Greg Hansen: Tougher competition, tighter games could lift increasingly stale McKale

Arizona’s 95-79 victory over Washington in five easy pieces:

1. Monday was unofficially PTA Night at McKale Center. It had nothing to do with parents going to school; it was Plenty of Tickets Available Night. The announced crowd was 12,496, but I don’t recall more than a handful of smaller crowds — or more no-shows — at McKale since the mid 1980s.

Much of it can be traced to COVID-19 and the many fans unwilling to mix with those who ignore mask-up requirements. The UA has not been aggressive in its enforcement.

Nor has Arizona has been as creative as, say, the Kansas Jayhawks at filling empty seats. To get a capacity of 16,300 into historic Allen Fieldhouse on New Year’s afternoon against George Mason — to protect its consecutive sellout streak of 323 games — KU enlisted a local bank to buy hundreds of unused student seats. An anonymous donor then guaranteed to purchase all remaining tickets.

Beyond that, the game day mood at McKale has grown stale. The Zona Zoo, which is on winter break, has not shown up in usual numbers this season. The pep band doesn’t perform as often during game stoppages, replaced by recorded music. It all adds up.

Bit by bit, the quality of opposition has diminished for the last decade. There is no fear until UCLA or Oregon shows up. Fear sells.

Nothing raises the volume at McKale Center more than a serious threat. Fans make noise when they are scared. They weren’t scared until the final eight minutes Monday, when McKale Center felt and sounded like the 1990s.

2. Terrell Brown’s 28 points for the Huskies almost broke the transfer-returns-to-McKale record of 31 set by Cal State Fullerton’s Leon Wood in December 1983. That was the last time an ex-Wildcat returned to McKale Center and took command of a game against his former school.

It was Lute Olson’s second game at Arizona. He paid the price with a 67-66 loss when Wood, who had been Fred Snowden’s headline recruit in the Class of 1979, a Parade All-American from Fullerton, California, went off.

Wood left Arizona for the same reason almost all transfers do — lack of playing time. It’s the same reason Brown transferred to Washington. The move has paid off for Brown as it did for Wood 40 years ago.

After Wood left — he averaged a mere 9.2 minutes per game as a UA freshman, unable to win playing time from veteran guards Joe Nehls and Russell Brown — Arizona’s basketball program cratered. Snowden and his successor Ben Lindsey were fired. Wood was the No. 10 overall selection in the 1984 NBA draft and played seven NBA seasons.

A year ago at Arizona, Brown averaged 6.1 shots per game; at Washington, he averages 17.2. One of the valid criticisms on any coach is the failure to tap into an athlete’s full potential. At Arizona, Brown wasn’t given the chance to show how good he can be.

3. In a piece of odd timing Monday night, Washington coach Mike Hopkins walked out of an auditorium used for his post-game press conference at exactly the time Lloyd’s Zoom press session began maybe 10 yards away. Hopkins could clearly hear Lloyd’s voice as he said, “C-Hop is a friend of mine; I’ve got a lot of respect for him.”

That didn’t make Hopkins feel any better, but it gave another insight into Lloyd’s demeanor. Genuinely nice guy. No hidden agenda. A few weeks ago, Lloyd said he cheers for ASU whenever the Sun Devils aren’t playing the Wildcats.

It doesn’t mean he’s any less purposeful; how could any coach have gotten more production out of the Wildcats this season? It’s not possible.

“We don’t need to win these games by 40 points,” said Lloyd, who seems far more concerned about more important variables, such as making sure his players are enjoying the ride.

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He said he will not attempt to curb point guard Kerr Kriisa’s showboating style.

“I’ve got to give him freedom,” said Lloyd. “I don’t know if he’s as good a player when you put the shackles on him. The greatest strength of this team is its spirit. I don’t want to crush that spirit.”

4. Washington’s first-year assistant coach Quincy Pondexter wore an “I’ve seen this before” expression as Arizona dominated the final eight minutes. Pondexter has probably played more minutes at McKale than any other assistant coach, past or present. The one-time Top 50 recruit who seemed destined to play for the Wildcats still hasn’t experienced a winning game in Tucson.

From 2006-10, Pondexter played in four games at McKale, scoring exactly seven points in each game. The Huskies were blown out 106-97, 87-70, 84-69 and 84-54 in the Pondexter years, a period in which Arizona’s leading scorers against UW were Chase Bundinger (twice with 25 points), Jerryd Bayless (26) and Jamelle Horne (22).

After his elite prep career in Fresno, California, Pondexter was pursued by Arizona because of his strong ties to Lute Olson: Quincy’s father, Roscoe Pondexter, and his uncle, Cliff Pondexter, both averaged 15 points per game for Olson’s 1973-74 Long Beach State team that went 24-2.

Pondexter attended the Lute Olson Summer Camp in July 2005 — one of the reasons Olson brought Mike Bibby, Richard Jefferson, Andre Iguodala and Jason Terry back to Tucson for a week as “camp counselors.”

Ultimately, Olson chose to pursue Budinger, then a McDonald’s All-American from SoCal, over Pondexter, who chose Washington over UConn. Pondexter, a first-round draft pick in 2010, played seven NBA seasons. It worked out for both parties, which isn’t always the case in college sports.

5. In the spring of 2017, Washington chose to hire Hopkins, a career Syracuse assistant coach, rather than Lloyd, an assistant coach at cross-state rival Gonzaga. “I didn’t get a call,” Lloyd said last month.

Hopkins inherited Lorenzo Romar recruits Jaylen Nowell, David Crisp, Matisse Thybulle, Noah Dickerson and Nahziah Carter, who teamed to win the Pac-12 in Hopkins’ second season, 2018-19. The Huskies went 15-3 in the league and won at McKale Center, 67-60.

Hopkins was the hot ticket in college coaching; he was the Pac-12 Coach of the Year in his first two seasons, unprecedented in the league. His zone defense was widely feared.

Not anymore.

Once his Romar-loaded class left, the Huskies have gone splat. They finished last in the league in 2020 and 11th last season. The chances Hopkins returns in 2022-23 are slim.

Only four men in the last 43 years have won Pac-12 titles and also finished in last place: Hopkins; Oregon’s Ernie Kent; Stanford’s Mike Montgomery; and Oregon State’s Jimmy Anderson. All but Montgomery were ultimately fired.

If Hopkins is coaching the Huskies on their trip to McKale Center next year, he’ll be a survivor like few in the what-have-you-done-for-me-lately world of college basketball.