightening times on campus?

To use a popular phrase among athletes and coaches, it is what it is.

• • •

Miller spent eight years at Xavier, five as a head coach, and the Musketeers sent five players to the NBA in that time.

“He’s got an excellent reputation league-wide,” Kerr said. “All the people I talked to in the last week just raved about his teams and his coaching ability.”

• • •

UA assistant coach Reggie Geary was at the Final Four and didn’t arrive at McKale Center until after the start of the news conference.

Geary waited until Miller fulfilled all his media obligations and then approached Miller to introduce himself. Geary wants to stay on as an assistant.

Miller, however, could bring his entire staff with him from Xavier, although he would have at least one opening if Musketeers assistant Chris Mack is promoted to head coach.

If not, Miller sounded inclined to stick with assistants who know him and his system. He didn’t appear concerned about the staff’s lack of West Coast recruiting connections, which is part of Geary’s appeal.

As Miller noted, Arizona usually recruits nationally anyway.

The upshot of it is, there simply might not be room for Geary.

• • •

Miller teams are known for defense, but he likely put some fears to rest when he said this:

“I love the fact that we can play slow when we need to defensively, but we can also play against teams that can push it and play fast.”

• • •

Final impression: Keeping in mind Livengood’s stated desire to “win the press conference,” Arizona should have lit up the scoreboard as Miller left the court.

It would have read: Sean Miller 1, Press Conference 0.

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

New UA men's basketball coach Sean Miller greets fans as he arrives at McKale Center for a news conference on Tuesday.

Xavier’s Miller one of game’s budding stars

Sean Miller is leaving Xavier University to become the head coach at Arizona.

It’s a new day, a new era for Arizona basketball. Got your shades ready?

The forecast is for clear skies and lots of sun.

Sean Miller has saved the day and chased away the clouds.

For the first time in 26 years, Arizona has a new full-time head basketball coach, and the university, after a meandering search with ulcer-inducing fits and starts, got it absolutely right.

Miller is a great hire.

You will hear in the next hours, days, weeks, months that Miller is a coach’s son, a basketball prodigy, a student of the game. You will hear how he preaches toughness and defense, how much his players love him, how highly he is praised by the national media.

Perhaps the most casual of Arizona basketball fans aren’t familiar with the name, but, trust me, you will like him.

“He’s an up-and-coming star,” said former UA All-American Sean Elliott.

“It’s exactly what the program is looking for.”

Miller isn’t as accomplished (yet) as coaching rock stars Rick Pitino or John Calipari, to name a pair, but he’s also a lot younger than those guys. If you were making a list of the best coaches 40-and-younger, Miller stands on top.

And now he belongs to Arizona.

So, due credit to athletic director Jim Livengood and university president Robert Shelton, who came up with a last-minute save.

Up until Miller changed his mind Monday morning and accepted an enhanced contract offer – a reported seven years for $18 million – it appeared Livengood and Shelton were headed toward a “Thelma and Louise” ending.

For various reasons, some of the top coaches in the country turned down Arizona’s overtures. USC coach Tim Floyd, after visiting with UA officials in Tucson last week, gave a very public rejection of the Cats.

When Miller, 40, indicated Sunday night that he was staying at Xavier, Arizona’s reported new targets included Utah’s Jim Boylen and Virginia Tech’s Seth Greenberg.

Fine coaches, but if the Wildcats had to go there, this would have been the slogan for next season: Good Tickets Available.

“To me, it seemed like we were settling,” said former UA player Gene Edgerson.

“Ask any of the former players at the University of Arizona, we view this program with the highest regard. And we’re like, ‘Coaches should want to come here. This isn’t right. We have coaches turning down our great city and great basketball program?’

“It baffled me,” Edgerson said. “But now I’m proud and happy. Our ship was just sailing along; we didn’t have a skipper. Now, we have a really good skipper.”

We’re all going to end up crying over repeated “Miller time” references – you’re on notice, headline writers – but, oh man, was it ever time for Miller.

Arizona’s elite status hung in the balance.

The Wildcats weren’t just looking for a good coach, they were looking to send a message: We still matter. We’re a top program, not just a program that had a top coach, Lute Olson, for all those years.

The athletic department had to spend a lot of its own money to do it, but they delivered that message.

Miller confirmed that to the rest of the college basketball world at a news conference at Xavier on Monday afternoon, talking about Arizona as a place where you could win a national championship.

Arizona wasn’t shy, instantly making Miller the highest-paid coach in the Pac-10. And that right there sends a message, too.

No coincidence that Arizona, atop an online news release of Miller’s hiring, included links to season-ticket information. Gotta spend money to make money.

Think of it this way: Would you have paid good money to see Boylen coach?

“Coach Miller has had a number of opportunities over the years . . . and none of those were right to him,” said Xavier athletic director Mike Bobinski, who was open about his disappointment over losing Miller.

“I trust him and trust who he is as a person that if he has made this decision, then this is the one that feels right to him. And who are any of us to say that is a bad move on his part?”

It was a good move.

For Miller. For Arizona.

And for the fans, who almost assuredly will greet Miller with open arms that stretch from the Rincon Mountains to the Tucson Mountains (consider this your first local geography lesson, coach).

Best of all, after two seasons of uncertainty within the program, let’s retire the use of the word “interim.”

It is with renewed hope and optimism that we look forward to that day next fall when Miller walks on to the McKale Center court before a game for the first time.

The band will wave.

“Hi, Sean!”

Welcome.

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

‘I would never leave Xavier unless it was a place where I really felt you could win a national championship.’

SEAN MILLER, about leaving for Arizona

Arizona assistant coach Reggie Geary (right) helps Nic Wise during practice the day before the Wildcats lost to Louisville in the NCAA Midwest Regional men's basketball tournament in Indianapolis last month.

The clock is ticking. UA assistant coach Reggie Geary hears it the loudest.

He’s been fighting a nearly impossible battle for more than five months.

He’s been trying to recruit to a school with no head coach.

Now, he’s trying to recruit to a school that has been publicly rejected by USC’s Tim Floyd and Xavier’s Sean Miller. He’s trying to recruit to a school that failed to find traction when it kicked the tires of other top coaches.

One more thing: He’s been trying to recruit to a school that can’t afford to completely whiff on another recruiting class.

The spring signing period starts in nine days, on April 15.

You hear that ticking clock?

“I’m still trying to get bodies in and let people know we’re interested,” Geary said Sunday night from Detroit, where he has been since Thursday for the Final Four.

“A lot of kids are like, ‘Reg, I’m waiting as long as I can comfortably wait.’ There are other universities who realize that, too, and they’re telling the kids that they can’t wait. So they’re squeezing the kids in a lot of cases to make that decision.”

Time is running out, and Miller on Sunday night delivered a heartbreaking no to Arizona’s job offer. A yes would have sounded like a hallelujah from the heavens for the Wildcats.

Now, any chance of salvaging a recruiting class is circling the drain.

Part of the reasoning behind last week’s pursuit of USC’s Tim Floyd was that he had immediate access to highly rated talent.

Unlike Arizona in its current state.

Geary did add one player for next season – somewhat unknown 6-foot-7 forward Tremayne Johnson, who sat out last year at Los Angeles Community College. Johnson’s commitment isn’t binding.

Arizona will have several scholarships available for the 2009-10 season.

“We’re getting so close to the start of the second signing period,” Geary said. “But there are still some good, quality kids I am in on and the university is in on.

“I just tell them that we know there is uncertainty, but if you can use your imagination to a degree, there might be something good for you here.”

Geary has been UA’s lone voice in recruiting since Lute Olson retired in late October. Interim head coach Russ Pennell and associate head coach Mike Dunlap, knowing their futures were somewhere other than Arizona, simply focused on getting the Wildcats through the season in one piece.

Geary has been unwavering in his desire to be here.

“I have made that very clear,” he said. “Obviously, I’m prepared if it doesn’t happen, but this is my first priority.”

All he needs now is a head coach.

Miller met with school officials in New Mexico on Sunday, but returned to Cincinnati and, as first reported by FoxSports.com, said he was staying at Xavier.

Geary will continue to work on and do what he can while UA athletic director Jim Livengood and university president Robert Shelton delve deeper into their dwindling list of A-list candidates. In fact, it might be exhausted.

Speaking of exhausted, fans have followed the numerous false starts of the coaching search with the single-mindedness of stalkers, gobbling up any nugget of news. Mostly, it hasn’t been news. It’s been rumors.

And much of those – especially the ones coming from the Phoenix media – have been premature or poorly sourced or drew bad conclusions. In other words, they were wrong.

Through the Internet, the harder-core fans have followed the movements of the private plane of UA booster and Olson confidant Paul Weitman. A bit creepy, but fun. The plane has transported Miller and USC coach Tim Floyd in the past week.

If fans think they’re stressed out by the bubbling stew of the coaching search, imagine what it’s been like for Geary.

“It’s been a lot of texts, a lot of phone calls, just reaching out,” he said. “Any time I hear a name, I have to research it the best I can. Every day, it seems like I’m searching for a new coach, a different name.”

Make no mistake. If it doesn’t work out here, Geary won’t have to hunt long for a job. He undoubtedly has been making a few contacts in Detroit.

But he’s not giving up on Arizona. He’ll continue to recruit . . . unless the new coach tells him not to.

“I definitely care a lot about the guys on the team, and in no way did I want to shirk my responsibilities and leave them high and dry,” Geary said.

“I’m definitely continuing to make contact and trying to keep kids interested in the university.”

That’s a job that is getting more difficult by the day.

Anthony Gimino’s e-mail:

agimino@tucsoncitizen.com (agimino@tucsoncitizen.com)

Xavier coach Sean Miller turned down a UA job offer on Sunday.

Arizona athletic director Jim Livengood is a big boy. He knows how the game is played. He knows how we keep score.

I’m sure he has the hate mail to back all this up.

Livengood is fully aware he ultimately will be judged by the company he keeps.

In other words, the coaches he hires.

“We put our professional life on the line all the time in the hiring process, especially in the high-profile sports,” Livengood told me in August 2006. “They have to make it.”

Darn his luck, it doesn’t help his current dilemma that he once went off the reservation and hired football coach John Mackovic – a disaster. He has had only one at-bat since then, replacing Mackovic with Mike Stoops – a passing grade.

Now, Livengood’s first full-scale search for a basketball coach is going as swimmingly as a bowling ball in a lake.

At this point, Livengood isn’t just hoping a new basketball coach makes it; he first has to make the dang hire.

Time to put Plan G into effect.

USC coach Tim Floyd did hold a news conference Thursday, but it wasn’t in Tucson and it wasn’t to say he would love to be the next Arizona basketball coach.

Floyd is staying put at USC, and it sure does look as if Livengood just went down swinging in the bottom of the ninth with the UA basketball program stranded at second base.

It appears to be – and I will stress appears because nobody has had a strong handle on the behind-the-scenes machinations – that Floyd was the last candidate in Livengood’s comfort zone.

Floyd was an established coach who had earned his recruiting stripes and had posted reasonable success, especially considering his host of rebuilding projects.

Floyd was far from the perfect candidate – c’mon, you had to be worried about alleged recruiting improprieties at USC – but you could have made a case he would have worked out just fine here.

Instead, Arizona gets rejected again. This time, by a good-but-not-great coach at a good-but-not-great program.

Shades of the Houston game, it’s as if coaches across the country are lining up to step on Arizona’s face.

You better hope Livengood can rally as well as Chase Budinger.

How far does Livengood have to stretch to find the next guy?

Just on Thursday, Tennessee’s Bruce Pearl signed an extension at Tennessee. Butler’s rising star Brad Stevens also signed an extension. Georgia hired Mark Fox from Nevada.

Washington State’s bright, young Tony Bennett might have been very appealing to Arizona right about now . . . but Virginia lured him away earlier this week.

What’s the fallback plan? Floyd on Thursday, when asked what Arizona had told him during his visit to Tucson a day earlier, said: “They just told me that they would like to have me as their coach yesterday morning.”

It’s a couple of mornings later, and, at the least, Arizona’s lack of a new head coach is embarrassing.

At worst, the new coach could end up hamstrung by the public knowledge that he wasn’t on the initial short list of candidates. That will hurt public perception, and it certainly won’t help when he hits the recruiting trail.

Arizona’s coaching search might have spun off the track when Kentucky threw everybody a curveball by firing Billy Gillispie after two seasons.

Those Wildcats then tossed an unprecedented $4 million per year at Memphis coach John Calipari, who otherwise might have been listening to an Arizona pitch.

If that’s just a case of bad timing, well, too bad.

University president Robert Shelton has been immersed in the hiring process, but whatever happened or will happen, it all stops at Livengood’s door.

It’s his contract that is up on June 30, 2010, when he will be 65. He said recently he wouldn’t mind going longer than that – if Shelton and the Board of Regents were willing.

Unless Livengood comes up with a great save, chasing away the swelling dark clouds, that won’t be much of a decision.

———

AND THE NEXT COACH IS . . .

Some names that UA fans have thrown around as the possible next coach now that Tim Floyd turned down the Wildcats:

Randy Bennett, Saint Mary’s

Jamie Dixon, Pittsburgh

Scott Drew, Baylor

Mark Few, Gonzaga

Lon Kruger, UNLV

Sean Miller, Xavier

Reggie Theus, not coaching

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

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)

UA's Jamelle Horne will be one of the Wildcat leaders next year.

The advice from Russ Pennell for Arizona’s next head coach is simple: Go get some players.

He might as well shout it from the McKale Center rooftop. That will be priority No. 1 for the next coach, who will be the program’s fourth in four years.

“The University of Arizona is a basketball icon and has been for 25 years,” said Pennell, in his final days as UA’s interim coach after guiding the Wildcats to a Sweet 16 appearance and a 21-14 record

“There’s tradition so (why not) tap into that tradition?”

Pennell did just that this season as UA went on a journey of hot-then-cold-then-hot-again play before ending its season with a 103-64 loss to No. 1-seeded Louisville in Indianapolis on Friday.

Once he was given the title of interim coach two weeks into practice, he embraced the position and took advice.

From associate head coach Mike Dunlap to assistants Reggie Geary to Pennell’s father, Dewey Pennell, to former players (Jerryd Bayless and Jason Terry) who came through the door.

The next coach should do the same, including staying in contact with Hall of Fame coach Lute Olson.

“Embrace Lute Olson and what he’s done,” Pennell said. “That’s one of the smartest things anyone could do. It always bothers me when a legend retires and people go an entirely different direction from him and don’t want to give them any credit for that.

“Whoever comes in has to understand what Lute built and build on top of that. They don’t have to pay homage to him every day or mention his name, but there (are) a lot of people in Tucson this is very special to. You need to pay respect to that.”

That said, the next coach, big name or not, must land talent.

It’s not like he won’t have scholarships. He could have as many as six or seven to dole out right away, depending on who returns and what comes of an NCAA investigation into the program.

Juniors Jordan Hill and Chase Budinger are presumably going to make themselves eligible for the NBA draft. Both are projected as first-round picks.

Junior guard Nic Wise said he’ll “most likely” test the NBA waters to see where he stands in the draft. If one, two or all three leave the program, UA will need an overhaul.

Only two starters and four fringe reserves might return from Arizona’s 25th straight squad in the NCAA Tournament.

“What it will do is give the other guys an opportunity to grow,” said sophomore Jamelle Horne, who could be one of the most looked to players next season. “The big three did their deal this year. They definitely (did their part). It’s time for the new wave to come in to show what we have.”

But with so little depth and no incoming recruiting class, save for an unknown junior college player in Tremayne Johnson, Arizona could be headed to its first losing season since 1983-84, Olson’s first.

The players seemingly are prepared for what’s ahead.

“We’re going to be young, depending on what happens to all of them,” Kyle Fogg said referring to the three juniors. “All the young guys, we’ve talked. We know we had haters (critics) this year so we know people will be talking bad about us next year. We know we’ll have to come and play.”

Fogg said he’ll take a week off and then get back into the gym and get ready.

“I’ll just keep doing what I have been doing and just double it,” said Fogg, arguably the most-improved Wildcat over the course of this season. “I’m going to try to be really good next year.”

So will Horne, who may have been the most-up-and-down player all season.

“I can’t wait for next year to begin,” he said. “I don’t like the way we lost (last week) but we went out there and battled. What I need to be is more consistent. I’ll have a lot of pressure on me, but that’s part of maturing as a player.”

Zane Johnson hopes to do the same in as much as he, along with Horne, will be one of only two juniors on the team in 2009-10.

Johnson said he needs to become a better defender and a more aggressive offensive player. He said he’s looking forward to being one of the team leaders.

“We talked about it,” Johnson said. “It’ll be interesting. We might even have a bunch of walk-ons. But we’ll be ready to play. When the new coach comes in we’ll play hard for him, just like we did for coach Pennell.”

Freshman 7-footer Alex Jacobson will be the team’s lone big man. He’s improved considerably, having to go against Hill every day in practice.

But he’ll need to get stronger and get more active around the basket.

Phoenix product Brendon Lavender, a sophomore next year, said he’ll work on his all-around game.

“I want to get better; I know I can,” he said. “No one knows (how good he is). No one has even seen me play. Whenever I (did) get out there it was (with) a little chance to do something. It hasn’t been good for my confidence, but I’ve been working. I’ve kept with it.”

He added it was “up in the air” if he’d stay with the program but that he’d figure that out in the coming months.

It’s not clear what will happen to freshman D.J. Shumpert, who received a scholarship at the last minute this season. It’s possible that if he returns next season he could be a walk-on.

He said in an earlier interview he’s had a great time with the team, although he played only 11 minutes all year.

As for freshman guard Garland Judkins’ future? Who knows? He’s been off the team for more than a month after being suspended. It’s not clear if he’ll return.

So many questions. So many spots to fill, including the head coach position.

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.

<h4>QUOTABLE </h4>
'Just the opportunity to walk through this journey this year is incredible. It's stretched me, it's forced me to think outside the box. If this is the only opportunity, so be it. Life goes on.'

RUSS PENNELL,

UA interim hoops coach, on UA's Sweet 16 run

Arizona vs. Louisville: Steve Rivera’s breakdown of the game • Wildcat notes • Players to watch

BACKCOURT

Advantage: Louisville

The key will be UA’s Nic Wise and how he handles the pressure of Louisville’s press. He’ll have help from Kyle Fogg, but Wise will be the player who guides the Cats’ tempo. It won’t be easy. He’ll be going against big guard Jerry Smith and Andre McGee, a good shooter. Watch for foul trouble.

FRONTCOURT

Advantage: Arizona

Two players UA might not have the answer for are Terrence Williams and Earl Clark. Both can shoot 3-pointers, but Williams is more accurate. Arizona’s Chase Budinger will be asked to keep up with the pressure. He hasn’t seen this type of pace all season. It will be too much. Another key is Louisville’s Samardo Samuels, the team’s big man, but Jordan Hill should have an advantage over him.

DEFENSE

Advantage: Louisville

This isn’t even close. Besides their press, the Cardinals allow 31 percent from the 3-point arc and 39 percent from the floor. If Louisville extends its perimeter defense far out, it could be even more trouble for UA.

OUTCOME

If Louisville gets an early lead and holds a comfortable edge over UA at halftime, it’s over. The Cardinals are 25-0 when holding a halftime lead. If Arizona keeps it close, the Cats could have a chance because Louisville is shooting only 50 percent from the free-throw line in the NCAA Tournament. In the end, the Cats’ lack of depth should hurt them against the Cardinals.

Prediction: Louisville by 11

UA BASKETBALL NOTES

Key to game may come with 8 minutes left

Pay extra attention when there are about eight minutes left in the game.

That is when Louisville’s pressure defense starts taking its toll, said Cardinals guard Edgar Sosa.

“That’s when you can see the other teams’ point guards don’t want to break the press any more. They don’t want the ball and they’re telling someone else to bring it up,” said Sosa a 6-foot-1 guard.

“Once they do that, we know we have the game because we got the ball out of the main ball-handlers’ hands.”

Cardinals forward has memory lapse

Louisville junior forward Earl Clark was asked how much he watched Arizona during the regular season. He turned to a teammate and asked: “What conference do they play in?”

“I don’t think the Pac-10 is on TV too much,” Clark added. “I didn’t get to see a lot. I saw a couple of games. I like their style of play.”

A teammate, helping out a video crew, put a microphone in front of Clark and asked what he thought of the state of Arizona.

“I don’t think I have ever been there,” he said.

He was then reminded that the Cardinals played in Glendale in December, losing to Minnesota 70-64 in University of Phoenix Stadium.

“Oh, yeah,” Clark said. “We lost, that’s why I don’t remember.”

ANTHONY GIMINO

agimino@tucsoncitizen.com (agimino@tucsoncitizen.com)

MATT DETRICH/The Indianapolis Star

UA's Jamelle Horne (left) and Kyle Fogg, practicing for the NCAA Midwest Regional semifinal in Indianapolis on Friday, have their eyes on an Elite Eight berth.

Arizona's Chase Budinger passes the ball during practice at the NCAA Midwest Regional men's tournament Thursday in Indianapolis.

———

UP NEXT

No. 12 Arizona (20-13) vs. No. 1 Louisville (30-5)

When: 4:07 p.m. Friday

Where: Indianapolis TV: CBS

Radio: 1290-AM, 107.5 FM

———

How teams match up

Arizona Louisville

72.5 Points per game 74.1

47.7 Field goal % 45.5

68.2 Points allowed per game 61.7

43.3 Foes’ field goal % 39.4

———

Key stat

8-0

Record of Louisville coach Rick Pitino in the Sweet 16, with every game decided by at least 10 points.

———

SPORTS SOUND-OFF

Fan impressed by Hill’s character

Re: UA made mountain out of Hill

• This is a great story. I have followed UA basketball for many years and Jordan has become one of my favorites. He will be a great player for many years to come. Many forget to comment that he is a gentleman on the court, a true fundamental player of the game. I was fortunate to play golf with him in a charity event and was even more impressed by his character. CHAZDDS

• Jordan Hill should teach Alex Jacobson a few moves before he leaves to the NBA. MXWILDCAT

• Jordan has made a lot of progress – from having smaller players take the ball away from him near the basket while rebounding to being a monster with the ball. He can make a million by going to the NBA, but if he stayed around for another year, he could easily double his starting salary through his continued improvement becoming possibly the No. 1 pick of the 2010 draft. BOBW31

• Through all the turmoil, you never heard Jordan complain. I love this kid and his game. He should leave and get paid. He deserves it. 4274

It would make for a good story if interim coach Russ Pennell’s Arizona Wildcats upset Rick Pitino’s Louisville Cardinals, coached by the man rumored to be at the top of Arizona’s coaching wish list.

But in my view you can scratch off Pitino. It doesn’t make sense. He makes too much money at Louisville, the facilities are better there and he’s built the program into the No. 1 overall seed.

It’s news to Pitino that he’s on any list.

“I’m glad that I’m not living on the West Coast because I haven’t heard any of that,” he said. “I heard a little bit more about Boston University wanting me back where I started, but I’m hoping they settle for my son.”

Is there some interest in Arizona?

“I wouldn’t answer any question about any other job because it would be disrespectful to the University of Louisville,” he said. “Any time you hear a player stand up here and say, ‘I’m not going pro; I’m coming back,’ he’s gone. Any time a coach says he’s not interested in a job, he’s dead interested in a job. . . . There is no truth.”

I believe him. And I don’t believe the rumors of Michigan State’s Tom Izzo going to Arizona. Recently, he’s been linked with the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves. “I’m still here,” Izzo said.

What does Izzo think of the Arizona job?

“Arizona has been a perennial program for a long time,” Izzo said. “It’s also getting harder out there, too, because UCLA, USC have gotten better. So has Washington.”

Meanwhile, the reported apparent dismissal of Kentucky coach Billy Gillespie could throw a curveball into the entire UA hiring process if Jim Livengood has one of their potential candidates on the radar.

Kentucky’s program trumps Arizona’s program.

Still, it’s my feeling while everyone in Rumorville has the Pitinos and Izzos (or some big name like that) going to Arizona, Livengood is sitting there gleefully looking at someone else – enjoying the smoke screen – with no one really knowing who the next guy at Arizona will be.

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