President Obama makes a point during the Arizona State University commencement ceremony on Wednesday in Tempe.

TEMPE – President Obama apologized for “stealing away” former Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano and urged students to never stop achieving as he made a commencement speech Wednesday night at Arizona State University.

Some 63,000 people filled the stands and most of the football field at Sun Devil Stadium.

It will be up to young people to redefine success, Obama told graduates, from materialistic greed to building a quality life while taking on the nation’s challenges. That means serving a higher purpose than themselves, he said.

Developing clean energy and improving failing schools will be this generation’s job, he said. He pointed to his own job title and said that doesn’t define success, comparing Abraham Lincoln to Millard Fillmore.

Being a superpower isn’t enough for America, he said. It must be mindful of the struggles of the rest of the world.

“Class of 2009, that’s why we’re going to need your help,” he said of issues such as global warming, rebuilding the economy and solving other “unprecedented” problems.

Careers such as engineering and teaching can be crafted with service in mind, he said.

A body of work is never finished, he said. He went on to cite the achievements of people who never gave up, including Kurt Warner, a former Arena Football League player who led the Arizona Cardinals to their first Super Bowl in 2009.

He also pointed to late achievers Julia Child, Col. Sanders and Winston Churchill.

While acknowledging that graduates were facing a tough economy – the nation has lost 1.3 million jobs since February – he called the challenges an opportunity.

“Because it’s moments like these that force us to try harder and dig deeper and to discover gifts we never knew we had – to find the greatness that lies within each of us. So don’t ever shy away from that endeavor,” Obama said during a speech that invoked the bravery firefighters demonstrated on Sept. 11, 2001, and the civil rights movement.

“Don’t stop adding to your body of work. As a nation, we’ll need a fundamental change of perspective and attitude,” he said. “It’s clear that we need to build a new foundation – a stronger foundation – for our economy and our prosperity, rethinking how we grow our economy, how we use energy, how we educate our children, how we care for our sick, how we treat our environment.”

Some 9,000 students were awarded diplomas at Sun Devil Stadium on a day when the high temperature in Phoenix was 101, but Obama wasn’t going to be one of them. University officials declined to give him an honorary degree, saying he had not yet accomplished enough to deserve the honor.

“His body of work is yet to come. That’s why we’re not recognizing him with a degree at the beginning of his presidency,” university spokeswoman Sharon Keeler said shortly after the school’s student newspaper reported the decision.

Obama said he “heartily concurred” with that assessment.

Officials later backtracked and instead named a scholarship in honor of the nation’s first African-American president. The President Barack Obama Scholars program will offer students up to $17,000 annually to pay for tuition, books, room and board.

Some sweated the wait for Obama’s speech. An official at the university’s emergency operations center said about 95 people were treated for heat-related illness while waiting for Obama’s address. None of the illnesses was considered life-threatening.

Rocker and Phoenix-area resident Alice Cooper was to perform “School’s Out.”

Obama was to fly to Albuquerque, N.M., after the speech. The president planned to have a town hall-style meeting Thursday in Albuquerque on proposed restrictions on credit card companies before he returned to Washington.

The White House has announced Obama plans other commencement addresses at the University of Notre Dame and the U.S. Naval Academy.

Student protests were expected Sunday at Notre Dame over Obama’s support for abortion rights and embryonic stem cell research.

Nancy Tranchese (center) and her mother, Kathleen Tranchese, both of Tempe, join members of the End the War Coalition in a protest Wednesday in front of Sun Devil Stadium.

President Obama and Arizona State University President Michael Crow sing the National Anthem before the commencement address Wednesday at the university stadium.

President Obama arrives at the Arizona State University commencement ceremony at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe Wednesday.

By Citizen Staff Report, Wire Report

MIAMI — The number of U.S. households faced with losing their homes to foreclosure jumped 32 percent in April compared with the same month last year, with Nevada, Florida, California and Arizona showing the highest rates, according to data released Wednesday.

Arizona posted the fourth highest rate, with one in every 164 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing.

The 10 states with the most foreclosure filings accounted for more than 75 percent of April’s national total. California documented the highest total (96,560), followed by Florida (64,588), Nevada (16,266) and Arizona (16,245).

More than 342,000 households received at least one foreclosure-related notice in April, RealtyTrac Inc. said. That means one in every 374 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing last month, the highest monthly rate since the Irvine, Calif.-based foreclosure listing firm began its report in January 2005.

April was the second straight month with more than 300,000 households receiving a foreclosure filing, as the number of borrowers with mortgage troubles failed to abate.

The April number, however, was less than one percent above that posted in March, when more than 340,000 properties were affected. The March data was up 17 percent from February and 46 percent from a year earlier.

“We’ve never seen two consecutive months like this,” said Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac’s senior vice president for marketing. “It’s the volume that’s surprising.”

While total foreclosure activity was up, the number of repossessions by banks was down on a monthly and annual basis to their lowest level since March of last year, RealtyTrac said.

But that’s far from positive news. Because much of the foreclosure activity in April was in the default and auction stages — the first parts of the foreclosure process — it’s likely that repossessions will increase in coming months, RealtyTrac said.

About 63,900 homes were repossessed in April, down 11 percent from about 71,700 in March, RealtyTrac said. But the mortgage industry has resumed cracking down on delinquent borrowers after foreclosures were temporarily halted by mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, together with many other lenders.

“All of these loans are now being processed pretty rapidly by the servers,” Sharga said.

Help might be on the way. The Obama administration announced a plan in March to provide $75 billion in incentive payments for the mortgage industry to modify loans to help up to 9 million borrowers avoid foreclosure. But the extent of the relief remains unclear, with questions lingering about how much the lending industry will cooperate in modifying loans.

After banks take over foreclosed homes, they usually put them up for sale at deep discounts. Nationwide, sales of foreclosures and other distressed properties made up about half of the market in the first quarter, the National Association of Realtors reported.

First-quarter home sales fell in all but six states — Nevada, California, Arizona, Florida, Virginia and Minnesota — where buyers have been able to grab foreclosed homes at discounts, the realtors group said Tuesday.

On a state-by-state basis, Nevada had one in every 68 households receive a foreclosure filing, down 18 percent from March but still the nation’s highest rate. In Florida, one in every 135 households received a filing in April. For California, the rate was one in every 138 households.

Rounding out the top 10 were Arizona, Idaho, Utah, Georgia, Illinois, Colorado and Ohio.

Among large cities, Las Vegas led the way with one in every 56 households receiving a filing. That was a slightly higher rate than the southwest Florida metro area of Cape Coral-Fort Myers, which saw one in 57 housing units receive a filing.

Cities in California took the next six spots: Merced, Modesto, Riverside-San Bernardino, Bakersfield, Vallejo-Fairfield and Stockton. The Florida cities of Miami and Orlando were ninth and 10th, respectively.

By Wire Report, Staff

The Wildcats fell one point below the NCAA’s minimum score of 925, or a 50 percent graduation rate – and were ninth in the Pac-10, only ahead of Washington State (918). But because UA showed significant improvement from last year (902), the Cats were not penalized.

In 2007 and 2006, UA lost a total of six football scholarships because of poor APR reports.

All the other Arizona teams performed higher than 925 – including the men’s indoor track program (938), which lost one scholarship this season because of a score of 921 last year.

No Pac-10 teams were penalized this season.

The scores are calculated based on data from the fall semester in 2004 through the spring semester in 2008. Each athlete receives one point per semester for remaining academically eligible and another point each semester for remaining at that school or graduating.

A mathematical formula is used to correlate a final team score, with 1,000 points being perfect. Teams that fall below 925 annually can be subjected to immediate penalties.

Across the nation, the overall four-year Division I APR increased three points to 964. And the overall scores in baseball, football and men’s basketball all showed improvement over the 2003-04 numbers.

Centenary’s men’s basketball team and Tennessee-Chattanooga’s football squad, however, didn’t make the grade with the NCAA and it cost them a chance to compete for a national championship next season.

Those teams became the first to be banned from postseason play because of poor APR scores. Jacksonville State’s football team, which is appealing a postseason ban, could join them. A decision is expected within six weeks.

NCAA president Myles Brand said Wednesday’s announcement sends a message to the nation’s college teams: Repeatedly failing to make grades comes at a heavy cost.

“I think it is a watershed because it shows the depth and severity of the penalties for schools that cannot come into compliance with academic performance,” Brand said during a conference call. “Think back as a mode of comparison to when we have recruiting infractions, and we withhold them from postseason play, that’s a big deal.”

Next year, schools with four straight years of poor scores could face the NCAA’s most severe penalty – restricted Division I membership for the entire athletic department.

Ten schools were cited in both football and men’s basketball but only two – Alabama-Birmingham and New Mexico State – play in college football’s top level. UAB was the only school in major football to receive a reduction in practice times in both sports.

The SEC led the six biggest conferences with five teams penalized. Mississippi and Minnesota were the only BCS schools sanctioned in football.

McNeese State led all schools with eight teams sanctioned, while Nicholls State was next with six.

———

LATEST UA ACADEMIC PROGRESS REPORT SCORES

———

(925 is minimum)

Men’s sports

Baseball 930

Basketball 949

Cross country 1,000

Football 924

Golf 957

Swimming 951

Tennis 945

Track (indoor) 938

Track (outdoor) 939

Women’s sports

Basketball 946

Cross country 965

Golf 975

Gymnastics 987

Soccer 992

Softball 945

Swimming 974

Tennis 965

Track (indoor) 953

Track (outdoor) 949

———

HOW UA COMPARES

Football Men’s hoops

Stanford 984 968

California 970 944

USC 956 906

Washington 954 956

UCLA 948 968

ASU 945 930

Oregon 935 975

Oregon State 930 936

Arizona 924 949

Washington St. 918 946

By Citizen Staff Report, Wire Report

Dr. Michelle McDonald speaks during the H1N1 influenza press conference on the flu cases in Pima County.

Six cases of swine flu have been confirmed in Pima County – four on the Tohono O’odham nation, one in Tucson and one in Marana, according to the Pima County Health Department.

Another 11 cases are suspected, but have not been confirmed.

The number of confirmed swine flu cases in Arizona rose to 17 over the weekend, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services Web site.

Last week four cases of swine flu were confirmed in Arizona, all school-age children in Maricopa County who have either recovered or are recovering, officials said. The state sent samples in at least 52 more suspected cases to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, about half of which were from Pima County, said Patti Woodcock, spokeswoman for the Pima County Health Department.

If cases of the virus are found in the county, then local officials will begin “active surveillance” of hospitals and clinics, Woodcock said. That means health workers will track patients’ contacts and retrace their steps, much as they did during a spring 2008 outbreak of measles.

As they did with the measles outbreak, county health officials are urging people experiencing flulike symptoms to call their doctors instead of going to doctors’ offices or hospital emergency rooms, potentially exposing more people, Woodcock said in a statement Thursday.

In the event of an outbreak here, the county’s allotment of antiviral medication would be used only to treat patients, not to vaccinate others, Woodcock said.

Maricopa County’s health director, Dr. Bob England, said none of the patients who had the swine flu there has been hospitalized or suffered severe symptoms.

“It isn’t going to stop there,” England said. “We have lots of testing to be done, and in the coming days we’re going to have more (confirmed cases).”

England and state Health Services Department Interim Director Will Humble said it appears the swine flu that has spread across the nation in the past week isn’t any more severe than a normal influenza. If evidence mounts that that is the case, school closures could end quickly.

About 36,000 people die each year in the United States from the regular flu. The U.S. has reported only one death outside Mexico from the swine flu – a Mexican toddler who visited Texas with his family.

As a precaution, Tucson Unified School District leaders have canceled school field trips Friday to the Tucson Convention Center for the Tucson Symphony Orchestra’s “Young People’s Concert.”

Fifth-grade visits to TUSD middle schools Friday have also been cancelled.

Tarwater Elementary and Hartford Sylvia Encinas Elementary schools in the Chandler Unified School District were ordered closed for seven days. Moon Mountain Elementary School in northwest Phoenix was ordered closed on Wednesday.

Health officials said there was no known relationship between the two Chandler-area students. In the third new case reported on Thursday, the student had been home during the infectious period and could not have infected any classmates.

State Department of Health Services officials also learned Thursday that a 19-year-old Northern Arizona University student had a “probable” case of swine flu.

NAU and the Coconino County Health Department were awaiting confirmation from the CDC, but a school spokesman said it will continue to operate under normal business conditions.

“We have a residential campus here, we’re right at the tail end of the semester, finals start next week,” said Tom Bauer, a NAU spokesman. “We don’t feel this would be in the best interest of anyone at the moment to be thinking about closing because of one ‘probable’ (case). We’re not being blasé about this. We are very concerned with all of our students.”

The first case was confirmed Wednesday in an 8-year-old northwest Phoenix boy. Although he had returned to school, health officials ordered his elementary school closed for a week to prevent the disease from spreading.

England said in that case, the child had not traveled to Mexico, where the flu strain was first identified.

“There was no travel history, which, again, underscores my thought – that it’s here. It’s in the community. There are probably many more people infected than we realized,” England said. “Nobody’s cared about it because it hasn’t made people all that sick.”

The student whose illness prompted the closure of the second school also had recovered. The third student hadn’t attended school while contagious, and the fourth case is being investigated, England said.

The CDC and officials in several states have confirmed at least 120 cases of the swine flu as of Thursday. They are in New York, Texas, California, South Carolina, Delaware and scattered cases in Arizona, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, Minnesota, Colorado, Georgia and Maine.

Health officials said people should treat the swine flu strain like any other flu – contact your personal doctor, and avoid spreading the virus by staying home and covering sneezes and coughs. Patients should seek additional medical help if fever persists or spikes, breathing is difficult or other severe symptoms develop.

Officials were worried that people unnecessarily visiting hospitals or clinics could make it hard to tend to trauma patients. Dr. Jeffrey Schultz, pre-hospital director at John C. Lincoln Hospital in Phoenix, said an increase in patients could affect the ability to care for them. Furthermore, people have been coming to the hospital to request they be tested for the flu, even if they don’t show symptoms.

“If you’re not having any of those symptoms, it’s unlikely, even if you request that test . . . you’d be getting that test. That wouldn’t be good health care,” Schultz said.

Arizona health officials have tested more than 400 samples since Monday in a state lab and determined that about 60 percent of them were seasonal flu.

“We’re chugging them in and out,” state health department spokeswoman Laura Oxley said. “We’re prepared to go around the clock, (but) we haven’t had to do that yet.”

Oxley said the state could receive test kits by the end of the week from the CDC that will enable health officials to confirm the virus themselves.

“We are working on it,” she said. “We want to do it, and life will be a lot easier when that comes.”

Citizen Staff Writer Ty Bowers and the Arizona Republic contributed to this article.

By Citizen Staff Report, Wire Report

The tallest player returning would have been 6-1 Ify Ibekwe.

Arizona solved its problem Wednesday, signing 6-4 Jennifer Kioa and 6-3 Amanda Pierson, both junior college transfers.

Pierson (Seward County CC, Liberal, Kan.) and Kioa (Los Angeles Foothill CC) joins November signees Davellyn Whyte (Phoenix St. Mary’s High) and Brooke Jackson (Mesa College).

“We are excited about the kids that we are adding during the late signing period,” said Arizona head coach Niya Butts. “They each bring something different to the table and those attributes should help us this season both in the nonconference and Pac-10 portions of our schedule.”

Kioa was ranked the No. 7 post player in community college basketball this season by Collegiate Girls Basketball Report and No. 26 overall while Pierson was tabbed the ninth best player and 32rd overall by Collegiate Girls Basketball.

Kioa averaged 14 points, 11 rebounds and four blocked shots per game last season. Pierson averaged 12 points, 6.1 rebounds and 2.4 blocked shots per game.

Arizona will have four players back from a squad that had a 12-19 record last season.

3 tie for SW Section title

Dean Vomacka, Chris Dompier and Don Littrell each posted 2-under-par 70 scores to tie for the win in the Southwest Section PGA Southern Chapter Pro Series I Tuesday at Randolph North Golf Course.

Vomacka of Stone Canyon Club overcame two bogeys on the front nine to score 35-35 with a single birdie on the back. Dompier of Skyline Country Club used an eagle-5 on No. 13 on the back after a 34 on the front, and Littrell, also of Skyline, eagled No. 8 on the way to a first-round 35 and recorded two birdies on the second nine.

The win was the second of the 2009 season for Vomacka, the 2008 Southwest Section PGA Player of the Year. He shot a 5-under 65 in January to win the Section Canoa Ranch Pro-Am.

Bauley a contender

Tucson’s Craig Bauley, the City Seniors champion in 2008, shot a 4-over-par 35-39-74 Wednesday for a three-way tie for fourth place in the first round of the Arizona Champions Stroke Play event.

Eric Rustand of Tucson (77) finished in a 10-way tie for 18th place.

The tournament will continue through Saturday at TPC Scottsdale.

Pennell gets first recruit

New Grand Canyon University men’s basketball coach Russ Pennell, given a full allotment of 10 scholarships with which to work, will sign Scottsdale Saguaro senior Steven Morin during the April signing period.

Morin, a 6-foot-5 wing who averaged just under 20 points, gave Pennell a commitment Monday.

Two Division I players and possibly a third are on their way to Grand Canyon to play next season.

Former Tempe Corona del Sol guard T.J. Benson, a 5-11 junior, is transferring to Grand Canyon from Weber State. And Gaby Ngoundjo, a 6-7, 240-pound forward, was released from his scholarship at Charlotte and will sign with Grand Canyon.

Kentucky gets top forward

Forward DeMarcus Cousins has signed a national letter of intent to play at Kentucky, the first recruit secured by new coach John Calipari.

Cousins had previously committed to play for Calipari at Memphis, but now is joining the Wildcats since Calipari was hired earlier this month to replace Billy Gillispie. Rivals.com has ranked the Mobile, Ala., senior as the top power forward in the country.

Testing NBA waters

A handful of college players said Wednesday they would put their names in for the NBA draft but will not hire an agent, keeping open the option of returning to school for another season.

They are: Notre Dame forward Luke Harangody, South Carolina forward Dominique Archie, Gonzaga forward Austin Daye, Kentucky forward Patrick Patterson and Texas swingman Damion James.

Georgetown says Big East rookie of the year Greg Monroe will stick around for his sophomore season. But UConn’s Hasheem Thabeet said Tuesday he will give up his final year of eligibility and enter the draft.

Ex-UCLA coach has cancer

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Former UCLA and UAB basketball coach Gene Bartow has been diagnosed with stomach cancer.

The 78-year-old Bartow, the president of the company that owns the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies, will begin outpatient treatment at the Kirklin Clinic in Birmingham next week, UAB said Wednesday.

He succeeded John Wooden as UCLA’s coach in 1976 and led the Bruins to the Final Four, beating Fred Snowden’s Arizona team in the Elite Eight.

Bartow left after two seasons to start Alabama-Birmingham’s program. He won 647 games over 34 seasons. He also coached Memphis State from 1970-74 and guided the school to the 1973 national title game, where the Tigers lost to a UCLA team coached by Wooden.

V. Williams advances

CHARLESTON, S.C. – Second-seeded Venus Williams struggled to advance at the Family Circle Cup on Wednesday, beating Sania Mirza of India 6-1, 3-6, 6-2. It was a big day for Melanie Oudin of Marietta, Ga., who advanced to the third round with a 7-5, 6-0 win over No. 29 Aleksandra Wozniak, seeded ninth.

By Citizen Staff Report, Wire Report

RALEIGH, N.C. – The number of U.S. businesses and individuals declaring bankruptcy is rising amid the recession, despite a three-year-old federal law that made it much tougher for Americans to escape their debts, an Associated Press analysis found.

In March, bankruptcy filings jumped the highest across the West. In Arizona, filings rose 91 percent from a year ago. They were up 84 percent in Idaho, 82 percent in California and 79 percent in Nevada, though those were trumped by Delaware, home to many large corporations, which saw a 127 percent jump.

“There’s no end in sight,” said bankruptcy lawyer Bryan Elliott of Hickory, N.C., who is working seven days a week and scheduling prospective clients a month in advance. “To be doing this well and having this much business, it is depressing. It’s not a laugh-a-minute job.”

Nearly 1.2 million debtors filed for bankruptcy in the past 12 months, according to federal court records collected and analyzed by the AP. Last month, 130,831 sought bankruptcy protection – an increase of 46 percent over March 2008 and 81 percent over the same month in 2007.

In the Tucson sector, total bankruptcy filings in March were up 90 percent over the previous year, with 628 filings. The sector includes Pima County, as well as Cochise, Graham, Greenlee, Pinal and Santa Cruz counties.

The majority of those filings were Chapter 7, which is liquidation for individuals and small businesses. There were 510 Chapter 7 filings in March, a 108 percent increase over March 2008.

Reorganization filings, or Chapter 13s, were up 44 percent.

Bob Lawless, a professor at the University of Illinois College of Law, said bankruptcies could reach 1.5 million this year and level off at 1.6 million next year – around the same time economists expect an economic recovery to begin.

The bankruptcy rate is climbing as well. In the past 12 months, about 4 people or businesses for every 1,000 people in the country filed for bankruptcy, according to the AP analysis. That is twice the rate in 2006, and close to the average of about 5 for every 1,000 in the decade leading up to the change in the law.

Lawless said the shame of bankruptcy may have eased somewhat in recent years, but added, “It’s still a very stigmatizing, traumatic event for most everyone who files.”

———

BANKRUPTCIES

A look at bankruptcy filings by state and their growth in the past year.

Rank. State: March 2009 filings; March 2008 filings; Percent change

1. Delaware: 479; 211; 127%

2. Arizona: 2,700; 1,414; 91%

3. Idaho: 682; 371; 84%

4. California: 16,917; 9,308; 82%

5. Nevada: 2,510; 1,405; 79%

6. Utah: 1,396; 804; 74%

7. Hawaii: 270; 158; 71%

8. Montana: 268; 157; 71%

9. Washington: 2,910; 1,745; 67%

10. Florida: 8,322; 5,146; 62%

11. Oregon: 1,651; 1,033; 60%

12. Illinois: 7,011; 4,551; 54%

13. South Carolina: 902; 593; 52%

14. Maine: 365; 241; 51%

15. District of Columbia: 110; 73; 51%

16. Michigan: 7,238; 4,828; 50%

17. Wyoming: 122; 82; 49%

18. New Mexico: 554; 377; 47%

19. Alabama: 3,138; 2,141; 47%

20. New Jersey: 3,011; 2,066; 46%

21. Rhode Island: 501; 344; 46%

22. Colorado: 2,488; 1,712; 45%

23. New Hampshire: 473; 327; 45%

24. Virginia: 3,278; 2,304; 42%

25. Maryland: 2,237; 1,573; 42%

26. Connecticut: 971; 684; 42%

27. Indiana: 4,904; 3,468; 41%

28. Iowa: 1,078; 765; 41%

29. North Carolina: 2,498; 1,779; 40%

30. Minnesota: 1,958; 1,409; 39%

31. Kentucky: 2,538; 1,828; 39%

32. Wisconsin: 2,533; 1,829; 38%

33. Oklahoma: 1,309; 946; 38%

34. Missouri: 2,827; 2,056; 38%

35. Tennessee: 4,885; 3,564; 37%

36. Kansas: 1,057; 776; 36%

37. Ohio: 6,954; 5,120; 36%

38. New York: 5,235; 3,876; 35%

39. West Virginia: 647; 480; 35%

40. Mississippi: 1,341; 995; 35%

41. Arkansas: 1,509; 1,132; 33%

42. Vermont: 141; 106; 33%

43. South Dakota: 181; 139; 30%

44. Georgia: 6,370; 4,944; 29%

45. Pennsylvania: 3,557; 2,800; 27%

46. North Dakota: 136; 110; 24%

47. Nebraska: 703; 592; 19%

48. Massachusetts: 1,849; 1,571; 18%

49. Texas: 4,521; 4,067; 11%

50. Alaska: 67; 65; 3%

51. Louisiana: 1,529; 1,584; -3%

By Wire Report, Staff

Josh Pastner is introduced as the new Memphis basketball coach.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – If youthful energy, unwavering confidence and a great big grin can help Memphis stay in the top ranks of college basketball, Tigers fans will be happy with their new head coach.

“I’m excited. I’m energized. I’m pumped up. I’m jacked,” ex-Arizona Wildcat Josh Pastner said Tuesday at a news conference to introduce him as John Calipari’s successor. “I’m ready to rock ‘n’ roll.”

Pastner, 31, certainly won his news conference in Memphis, often pausing while Tigers boosters and supporters broke into cheers during his high-energy banter with reporters.

Though he didn’t get the Arizona job he coveted, Pastner took several opportunities during his 30-minute news conference Monday to speak of his admiration and gratitude to mentor Lute Olson.

“Coach Olson called me yesterday, actually beat me to the punch,” Pastner said. “I was trying to call him, but he called me. He was very, very happy for me. I thanked him, obviously, for his opportunity there that he gave me at the University of Arizona. He was ecstatic for me. It’s an opportunity for him to see me grow from a player to a coach and now to here.”

Pastner signed a five-year, $4.4 million contract with Memphis.

“It sounded like he was 10 feet off the floor,” Olson said of the phone call. “He said, ‘We’re going to play basketball like coach Calipari played and like we played at Arizona.’ He’s just really, really excited. He said, ‘I don’t care if I was the eighth guy they wanted, I’m just happy that I’m here.’”

In the past week, several former teammates of Pastner from the 1997 UA national championship team began going public with their desire for him to take over at UA.

“I will be supporting (new UA coach) Sean Miller and cheering him on,” former UA star and current Dallas Mavericks star Jason Terry told the Citizen in an e-mail sent by his publicist.

“. . . I still believe we missed out on a huge opportunity by not hiring Josh Pastner. The timing was right and he has ‘Wildcat blood.’ Maybe in seven years the timing will be right again and they give me or another Wildcat a chance to carry on Papa Lute’s Legacy. Bear Down.”

Pastner said he was packing for Kentucky to follow Calipari, who was hired there last week, as his top recruiter when an unexpected call came from Memphis athletic director R.C. Johnson.

“There was no hesitation,” Pastner said.

“He gave me the opportunity and I jumped on it.”

Pastner moved to Memphis after six years as an assistant at Arizona and as a walk-on player before that.

“I believe in myself,” he said. “I’ve prepared myself my whole life for this. . .

“I was 42 or 43 and zero as a player (at UA). And I tell people, ‘You know how hard that is?’ But I only got in games when we were up 20 or more.”

Pastner said he hadn’t started working on selecting assistants.

During his time under Olson, Arizona averaged 23 victories a season and made six straight NCAA Tournament appearances.

Memphis went 33-4 last season and made it to the NCAA regional semifinals.

Olson was asked if he thought Pastner would do a good job.

“I think he will,” Olson said. “I always worry a little bit when guys get into that situation when they’ve had a limited amount of head coaching experience, but he’s full speed ahead.”

The Associated Press and Citizen sportswriter Geoff Grammer contributed to this article.

Josh Pastner, right, confers with retired UA coach Lute Olson in 2007.

By Citizen Staff Report, Wire Report

Sean Miller fights back tears after telling reporters he is leaving Xavier for Arizona.

Sean Miller says he is following his heart – leaving Xavier University to become the head basketball coach at Arizona.

“I would never leave Xavier unless it was a place where I really felt you could win a national championship,” Miller said Monday at a news conference in Cincinnati. “When I say that, it does not mean you can’t win one here.

“(UA) is a place that has done it before, and has had a quarter of a century worth of excellence.

UA announced it would introduce Miller at noon Tuesday at McKale Center. Arizona athletic director Jim Livengood and school president Robert Shelton are expected to be present.

“If you watch and look at Arizona, you see they have done some amazing things in 25 years under one coach,” Miller added, referring to Hall of Famer Lute Olson, who retired before the season started. UA has gone to 25 straight NCAA tournaments, the nation’s longest active streak.

The 40-year-old Miller, considered one of the nation’s top young coaches, later teared up while talking about leaving Xavier after five seasons. He met with his players beforehand and said it was one of his toughest decisions.

“I did my best to follow my heart,” he said.

Arizona big man Jordan Hill, who is debating whether to declare early for the NBA Draft, said Miller’s hiring won’t affect his decision either way.

“Wow,” Hill said when told Miller took the UA job.

Livengood, in a statement released by UA, said he was “pleased the coaching-search process has been completed.”

“It’s been an exhaustive week, but it’s a good day to be a Wildcat. We believe we’ve brought in the best young coach in the country, a proven winner who will take this program into the future,” Livengood said.

Added Shelton, in a statement:

“Sean Miller is a perfect fit for the University of Arizona. Sean has had tremendous achievements on the court, but he has also done an extraordinary job of ensuring that his players succeed in the classroom. Arizona fans are going to be very proud of the way he approaches the game. He is absolutely the right person to lead our program forward.”

Various media outlets are reporting that Miller’s annual salary could be more than $2 million a year, with a possible $1 million signing bonus. It’s unclear if Miller would have a five-year contract, or longer.

CBS Sports.com, citing an unnamed source, reported that Livengood called Miller early Monday and “significantly changed” UA’s offer, which was initially around $2 million annually for a seven-year contract.

Miller also received assurances on schedules and the way the team would travel. (UA travels commercial, but books charter flights for certain occasions, such as the NCAA Tournament.

Livengood and Shelton met Sunday with Miller in New Mexico to persuade Miller to replace Olson, who was replaced last season by Russ Pennell on an interim basis. Miller returned to Cincinnati on UA booster Paul Weitman’s plane.

Miller apparently had told FoxSports.com late Sunday that he would not take the UA job, but changed his mind Monday.

Miller said he and Xavier athletic director Mike Bobinski were still talking about the Xavier job Monday morning in the coach’s kitchen. Miller added that he did not decide for sure to take the Arizona job until early afternoon.

“I respect his decision,” Bobinski said. “That doesn’t make me any less disappointed.”

Bobinski said coaches moving from job to job is simply a fact of life.

“If you’ve got coaches that other people aren’t interested in, you’ve got the wrong coaches,” he said. “The reason our coaches are in demand is we’re killin’ it.”

Miller said he wanted to make sure he left Xavier in the right way.

“I cannot say enough good things about this place. It defines who I am to a large degree,” Miller said.

He said he was grateful to Xavier for his three years as an assistant and five years as head coach and felt he had made a contribution.

“The legacy will certainly continue,” Miller said. “I know this machine will continue to move in a very positive direction.”

Bobinski called Miller “a terrific coach, a great friend.”

“He has helped bring us to the point where we are poised to be the very best we’ve ever been in our history,” Bobinski said. “We believe we are on the cusp of our greatest basketball ever.”

He said he realizes coaching at Xavier can be very different from a large state university.

“We’re not for everybody,” Bobinski said. “We need to find somebody who knows who we are and what we are all about.”

Miller will inherit a program with an elite reputation but short on talent because of its tenuous coaching situation. Olson took a leave of absence in the 2007-08 season but planned to return last fall. Just before the season started, he retired for health reasons.

Miller signed a contract extension at Xavier through the 2017-18 season, reportedly worth more than $800,000 a year.

Xavier advanced to the Sweet 16 in this season’s NCAA Tournament before losing 60-55 to top-seeded Pittsburgh. Xavier reached the Elite Eight in last year’s tourney before falling to UCLA.

Miller wasn’t Arizona’s first choice to succeed Olson. Tim Floyd rejected an offer to stay at Southern California.

Miller

By Wire Report, Staff

<h4>No contact here </h4>

Japan's Akinori Iwamura leaps to avoid the slide of Cuba's Ariel Pestano during the World Baseball Classic on Sunday in San Diego.

How close were the Arizona Wildcats to playing in the NIT?

They were the only at-larges seeded on the 12 line, but NCAA Tournament chairman Mike Slive wouldn’t say whether UA was the last at-large team chosen.

“We don’t keep track of who’s last,” Slive said. “This is the most gutwrenching moment of five long days.”

Slive said the committee traditionally looks at about eight teams for the final slots “when it gets down to making this agonizing decision.”

Vitale vs. Bilas on Gaels

Arizona sneaking into the tournament sparked quite a debate among television analysts – especially on ESPN.

Sunday morning, Digger Phelps argued for Arizona’s inclusion into the bracket. But Joe Lunardi, who does the ESPN brackets, starting as early as the day after one year’s Final Four looking ahead to the next, had Arizona out.

And after the draw, Jay Bilas and Dick Vitale had a testy tiff.

“I’m a little surprised Arizona got in,” Vitale said. “St. Mary’s, it’s heartbreak hotel . . . they got a raw deal. The (NCAA selection) committee went for the power conferences instead of rewarding the little Davids. I feel bad for Saint Mary’s, I think they belong in the tournament.”

Vitale was speaking via satellite. Bilas, in the ESPN studio, said to Vitale, “You think Saint Mary’s is better than Arizona? Saint Mary’s would win, head to head?”

Vitale said, “Yeah, I really do.”

From there the arguments became harder to decipher because Bilas and Vitale talked at the same time. Bilas said Saint Mary’s needed to schedule more big-time programs such as Gonzaga. Vitale said the Gaels tried and couldn’t.

“You’re wrong,” Bilas said.

Vitale said to do that, St. Mary’s would have to play twice away to get one game at home.

“Then you go to their place,” Bilas said.

Finally a red-faced Vitale told Bilas, “You win. You went to Duke, I didn’t.”

Now that was fun.

UCLA has tough draw

Seth Davis said it once, twice, three times. Virginia Commonwealth, seeded 11th, is going to beat sixth-seeded UCLA on Thursday in a first-round NCAA East Regional game in Philadelphia.

So take that, Bruins.

It would have made for much better television if UCLA Coach Ben Howland allowed television cameras to witness his team watch NCAA Selection Sunday. First up for the Bruins will be VCU, which is about a four-hour drive from Philadelphia, then maybe third-seeded Villanova, which happens to be located in . . . Philadelphia. One suspects the Bruins didn’t let out any enthusiastic whoops over that draw.

And it is emotion that makes Selection Sunday so fabulous. The Memphis Tigers as a group barely lifted a head, a finger, uttered a fake-happy cheer, when their No. 2 seed was revealed. Dissed again was what every expression in that room said.

It seemed as if the entire state of North Dakota was in the room where the North Dakota State officially received its first tournament bid.

Few spots for mid-majors

Although former champions Kentucky and Florida missed the NCAA tournament in historic fashion, schools from the non-power conferences suffered the deepest disappointment Sunday when the 65-team field was announced.

Of the 34 at-large berths available, 30 went to programs from the six largest conferences, continuing a trend that has seen the number of midmajor schools in the tournament dwindle since the high-water mark earlier this decade.

Midmajors earned 10 at-large bids in 2003 and 12 in 2004. Since then, the number had fallen to nine, six and six before Sunday.

“We look at teams, not at conferences,” said Slive, commissioner of the Southeastern Conference and chairman of the Division I men’s basketball committee.

Xavier and Dayton from the Atlantic 10 Conference, Butler from the Horizon and Brigham Young from the Mountain West were the only mid-major schools to receive at-large bids.

Saint Mary’s (West Coast), Creighton (Missouri Valley) and San Diego State (Mountain West) were among those left on the outside.

USA TODAY

Tar Heels an early favorite

LAS VEGAS – Nevada sports books have picked North Carolina as a slight favorite to win the NCAA tournament this year, assuming point guard Ty Lawson is OK to play.

Oddsmaker Dan O’Brien of Las Vegas Sports Consultants says the Tar Heels will likely get 5-2 odds in many books, or may be 2-1 favorites in casinos where many bettors have gambled on them.

North Carolina is a 4-to-1 choice, according to Keith Glantz and Russell Culver.

O’Brien says that without Lawson, who sat out of the ACC tournament last week, the Tar Heels would probably be underdogs compared with Louisville and Pittsburgh.

O’Brien says the No. 1 seeds will be considered slightly better this year than in past years.

The Associated Press

QUOTABLE

'It's the Huskies and the Zags. Just drive down. Sip a latte on the way.'

MARK FEW,

Gonzaga coach, telling fans in Washington to come down to watch UW and Gonzaga in the first round in nearby Portland, Ore.

———

SPORTS SOUND-OFF

Strength of schedule, quality wins aided Cats

Re: UA makes NCAA Tournament for 25th straight year

• The Cats have no business being in the tourney this year. They don’t deserve this bid. UA will be one and done.

OULSHAM

• How they got in is beyond me, but I’m happy for the team. Let’s hope Chase shows up and the coaches use the bench.

HANDWIND

• If you look at the “bubble teams” and with an “open mind” and sort everything out, you will see that Arizona does belong.

JUST A FAN

• I love the cats as much or more than anyone else (I have the Wildcat logo tattooed on my body), but they don’t deserve to be in this year. I feel bad for teams like San Diego State and Creighton that didn’t make it.

LV444

• I feel bad for a couple of teams, but Arizona deserved it as much as Wisconsin. It is a weird thing, but UA can beat any No. 1 seed on any given day, and can lose to any No. 16 seed.

YOUSTRULEY

• The new season begins for the Cats on Friday. Let’s get going. Utes will fall first!

HTFROGGER

• I knew they had the numbers and a better overall body of work than most of the bubble teams.

Was really sweating after (Tennessee’s) J.P. Prince missed that free throw and Mississippi State got the automatic bid in the SEC.

GUERT

• Gonzaga, Kansas, UCLA, Washington. Those teams are all well seeded in the dance and the Cats beat each of them!

6442

• I knew they were in, quality wins, and a decent strength of schedule. Pac-10 will have a better showing than the Big Ten again.

3231

———

UTAH

GAME-BY-GAME

(24-9)

L Southwest Baptist 80-79

W Wisconsin-Green Bay 79-60

W Mississippi 83-72

W Morgan State 66-37

W at Missouri State 71-58

W Oregon 95-81

L at Idaho State 72-68

L California 72-69

L Oklahoma 70-52

W Weber State 74-64

L at Utah State 66-64

W UC Irvine 60-52

W Gonzaga 66-65

W Wyoming 91-67

W LSU 91-61

L at San Diego State 72-63

W at Air Force 57-36

W Colorado State 82-66

L at UNLV 75-65

W BYU 94-88

W New Mexico 69-68

W TCU 62-54

W at Wyoming 80-70

W San Diego State 67-55

W Air Force 74-59

W at Colorado State 89-79

W UNLV 70-60

L at BYU 63-50

L at New Mexico 77-71

W TCU 68-49

W TCU 61-58

W Wyoming 68-55

W San Diego State 52-50

By Citizen Staff Report, Wire Report

Other tournament tidbits:

• A trend to remember for next year’s Accenture Match Play bracket pool: The better seed has won 19 of 32 first-round matches in seven of the past nine years, including Wednesday.

• Media credentials are up from last year, largely due to the interest in Tiger Woods’ comeback. There are 525 credentialed news people representing 187 news groups. There were 379 credentials for 128 outlets last year.

• As if losing to Davis Love III in 21 holes wasn’t painful enough, Henrik Stenson backed into a cholla cactus on the second extra hole during his second shot on the par-5, No. 2. As Stenson trudged back to the fairway, he had to pick a cluster of needles off his purple shirt. “I’ve got tweezers,” one fan called out.

By Wire Report, Staff