Final score:Β Arizona 68, Arizona State 51Β
Location:Β McKale Center, TucsonΒ
What went down:Β Arizona freshman guard Nick Johnson scored 14 points (5-8 FGs, 3-5 3-pointers) while forward Solomon Hill collected a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Wildcats to their third straight win over ASU.Β
Miller's record against ASU:Β 4-1Β
Bruce Pascoe's game story:Β
Nearly every explanation for Nick Johnson's immediate success with the Arizona Wildcats this season includes the words "maturity," "composure" or "level-headedness."
But all those traits momentarily went out the window Saturday, at least until game time.
"Can't sleep!" the freshman said on Twitter at 6:36 a.m., nine hours before the Wildcats began their convincing 68-51 win over ASU, his father's former team, at McKale Center.
And, Johnson said after the game, he awoke even earlier than that.
"I was excited. I was up at like 5:30 in the morning," Johnson said. "I was just tossing and turning all night."
Fortunately for the Wildcats, Johnson was able to channel all that energy into productivity. He had 14 points, hitting 3 of 5 threes, and, as usual, also threw down a couple of explosive dunks that helped the Wildcats blow apart ASU's efforts to slow down the tempo of the Pac-12 opener for both schools.
So if the Tempe native who grew up in Gilbert was nervous or tired inside, it hardly showed. That's not always the case for some players, according to what UA coach Sean Miller indicated.
"It depends how you handle it," Miller said. "I think what it really says more than anything is Nick cares a lot. He cares about his own performance, cares about his team. You want a locker room full of players who care that much."
Miller has only two scholarship players on his roster from Arizona, but he actually had two others from outside the state that showed some obvious interest Saturday: Solomon Hill, who had his third career double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds, and Jesse Perry, who had a fill-the-box score effort that included 16 points, a three-pointer, seven rebounds, three assists, a block and a steal.
Believe it or not, Hill was nearly just as excited about the game as Johnson β even though he's from Los Angeles.
"Yeah," Hill said. "It's the crowd. You feed off the crowd. It's a different emotion about the game than any other game."
It appeared that way from the start. UA customized its pregame introductory video with clips of ASU-UA games and featured former Wildcat star Sean Elliott saying "there's nothing like playing your rival."
UA fans also filled McKale to near-capacity, a crowd of 14,499 despite the fact that students are on winter break, and there was premium pricing (the cheapest ticket sold for $33 instead of $19).
Once the game started, fans cheered when Kyle Fogg drew a charging foul from ASU point guard Keala King just a minute into the game. Fans began roaring after the Wildcats forced a shot-clock violation by ASU, then came down to get a three-pointer by Perry that gave UA a 20-11 lead midway through the first half.
"I love it," Hill said. "The students weren't here, and we were able to pack it in. It just showed the importance of the game. I really love it. It's my favorite game of the year."
UA pretty much put the game away by going on a 12-2 run early in the second half, establishing its faster tempo in part by aggressively defending.
The Wildcats held ASU to 36 percent shooting (just 26.7 percent from three-point range) and forced 19 Sun Devil turnovers. UA also recorded 22 points off those turnovers and had seven more second-chance points than ASU while out-rebounding the Devils 32-30.
"I liked our defensive intensity," Miller said. "Today we took advantage of our great crowd, played with a lot of energy and emotion and played hard on defense. We really had a great collective effort on defense."
Miller noted that it was "hard to get five steals in a game," the way point guard Josiah Turner did, praising both Turner and starting point guard Jordin Mayes β who had eight points, hit 2 of 4 three-point shots and collected two rebounds, three assists and two steals.
"If you look at the combination of Jordin and Josiah for 40 minutes, those two guys really got the job done for us tonight," Miller said.
Miller didn't go deep as he usually does with his rotation, though he did get 16 minutes from Kevin Parrom despite a sore right index finger that Miller said was probably bent back.
Miller said he wanted to get his key players more experience in a game that could have become close, with ASU having cut what was a 24-point UA lead to 13 late in the game on two occasions.
Although Miller said the Wildcats did not break the 70-point mark because of missed opportunities in transition, he also purposely slowed down the tempo late in the game while the Wildcats held on to their double-digit advantage.
"Just making sure we knew how to play with a lead and not giving them extra opportunities," Miller said.
In the end, UA wound up with an easy win that moved it to 10-4 overall and 1-0 in Pac-12 play, and ASU dropped to 4-9, 0-1. The Wildcats will move on to Southern California for games against UCLA and USC, a trip home for Hill that he said will be tough.
No doubt, it will probably be tougher than facing Johnson's hometown team turned out to be Saturday. Even if a few butterflies were involved.
"I would like to say it was another game, but my dad played there so I was pretty emotional," Johnson said. "And they recruited me for four years so I have a good relationship with all the staff and players. It definitely felt good to do what we did."
