TUCSON, Ariz. -- In a slightly different universe, Arizona Wildcats football coach Rich Rodriguez could be coaching UA basketball right now.
Rodriguez was a multi-sport star at North Marion High School in Grant Town, W.Va., receiving scholarship offers in football and basketball. For hoops, he said, that included Marquette, Davidson and Marshall. But he had an itch to play football at the highest level possible, which meant walking on to West Virginia.
"I was torn coming out of high school as to which sport to play. I thought about playing both in college," he said after Monday's practice. "I had it worked out with financial aid and academic money so I could afford one year of walk-on football. And after my one year, I was either going to go football or basketball, and it worked out. ...
"Now, for some reason," he added with a smile, referring to roster limits, "I decided to have 120 headaches instead of 15. I'm not the smartest guy in the world."
It did work out in football, as Rodriguez was put on scholarship as a safety at West Virginia for his sophomore season, in 1982, putting him on a path that led to a football coaching career that inspired the sport's proliferation of fast-paced offenses and zone-read schemes.
He never lost the love of basketball, though.
That was clear earlier this month, when he had courtside seats at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas for the Pac-12 tournament, cheering on Sean Miller's Wildcats.
"I'm a big college basketball fan, but what Sean has done ... one, they have recruited really talented guys, but it's more than that. It's the way they play, how unselfish they are, how hard they play on every possession.
"I've told Sean this, 'When you play us in basketball, you have to literally earn everything you get when we're on defense.' Good defense travels well, and that's what's fun to watch. I learn a lot from watching Sean and them coach, and I learn a lot from watching our guys play."
Given Rodriguez's innovation and hurry-up style in football, what kind of basketball coach would he have been? Forty minutes of Hell?
"I think I would been like Sean, where you're right in people's grills -- make them earn everything, make them uncomfortable," Rodriguez said.
From there, the styles diverge.
"I probably would have played a lot of full-court press and then let the guys have the freedom to shoot from anywhere and everywhere," Rodriguez said, laughing. "Because that's what I did."
The Arizona football and basketball programs have shared players over the years, including Kelvin Eafon, who played two seasons as a backup guard for Lute Olson before jumping to Dick Tomey's football team for three seasons as a running back. Tomey still calls Eafon one of the best leaders he ever had, and he was plenty valuable on the field, too, rushing for 16 touchdowns for the 12-1 team in 1998.
Usually, though, Olson borrowed football players for depth and practice help, such as quarterback Craig Bergman for the 1988 Final Four team, quarterback Ortege Jenkins, quarterback/kick blocker Peter Hansen and quarterback Ryan O'Hara.
Arizona 6-foot-5 junior receiver Cayleb Jones, a former five-star prospect in football, was asked Monday who is the best basketball player on the football team.
"If (safety) Will Parks was here, he'd be saying he was, but, I don't know, I'd like to say that I'm pretty good," Jones said.
He said some of the players on each team have played against each in the rec center.
"That's not good for us to be in the rec together," Jones said. "That's too competitive."
Rodriguez said he likes to recruit athletes who are good in multiple sports, saying there is too much specialization.
"I remember recruiting Pacman Jones," Rodriguez said of the former defensive back for West Virginia.
"You could hardly tell much of him as a defensive back because he played linebacker in high school. But you watched him playing guard in high school, you said, 'I have to have this guy.' "
Rodriguez cited former Michigan nose guard Mike Martin as another example.
"I went to watch him wrestle," Rodriguez said. "I didn't get to see a lot because he pinned a guy in 15 seconds. I thought this guy must have been pretty dominant, and he was."
He was right with that prediction, but what about his NCAA Tournament pick?
"I think we're going win it all," he said of Arizona. "I don't want to put pressure on them or anything like that, but I love watching them play."
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