"Pitino wanted $5 million, Calipari $6 mill," Livengood will say. "Pitt doubled Jamie Dixon's salary last week, and come on, Mark Few isn't going to win big here.

"So we hired Steve, and to help him break in as a college coach he's bringing back Jim Rosborough, and Damon Stoudamire will recruit and coach the guards. Next, we're working on getting Jud Buechler off his surfboard and onto the coaching staff. We've got a magnificent resource here and we're going to tap into it for all it's worth."

2. I ask nothing more than for Randy Johnson to get stuck on 299 career victories until, oh, 2011 or until he turns 50, whichever comes first.

Johnson's selfish behavior as an Arizona Diamondback , his leave- me-alone-and-don't-bother-me persona, was rewarded when the San Francisco Giants unaccountably gave him $8 million for the '09 season.

The Giants, who long celebrated (and profited from) Bonds' divisive antics, announced that the Big Unit "will set an example for younger players."

An example? Instead of the name "JOHNSON" across the back of the Big Unit's jersey, I request that it be replaced by "IT'S ALL ABOUT ME."

3. I fear Tiger Woods will announce that his recovery from knee surgery, and the late-winter arrival of his second child, will prevent him from playing any events on the West Coast Swing, including our dear WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship.

We may need some help from the golf gods on this one.

Whether Tiger is able to make it to Tucson is not the only story. How he responds to the financial crisis of those who sponsor pro golf is a bigger story.

Wouldn't it be nice if he said, "I am committed to playing in every tournament on the schedule over the next two years. Yes, that includes Memphis, Reno and the John Deere Classic, wherever that may be.

"What's good for the game is good for me.''

4. I desperately hope that the Southern Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority can do what seems to be nearly impossible: get the Legislature (and the taxpayers) to approve a method that would create funds to re-do Hi Corbett Field.

That would trigger the possibility of negotiating with a third team - from Japan, perhaps, or the Brewers and Orioles - before the D-backs and Rockies make a beeline for the spring training land rush in Maricopa County.

I'm not into boycotts of any type, but if you want to stay home when the White Sox play the Rockies on Feb. 26 at Hi Corbett Field, a silent protest to greed and infidelity, you've got my support.

5. I wish we didn't have to wait four years to provide a big stage for the world's great swimming and track and field athletes.

We saw incomparable sprinter Usain Bolt for what, 45 cumulative seconds in Beijing? That wasn't enough. I want to see if Bernard Lagat, fully healthy, is still the world's best middle-distance runner. I want to see if Michael Phelps still has that special gear.

I'd rather see a great track meet on TV this year than Game 5, round one, of the interminable NBA playoffs.

6. I want to see Vern Friedli win the Big One again. I want him to take an enrollment-challenged school such as Amphitheater to the Class 4A-II football championship game (in Tucson, not Phoenix) and win it.

I want to see the Panthers carry on the way they did in 1979 when young Vern Friedli coached Amphi to the state title, re-creating that happiness on the 30th anniversary of the last time a Tucson school won the state's big-school football title.

And then I want to hear Friedli say that, no, he's not retiring at all, even though he is the winningest football coach in state history, because it's about the journey and not wins and losses, and because he's as good at 73 as he was at 43.

7. I want to see John Daly win a golf tournament. Any tournament, but preferably one of the Big Four. I want him to get off his duff and into the gym before his skills erode, or before he kills himself or finds himself in jail.

I want him to be a model of restraint and rehabilitation, a victor over excess, climbing into the world's top 64 rankings so that he will be part of our Match Play tournament in 2010.

8. I hope that Mike Stoops continues to reveal more of his personality in 2009. We got the first real glimpse of who he is in '08 - he laughs and cries like the rest of us - and we liked what we saw.

This community suffered with him for five years, but we didn't really get to know him. Now that we've got a hint of who he is - part Larry Smith, part Dick Tomey, part picket-fence Midwesterner - we have a better understanding of the demanding process of coaching Pac-10 football.

9. I would like to be there the night Chase Budinger knocks someone on their keister, someone from UCLA, preferably, and plays with a chip on his shoulder, beats a night-long double-team for 35 points and shuts up the crowd in some place like Mac Court.

He is such a nice, agreeable young man, which might be part of the reason his growth as a basketball player seems to have stalled. I wish that he finds happiness in college hoops, rather than go out a victim to the chaos that has become Arizona basketball.

10. I wish not to read another word about Utah deserving the BCS championship. Not a single syllable.

If Florida beats Oklahoma on Thursday, the Gators would have defeated teams ranked (on the day of the game) Nos. 1, 1, 4, 6, 20 and 25. It would take Utah two centuries to match that.

I love a Cinderella story. The Utes' beatdown of the smug Crimson Tide gave the never-ending bowl season a signature moment. But voting Utah the title would have been like giving George Mason the 2007 national championship a day before it played in the Final Four.

* Contact Greg Hansen at ghansen@azstarnet.com or 573-4362.