Seen and heard: On Wednesday’s NCAA tourney rematch, Trier’s absence, the newest Wildcat
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Information you can use from Wednesday's game.
- Updated
Boy, a lot sure can change in two years. And no, this isn’t about Arizona’s football team.
The last time Arizona faced its Wednesday opponent, Texas Southern, was in the first round of the 2014 NCAA Tournament. The Wildcats were a No. 2 seed, the Tigers a No. 15.
The Wildcats, as to be expected, dismantled the SWAC champions by 21 points. Wednesday, they won by 22.
But both teams look a whole lot different.
Not a single player from Texas Southern who played in the 2014 game was still around for Wednesday’s game at McKale Center.
Just two remain from Arizona: center Dusan Ristic and point guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright, and the latter didn’t even make it to halftime before succumbing to the injury bug.
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One Texas Southern standout (Madarious Gibbs) is playing professionally in Italy, where another (Deverell Biggs) is on the Omaha Chargers of the … National Basketball League of America. (That’s a real thing, apparently.)
As for Arizona, three players from that game are in the NBA (T.J. McConnell, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and Stanley Johnson) and two are in the NBA’s Developmental League (Gabe York, Kaleb Tarczewski).
Then there’s Elliott Pitts, who transferred to Diablo Valley College and is redshirting, and the best one: Matt Korcheck, the Sabino Product currently playing professional football in Australia. Aussie Rules football, that is.
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Arizona center Keanu Pinder is from Australia and played Aussie football for most of his life before he, true story, watched an episode of “Oprah” where LeBron James was the guest. Pinder learned that day that he could become a millionaire playing basketball.
Still no ‘Zo
Wednesday brought no clarification on the status of Arizona star Allonzo Trier, who has yet to play this season.
Trier, however, remains on Arizona’s bench. Wednesday, Trier — who dresses for comfort when he’s courtside — wore a grey hooded sweatshirt and great sweatpants.
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The ZonaZoo handed out towels to its students for Wednesday’s game.
The towel had text that said “Make a breeze for threes”, with a logo depicting the Arizona “WC” hand symbol.
The towels had “special holes” in them to make it easier to hold, and were made of glass cleaning material.
As the ZonaZoo official Twitter account tweeted: the more you know.
- Updated
Lauri Markkanen has fast become a local hero in Tucson for his ability, and willingness, to shoot 3-pointers at 7-feet tall.
He made 5 of 6 of those against Texas Southern.
Pinder tried to follow suit and, well, couldn’t.
The 6-foot-9-inch forward airballed a 3-point attempt in the first half, though he did make up for it by converting a 3-point attempt with less than two minutes in the game.
- Updated
Texas Southern coach Mike Davis has made no secret about how he fills the Tigers’ roster. TSU’s team consists mostly of transfers and second-chance players.
The best story on Davis’ roster this season has to be Derrick Griffin, a 6-7 forward.
Griffin was highly recruited as a football player coming out of high school.
At various points in the recruiting process, he verbally committed to Texas A&M and signed with Miami before being deemed academically inelgibile, leading to his transfer to Texas Southern. He was rated a four-star wide receiver and the No. 7 player at the position overall in 2013, according to Scout.com.
Griffin plays both football and basketball for Texas Southern, though he played two games this fall. He was a standout in 2015, when he amassed 36 catches for 709 yards and 11 touchdowns.
“He’s a talented player , a big-time athlete who can cause some problems,” Davis told the Star’s Bruce Pascoe. “He wanted to focus on basketball and he wants to play football and he was torn between both.”
Against Arizona on Wednesday, Griffin scored 14 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. On the season, he was averaging 12.2 points and 8.5 rebounds per game.
- Updated
Sean Miller mentioned a couple weeks ago that the Wildcats would be holding a tryout to find a walk-on to add to the roster.
With all the team’s injuries, coupled with Trier’s eligibility questions, the Wildcats needed more bodies. That was no more evident then on Wednesday when Jackson-Cartwright went down.
Earlier Wednesday, the UA announced the addition of just that — 6-foot-3 guard Kory Jones from Herndon, Virginia.
Jones suited up on Wednesday, though he didn’t play.
Arizona’s other three walk-ons — Tyler Trillo, Jake Desjardins and Paulo Cruz — all saw the floor, though, and Trillo nearly made a 3-pointer. His attempt rimmed out, much to the chagrin of his teammates on the bench, ready to celebrate.
Boy, a lot sure can change in two years. And no, this isn’t about Arizona’s football team.
The last time Arizona faced its Wednesday opponent, Texas Southern, was in the first round of the 2014 NCAA Tournament. The Wildcats were a No. 2 seed, the Tigers a No. 15.
The Wildcats, as to be expected, dismantled the SWAC champions by 21 points. Wednesday, they won by 22.
But both teams look a whole lot different.
Not a single player from Texas Southern who played in the 2014 game was still around for Wednesday’s game at McKale Center.
Just two remain from Arizona: center Dusan Ristic and point guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright, and the latter didn’t even make it to halftime before succumbing to the injury bug.
One Texas Southern standout (Madarious Gibbs) is playing professionally in Italy, where another (Deverell Biggs) is on the Omaha Chargers of the … National Basketball League of America. (That’s a real thing, apparently.)
As for Arizona, three players from that game are in the NBA (T.J. McConnell, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and Stanley Johnson) and two are in the NBA’s Developmental League (Gabe York, Kaleb Tarczewski).
Then there’s Elliott Pitts, who transferred to Diablo Valley College and is redshirting, and the best one: Matt Korcheck, the Sabino Product currently playing professional football in Australia. Aussie Rules football, that is.
Arizona center Keanu Pinder is from Australia and played Aussie football for most of his life before he, true story, watched an episode of “Oprah” where LeBron James was the guest. Pinder learned that day that he could become a millionaire playing basketball.
Still no ‘Zo
Wednesday brought no clarification on the status of Arizona star Allonzo Trier, who has yet to play this season.
Trier, however, remains on Arizona’s bench. Wednesday, Trier — who dresses for comfort when he’s courtside — wore a grey hooded sweatshirt and great sweatpants.
The ZonaZoo handed out towels to its students for Wednesday’s game.
The towel had text that said “Make a breeze for threes”, with a logo depicting the Arizona “WC” hand symbol.
The towels had “special holes” in them to make it easier to hold, and were made of glass cleaning material.
As the ZonaZoo official Twitter account tweeted: the more you know.
Lauri Markkanen has fast become a local hero in Tucson for his ability, and willingness, to shoot 3-pointers at 7-feet tall.
He made 5 of 6 of those against Texas Southern.
Pinder tried to follow suit and, well, couldn’t.
The 6-foot-9-inch forward airballed a 3-point attempt in the first half, though he did make up for it by converting a 3-point attempt with less than two minutes in the game.
Texas Southern coach Mike Davis has made no secret about how he fills the Tigers’ roster. TSU’s team consists mostly of transfers and second-chance players.
The best story on Davis’ roster this season has to be Derrick Griffin, a 6-7 forward.
Griffin was highly recruited as a football player coming out of high school.
At various points in the recruiting process, he verbally committed to Texas A&M and signed with Miami before being deemed academically inelgibile, leading to his transfer to Texas Southern. He was rated a four-star wide receiver and the No. 7 player at the position overall in 2013, according to Scout.com.
Griffin plays both football and basketball for Texas Southern, though he played two games this fall. He was a standout in 2015, when he amassed 36 catches for 709 yards and 11 touchdowns.
“He’s a talented player , a big-time athlete who can cause some problems,” Davis told the Star’s Bruce Pascoe. “He wanted to focus on basketball and he wants to play football and he was torn between both.”
Against Arizona on Wednesday, Griffin scored 14 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. On the season, he was averaging 12.2 points and 8.5 rebounds per game.
Sean Miller mentioned a couple weeks ago that the Wildcats would be holding a tryout to find a walk-on to add to the roster.
With all the team’s injuries, coupled with Trier’s eligibility questions, the Wildcats needed more bodies. That was no more evident then on Wednesday when Jackson-Cartwright went down.
Earlier Wednesday, the UA announced the addition of just that — 6-foot-3 guard Kory Jones from Herndon, Virginia.
Jones suited up on Wednesday, though he didn’t play.
Arizona’s other three walk-ons — Tyler Trillo, Jake Desjardins and Paulo Cruz — all saw the floor, though, and Trillo nearly made a 3-pointer. His attempt rimmed out, much to the chagrin of his teammates on the bench, ready to celebrate.
More information
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