Greg Hansen: Arizona's mastery over Utes and their 'Coach K' is the stuff of magic

Utah’s Saturday afternoon return to Salt Lake City included a stop by Utes coach Larry Krystkowiak to do some shopping at the Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery in the Foothills.

No joke?

“I’m going to pick up a little trinket there,” Krystkowiak said with a glint in his eye. Maybe something to jinx the Wildcats; maybe a plea to the basketball gods to shine on the Utes and not make their annual visit to McKale Center so excruciating.

It was 84-81 Saturday in overtime, Arizona.

It was 74-73, Arizona, last year, when the Utes’ final possession went bust.

For seven years, Krystkowiak’s Utes haven’t won at McKale. It was 60-57 in 2013. It was 65-56 in 2016. It was one hurtful memory upon another. So a trip to the Medicine Man it is.

Perfect.

Krystkowiak described Utah’s final possession of regulation Saturday, game tied, as “kind of an off-the-head deal,” in which the basketball bonked a Utah player in the head and rolled out of bounds.

“At some point,” he said, “we’ll get one here.”

Since Utah and Colorado were absorbed by the Pac-12 in 2011, the Utes and Buffaloes have gone 0-14 at McKale. You remember that Sabatino Chen banked-in 3-pointer by Colorado in 2013 to apparently beat Arizona at the buzzer?

After a long study, a referee ruled Chen’s shot too late. On Saturday, the Utes felt like Sabatino Chen a few times.

It was a no-soup-for-you afternoon.

Even UA coach Sean Miller shakes his head at the 14-0 streak.

“So many games pop into my mind, even when Utah first came into our league and we’d been a heavy favorite,” Miller said Saturday, his voice hoarse from an exhausting overtime. “It seems like every game always comes down to the final four minutes.”

There have been other streaks like this at McKale. Lute Olson went 32-0 against road partners Oregon State and Oregon from 1984-2002, and he went 22-0 against Washington State and Washington through 1996.

But the latter-day Utah/Colorado teams are superior to those long-ago Oregon and Washington teams, which makes Arizona’s current 14-0 streak so embraceable.

“We’re 1-13 playing against those guys, right?” Utah’s steadfast Donnie Tillman said after scoring 21 points Saturday. And he is correct. Arizona is 13-1 overall against the Utes since the Pac-12’s expansion.

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“We’ll get ’em next time,” he said.

Can we book it now?

The Utah-Arizona series embodies all of the reasons McKale Center is one of the most provocative environments for college basketball. McKale was abuzz from the opening tip Saturday, the crowd fully engaged, start to overtime finish.

During a season in which the league is at historical lows against outside competition, it didn’t matter — it really doesn’t matter — because the power to entertain 14,000 fans is a constant.

“It certainly was one of best victories I’ve had at McKale in my time,” said Miller.

In victories over Colorado and Utah, you could sense that those who show up game after game, year upon year, feel the same. Every game counts. Arizona isn’t in the Top 25 for what seems to be the first time since 1986, but those hard-core fans — the older-than-50 set who are the heart and soul of McKale basketball — treated the Colorado and Utah homestand the same way they did a UCLA-USC weekend in 1997.

Tucson basketball fans aren’t naïve. They are aware that this Arizona team isn’t likely to be on the big board during Selection Sunday, but few have dropped away and adopted a wait-till-next-year attitude.

In some ways, victories are now appreciated more than in Arizona’s vintage years, when McKale Center blowouts became expected. In that sense, the hang-tough inhabitants of McKale are the winners as much as the Wildcats.

“I know how hard it is to win on the road,” Miller said Saturday, “and I think this year it will be hard to win at home, too.”

The annual Krystkowiak-versus-Miller showdown is theater that matches any in the ACC or Big Ten. It’s difficult to imagine any Pac-12 coach more adept at the Xs and Os, and more intense, than the staffs at Arizona and Utah. What’s more, the coaching staffs respect more than dislike one another, which isn’t always the case in conference rivalries.

Remember Lute vs. UCLA’s temperamental Walt Hazzard at UCLA? Or how Olson and Oregon’s Ernie Kent got in one another’s face at midcourt? This is more like Lute vs. Mike Montgomery. Mutual respect.

“This is one of the highlights of the league,” Krystkowiak said Saturday. “I told our team this is what you play for.”

Said Miller: “Krystkowiak is an excellent coach; you’ve got your hands full against them. They are really detailed offensively; Larry really makes you pay.”

The return match, Valentine’s Day in Salt Lake City, could be a game that helps to decide the conference champion, or something close to it.

On the Utes’ final possession Saturday, a chance to win in overtime, Krystkowiak designed a play for senior guard Parker Van Dyke to shoot from 20 feet. It barely missed; Krystkowiak said that both he and Van Dyke thought it was on line to be good, a game-winner.

“If you look at the history of this place, I’m not the only coach walking out of here shaking my head,” said Krystkowiak.

He is the first, however, to head to the Medicine Man Gallery in search of some assistance.