Terry Francona, the college Player of the Year in 1980, can now be seen on ESPN. Photo by Eric Hartline-US PRESSWIRE

Former Arizona All-American outfielder Terry Francona, fired as the Boston Red Sox manager, will be joining ESPN for next season, joining an impressive cast of ex-Cats in the media world.

Francona’s multiple duties will include joining the crew of Baseball Tonight and working as an analyst for Sunday Night Baseball, essentially switching jobs with Bobby Valentine, who replaced Francona as the Red Sox manager.

Francona, with his mix of humor, storytelling ability and honesty, should be brilliant in his new role.

He joins a few other ex-Cats at ESPN — NFL analysts Tedy Bruschi and Antonio Pierce, and college basketball analyst Miles Simon.

The most visible Wildcat on TV could be Steve Kerr, who made a big name as a five-time NBA champion and the general manager of the Phoenix Suns. He returned last season to the lead NBA analyst role for TNT.

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Steve Kerr celebrates the last of his five NBA championships with the San Antonio Spurs in 2003. Photo by Matt Rourke/AFP/Getty Images)

Had an interesting discussion last night. Which former Arizona Wildcat has had the best NBA career?

The debate started on KCUB 1290-AM during the drive-time In the House show. Guest hosts Brad Allis and John Schuster posed the question for their listeners, with Schuster, in particular, making the case for newly-crowned NBA champion Jason Terry.

A couple of months ago, Terry wouldn’t have been in the forefront of the discussion. But he’s earned his championship ring — and he was especially good in the final two games as the Dallas Mavericks closed out the NBA Finals in six games against the Miami Heat.

But has Terry really had the best NBA career of all the ex-Wildcats?

That conversation continued later last night as Allis and Schuster joined me and TucsonCitizen.com bloggers (and former Arizona basketball beat reporters) Steve Rivera and Javier Morales at a northwest side establishment. Allis also blogs at TucsonCitizen.com.

Rivera said the choice was a no-brainer: Steve Kerr.

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Arizona forward Kevin Parrom (left) congratulates Derrick Williams after Williams' last-second block.
Photo by Chris Morrison-US PRESSWIRE

Arizona’s Derrick Williams has won games with his offense. With his right hand, left hand, inside, outside, from the foul line, on the glass.

Add, now, with one shining moment of defense.

On ESPN, in the biggest game of coach Sean Miller’s two seasons with the Wildcats, with Arizona protecting the Pac-10 lead and aiming for a top 10 national ranking, Derrick Williams used his wrapped right hand to swat a potential game-winning shot out of bounds in the final second.

A walk-off block.

That block of Darnell Gant’s short jumper from the right side preserved 12th-ranked Arizona’s 87-86 victory over Washington at McKale Center. The white-clad crowd of 14,619 went wild as the final 0.2 seconds ticked off after a final in-bounds pass, and the Wildcats buried Williams under a celebration pile, with trainer Justin Kokoskie rushing over to hold Williams’ hand — still wrapped to protect what has been called a finger injury — away from the mass of humanity.

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Former UA linebacker Antonio Pierce, here celebrating the New York Giants' victory in Super Bowl XLII in Glendale, will have new duties in front of the camera this season.
Photo by John David Mercer, US Presswire

NOTE: This is part of the weekly “Nothing But The Notes” column at WildcatSportsReport.com, one of the partners in the TucsonCitizen.com Sports Network. For notes on basketball recruiting, incoming freshman guard Daniel Bejarano, sophomore big man Kyryl Natyazhko and more, check out the link at WildcatSportsReport.com.

Now-retired New York Giants linebacker Antonio Pierce announced last week he is joining ESPN as an analyst, yet another ex-Wildcat in a prominent TV role.

Tedy Bruschi joined ESPN after retiring last summer, former Suns general manager Steve Kerr will become a lead NBA game analyst for TNT next season, Glenn Parker is a college football analyst for Versus, and Joe Magrane works for the MLB Network.

Moreover, UA grad Dan Hicks is one of NBC’s announcing stars. Sean Elliott was at ESPN for a while; now he works on local San Antonio Spurs telecasts. Tom Tolbert was an NBA analyst with NBC, ABC and ESPN (he was part of the broadcasting team of the 2003 NBA Finals with Brad Nessler and Bill Walton) before becoming solely a radio personality in San Francisco.

Miles Simon, after his contract as an assistant Arizona basketball coach was not renewed in the summer of 2008, worked last season as a college basketball analyst for Fox Sports Net.

All in all, an impressive roster of ex-Cats in the TV biz.

Who’s your TV favorite? Anybody we missed? …

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Jennie Finch is currently competing for Team USA at the ISF World Championship in Venezuela.

The website WildAboutAZCats.com — one of our partners in the TucsonCitizen.com Sports Network — has been running a bracket contest called “Bear Down Leader.”

It has pitted 32 of the greatest Arizona Wildcats athletes of all-time against each other, with readers voting for the winner.

It’s not strictly a “who’s best” argument, or who had the most lucrative pro career, or who is the most famous.

The way I’ve interpreted the competition is like this: Which former UA athlete do you think best represents Arizona?

The answer to that, for me, is Jennie Finch.

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Legendary UA men's basketball coach Lute Olson awaits new UA athletic director Greg Byrne, left, at Byrne's introductory press conference/Photo by Mark Evans, TucsonCitizen.com

New Arizona athletic director Greg Byrne shares something with almost all Wildcats fans. Even though he attended Arizona State, he appreciates Lute Olson and the basketball program.

One of the first things Byrne did Wednesday at his introductory press conference at McKale Center was acknowledge the presence of Olson, standing in the back of the room.

“I looked up to him for a lot of years as a young fan,” said the 38-year-old Byrnes. “I was a basketball player that he certainly didn’t know who I was because of my ability. It’s great to be around him today.”

Byrne said he remembers attending the Pac-10 tournament, when it was held in McKale during the 1987-88 season. His father, Bill Byrne, was the athletic director at Oregon at the time.

“Steve Kerr would throw in a 3-pointer and the whole crowd would yell out, ‘Steeeeve Kerrrrr,’” Byrne said. “I remember getting to meet Sean Elliott when I was a high school basketball player and how thrilled I was at that opportunity.”

Olson, who retired because of health reasons just before the 2008-09 season, said it’s not unusual to hear how the basketball program has impacted people, even those from rival schools.

“I hear that from Washington, Washington State, pretty much up and down (the Pac-10) and nationally, people who have followed the program,” Olson said.

“I think the basketball program through the years has been a good selling point for the university. I still run into students who come and say, ‘The reason I came here was because of you and the basketball program.’

“You don’t realize those things are out there. That’s the far-reaching success of good athletic programs. Just like with the swimming program and the softball program. We, without a doubt, have the best ‘Olympic sports’ coaching staff in the country. There is no one who even comes close, in my opinion.”

And now Byrne, whose dad knew Olson from Pac-10 meetings, is in charge of it all.

Olson approves, which still means something.

The Hall of Fame coach cited Byrne’s experience within the Oregon and Oregon State athletic departments.

“I think that it is important that we get somebody who is familiar with this conference,” Olson said. “And with his experience as a fund-raiser, I think that is critical. I think there is a lot of work to be done in that area.”

Would you vote for Jerryd Bayless (Phoenix St. Mary's) as the best high basketball player in Arizona history?/Tucson Citizen photo

That is the question asked Saturday by the Arizona Republic’s Richard Obert, who makes the case that Corey Hawkins, a senior guard from Goodyear Estrella Foothills High school, deserves to be in the discussion.

Hawkins will play at Arizona State next season.

The poll at azcentral.com lists Hawkins, along with Mike Bibby, Sean Elliott, Fat Lever, Jerryd Bayless, Richard Jefferson and Mark Alarie (as well as a “someone else” option).

As of Saturday mid-afternoon, Hawkins was leading the voting. He recently passed Bibby’s career state scoring record.

I’m sticking with Bibby as my selection, although my sentimental pick is Alarie, if only because he was a senior at Phoenix Brophy in the early 1980s when I was a freshman. He had some epic prep battles against 7-footer Brad Lohaus from Phoenix Greenway (usually winning those head-to-head matchups), and then went on to help launch Mike Krzyzewski‘s program at Duke.

Anyway, with four ex-Arizona Wildcats on the list, as well as two local candidates in Elliott (Cholla High) and Lever (Pueblo), I thought the TucsonCitizen.com readership might want to have their say in the voting.

So … check it out at azcentral.com.

More on Hawkins from TucsonCitizen.com from January:
Unrated ASU recruit out to prove he is the best player in the state

Jordan Hill takes a shot (with Chase Budinger on far right) against Stanford last season/Tucson Citizen photo

Chase Budinger and Jordan Hill, who both left Arizona last year after their junior seasons, have been reunited with the Houston Rockets.

Hill, the eighth pick in the NBA Draft, never found his footing with the New York Knicks — was that his fault or the fault of a poorly-run franchise? — and was part of a three-team, eight-player trade at the trade deadline on Thursday.

Hill will go to the Rockets, who nabbed Budinger in the middle of the second round with the 44th overall pick.

Hill and Budinger were in Tucson last weekend during the break for the NBA All-Star weekend, hanging out with their former teammates.

“I think it’s great,” UA junior forward Jamelle Horne said of the trade. “I think they’re going to have a great time. They are truly blessed to be together in the NBA at the next level. I think they will be good together. … Or they could be really bad together.”

That last part was a little joke — perhaps a reference to too much partying? — but the early change of scenery should be good for Hill. He played in only 24 games with New York, averaging 4.0 points and 2.5 rebounds.

He already has garnered the “bust” label from Knicks fans, who would have liked point guard Brandon Jennings (or a few other players) at the No. 8 spot in the draft.

With his relative lack of basketball experience, Hill still has lots of upside, and playing time should be more available with the Rockets. It took him a while to adjust to Arizona; his learning curve could be similar in the NBA.

Budinger, who slid further in the draft than everyone expected, has been more than solid as a rookie, considering where he ended up in the second round. As a bench player, he is averaging 8.3 points, 2.9 rebounds and is hitting 34.4 percent of his 3-pointers.

He has scored in double figures in five of the past seven games.

Now, he has his ol’ UA buddy with him.

The Arizona Wildcats have sent so many players to the pros in the past 20 years or so that it’s not usual when there is more than one Wildcat on an NBA roster.

The question is, how many players have been teammates at UA and in the NBA?

Our sports partner, WildAboutAZCats.com, lists three four cases:

–Steve Kerr and Jud Buechler (Chicago Bulls, 1994-98).
–Steve Kerr and Sean Elliott (San Antonio Spurs, 1998-2001).
–Brian Williams and Jud Buechler (Chicago Bulls, 1996-97). Yes, Kerr was on the team, too, but Kerr and Williams were not teammates at UA, like Williams and Buechler were for the 1989-90 season.
–Mike Bibby and Michael Dickerson (Vancouver Grizzlies, 1999-2001)