Barcello shelved

Arizona freshman Alex Barcello sat out Saturday’s game with a sprained left ankle, after he tried to play on it a week ago against Alabama.

Barcello hurt his left ankle in practice after the UA played Texas A&M on Dec. 5 in Phoenix. UA trainer Justin Kokoskie said the decision was made to sit him out this week.

UA coach Sean Miller and Kokoskie said they weren’t sure if Barcello would return Monday against North Dakota State or Jan. 21against UConn.

“We’ll just see how it progresses,” Kokoskie said.

Barcello joined injured walk-ons Kory Jones (torn ACL) and Matt Weyand (arthroscopic knee surgery) in gray sweats on the UA bench. Weyand, a scout team forward for the Wildcats, is expected back soon.

Timekeeper defends himself

Nestled in the corner of the front page of Saturday’s Albuquerque Journal, below stories about the tax bill and a local teen who was shot to death was a historical matter of interest.

That is, 19 years later, former Lobo basketball timekeeper Gary Spitzberg said he didn’t do anything wrong.

UA coach Lute Olson vowed never to bring the Wildcats back to The Pit following their controversial 1999 loss, when New Mexico rattled off a two-player, length-of-the-court play for the winning basket in just 4.6 seconds. Olson claimed the timekeeper was “very inept or very dishonest” because he didn’t start the clock once the ball was touched upon being inbounded.

Spitzberg disagreed.

“I went back and looked at the replay because it was on TV for two or three days,” Spitzberg told the Journal. “I did everything I was supposed to do by the book.”

Now 73 and a member of the New Mexico high school officials hall of fame, Spitzberg said he thinks Olson accused him of cheating but shrugged it off. After working the clock at the New Mexico Bowl on Saturday, he had plans to cross the street and watch the rest of the UNM-Arizona game, the first the teams have played at the Pit since that controversial finish nearly 19 years ago.

“Probably as time goes by, I don’t think about it as much,” Spitzberg said. “I’m just happy it’s back.”

Logwood returns

While Arizona’s Rawle Alkins appeared back in midseason form in only his second game since returning from a foot injury, New Mexico was boosted by the return of forward Sam Logwood, who took a leave of absence last week and did not play in the Lobos’ Dec. 9 loss to New Mexico State at The Pit.

Logwood helped keep the game from turning into a blowout loss for the Lobos. He had eight points, four rebounds, five assists and no turnovers in 26 minutes.

Local flavor

More important than a baskeball game. pic.twitter.com/x4rQdEd1Ra

— Zack Rosenblatt (@ZackBlatt) December 17, 2017

Fans attending The Pit could choose any number of local dishes, including green chile cheeseburgers, pork tamales from Sadie’s, sopapillas… and kalua nachos.

The last item, of course, would be local … in Hawaii.

Pricing strategy

Last ticket update I heard was 12,900 for this game. With the New Mexico Bowl still going on across the street, there will be some who arrive late tonight, but still won’t be close to a sell out, which nobody would have believed a couple years ago when series was renewed.

— Geoff Grammer (@GeoffGrammer) December 17, 2017

New Mexico officials declared Saturday’s contest a “premium game,” which meant they added $5 to the price of all lower-bowl tickets.

However, they may have not accounted for the fact that the Lobos are struggling.

Saturday’s game drew 13,207 fans to the 15,411-seat arena, and at least 1,000 of them were rooting for Arizona. Plus, tickets could be had Saturday on resale sites well under the list prices of $27 and up.

In the red

No doubt New Mexico needs all the athletic revenue it can get. According to the Albuquerque Journal, its athletic department ran up a $4.7 million deficit in the fiscal year that ended in June 2017.

And because the university is getting a new chief financial officer for athletics, the school did not present an athletics deficit reduction plan that was expected this month, according to the Journal.

New Mexico’s athletic department has run at a deficit for nine of the past 11 years.

Left turn at Albuquerque

Bye Tucson ✌🏻

— Zack Rosenblatt (@ZackBlatt) December 15, 2017

Actually, Zack Rosenblatt was heading straight through the high-desert city on Interstate 40. But the former Star reporter, who composed many of these “Seen and Heard” items over the past four years, stopped over Saturday at the crossroads that always seemed to throw off Bugs Bunny. On a cross-country drive to New Jersey to take a job at NJ.com, Rosenblatt and Mario Ziccarelli, a former ZonaZoo executive director, watched Saturday’s game before proceeding onward through Texas and Oklahoma.

They took advantage of the low demand for tickets by snapping up a pair of seats for $40 including fees on StubHub.

The big number

64.0

Arizona’s field goal percentage Saturday, its best of the season (the Wildcats’ 60.9 percent against UMBC is now their second-best).

Quotable

“I know New Mexico is going through a little bit of a hard time now but if they stay with it, they’ll win their fair share at home with this style and this amazing crowd that they have. It’s really a heck of a place.” – UA coach Sean Miller on the Lobos and The Pit.