Valley Sports

John Calipari is headed to Kentucky. Rick Pitino’s wife was seen shopping for homes in Tucson. Georgia covets Missouri’s Mike Anderson.

Yes, the annual college basketball coaching carousel is well underway. The only surprise is that Arizona State’s Herb Sendek has flown well under the radar.

When the Sun Devils’ season ended, there was talk both locally and nationally that Sendek might be headed out of town. He could go back to Kentucky, where he was an assistant from 1989-1993. He also met his wife, Melanie, in Lexington.

Or, he might be off to Pittsburgh if Panthers coach Jamie Dixon took the Arizona job. Sendek is Pittsburgh through-and-through. He was born there, he played high school ball there, and he matriculated at Carnegie Mellon University. He’s also a huge Steelers fan, and that allegiance never dies.

So far, however, Sendek hasn’t been the subject of many rumors. Oh, Sports Illustrated’s Seth Davis reported that Sendek was trying to get in the running for the Virginia job, which went to Washington State’s Tony Bennett, but would Sendek really want to go back to the ACC and have to tangle with North Carolina and Duke all over again? Isn’t that why he left North Carolina State in the first place?

I may wind up being wrong, but I think Sendek is staying put. ASU’s new practice facility opens in May, he has a couple of solid recruiting classes on the way, and he’s building a program for the long-term. The only job I can see him leaving for is Pittsburgh. That would be, as my late colleague Bob Moran often said, like “mama calling you home.”

It was interesting listening to Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun weave his way through what became an hour-long press conference on Friday leading up to the West Regional final against Missouri on Saturday.

Calhoun has a reputation for being surly and having mood swings. Seems natural since he’s an East Coast guy, but while he was reserved and casual in his dealings on Wednesday, Thursday was a bit different after 10 minutes worth of questions about his team’s season and facing Missouri.

But with an NCAA investigation looming over possible violations involving coaches making excessive phone calls/text messages and other benefits received by former player Nate Miles from former student manager Josh Nochimson, Calhoun couldn’t escape the grilling.

He came across as a little bit of everything: defensive, almost empathetic and aware it’s reporters’ jobs to ask these questions, cordial, impatient and incredulous while fielding questions about the rules, whether or not he should know everything inside the 508-page NCAA rulebook, etc.

Calhoun was adamant about his program and the 37 years he’s spent coaching college basketball, contrite he hadn’t come out and made any statements directly before being asked about the allegations, and new information which surfaced Thursday regarding Simon having dental work paid for him after seeing a Tampa-area dentist.

“We’re not the ones who are going to judge UConn,” he said. “It’s going to be people at the NCAA level. Yesterday, (the media) asked me if a mistake could have been made? … I don’t know one way or the other. If we made a mistake we’ll find out about it.”

It’s part of the media’s job to ask these questions; Hard, uncomfortable and challenging ones that Calhoun didn’t like it, but couldn’t have been surprised they were coming.

This is the way it’s going to be until the Huskies are out of the tournament, and more await back in Storrs, Conn.

Whether he knows if there is any truth to these allegations or not, it does him and the current players no good to say anything while his athletic director and the university sort it out back home.

So the inquisition will continue.  Calhoun doesn’t like it, but he knows it.

It’s easy, fashionable and certainly fair to stick a fork in the Suns.

Season’s over, break them up, blow US Airways Center to smithereens.

No argument here, especially in the wake of Thursday night’s 20-point loss to Portland in which Phoenix allowed 129 points, continued to show themselves as a decisively mediocre team on the road, and have to play at Utah on Saturday (the Jazz are 30-6 at home).

The Suns sit three games behind Dallas for the No. 8 playoff spot. In the interest of salvation, however, there’s hope of not being stuck in Nowhereville by missing the playoffs and still getting a mid-first round draft pick.

After Dallas plays Denver Friday night, the Suns and Mavericks each have 10 games remaining, but look at April’s eight-game schedule to conclude the regular season:

Phoenix: Houston, Sacramento, Dallas (we know that’s the biggie), New Orleans, Memphis (twice), Minnesota and Golden State.

Entering Friday’s games, that’s seven opponents with a combined record of 201-287 (.412).

Dallas: Miami, Memphis, Phoenix, Utah, New Orleans (twice), Minnesota and Houston.

Entering Friday’s games, that’s seven opponents with a combined record of 250-250 (.500).

The rebuilding process for the Arizona State men’s basketball team could be accelerated if a pair of prospects on the radar become Sun Devils.

With the departures of Jeff Pendergraph and, most likely, James Harden, ASU seems to be short on impact players for next season. But the addition of Kyryl Natyazhko, Darius Smith, or both, could make the transition smooth.

Natyazhko, a 6-foot-10, 250-pound post player from the IMG Academy in Florida, is on an official visit to Arizona State’s campus this weekend, according to Chris Karpman at ASUdevils.com. Natyazhko is being recruited by Pittsburgh, Xavier and Kentucky, among others.

Smith, a defensive-minded point guard from Chicago, also is interested in ASU and could take a visit before the start of the spring signing period.

Natyazhko is a four-star prospect and Smith has a three-star ranking. Both are ranked among the top 115 players in the nation by Rivals.com. Arizona State already has two players - wings Demetrius Walker of Phoenix St. Mary’s and Trent Lockett from Minnesota - ranked in the top 115. Lockett has a four-star rating and Walker a three-star.

ASU’s other commitment is Ruslan Pateev, a three-star, 7-foot center from Florida who chose the Sun Devils over offers from Florida State and coach Herb Sendek’s former college, North Carolina State.

Arizona State women’s basketball guard Briann January did not practice Tuesday while recovering from an ankle sprain suffered in the second round of the NCAA tournament on Monday against Florida State.

However, the senior is adamant that come Sunday, she will be in uniform. The Sun Devils play No. 2 seed Texas A&M in the Sweet 16 at 11:30 a.m. in Trenton, N.J.

“This is my last go-round,” January said. “I’ll be ready.”

January has been in a walking boot to help expedite the healing process. She missed a portion of the contest against Florida State while being looked at by the training staff, but returned to finish the game.

Former University of Arizona coach Josh Pastner, now an assistant under John Calipari in Memphis, isn’t surprised the Wildcats are in the Sweet 16 despite the chaos that’s engulfed the program the past year.

“First of all, you have to give tons of credit to coach (Russ Pennell),” said Pastner, who left after the 2007-2008 season to join Calipari’s staff. “But the bottom line is, it’s still Arizona. It’s still one of the elite programs, even in an off year.”

Pastner said the move to Memphis and working for Calipari has been a great learning experience.

“I think in today’s game, coach Calipari is the best coach, whether it’s pro, college or high school,” Pastner said. “His ability to get the most out of the guys every single practice, every single game … he’s brilliant. He’s the best.”

That said, Pastner wouldn’t mind getting a call from Arizona athletic director Jim Livengood offering him the Wildcats’ job.

“He knows where to find me,” Pastner said with a smile. “It’d be like a half a phone call. In the midst of the sentence I’d be like, ‘I’m coming.’ “

Talked to a coach here at the West Regional who said Arizona State will score a recruting coup if it can sign 6-foot-10, 250-pound forward Kyryl Natyazhko, who plays for the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla.

The coach said Natyazhko is a skilled scorer and physically strong enough to not only play as a freshman but possibly start for ASU. Natyazhko also looks like Ivan Drago, the Russian boxer from Rocky III, the coach said.

Rivals.com ranks Natyazhko 75th in the 2009 recruiting class and said he has been offered a scholarship by ASU, Florida State, Kentucky, Miami, Xavier, Pittsburgh and Ohio.

The Sun Devils think they have a pretty good shot of landing Natyazhko, who would be the big man they sorely need to replace Jeff Pendergraph.

The demise of the newspaper industry the last year or so had incredibly saddened me for a couple of reasons.

First, a lot of people I know in the business no longer have jobs. And as more and more papers cut back, there are no jobs to be had. Of the 142 people laid off by the Tribune last January, I know of only a few who have found new jobs in journalism. The rest are still unemployed or trying to scratch out new careers.

But I’m also disillusioned by the public’s reaction whenever layoffs are announced. People either blame newspapers for being too liberal or they say the medium I love is dead because, well, who needs reporters when bloggers are on every corner.

Well, here’s why: On Wednesday, Yahoo sports published a terrific piece on possible NCAA violations by the University of Connecticut basketball program. The piece was written by two former newspaper reporters, Dan Wetzel and Adrian Wojnarowski. They spent months investigating the story and used the Freedom of Information Act to receive e-mails and phone calls that directly tied UConn’s coaches to an agent that represented the player.

Are bloggers, even the best-intentioned ones, going to research a story for months? Are they willing to delve through thousands of documents to get to the truth? Are they willing to hold sports figures accountable with investigative reporting, or do they simply want to shout from the tops of their lungs?

I think we all know the answers to those questions.

Look, I have nothing against bloggers. I write a few myself. But to those who think the loss of jobs in journalism - whether it be in print or electronically - is a good thing, ask yourself this question:

Would a blogger have uncovered Watergate?

Connecticut basketball coach Jim Calhoun will meet with the media in about an hour here at University of Phoenix Stadium, and it promises to be a contentious press conference.

Yahoo sports published a terrific piece Wednesday accusing the Huskies’ basketball program of NCAA violations in the recruitment of wing player Nate Miles.

The story is incredibly detailed and thoroughly documented; already Connecticut is in damage control mode, releasing a statement that says nothing other than it will cooperate with the NCAA.

But that’s hardly going to call off the dogs today. Calhoun is sure to be peppered with questions, and given his legendary temper, I wouldn’t be surprised if he angrily cuts the press conference short.

Stay tuned. I’ll blog again once the press conference is finished.

Curt Schilling might be one of those bubble guys when it comes to the Hall of Fame.

Critics will point out that he never won a Cy Young, was injury-prone, won only 216 games in his career (300 is the magic number that gets you in), won 20 games in a season only three times, and 10 times won 11 or fewer games.

That’s all true. And that would keep some pitchers out of the Hall.

But here’s what separates Schilling: He might have been the greatest postseason pitcher in the history of the game.

His regular-season numbers (216-146, 3.46 ERA, 3,116 strikeouts) are decent enough, but he was at his best in October.

Remember the three gems he pitched for the Diamondbacks in the 2001 World Series (one of the best Fall Classics ever)? Schilling was 1-0 with a 1.69 ERA and 26 strikeouts in 21 innings, and was named co-MVP of that Series with Randy Johnson.

Remember the bloody sock in Game 6 of the 2004 ALCS vs. the Yankees? He gave up just one run in seven innings while bleeding due to a tear in his Achilles heel. He won the game and the Red Sox went on to win the World Series, ending the team’s 86-year drought.

Or 2003, with the Phillies down 3-1 to the Blue Jays in the World Series, when he pitched a five-hit shutout in Game 5 to keep his team in the hunt?

Or the gutsy effort in Game 2 of the 2007 World Series, which turned out to be his last game as injuries shut down his career?

Schilling was 11-2 in the postseason, which is the best winning percentage (.846) of any pitcher in baseball with at least 10 decisions. (John Smoltz is second at .789 with a 15-4 record, followed by Josh Beckett .778/7-2 and Red Ruffing .778/7-2).

His postseason ERA of 2.23 in 19 starts was the best of any pitcher who made at least 15 starts. (Orel Hershiser is next at 2.59, followed by jim Palmer 2.61, Smoltz 2.65 and Whitey Ford 2.71).

In short, he was money in the playoffs, and isn’t that what matters most? His career win total suffered because he pitched for the Orioles and Phillies for the first half of his career. And, while he never won a Cy Young, he was runner-up three times.

Oh, and he did all this during the Steroid Era in baseball. That should count for something.