SAN JOSE, Calif. โ Seconds after the Arizona locker room opened for interviews Wednesday, Rawle Alkins suddenly had almost no room to breathe.
Television cameras, smartphone video cameras and voice recorders all hovered around, intending to capture some words about the most important digit in the Sweet 16: his broken right index finger.
โItโs fine,โ Alkins said.
He patiently answered pretty much the same question over and over, and still managed to smile about it afterward.
โNah, itโs not crazy,โ Alkins said of the media swarm. โI know itโs a serious thing.โ
Just a freshman, Alkins has displayed an unusual sense of outside awareness in an environment where high-level athletes often tend to be highly focused on themselves and their teammates.
If fans back home are wondering how Alkins is doing, heโs wondering how theyโre doing, too.
Really.
โI know that everyone in Tucson wants to know whatโs going on with the finger,โ Alkins said. โBut I feel fine and, you know, Iโm getting better every day.โ
He knows itโs an important question because the Wildcats may need every skill they have to solve what could be a deceivingly tough Xavier team Thursday in their West Region Sweet 16 game at SAP Center.
The Musketeers are a tightly knit bunch who have rallied around adversity โ as much, if not more so than Arizona โ and two of the reasons they have put a six-game late-season losing streak behind them is a purposeful offense and a constantly switching defense.
The Musketeers are a different team from the what they were in January and a much different team than the one that kept it close against the Wildcats in the 2015 Sweet 16. That team featured center/Uber driver Matt Stainbrook; this one has basically a bunch of guys who are mostly around 6-foot-6 and willing to get guards Trevon Bluiett or J.P. Macura the ball.
โWeโre a little bit smaller, little more athletic,โ said Bluiett, who was held to just two points in that 2015 game. โI would say difference that year and this yearโs team is weโre a lot closer and weโre all bought in to winning. Thatโs our No. 1 goal, and we put all of our personal agendas aside.โ
UA assistant coach Mark Phelps, who is scouting the Musketeers, found that much is obvious in reviewing game video.
โEverybody from their coaching staff to the players are connected with a focus of making sure the best players and the best scorers are getting the most shots,โ Phelps said. โItโs certainly the coaching staffโs directive, but itโs also players saying, โOK, I get it. Iโm buying in.โโ
Phelps said the other striking thing about Xavier is the way they switch between their man-to-man, 2-3 zone and 1-3-1 zone defenses.
โAt that ratio, you expect to see a lot of zone,โ Phelps said.
Thatโs another reason Alkins knows his finger might play a big role.
โGotta shoot,โ he says.
Heโs not alone with that belief. There are multiple ways Arizona has attacked zone defenses this season, but guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright says that one may be most important Thursday.
โYou have to make shots,โ he said. โAt the end of the day, I think itโs going to come down to making shots.โ
The good news for UA is that Alkinsโ finger bone didnโt break through the skin and require stitches like Kadeem Allenโs did when he dislocated it on Feb. 14, requiring a longer and more careful healing process.
โItโs a little sore, but he has full range of motion,โ Miller said of Alkins. โHeโs able to catch and shoot, do all those things. With Kadeem, the hardest part was it popped out of his skin. That was a really hard situation. But with Rawle, he just had a legitimate dislocation and once it was solid and everything, he was able to go back through it.โ
Miller kept Alkins out of Mondayโs practice while the freshman wing returned Tuesday and said heโs been doing constant rehabilitation work with UA athletic trainer Justin Kokoskie all week.
โIโm making sure Iโm keeping it moving, not just keeping it stiff,โ Alkins said. โI just make it as comfortable as I can.โ
After arriving in San Jose on Tuesday evening, Alkins went through UAโs practice on Wednesday at Archbishop Mitty High School before showing off a bandage that covered the index and middle fingers together during Arizonaโs mandatory on-court appearance later Wednesday afternoon at SAP Center.
Alkins even performed dribbling drills right in front of security guards stationed at midcourt and attempted 35-footers (though he didnโt make any from that far out).
Through it all, Kokoskie didnโt appear to be sweating it.
โHeโs done really well,โ Kokoskie said. โWeโre cautiously optimistic.โ
