In 1991, one of the most dominant big men in the history of basketball stepped foot in McKale Center, and he brought the hype with him.
He returned to McKale for a college basketball game for the first time on Friday, to watch the Wildcats play Sacred Heart.
That would be Shaquille O’Neal, the Hall-of-Fame center and LSU alum.
There’s a real possibility that a couple years from now, Arizona fans will be seeing a whole lot of O’Neal.
The basketball legend sat behind one of the baskets at McKale Center, only sort of obscured because his blue T-shirt matched his seat. At 7-foot-1, though, he still sticks out like a big, 300-pound sore thumb. The security guards posted around him didn’t help any yearning for obscurity.
Next to him sat his son, Shareef O’Neal, maybe obscure to Arizona fans now, but not for long.
Shareef was on Arizona’s campus on a visit — the 6-9 forward/center is a top recruit in the 2018 class and an Arizona target.
He’s not quite like his father — Shareef is more of a stretch big man with shooting ability out to 3-point line than the dominant, low-post force that his father was at LSU and in the NBA.
”A lot of people say I’m a way different player than he is,” Shareef told the Star in July. “My dad calls me a stretch four or five. I need to work on my post game more, but I say my outside game is pretty solid. I can run the floor pretty well. I’m kind of an all-around player.”
Unsurprisingly, the five-star recruit already has a handful of offers, including from UCLA, USC and LSU, where Shaquille first became a star. Shareef will play at Santa Monica (California) Crossroads next year with forward Ira Lee, a 2017 Arizona signee.
It was 1991 when O’Neal came to Tucson a junior and, of course, a star. The year prior, the Wildcats traveled to Baton Rouge and lost to O’Neal and the Tigers by 10 points.
The Wildcats got their revenge in a big way one year later.
O’Neal fouled out after scoring just 10 points, and the Wildcats won 87-67, a signature regular-season win of the Lute Olson era, the 65th consecutive win at home.
O’Neal returned to McKale years later when he played for the Phoenix Suns in the latter part of his career and the organization held training camp at McKale.
He returned again on Friday.
Maybe he’ll be back again in 2018.
