Milestone victory

Wednesday’s win was Arizona head coach Sean Miller’s 250th career victory at UA, in just 324 games. He is one of the fastest coaches to reach the milestone at one school. The only coaches to reach 250 program wins faster than Miller: Kansas’ Bill Self (in 299 games), Kentucky’s John Calipari (303), Gonzaga’s Mark Few (314) and North Carolina’s Roy Williams (316). Miller won 250 games faster than Mike Krzyzewski at Duke, Jim Boeheim at Syracuse, Tom Izzo at Michigan State and Jay Wright at Villanova.

Celebrity sightings

A pair of sports celebrities sat courtside at McKale Center, one of them a MLB manager and the other a former Olympic swimming coach. Former UA baseball standout and Cleveland Indians manager Terry Francona and former longtime Arizona swim coach Frank Busch had their feet on the hardwood to watch some college hoops action. Busch coached at Arizona from 1989-2011 and helped win 49 individual NCAA titles and two NCAA championships. Francona, or “Tito,” is a frequent attendee at basketball games when he’s not in the Indians’ dugout. Former UA point guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright wasn’t courtside, but he was in attendance for the game. He was added to the pregame hype video and was the first snippet of “This is Arizona” before Miller closed it out as usual. Jackson-Cartwright played at Arizona from 2014-18 and was recently drafted by the Raptors 905 in the G League Draft and released shortly after. Three recognizable faces for a Wednesday? Just another night at McKale Center.

International connection

Wednesday was the start of college basketball’s fall signing period for high school student-athletes to sign letters of intent for 2019. Five-star point guard Nico Mannion signed the dotted line to play in Tucson next season, his dad, Pace Mannion, told the Star on Wednesday. Fellow five-star commit and Mannion’s travel ball teammate Josh Green told Adam Zagoria that he plans on signing his letter of intent on Friday. Green, the 6-foot-6-inch, five-star small forward committed to Arizona in October over North Carolina. Although Green plays high school ball at IMG Academy in Florida, he’s originally from Australia, and if he signs with UA, it would mark a fourth consecutive recruiting class that Arizona has had an international player. Since 2016, Arizona has signed Lauri Markkanen (Finland), Keanu Pinder (Australia), Deandre Ayton (Bahamas), Emmanuel Akot (Canada), Omar Thielemans (Belgium) and now Green. If three-star center Christian Koloko signs for 2019, the Cameroonian will be another foreign-born player for Miller.

The big number

50

Consecutive home wins for Arizona against nonconference opponents. It’s also Miller’s age, as the head coach turns the big five-oh on Saturday. Miller disciples Aaron Gordon, Deandre Ayton, Lauri Markkanen, Dusan Ristic, Nick Johnson and T.J. McConnell sent in videos wishing the coach a happy birthday, as shown on the McKale Center video board just before the second half.

New look for Jeter

Chase Jeter was the last Wildcat to take the floor for warmups, but the co-captain walked out with a new haircut. Jeter used to sport an afro with a taper fade in the back and blonde tips. He cut his hair down a couple of inches, ditched the blonder coloring and trimmed the sides. How did Jeter do in his haircut debut? He scored 15 points and made 7 of 9 shots from the field.

He said it

“You play at a really high level and you’re competitive, things happen. Every team that I’ve ever been on, things have happened. By the way, I kicked (Michael Jordan’s) (explicit).”

— Golden State Warriors head coach and former Wildcat Steve Kerr on the recent feud with Kevin Durant and Draymond Green. Kerr was asked about his altercation with NBA legend Michael Jordan when then two were teammates in Chicago.

Another big number

14-0

Brandon Williams’ assist-to-turnover ratio through the first three games of the season. Williams scored a career-high 21 points and made 6 of 12 shots from the field.