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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Steve Kerr will be doing a lot of talking in front of the camera in April.
2010 photo by Emmanuel Lozano, The Arizona Republic

Arizona basketball great Steve Kerr will be back in the Final Four this season, 23 years after helping lead the Wildcats there.

Kerr, an NBA analyst for TNT and an occasional college analyst for Fox Sports Net, will join CBS for the Final Four games on April 2 and the national championship game two nights later. He will join play-by-play man Jim Nantz and Clark Kellogg on the telecast.

(Richard Deitsch of SI.com has many more details about the new broadcaster configurations for the NCAA Tournament.)

For Arizona fans, it will be nice to have Kerr in such a prominent college role, especially one in which he excels. Kerr is a natural storyteller and completely at ease on the air — lighthearted yet informative.

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A little bonus for Arizona basketball fans this weekend: Wildcat great Steve Kerr will be helping call Sunday’s game against Oklahoma for the national telecast on Fox Sports Net.

Kerr will be working with play-by-play man Steve Physioc. The game begins at 2 p.m. at McKale Center.

Kerr, who stepped down as the general manager of the Phoenix Suns after last season, will work two other games for FSN: UCLA at USC on Jan. 9, and Arizona State at Arizona on Jan. 15.

In other Kerr-related news …

Nice story in the San Diego Union Tribune on Kerr and his son, Nick, who is a senior at Torrey Pines High School. Nick — naturally, an excellent shooter, will be attending the University of San Diego.

“I want to look like that,” Nick said of his dad’s form. “His shot was incredible. That’s what I’m trying to get to. He shot 56 percent as a senior in college. That’s just incredible.”

You can also see Steve in Arizona’s intro video that is played at McKale Center, although this is the original version, not the version that was updated after the first game to splice in Derrick Williams’ over-the-head one-handed dunk.

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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Steve Kerr talks to the media after the Suns lost to the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals/Photo by Emmanuel Lozano, The Arizona Republic

Former University of Arizona star Steve Kerr, who has been the general manager of the Phoenix Suns for the past three seasons, will step down when his contract expires on June 30, according to the Arizona Republic.

The story says Kerr will return to television in a role as NBA analyst, presumably to fill a spot at TNT, which recently lost Doug Collins, who became the head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers. Kerr previously worked for TNT.

The Suns were 54-28 in the 2009-10 regular season, losing to the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Finals.

Kerr seems to have set the Suns on a good path, although not all of his moves worked out … and his tenure certainly wasn’t dull.

Bringing in Terry Porter as coach and Shaquille O’Neal as the answer at center were disasters, but at least Kerr quickly acknowledged the mistakes. He fired Porter after 51 games and spent just a year-and-a-half with the Big Cactus.

On the plus side, Kerr kept Steve Nash and Grant Hill, hired coach Alvin Gentry, reconfigured the bench, brought in sharp-shooting ex-cat forward Channing Frye last season and drafted still-promising 7-footer Robin Lopez in the 2008 first round, although that seemed like a reach at the time.

“It’s definitely been an interesting three years for both of us and the organization,” Suns managing partner Robert Sarver told the Republic.

“Overall, I think he did a very good job to put us on solid ground with players and coaches, getting a defensive emphasis and got the ground laid on teamwork and chemistry. We’re in a pretty good spot moving forward and a lot of it has to do with moves he’s made. There were some good moves and bad moves, which goes with the job. But overall, I think he’s done a very good job.”

RELATED: The Republic has a slideshow of Kerr, mostly from his time as the Suns’ GM

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)