David Sanders / Arizona Daily Star 1988

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In his three seasons as a starting Arizona guard, 1989-91, Matt Muehlebach participated in the most challenging schedule a Pac-10 basketball team had ever dared to attempt.

The Wildcats played Duke and Georgia Tech in made-for-TV games in the greater New York area. Muehlebach's UA clubs played home-and-home against Duke, home-and-home against Final Four power Oklahoma, went to LSU to play against Shaquille O'Neal, played UNLV in Las Vegas, flew to Charlotte, N.C., to play the Tar Heels and went cross country to play a vintage Michigan team, Pitt and Villanova.

For a Pac-10 team, it was (and remains) unprecedented in scope and daring.

"To me, that's one of the greatest accomplishments of Lute Olson's career," said Muehlebach, now a Tucson attorney. "Coach O was out here on an island — the Pac-10 wasn't very good then — and he knew that to be recognized as more than just a good western team, he had to take on all comers, anywhere and anytime.''

And so he did.

"For a few years, UNLV was very good,'' Muehlebach said. "UCLA was good but not great then. Stanford had it going now and again, but there was no one to carry the torch for western basketball other than Arizona and Lute jumped at that opportunity. To me, that's what set him apart as a great coach. He was never afraid to play anybody.''

Muehlebach suspects that Olson will miss practice more than anything.

"He loved it; that was his element,'' Muehlebach said. "Everything was planned to the minute. I know he loved the competition but he viewed himself most as a teacher. As time goes on, I think that's what he'll miss."

Robbie Moen was twice an All-Pac-10 outfielder/designated hitter at Arizona; a leadoff hitter who was so productive that he remains ranked in the top 10 of 12 Arizona career offensive categories.

Moen, a Flowing Wells High School grad, went on to coach at Kansas State and Loyola Marymount before making a career change two years ago and becoming a scout for the Tampa Bay Rays.

Talk about good timing.

Moen and his wife Chrisdee, a former UA bat girl, were guests of the Rays at Games 1 and 2 of the World Series last week.

"I've never been part of something like this,'' said Moen, who hit .402 for the Wildcats in 1991. "We didn't win a championship at Flowing Wells, my best Arizona team was five outs away from going to Omaha, and my teams at Kansas State and Loyola didn't reach the NCAA tournament. You can't top this."

Moen scouts the talent-rich Southern California area for Tampa Bay and lives in Westchester, near LAX.

"I've only been with the organization for two years so the players I've scouted and signed haven't yet reached the big leagues," he said. "I love this type of work; you are your own boss, you don't work a lot of nights, and I can be home with my family (Robbie and Chrisdee have two young daughters) more than as a college coach.''

Moen is the third former Tucson prep standout who has scouted for a recent World Series team. Palo Verde's Clark Crist did so with the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals, and Sahuaro's Jim Olander was in a similar role with the 2006 Detroit Tigers.

Palo Verde High School grad Ben Kern, who earned more than $100,000 on the Gateway Tour this year, advanced to the second stage of the PGA Tour Qualifying School on Friday with some great suspense. Kern had to birdie the 72nd hole of the four-day event in Beaumont, Calif., to get one of the final 23 spots available to advance. He shot rounds of 69-78-73-74. The man he edged for that final berth was former UA star Henry Liaw, who bogeyed the No. 15 hole to shoot 295 overall, one stroke behind Kern. … Former Salpointe Catholic and UA golf standout Brian Prouty, idled by wrist injuries for most of the last 18 months, will enter a first-stage PGA Q-School event this week in Hollister, Calif. Overall, 13 Tucson-affiliated golfers are at Q-School this week, including 2007 Arizona Amateur champion Nate Tyler, former UA discus thrower Mike Rexroth and Sahuaro High grad Rich Barcelo, who was a regular PGA Tour member in 2004 and 2007. … Congratulations to Tucsonan Jack Rickard, who established himself as the most prolific golf writer in this state while writing for the Tucson Citizen for 30 years. The Oregon State grad will be inducted into the Arizona Golf Association Hall of Fame on Nov. 24 in Scottsdale. It is a well-deserved honor for Rickard and one he can appreciate. So few Tucsonans have been inducted into the AGA Hall of Fame that the number of those on an overdue waiting-list is impressive.

Hassan Adams has made the most of his second chance to play in the NBA. The former Arizona All-Pac-10 wing has averaged 15 minutes per game in the Toronto Raptors' preseason and enters the season with a guaranteed salary of $711,000. He is not in Toronto's rotation of eight or nine players, however, but it has to be better than shuttling between EuroLeague teams in Italy last year. … Hard to believe Salim Stoudamire, released last week by the San Antonio Spurs, is out of the NBA at age 26. He was scuttled by a groin muscle injury in training camp and is surely headed for a season of rehab work in Europe in an attempt to regain his distance shooting touch. … You can listen to the music of former UA and Salpointe guard John Ash at johnnyashmusic.com. His debut album "Johnny Ash" is the culmination of an eight-year project, or rather, a lifelong project, that began with him playing the violin when he was 5. … Doolen Middle School eighth-grader Ryan Silva, who established an age-group world record by running the mile in 4:38 four months ago in Oregon, won another marquee event last week. Silva won the Reebok Mt. San Antonio Cross Country Invitational near Los Angeles. His time of 7:14 beat the next-closest runner by 26 seconds over the 1.3-mile course.

After completing a standout football career at Catalina Foothills High School, and then at the University of San Diego, Josh Brisco played in the Arena League, and this year, in a wonderful adventure, for the Porvoo Butchers of the American Football Association of Finland. Brisco led the league in kickoff returns and was third on his club with 110 tackles, playing both ways. In the Finnish title game, after scoring two touchdowns, he broke his leg and required surgery to insert a rod in his tibia. After two weeks in a Finland hospital, Brisco has returned to Tucson. … I got my first up-close look at Palo Verde receiver/halfback Adam Hall during his club's 60-16 victory at Catalina on Friday night. He was almost unchallenged and rarely got his uniform dirty while playing free safety on defense. On offense, he scored his obligatory three touchdowns and gained in excess of 300 all-purpose yards. I get the feeling that playing 4A-II football will not properly prepare Hall for the physical play he will encounter after he signs with USC or Arizona, or any of the top programs recruiting him. Hall's toughest challenge of his high school career awaits Friday night when the Titans play undefeated Santa Rita in a must-see game against Jeff Scurran's sizzling Eagles.

In Callista Balko's four-year career as the UA's starting softball catcher, the CDO grad hit 43 home runs and started 236 of 238 games. The Wildcats won two NCAA titles and Balko was at the center of it.

You may have seen her at UA football home games against Cal, Washington and USC. She helps with halftime activities and works in a management capacity at the Zona Zoo entrance.

After playing last summer in the National Pro Fastpitch league, Balko returned to complete her degree and is working, on scholarship, as an intern for UA senior associate athletic director Rocky LaRose.

"When we have athletes express interest, we do everything we can to give them a 'taste' of the department,'' LaRose said. "As you know, student-athletes don't have much time during their playing careers to find résumé-building opportunities. So the fifth-year, post-eligibility program, gives them the time to really explore their career possibilities."

It is a terrific concept, especially for women and minorities, who are largely under-represented at the ground floor of college athletics administration.

Russ Pennell doesn't have the name or reputation of Kevin O'Neill, but he will be a much better caretaker of the UA basketball program.

Pennell will treat his ballplayers with respect and, combined with the teaching skills of the professorial Mike Dunlap, will make it a better atmosphere for learning, and a more enjoyable college experience. There will be three coaching voices, not one.

Pennell is a lot like Jim Rosborough, whose ability to communicate with the players, fans, support staff and administration has been absent in the UA basketball department since the day Lute Olson regrettably forced Rosborough from his staff. It was a boneheaded move that launched a negative chain of events, and plunged the program into chaos.