Steven and Sharon Corben could be Arizona women’s basketball’s biggest fans.
They have an entire room dedicated to the Wildcats in their Oro Valley home, filled with signed memorabilia.
On Friday, KGUN 9’s Ryan Fish watched the Arizona women’s first round matchup against West Virginia with the Corbens.
“My blood pressure goes up and down,” Sharon joked during the game.
The Corbens care, not just about this game. But also about Arizona’s players and coaches.
The couple moved to Tucson full-time in 2018, when the program was struggling.
That’s when they met head coach Adia Barnes and quickly became friends.
“Adia could sell you the Brooklyn Bridge, and you’ll buy it,” Steven said. “She’s awesome. And what you see is what you get, right? So I said [in 2018]… We should probably get involved in this. This seems like fun for us. And we can help the program!”
“We got other people hooked on them, too,” Sharon added. “So they cared about the girls. They cared about the team. It was very from the heart.”
The Corbens went from passing out free tickets at other UArizona sporting events to traveling with the team. They recalled going on coffee runs for the team during their run to the Final Four in 2021.
Their house is now a sanctuary for the players and a place for teammates to bond off the court.
Former Wildcat stars Aari Mcdonald and Sam Thomas have even lived at the house part time.
As Arizona makes another March Madness run, the Corbens have high standards. But they’re also grateful that the Wildcats are a winning program once again.
“It’s awesome, that was the goal,” Steven said. “We were proud. We did it. We can’t coach or anything, but we helped a little bit.”
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