The Star's longtime columnist on how Desireé Reed-Francois can turn the Wildcats back into a top-20 overall athletics program, Sunnyside grad Romano Bravo's Young path to the Olympics, Brent Brennan's busy schedule and if the WNIT would actually be better in the long run for this year's UA women's basketball team.
Greg Hansen's Sunday Notebook is presented this week by .
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What new AD Reed-Francois can learn from her UA predecessors
Former Arizona AD Greg Byrne once told me he didn’t pay a cent to an outside firm to find and hire UA head coaches Clancy Shields, Laura Ianello, Jim Anderson, Adia Barnes and Jay Johnson, those who combined to win six Pac-12 championships, play in two national championship games and win an NCAA title.
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Byrne’s instincts and sports IQ are why he is the AD at Alabama, perhaps the top AD job in college sports. It came to mind when UA president Bobby Robbins, in record time, hired Mizzouri AD Desireé Reed-Francois without assistance.
By comparison, Mizzou president Mun Choi last week formed a nine-member search committee and agreed to pay TurnkeyZRG search firm an estimated $250,000 to find a replacement.
What a colossal waste of manpower and money. Byrne had already moved from Arizona to Alabama when a similar firm in the same industry, DHR Global, accepted $200,000-plus in 2018 from Arizona to “find" and hire former Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin.
Reed-Francois would do well to match Byrne’s abilities in fund-raising, facility improvement and connecting with the community. Hiring coaches is another level altogether. The men’s basketball coach she left at Missouri, Dennis Gates, just finished the SEC season 0-18.
How do you find the right AD?
Arizona found the right AD in 1958 when it hired New Mexico football coach Dick Clausen and again in 1982 when it hired Houston AD Cedric Dempsey to rescue a foundering, financially-strapped Arizona athletic department. Looking back, reading the news accounts of their arrivals in Tucson were similar to Reed-Francois’ move from Mizzou to Arizona.
Said Clausen in May ’58: “I am very much aware of the problems at Arizona.’’ He suggested, as has Reed-Francois, that a “survey’’ of the athletic department staff and key donors would “help me get acquainted with the problems and needs.’’
Said Dempsey in August ’82, after taking a pay cut to leave a Final Four basketball program and a Cotton Bowl football power at Houston: “My wife and I are going to have to gamble that something is going to work out. It would be presumptuous of me to walk in thinking I could change the world.’’
Both Clausen and Dempsey “changed the world’’ for UA sports.
Clausen inherited a 1-8-1 football team and a 10-15 basketball program. In two years, he became the co-founder of the WAC conference, which meant the Wildcats no longer played Hardin-Simmons and West Texas State every year. He forged the idea to build McKale Center and get it done. He became the first WAC AD to hire a Black head coach. He laid the foundation for entry to the Pac-8. Clausen was a home run hitter.
Dempsey inherited a 4-24 basketball program, a football club on a three-year NCAA probation and an under-water financial mess. He instituted “priority seating’’ charges for football and basketball tickets, making it possible for the Wildcats to climb out of a historic financial deficit. He hired Mike Candrea, Lute Olson, Frank Busch, Joan Bonvicini, Dick Tomey and Dave Rubio. Wow.
Reed-Francois has a tough act to follow. It is because of Clausen, Dempsey, Jim Livengood and Byrne that Arizona leap-frogged ASU and often was viewed as one of the NCAA’s top 20 athletic departments over the last 50 years. That’s why Reed-Francois’ hire is so important. It’s up to her to rebuild the school’s status, which is now closer to No. 35 or 40 in the NCAA.
The strengths of her leading predecessors?
Clausen: He had the courage to make monumental changes, such as creating the WAC. He insisted on taking the UA’s first steps toward racial diversity. He fought the state legislature to get funding to build McKale Center. He was new-school when old-school was losing its appeal.
Dempsey: He pursued excellence and was surrounded by Hall of Fame-timber senior staffers such as Mary Roby, Bob Bockrath, John Perrin, Rocky LaRose and Tom Sanders. That’s not the case at Arizona today. When Arizona’s football coaching vacancy opened in 1987, Dempsey not only sought Ohio State’s Earl Bruce, but got Bruce to accept the job before his assistants talked him out of it. Unreal. Dempsey saw few barriers and carried himself and the athletic department with confidence.
Livengood: His fiscal responsibility and integrity aren’t as appreciated in today’s “put it on the debt service tab’’ amid Wild, Wild West-type player and coach movement. Had Livengood’s timing not been so unfortunate, matched with a weak president, Robert Shelton, and burdened by Olson’s bumpy retirement episodes, his legacy would be much stronger.
Reed-Francois is the fifth female athletic director in Pac-12 history. Two were fired: Cal’s Sandy Barbour and ASU’s Lisa Love. One excelled: Washington’s Barbara Hedges. The other, new USC athletic director Jen Cohen, is probably in the middle.
It’s not a business for the timid. Much like Dempsey in 1982, Reed-Francois has surely discovered she’s going to have to bet on herself, gambling that something works out.
Bravo-Young path to Olympics a wise one
In the fall of 2018, Sunnyside High junior Roman Bravo-Young sent me an email inviting me to the Blue Devils’ practice facility. At the time, he was a two-time, undefeated state champion. On Labor Day morning, I met Bravo-Young and watched his two-hour workout.
I came away with a one-word impression: Winner. Bravo-Young went on to a 182-0 career at Sunnyside and won two NCAA championships at Penn State.
Last week, Bravo-Young didn’t need to send an email to get attention. He qualified for Mexico’s 2024 Paris Olympics team by winning three matches in a qualifying tournament in Acapulco. At 25, it’s conceivable he’ll have this summer and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics to win a gold medal.
Bravo-Young made a smart move by using his family’s Mexican ancestry to find the surest route to Paris. The American weight class at 57 kg (about 125) pounds is loaded. Former Illinois All-American Zane Richards, 30, is the 2023 Pan Am Games gold medalist; former Iowa three-time NCAA champion Thomas Gilman, 29, won the bronze medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics; and former Oklahoma State three-time NCAA champion Dalton Fix, finished No. 2 in the 2021 world championships.
The Olympics wrestling competition will be Aug. 5-11. Bravo’s story should be front and center.
Short stuff: Cotton's Olympic plans unknown, Brennan's busy schedule, Big 12 should help UA's TV numbers
• Tucsonan Bryce Cotton of Palo Verde High School, who was named the Australian Basketball League’s MVP for the fourth time this season, remains unclear about his chances to play for Australia in the Paris Olympics this summer. His attempt to get Australian citizenship for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics got trapped in political red tape, and now, four years later, remains unknown. Cotton, believed to be the highest-paid player in the ABL, at about $600,000 per season, has lived in Australia since 2017. He averaged 23.1 points for the Perth Wildcats this season, leading the league. ...
• UA football coach Brent Brennan’s travel log since becoming the Wildcats head coach two months ago has been Planes, Trains and Automobiles on steroids. It would be difficult to imagine anyone busier, putting together a staff, working 24/7 on roster management and recruiting, moving his family from San Jose to Tucson, and being in great demand to make public appearances. He’s not a “just say no’’ person. Last week, for example, Brennan was scheduled to speak at the monthly Tucson Rotary Club luncheon. But his plans changed. Instead of stiffing the Rotarians, Brennan sent UA football Hall of Famers Chuck Cecil and Ricky Hunley, and staffers/ex-Wildcat NFL players Bobby Wade, Brandon Sanders and Syndric Steptoe to the luncheon. Brennan also committed to speak to the Rotary Club at its March luncheon. Nice move. ...
• Fired by the Washington Huskies in 2017, Lorenzo Romar moved to Tucson to be Sean Miller’s top assistant coach. At 58, he seemed to be done as a head coach. His last six UW teams had not reached the NCAA Tournament, going 9-22 his final season. But Pepperdine hired Romar in 2019. It was risky. Last week, the Waves fired Romar, who went 117-156 overall (42.9%) and just 51-84 in the WCC (37.8%). Hiring a retread and aging coach is almost always the wrong move. ...
• When Canyon del Oro last week hired Scott McKee to replace two-time state championship football coach Dusty Peace, it bought into one of Tucson’s most successful coaching families. Scott, who played at Sahuaro High and was a special teams performer for Arizona in the late ’90s, has been head coach at Pueblo and Sahuaro. His father, Larry McKee, was the head football coach at Pueblo and Sabino after his days as a starting offensive lineman at Arizona. The McKee’s have won 107 games jointly in Tucson prep football. The only other father-son combination in Tucson prep football to win more was Ollie and Todd Mayfield, who won 312 games at Tucson High, Sabino and Palo Verde from the mid-1960s to 2010. ...
• The Pac-12 last week announced a sponsorship deal with Oakley, the well-known sunglasses firm. It seemed a little odd. The Pac-12 will all but be gone in June. But Oakley signed the four-month deal to get some TV time during the Pac-12 men’s and women’s basketball tournaments. Sometimes you wonder if anyone watches the Pac-12 Network. ...
• Last week, Sports Media Watch revealed the number of TV viewers for all regular-season football games, 2016-23, involving next year’s Big 12 teams. The numbers were gathered by the official Nielsen TV ratings on ABC, Fox, CBS, NBC and ESPN. The top five: Oklahoma State, 103 million; TCU, 95 million; Colorado, 91 million; West Virginia, 73 million; Utah, 65 million. The bottom five: ASU, 42 million; Cincinnati, 40 million; Central Florida, 36 million; Arizona, 31 million; Kansas, 27 million. Arizona should be one of the most to benefit from no longer playing in those Pac-12 After Dark games seen by few and fewer.
My two cents: Would WNIT-type option suit Wildcats better this year?
Perhaps you noticed last week that former Arizona women’s basketball players Aaronette Vonleh of Colorado and Maddie Conner of TCU were included in the Pac-12 and Big 12 all-conference awards.
Imagine if Adia Barnes’ team had been able to use Conner’s 20.1 points per game at TCU and Vonley’s inside presence at CU, where she scored 13.8 per game. Those two players could’ve put ÃÛÌÒÓ°ÏñAV on a run to the Sweet 16 or Elite Eight.
Yet through all the player transfers, including Virginia starter Paris Clark and Texas A&M starter Lauren Ware, the 17-15 Wildcats are probably going to get one of the two or three final berths when the NCAA Tournament brackets are announced. It should come down to Arizona, Wisconsin-Green Bay, Columbia and Penn State for a final spot or two in the Big Dance.
I ask: Would Arizona be better in the independently-run  (Women's National Invitation Tournament), which it won in 2019, drawing 42,352 fans for six McKale games against secondary competition? It was the fuel that led Arizona to the 2021 Final Four and regular season crowds in excess of 7,000.
The new NCAA-run (Women's Basketball Invitation Tournament), in its first year, would be another option promising similar benefits to the known WNIT.
If Arizona is included in the NCAA brackets, it would likely be an 11 seed, on the road. Would it be preferable for the numbers-challenged Wildcats to make a brief appearance in the NCAA, or make a run to the WNIT title before big crowds in Tucson?
Contact sports columnist Greg Hansen at GHansenAZStar@gmail.com. On X(Twitter): @ghansen711