Big 12, Year One

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The University of Arizona wasted no time announcing its arrival in the Big 12 Conference. Three programs — women’s golf, men’s tennis and baseball — claimed Big 12 tournament titles in the university’s inaugural season, firing a warning shot to the competition.

Several other Wildcat teams weren’t far behind. Men’s basketball, softball, women’s gymnastics, and men’s and women’s swimming and diving all finished as runners-up in their respective Big 12 championship finals.

Head Coach Giovanna Maymon and the women’s golf program struck first on April 17, winning the title after a dramatic three-way playoff. The inside of their championship rings is engraved “PROGRAM HISTORY. 1ST BIG 12 TITLE.”

Three days later, Head Coach Clancy Shields and the men’s tennis program delivered another win.

“Seeing (women’s golf) win it in the first year motivated everybody in our building to try to go do that,” Shields says. “Across the board, as an athletics department, we’re trying to be top two or three every year.”

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In late May, Head Coach Chip Hale’s baseball program completed the conference championship trifecta before making a run to the College World Series. Despite coming from the Pac-12, a traditionally strong baseball conference, Hale noticed a step up in conference depth — and the consequences of underestimating it.

“We learned it the hard way in this league: You have to respect all the teams the same,” Hale says. “We actually played way better against teams at the top of the league than the bottom.”

Hale also learned that when it comes to home crowds, the Big 12 is simply a different beast.

“You’re not going to California anymore,” Hale says. “You go play UCLA or USC or Cal, and you get 1,000 people — mostly parents and family. Now, you’re going to places that are all-in on their university, which is really cool.

“You know you’re in enemy territory.”

As the fan bases got tougher, so did the logistics. Some of Arizona’s teams had to endure longer, more demanding travel days. Time zone changes, cross-country flights and unpredictable weather all required new routines.

“We made some decisions to travel earlier to get there in enough time to have success,” Shields says. “Because if you’re going to travel across the country… we’re not just going there to show up and play. We’re showing up to win.”

“If we fly in, we’ll try to get to a weight room, get their bodies moving,” Hale adds. “The hydration part of it is super important.”

Shields says the men’s tennis squad got its routine down to a science fairly quickly, but there was one unforeseen obstacle on a road trip to Texas Christian University: $20 all-you-can-eat ribs.

“It became a competition of who could eat more ribs,” Shields says with a laugh. “The next day and a half of practice were the worst ever.”

Women’s golf coach Maymon, who won her own Big 12 championship as a player with Baylor in 2015, now faces the weight of expectations after a dynamite first year as a head coach.

“What’s hard is, you do well your first year, and now expectations are high,” she laughs.

“But I always tell my players this: If we focus on every kid, and every kid does their job, we’re going to win, and that’s going to take care of the work.” 

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