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UA freshman guard Jerryd Bayless handpicked jersey No. 0 fully aware of its legacy. Yes, Gilbert Arenas wore it at Arizona. No, don't expect Bayless to be shy.

"This is Point Guard U,'' Bayless said Tuesday. "There are high expectations no matter what.''

Bayless wore No. 32 at Phoenix St. Mary's High School but, obviously, is unable to wear that hallowed, Sean Elliott-retired number at Arizona. So he will be Agent Zero, college division.

Arenas wore No. 0 because someone told him that's how many minutes he should expect to play at the UA. He was out to prove how wrong someone had been. Bayless is completely different. He projects to start every game of what is likely to be a brief college career, one or two seasons.

When asked if he looks up to sophomore Chase Budinger, perhaps as a mentor, Bayless said, routinely, "Well, he's not too much older than me.''

In the first two weeks of practice, Bayless has worked almost exclusively at point guard, although he periodically slides over to shooting guard when Nic Wise gets time at the point.

Said Budinger: "Jerryd is versatile enough to play No. 1 or No. 2. In practice, he's done a great job at the point. He's pushing the ball and finding people (to pass to). But he's mostly been at the point.''

As for Budinger, one would think his high profile would have cut into his modesty. But when speaking about Wildcat legend Steve Kerr last week, he kept referring to him as "Mr. Kerr.''

Perhaps the Wildcats will be good enough this year for a future Wildcat to refer to "Mr. Bayless'' and "Mr. Budinger.''

Former UA forward Ricky Anderson played professionally in Russia, among other stops, after leaving school. He has retired and plans to be a coach. First-year Long Beach State basketball coach Dan Monson has hired Anderson to fill an NCAA-created "graduate manager'' role, which means Anderson can be on the practice floor with the 49ers and attend coaches' meetings and so forth while he works on his master's degree this year. … Jason Ranne, a four-year UA basketball player who earned a roster spot after walking on, is now an attorney working in Southern California for the powerful sports agent Arn Tellem, who represents, among others, Barry Zito, Tracy McGrady and Jason Giambi. … Lute Olson doesn't make it sound as if senior center Kirk Walters will be able to play much, especially early this season. "At this point, Kirk feels heavy-legged,'' said Olson. "He's not as quick off the floor as he was.'' That cannot be good news.

Cienega High School sophomore golfer Sun Park won the 4A Kino Region title by an absurd 35 strokes last week. That's impressive enough. But she did so at the wind-tunnel that often is Del Lago Golf Club on two days, Monday and Tuesday, that the wind was roaring with steady gusts of 20 mph or more. Park still managed to shoot 70-70, or 4-under par. That might be the single most impressive high school golf outing ever in Southern Arizona. … Henry Liaw bypassed his final year of golf eligibility at Arizona in 2006-07, electing to turn pro. How's it going? The likeable Mr. Liaw failed to advance from the first stage of PGA Qualifying School last week in Texas. His rounds of 77-75-74-75 put him 52nd in the field; the top 26 advanced. … Two former UA golfers did advance in Q-School last week. Andy Barnes and 1988 U.S. Amateur champion Eric Meeks moved on to the second of three Q-School stages. Andy's younger brother, former U.S. Amateur champ Ricky Barnes, now on the Nationwide Tour, re-enters Q-School this week in Valdosta, Ga. … Salpointe Catholic grad Alex Johnson, a freshman golfer at Pacific, finished fourth Friday in the Del Walker Intercollegiate in Long Beach, Calif. Johnson's rounds were 69-68-72. … I walked down a corridor at McKale Center on Thursday morning and standing next to UA men's golf coach Rick LaRose's office was the world's No. 3 ranked golfer, Jim Furyk, with his wife and two children. Furyk was in town for LaRose's annual fundraiser, Friday at The Gallery Golf Club, where Furyk plans to build a house.

Tucsonan Cesar de la Cruz has clinched a berth in the National Finals Rodeo in December. He is ranked No. 5 in the world in team roping, with $71,832 in earnings on the Pro Rodeo circuit this season. His partner, Marana's Colter Todd is ranked No. 6 overall and also is guaranteed an NFR spot for the second year in succession. Marana's Joe Parsons is No. 15 overall in tie-down roping, with $55,916 in earnings. Parsons will get a spot in the NFR if Barry Burk, who is 16th overall, fails to earn more than $6,811 in next month's Pro Rodeo Tour Championships in Dallas. Parsons did not qualify for the Dallas rodeo. Todd and de la Cruz both are entered in the Dallas go-round. … More rodeo: the Tucson Rodeo Committee, which is one of the best of its kind in the world, is one of five finalists for the PRCA's "Large Rodeo of the Year," which will be announced at the NFR in Las Vegas. Wyoming's Frontier Days Rodeo and Oregon's Pendleton Roundup are among the finalists. … First-year Pima College women's basketball coach Todd Holthaus has immediately changed the perception of PCC women's hoops. The former UA assistant coach led his team to a 17-15 "victory'' over Central Arizona College, which is the Duke of NJCAA women's basketball, in the recent ACCAC Jamboree in Phoenix. CAC and Pima played a 20-minute half and the Aztecs "won.'' That's news because last year CAC beat Pima twice by more than 60 points. CAC was 29-2 last year and 30-0 in 2005-06. Pima's combined record the last two seasons was 6-51. Holthaus is formerly the head girls basketball coach at Flowing Wells High School. Good hire.

UA swimming coach Frank Busch, a former Olympics and World Championship coach, is on his way to landing the nation's No. 1 men's recruiting class. Busch last week got commitments from swimmers considered by some analysts to be Nos. 1 and 2 in the nation: Knoxville, Tenn., star A.J. Tipton and Florida's Nimrod Shapira Bar-Or, who trains at the Bolles Academy. Busch last year, in retrospect, probably produced the nation's No. 1 women's swimming recruiting class, part of a group that enabled the Wildcats to finish second in the NCAA finals. … Colorado Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki should be a familiar name to Tucsonans. When Arizona stunned favored Long Beach State in the 2004 NCAA Super Regionals in California, Tulowitzki was the 49ers' shortstop. In that same game, Arizona's Jordan Brown continued his emergence as a star-level player. Baseball America last week compared Brown, who is expected to go to the Cleveland Indians training camp with an outside chance to make the opening day roster, to Wade Boggs and Mark Grace. … Former UA women's golf coach Greg Allen, now in a similar capacity at Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tenn., was back in Tucson last week. Not to play golf, but to try to sell his Oro Valley home. That's a long commute for anyone.

Santa Rita High School's remarkable turnaround, from 0-10 last season to 8-1 and the 4A Gila Region title this year, matches coach Jeff Scurran's amazing building job at Pima College a few years earlier. So it can hardly be called a fluke or good fortune.

Scurran said this is the "smallest team I've ever had,'' but he convinced the Eagles that they could play with anybody by bringing in two dynamos, former Pac-10 1,000-yard rushers Jon Volpe and David Adams to speak to the team.

Volpe, from Amphitheater and Stanford, and Adams, from Sunnyside and the UA, are both 5 feet 7 inches, or thereabouts, but played like giants.

"The older you get,'' said Scurran, who is 60, "the less it is about wins and a coach's ego, and the more it is about watching the kids grow. This is just so fun.''

Funny how fate creates different sports careers. In 2000, after Jerry Colangelo fired manager Buck Showalter, he interviewed Terry Francona for the Diamondbacks' vacancy.

Colangelo did not choose the UA's 1980 NCAA player of the year, but rather Bob Brenly, the D-backs TV analyst, who then won the 2001 World Series behind Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling and is now back in broadcasting.

Francona, on the brink of his second World Series title as Boston's manager, thanks Mr. Colangelo very much.