Livengood so-so hiring coaches for UA men’s teams
Livengood's winning percentage with UA men's coaching hires is arguably .583
Inevitably when discussing Jim Livengood’s hires at the University of Arizona, since he replaced the highly successful Cedric Dempsey in January 1994, one name always gets more play than others:
John Mackovic.
I won’t waste space here detailing what Mackovic did to the UA football program. Let’s just say people still complain that Dick Tomey was forced to resign in 2000 in favor of the inconsonant Mackovic. This is still the case despite the fact Livengood’s signature hire to date — Mike Stoops — appears to be headed in the right direction after a tumultuous start.
The truth is Livengood has made slightly more good hires than bad, if you look at the current roll of men’s coaches (I will detail the women’s coaching moves tomorrow).
You could say he has a record of 3-2-1 in permanent hires (the interim tags of Kevin O’Neill and Russ Pennell shouldn’t count because they were put in that position by Lute Olson). Livengood has righted himself twice after hiring and firing Mackovic, and hiring and then forcing longtime UA baseball man Jerry Stitt to leave the program in 2001.
The wins: Hiring Stoops (who just coached the UA to its first bowl in 10 years), Andy Lopez to replace Stitt, and James Li to head the men’s and women’s cross country teams after longtime coach Dave Murray resigned in 2002. Lopez took the UA to the College World Series in 2004, its first trip there in 18 years. Li is thought highly enough by his peers that he was selected as the manager of the U.S. Track and Field team for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
The losses: Bringing aboard Mackovic and promoting Stitt, although Stitt was a likeable coach around McKale Center to the day he left the program.
The tie: Hiring Tad Berkowitz to replace longtime tennis coach Bill Wright in 2004. Berkowitz, who was promoted as an assistant, is 36-38 as head coach, but the UA has started 8-1 this season.
It’s obvious that Livengood looks at Wildcat athletics as a sort of rainbow coalition – he has hired a man of Chinese descent (Li) to lead the cross country program and a Mexican-American (Lopez) to coach the baseball team. This does not mean Livengood will hire a minority to replace Olson but don’t be surprised.
The late Fred “The Fox” Snowden was the first African-American to coach a major college basketball program in 1972 when he was hired by former UA athletic director Dave Strack. Ten years later, he was forced to leave the program in favor of the worst hire in school history, Ben Lindsey (yes, even more so than Mackovic’s hiring). Snowden’s departure was the last time — 27 years ago — that the UA employed a minority as a head coach of one of its major revenue programs (football and men’s basketball). The school has hired three football coaches and two basketball coaches in that span.
Livengood has not been forced to make a hire in track and field, golf, and swimming and diving, because each of those sports have featured coaches with long tenures: Fred Harvey (track), Rick LaRose (golf), Frank Busch (swimming) and Michele Mitchell (diving).
So should Livengood’s 3-2-1 record in hires for men’s programs be a concern? Certainly. Does the fact that he replaced two legendary figures at the school — Tomey and Jerry Kindall — with two coaches he would soon fire or force to resign? Of course.
Now comes the responsibility of replacing the ultimate legend in Lute Olson. It’s no wonder UA fans are blue in the face from holding their breath on this one. Question is, will there be a sigh of relief, or will the faithful faint from shock after learning of Livengood’s hire?
Let’s just hope it will not be a case of John Mackovic revisited. Another Andy Lopez is more like it.
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