Ex-Wildcat Chris Rodgers, right, will share time on the NBA D-League's Albuquerque Thunder due to a new acquisition.

Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star 2006

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Reeves helping produce top hoops talent in New York

Khalid Reeves, Arizona's All-American guard during the 1994 Final Four season, has returned to his high school, Christ the King, in Middle Village, N.Y. Reeves now helps his high school coach, Bob Oliva, in player development and game-day coaching. Oliva and Reeves produced another big-time guard this season, but Erving Walker committed to Florida before Arizona could recruit him. … The leaf doesn't fall far from the tree: Fat Lever led Pueblo High School to successive state basketball titles in 1977-78 and then starred at ASU before becoming an NBA all-star guard. His son, Garrett Lever, is now a star guard at Phoenix Desert Vista, the state's No. 2 ranked team. Garrett is receiving recruiting interest from Portland State, Denver and Northern Colorado. … B.J. Moore, a basketball and football standout at Sahuaro High School, Class of '98, graduated from West Point in 2003. He is now an Army captain who has served time in Iraq and is scheduled to soon be deployed in Afghanistan. But in an e-mail, he said that he is able to keep up with local sports — "What's up with the (basketball) Cats?'' he asks — saying you'd be surprised how often you can find a TV satellite dish in a "mud hut'' in a war zone.

Former UA assistant football coach and Desert Swarm linebacker Charlie Camp is expected to leave Dick Tomey's San Jose State staff and become defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at Nevada. Nice promotion for a terrific human being. … In getting a commitment from coveted Pennsylvania tight end Rob Gronkowski, the UA has reopened a long-dormant recruiting vein in the East. The UA hasn't recruited big-time Eastern players since the Singleton twins, Chris and Kevin, arrived from Parsippany, N.J., in 1985. Before that, Larry Smith excelled with Eastern players, many inherited from his predecessor, Tony Mason. Among those who played well at Arizona were Kevin Ward and Ivan Lesnik from Chalfont, Pa., Brian Holland from Bryn Mawr, Pa., Mark Walczak and Don Be'Ans from Rochester, N.Y., Neal Harris from Mount Holly, N.J., and Ricky and Lamonte Hunley from Petersburg, Va. … Just as Chris Rodgers was hitting a stride with the NBA D-League's Albuquerque Thunder, the club last week added ex-UCLA guard Cedric Bozeman to share time with Rodgers.

Assistants' high turnover rate could haunt Wildcats

After his offense finished No. 115 nationally last season, Mike Stoops was ready to purge most, if not all, of his offensive coaching staff.

"Things are going to change,'' he promised. And he has delivered on that promise.

Stoops dismissed coordinator Mike Canales and did not attempt to retain proven coaches Kasey Dunn, who took a step down to go to Baylor, and receivers coach Charlie Williams, who went to North Carolina.

Meanwhile co-offensive coordinator Dana Dimel unsuccessfully sought jobs at New Mexico and Rice. Offensive line coach Eric Wolford was essentially replaced at that position while he was still playing host to promising offensive line recruit Adam Tello.

But it works both ways; Wolford was already in the cover-your-backside routine, lining up an interview at LSU and, in what should be announced this week, landed a job at woebegone Illinois. Along with linebackers coach Tim Kish — who has become, in title, Stoops' assistant head coach — Wolford was Arizona's most effective recruiter.

The final salvo was fired Wednesday when Dan Berezowitz, the UA's six-year recruiting coordinator, unaccountably quit at the most critical time of the year, taking a similar job at Minnesota.

It's unheard of for a recruiting coordinator to leave two weeks before letter-of-intent day, and it's equally rare for another school, Minnesota, to ask Berezowitz to violate the profession's unspoken code by leaving at that late date.

Can you imagine what the coaching grapevine says about working at Arizona? Proceed with caution.

Once you get a reputation as a quick-temper coach who fires people and forces them out, hiring capable assistants becomes difficult. As the UA discovered with John Mackovic, it was limited to hiring those desperate to find work, retreads and beginners who just wanted a paycheck.

Stoops' charge is to restore respectability to UA football, at which he has made progress. But respectability doesn't come without stability, which is now in short supply at Arizona.

Seven former Tucsonans have a stake in today's NFL conference championship games, including linebackers Tedy Bruschi of the New England Patriots and the Chicago Bears' Lance Briggs, both former UA standouts.

Bears coach Lovie Smith is the father of former UA starting safety Mikal Smith (1995-96). Mikal left the UA in 1997 when he pleaded guilty to stealing textbooks from the UA athletic department and selling them for profit. He paid $660 in restitution and served two years of unsupervised probation. Mikal completed his degree requirements at North Dakota and this year was hired to coach defensive backs at Trinity International University in Deerfield, Ill.

Chicago Bears offensive coordinator Ron Turner was the UA running backs and receivers coach from 1978 to 1980, and New Orleans Saints tight ends coach Terry Malone spent two years working for Larry Smith's Wildcats (1983-84) before joining ex-UA defensive coordinator Moe Ankney on the Bowling Green staff.

Former Catalina Foothills High School baseball standout Nate Feder, son of longtime Toros and Sidewinders general manager Mike Feder, has been working for the Saints since 2003. On game days, Nate works on the field, printing out still photos of the formation on each play and dispensing them to various position coaches. During the week, Nate works in the Saints' scouting department and assists the special teams staff.

Ex-UA punter Danny Baugher, who has been on the Patriots' practice squad since Oct. 10 — before that he was working in a Tucson fitness center — remains the club's backup punter, but not active. Two Patriots punters have been injured, but Baugher was not activated because his "holding skills'' weren't what Patriots coaches trusted. (See Tony Romo).

With its $20 million investment in a basketball practice facility, the UA assumed it had kept pace with the sometimes ridiculous Pac-10 facilities boom.

Keeping pace has become a sprint.

Oregon State last week announced it is spending $35 million for various athletic projects, including the largest football stadium video screen in the league. If it's larger than Washington's, it's overkill, as are many of the high-priced facilities upgrades in the Pac-10.

Also, after Oregon announced it would build a free-standing academic-athletic building, the first of its kind in the league, the Ducks have now become the first to hire a full-time nutritionist for athletes.

Worse, Cal last week gave football coach Jeff Tedford a raise to $2 million annually and will pay him $2.5 million if he stays at Cal through 2009.

All of these upgrades, at every school, will be paid for by Joe Fan, who will continue to pay higher seat premiums. The average fan will also continue to be inconvenienced. For example, ASU last week agreed to play USC in a Thanksgiving night football game, choosing TV money over what is best for Sun Devil fans.

The Pac-10's dreary Sunday night TV package on Fox Sports Net — the UA will play at ASU at 6 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 25 — is part and parcel of the facilities boom.

And it can only get worse.

Former Salpointe Catholic quarterback Tyler Graunke, who will be a fourth-year junior at Hawaii, lost the Warriors' starting job to the amazing Colt Brennan early in the 2005 season.

When Brennan announced early last week he was leaving for the NFL, Graunke moved back to No. 1 on Hawaii's pass-happy depth chart. But then Brennan changed his mind.

"It hurt, to be honest,'' Graunke told Hawaii reporters. "It hurt my heart. That's my competitive attitude. I want to be the guy out there.''

Meanwhile, Salpointe senior QB Max Fritz, who has been recruited by Wyoming and Nevada, is visiting Army this weekend and is likely to play for Bobby Ross' Cadets next year. He would be coached there by former UA all-conference quarterback Eddie Wilson.

Not a bad year for Dennis Bene's Lancers, who already sent lineman Kris O'Dowd to USC. Lancer receiver Matt Ransom visited Princeton last week and is joining teammate Chris Ciarvella in a football visit to Cornell this weekend. Another Lancer, Jacob Hauptman, has already accepted a football offer to Holy Cross.