"Tell them … tell the team to bear down"

WSU inked Moos this week for $455,000 annually

Washington State’s hiring of former Oregon athletic director Bill Moos this week potentially set the tone in terms of salary structure for Arizona in its athletic director search

By Anthony Gimino and Javier Morales

Some members of the Arizona Board of Regents who publicly balked at the $2 million annual salary of UA basketball coach Sean Miller — that’s called market value, folks — should take heed at what happened at Washington State last week. The Cougars hired former Oregon athletic director Bill Moos to lead its athletic department at a cost of $455,000 a year. Before leaving Arizona earlier this year, Jim Livengood was making $372,000 per year. Bottom line: UA and the board of regents can’t be afraid of taking on more salary when it hires a new athletic director. The market is what the market is.

Washington State president Elson Floyd is staunch in his support of Moos’ salary saying: “It’s over the average. I want it to be over the average. We are not an average institution so we don’t pay at that level.” Money to Moos is important but it might not mean everything. Moos, formerly the athletic director at Oregon, had a non-compete clause in his contract with the Ducks, entitling him to $1.4 million over the next seven years as long as he is not hired by a BCS school west of the Mississippi. … On the other end of the spectrum, Old Dominion hired Wood Selig away from Western Kentucky as its athletic director this week for $250,000 over three years. Jim Sterk, the man Moos replaced at Washington State, signed a deal with a base salary of $225,000 at San Diego State. Sterk will make $70,000 from non-state funds in addition to his base university salary. The finalized deal also includes a $140,000 housing loan and two donated vehicles or a monthly stipend of $750 per vehicle. Sterk also has the ability to earn performance-based incentives. The extreme: Recently hired Michigan athletic director David Brandon is reportedly paid up to $825,000 annually in Ann Arbor. He left his CEO position at Domino’s Pizza with a contract worth $2.6 million to return to his alma mater, where he played football. The new Arizona athletic director could very well ink a contract worth close to $500,000 annually. …

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High-profile prep programs came calling but he stayed in Phoenix

By Javier Morales

Potential Class of 2011 recruit Nick Johnson, who is being sought by UA and ASU, left Gilbert Highland High School this season for high-profile Findlay Prep in Henderson, Nevada

Phoenix North shooting guard Daniel Bejarano, rated the No. 1 Class of 2010 prospect in the state by Rivals.com, Scout.com and Hoopmasters.com, could be playing elsewhere for one of those high-profile college preparatory outfits such as Findlay Prep in Henderson, Nevada, if he so desired. Bejarano, who has signed a national letter of intent with Sean Miller at Arizona, watched ESPN’s coverage Monday of those elite high school programs, including Newark (N.J.) St. Benedict’s Prep, which features his potential future Arizona teammate, Class of 2011 power forward Sidiki Johnson. Bejarano observed former Gilbert Highland player Nick Johnson, who is now a Class of 2011 guard with Findlay, score 16 points in the Pilots’ upset of No. 1 ranked St. Patrick (N.J.), 71-70, at the Hoophall Classic in Springfield, Mass.

Sidiki Johnson also left a traditional high school, transferring out of St. Raymond’s High School in the Bronx to attend St. Benedict’s. “Yeah, I saw of those games on ESPN,” Bejarano told me this week. “I wish some of our games at North were televised like that (nationally). (The coverage) is not fair to some of us who play in high school, but that’s just the way it is. I could get more exposure playing for some of those prep schools, but I didn’t want to hurt my North teammates by leaving them behind. To tell you the truth, when I was in eighth grade, I was not even focused on going to high school. As I’ve grown up, I’ve realized it’s the best thing that could have happened to me. The guys at North are like brothers to me. We grew up together. We’re from the same neighborhood. It would have been very hard to leave those guys and move to one of these prep schools. You know, players one through 12, we’re a close family.” … That bond with his teammates started their freshmen season in 2006-07, when five players (who are now seniors), played significant minutes for North’s team that advanced to the state semifinals. Former UA coach Lute Olson was the first to recruit Bejarano that season after the guard scored 37 points against Phoenix St. Mary’s and former UA guard Jerryd Bayless. “I look at our team at Arizona now and we have a lot of freshmen like we did that year (in 2007),” Bejarano said. “I know our guys (Arizona) can get it done even though they’re freshmen. It’s all about playing as a team and playing with heart because their talent is not developed yet. That’s how we were as freshmen at North. We were like family who really did not care how young we were. We just played ball. That’s all it comes down to. Just play ball. We only lost four games that season.” …

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Once projected to be a Sun Devil, he’s not fond of ASU

By Javier Morales

UA’s lone Class of 2010 recruit to date, Daniel Bejarano of Phoenix North, knows what’s in store from ASU fans this week as Arizona prepares for Saturday’s game at Tempe.

“I know I’ll be hearing a bunch of nonsense, but I’m ready for it,” Bejarano said Monday night. “I’m actually going to try to make it. This game is pretty big to me. It’s very big to our team (Arizona) and I think we will come out on top.”

Bejarano, a shooting guard who should enhance Arizona’s three-point production as early as next year, said he does not hate ASU, but he carries hard feelings after the way the Sun Devils’ coaching staff pulled a scholarship offer from him during his recruitment.

ASU coach Herb Sendek and his staff reportedly did not like how Bejarano questioned their style of coaching on offense. They wanted to pull the scholarship before Bejarano had a chance to reject them after officially visiting Arizona that week.

Please read the rest of this blog at TucsonCitizen.com

An add to this: Bejarano was recruited first by ASU before Texas entered the picture. He committed to Texas because of the open-court style of play coached by Rick Barnes. After de-committing from the Longhorns because they continued to recruit players at his position, Bejarano opened the recruitment to ASU and Arizona.

Shortly thereafter, Sendek, who coaches more of a half-court motion offense, pulled the scholarship offer.

In terms of Bejarano’s season, he is averaging 19.7 points, 6.5 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game for North, which is 14-3 heading into tonight’s game with Gilbert. His individual priority this season is to work on his ball-handling skills with the left hand and generate offense on the weak side.

“Things are going great with that,” Bejarano said. “I will continue to work on it but I like how I’ve been able to go to my left more. It’s made me a better player. I am just ready to go the UA and try to help this team.”

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Loss of Mark Stoops to FSU requires decision to make

By Anthony Gimino and Javier Morales

UA linebackers coach Tim Kish, part of Stoops’ staff since 2004 and an effective recruiter, is a candidate for the UA’s defensive coordinator position

Mike Stoops hasn’t had to make a lot of agonizing decisions with his coaching staff in six seasons, having to replace only one coordinator — offensive coordinator Mike Canales after the 2006 season. Now, he has to replace his younger brother, defensive coordinator Mark Stoops, who is stepping into the same role — with a much bigger spotlight — at Florida State. If things work at well at Florida State for Mark Stoops, working with new FSU coach Jimbo Fisher, he’ll be able to jump from there to a BCS-conference head coaching job in a few years. Perhaps this even makes him more viable for a return someday as the head man at Arizona if Mike were to move on. In the meantime, Mike Stoops probably doesn’t have to over-think this decision. Maybe he has somebody special in mind, but, if not, just promote linebackers coach Tim Kish, who has held the defensive coordinator position at Illinois (1997-2000), Ohio (2001) and Indiana (2002-03). Kish is now one of two coaches — defensive line coach Mike Tuiasosopo is the other — who have been with Mike the whole time at Arizona. Mike still has a large hand in the defense, and Kish figures to seamlessly be able to carry out the head coach’s vision. … There are two voters in the Harris Poll with strong Arizona connections. One is former Tucson Citizen columnist Corky Simpson and the other is former UA offensive lineman Joe Smigiel. They both had reasonable picks for Arizona in the final regular-season poll, which is one-third of the BCS rankings. Simpson had the Wildcats at No. 22; Smigiel picked them 18th. … Arizona will leave for San Diego and its Holiday Bowl preparations on Dec. 24. The game is Dec. 30. …

Much already has been made and will be made of the connections between the Stoops family and the Pelini family. Both are from Youngstown, Ohio, and the brothers in both families played sports with each other growing up. Now, Mike Stoops and Bo Pelini will oppose each other as head coaches when Arizona plays Nebraska in the Holiday Bowl. Mike is older, so it was Bo who played in the same secondary as Mark Stoops at Cardinal Mooney High School. Who was better: Mark or Bo? “Probably Bo,” Mike said Friday. He added with a laugh: “But I was better than both of them.” … Former UA receivers coach and recruiting coordinator Rob Ianello was chosen the head coach at Akron this week. Ianello had been with Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis for the past five seasons. Ianello always has been known as an ace recruiter but boosted his coaching cred with the Irish, helping players such as Jeff Samardzija, Rhema McKnight, Maurice Stovall, Golden Tate and Michael Floyd. Ianello is familiar with the recruiting turf of the Ohio region, so it’s a good fit in that regard. Ianello now joins a select group of college head coaches who never played college football. Others include Texas Tech’s Mike Leach, Duke’s David Cutcliffe, Georgia Tech’s Paul Johnson and Central Florida’s George O’Leary. Two others who were on that list — Weis and Kansas’ Mark Mangino — were fired earlier this month. …

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Win can net him $40,000 in bonuses

Mike Stoops

By Anthony Gimino and Javier Morales

A victory over USC could mean $40,000 in bonuses for UA coach Mike Stoops. Here’s how it works: He already has received a $40,000 bonus for achieving seven victories in a 12-game regular season. If the team beats USC and gets to eight wins, that would be worth an additional $10,000. Also, it seems feasible that the Cats could move into the Top 25 in the BCS standings. If Arizona finishes anywhere from No. 16 to No. 25 in the final BCS standings, Stoops receives $30,000. So that’s how a victory could mean $40,000 in bonuses for Stoops. He also gets a bonus if the team meets certain attendance and season ticket levels for home games, including $60,000 if the UA averages 50,000 or more fans at games. The UA easily passed that mark this season, so a UA win today against USC will net Stoops at least $100,000 in bonuses. …

Speaking of a Stoops and finances, the Youngstown (Ohio) Vindicator is reporting that Youngstown State athletic director Ron Strollo “has a million dollar question sitting on his desk.” It might take more than $1 million for UA defensive coordinator Mark Stoops, 42, to be the next football coach at Youngstown State. The contract for Mark Stoops, a Youngstown native, could be worth between $250,000 and $280,000 per year, at least double the value of former coach Jon Heacock’s deal. Stoops, according to the Vindicator, is also negotiating for a pool of $850,000 for his coaching staff if hired by Youngstown State. The YSU counter-offer is reportedly for $750,000. Over the length of a standard five-year contract, Stoops’ contract increase from Heacock’s, coupled with the difference in the assistants’ salaries, could mean an increase of between $1.125 million and $1.5 million for YSU. This all might be moot if Jim Livengood is hired, as expected, as the UNLV athletic director this weekend. It is already rumored in the Las Vegas media that Livengood would bring the younger Stoops with him to head the Rebels’ football program. Arizona has tapped into Las Vegas talent recently with Juron Criner and Keola Antolin. Class of 2010 all-purpose recruit Garic Wharton of Las Vegas Valley High is also on his way to Tucson. Will Stoops’ potential relocation to Las Vegas affect that successful Las Vegas pipeline to Tucson? … Brad Allis of Wildcat Sports Report (like us, a partner with TucsonCitizen.com) writes that there are only four Arizona football players who had a written offer from USC. Those four are senior corner Devin Ross, freshman safety Adam Hall, junior corner Michael Turner and junior offensive guard Jovon Hayes. Ross has been a recruiting “hit,” but Turner and Hayes haven’t made much of an impact (Turner’s muffed punt recovery against Arizona State notwithstanding). Hall will get his big chance at safety, probably next season. Hitting 50 percent in football recruiting — even at the top level — is about all you can expect. … What do the past 17 Pac-10 football champions have in common? They have all defeated Arizona. The last time the Wildcats beat the eventual champ was 1992 in the famed 16-3 victory over top-ranked Washington. …

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UA recruit vows to be more aggressive in next game

By Javier Morales

UA assistant coach James Whitford was able to break free from the Wildcats’ late practice Monday to make it in time to watch his shooting guard recruit Daniel Bejarano start the 2009-10 season with Phoenix North High School.

Whitford was part of a near-capacity crowd at Grand Canyon University’s Antelope Gym in Phoenix. The game between North, the reigning Class 5A Division II champion, and Phoenix St. Mary’s was also televised throughout the state of Arizona on Cox Cable 7.

Bejarano, who ran mostly the point guard position and did not score in the first quarter, got others involved as North built a 17-1 lead and never trailed en route to a 71-63 victory.

READ THE REST OF THE STORY AT: TUCSONCITIZEN.COM’S WILD ABOUT AZ CATS PAGE

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Talented Class of 2011 big man moved to the U.S. last month

By Javier Morales

When I talked to potential UA recruit Chris Hill of Raleigh (N.C.) Stevens Prep Academy this week he mentioned that UA assistant coach Book Richardson is tentatively scheduled to watch (Class of 2011) 7-2 center Mark Overdevest of Montverde Academy in Orlando, Fla., before he travels up the Atlantic coast to see him later next week.

“I know (Richardson) wants to come out and see the post player from New Zealand and then see me some time by Dec. 4,” Hill said.

That news and other notes, including Daniel Bejarano’s season-opener Monday with Phoenix North being televised by Cox Channel 7 in Arizona, are available for you to read at TucsonCitizen.com.

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