Canzano: Back to square one, anyone?

Allegations, ideas, and input...

Hotel Lucia in Portland is where the Pac-12 began 108 years ago.

Hotel Lucia has lots of meeting space and plenty of rooms. The historic building located in the heart of downtown Portland has a fun history, too.

It was the spot where the Pac-12 Conference was founded 108 years ago.

A meeting in the winter of 1915 at what was then called the Imperial Hotel was attended by representatives of Oregon State, Cal, Washington, and Oregon. Stanford had a rep present, too, but he mostly just listened because the school didn’t sponsor a football team. The conference was born. And I keep thinking that’s where this new-world Pac-12 needs to begin again.

The Big Ten will hold its Football Media Day July 22-24 in Indianapolis. The Big 12 and Mountain West are heading to Las Vegas that same month for their events. I don’t know what Pac-12 Football Media Day might look like this summer but I’m left thinking about the building at 400 SW Broadway.

Back to square one, anyone?

I floated the idea to Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould this week. Why not Portland? Why not that original space? Gould sounded receptive and told me the conference had a small group working on a plan. Washington State and Oregon State could just decide to hold their respective football media days on their respective campuses, sure, but that’s not what conferences do and the Pac-12 insists it’s still one.

OSU and WSU will play a schedule that is heavy with MWC opponents next season in football. But nobody at those two schools appears willing to accept relegation. Crashing that conference’s two-day media-day event would bring bad optics.

Las Vegas is cooler, sure. But the Pac-12 doesn’t need glitz right now. Maybe the Pac-12’s event will return there in some future summer after other members join. But holding media day at the Hotel Lucia doesn’t just work geographically, it would be a defiant move — a middle finger to the establishment.

The presidents and chancellors of the universities about to scatter to other conferences didn’t seem to care about 108 years of tradition when they waved in the wrecking ball last summer. Going back to a spot where handshakes mattered feels like an appropriate place for the Pac-12 to begin again.

Some other things:

• The Pac-12 needs to invest in a massive national marketing and branding campaign. It should hire Wieden+Kennedy and launch a “Pac-12 vs. the world” advertising campaign. There are more people tuned into OSU/WSU than ever before. It’s a no-brainer. Seize that. Marry the campaign with the conference’s football television plan (The CW) in 2024 and let it roll.

• The schools can’t control the size of their media markets, but they very much are in control of their brands. It’s an area of historical weakness at both institutions. Invite the creatives into the room and let the action flow. It’s like John Steinbeck wrote: “Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.”

Tara VanDerveer announced her retirement on Tuesday. (Photo: Serena Morones)

• Stanford women’s basketball coach Tara VanDerveer announced her retirement on Tuesday. I wasn’t shocked. She sounded nostalgic at the Pac-12 Tournament last month. VanDerveer, 70, goes down as a pioneer and champion. Her 1,216 victories stand as the all-time NCAA record.

• VanDerveer says Stanford’s move next year to the ACC isn’t why she’s hanging it up. “That was not it at all,” she told Michelle Smith of The Next. “I love the Pac-12 and that situation is disappointing, but I would have been excited about the competition.”

• Still, I can’t think she was excited about living out of a suitcase.

• UConn’s Geno Auriemma is sitting at 1,213 victories. The 70-year-old coach will break VanDerveer’s all-time NCAA record early next season.

• UConn won the men’s NCAA Tournament championship game on Monday night, beating Purdue, 75-60. It didn’t feel that close. Mostly because the Boilers struggled to complement Zach Edey’s dominant low post play with any semblance of three-point shooting. Purdue’s guards weren’t great.

• UConn coach Dan Hurley has done a remarkable job in this transient era of college athletics and deserves much credit. His team was an absolute machine that went back-to-back with the titles.

• I felt bad for Purdue fans. I covered the program in the late 1990s when Gene Keady was the coach. I know how much it meant to that fan base to get to a Final Four. Reporter Andrew Martin was on press row for the event and told me it felt like a Purdue home game. Said Martin: “Purdue fans are absolute maniacs. I want this for them. I don’t think they will be able to take it if they lose.”

• The television ratings for the men’s national title game averaged 14.82 million viewers across TBS, TNT, and TruTV. That was better than the 14.69 million who watched UConn win the title last year on CBS, which is the lowest on record.

• Oddly, it wasn’t even the most-watched game of the men’s NCAA Tournament. That distinction belongs to the Elite Eight matchup between North Carolina State and Duke, which had 15.14 million viewers.

• The women’s NCAA Tournament title game between South Carolina and Iowa brought in 18.87 million viewers on ABC and ESPN, a record for women’s basketball in the United States and the most watched hoops contest of any kind in five years. It also doubled up the 9.9 million that watched the same event in 2023.

• A lot of people credit Caitlin Clark as the sole reason for that boost — and she certainly amplified the sport. But I think the overall growth goes beyond the Iowa star. The rivalry between Clark and LSU’s Angel Reese fueled the early part of the offseason. Give Reese some credit, too. South Carolina was a formidable force all season, culminating with a well-publicized dust-up vs. LSU. Also, players such as USC’s JuJu Watkins, UConn’s Paige Bueckers, Oregon State’s Raegan Beers, and several other talents should get an assist.

• I saw a fun graphic from Stathead that outlined how statistically dominant Caitlin Clark’s 2024 basketball season was. It compared Clark’s assists and points to every other NCAA player, men’s and women’s on a chart.

There were 9,178 players + Clark on the chart. Iowa’s star is way, way out there in the upper right corner in green. Amazing season. It got me thining about how Oregon’s Sabrina Ionescu’s best season (755 points and 311 assists) would look on that same chart. I amended it and added Ionescu in blue:

• The chart demonstrates how mind-blowing Clark’s 2024 season was, doesn’t it? But it also provides some context for what Ionescu accomplished in her junior season.

Also, Ionescu was sitting at 299 assists and 578 points in her senior season when the NCAA Tournament was canceled due to the pandemic. The Ducks were the favorites to win the national title. They were rolling along. If you project Ionescu’s season averages (17.5 points and 9.1 assists) out over the seven games she might have played in the 2020 tournament and you’re looking at ~700 points and ~370 assists. It’s crazy fun, too.

• Oregon football coach Dan Lanning has a fun quarterback room. I’m fascinated to see how Dillon Gabriel and Dante Moore look in the spring game on April 27. It will be fun to see how coordinator Will Stein uses them. The Ducks football event will include a postgame concert by singer and songwriter Mat Kearney.

• Washington running back Tybo Rogers was arrested and charged with two alleged rapes that police say took place during the 2023 football season. The details are disturbing. UW released a statement: “The student-athlete has been suspended from all team activities until further notice. The UW will continue to cooperate with law enforcement.”

• Rogers wasn’t with his team for the Pac-12 championship game (Dec. 1) in Las Vegas. But he did return and play in both of UW’s College Football Playoff games, including the national title game.

• UW coach Jedd Fisch had to field questions (video) about the arrest at spring practice on Tuesday. He was working at Arizona last season and didn’t play a role in the drama. One of the Seattle news-side television reporters assigned to the story didn’t seem to understand that Fisch wasn’t the head coach at the time and peppered him about it.

Said Fisch: “As soon as we found out about any allegations, (we) suspended him indefinitely from the program.”

• Sounds like former Washington coach Kalen DeBoer, now at Alabama, has some questions to answer about how he handled the issue.

• Oregon State running back Damien Martinez told his coaches he’s getting in the transfer portal. That was greeted with a collective groan from a frustrated fan base. I support the right of college athletes to use the portal as they wish, but if you’re going to tell fans that you’re staying (and subsequently leave) you have to expect some criticism. Adult decisions come with adult consequences. I posted a short video on the Martinez transfer on my Instagram.

• The Beavers spring game is scheduled for April 20 at noon at Reser Stadium.

• Washington State’s spring game — the Crimson and Gray Game — is set for April 27 at Gesa Field. 

• Utah’s Kyle Whittingham has won 10+ games seven times in his 19 seasons. Prior to his arrival (1892-2004), Utah won 10 or more games only three times. Wrap your head around that.

• Utah Football will host the “22 Forever Game” on April 13 at Rice-Eccles Stadium. All ticket proceeds will go towards the Aaron Lowe and Ty Jordan Memorial Scholarship Fund.

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