The Beatles wrote some lyrics in 1967 that have come to define what used to be called Senior Day at McKale Center.
You say yes, I say no. …
You say goodbye and I say hello.
Hello, goodbye.
Under Lute Olson, Senior Day began at McKale in 1985. It made such an impact on ’85 team captain Pete Williams that he remembers not just the events of that day, a rousing 68-48 thumping of ASU, but the date itself.
“Monday is the 35th anniversary,” he says now.
But that has all changed. Sean Miller this week indicated it will no longer be referred to as Senior Day. Here are a few suggestions:
Let’s Go Day.
Leaving Day.
Without You Day.
Williams, the cornerstone recruit of Olson’s Arizona years, has been a steady return guest at McKale since leaving Tucson. It’s somehow fitting with the evolution of UA basketball and the transient nature of college basketball that he chose not to be at McKale on Saturday. Instead, he will be in Las Vegas, watching Arizona’s women’s basketball team at the Pac-12 Tournament.
“I love watching the Lady Cats play,” he said.
On Senior Day in 1985, Olson started four seniors: Williams, Eddie Smith, Brock Brunkhorst and Morgan Taylor. Sophomore Steve Kerr was the fifth starter.
Not only were seniors honored, families of all players were invited to campus. Williams remembers freshman guard Craig McMillan’s sister accompanying him in the pregame ceremony.
McMillan was Arizona’s first-ever McDonald’s All-America recruit, in 1984. He played in 130 games, scored 1,174 points and stayed long enough to play in the 1988 Final Four. He was part of teammate Harvey Mason’s enduring song “Wild About the Cats,” in which McMillan and his teammates sang “Tucson, Arizona, is a basketball town.”
Tucson remains a basketball town, but the 2020 version has little in common with the 1985 or 1988 versions.
Since Senior Day ’85, Arizona has started four seniors on a full-time basis just once, in 1996. That year’s Senior Day was such a celebration, honoring starting seniors Ben Davis, Reggie Geary, Corey Williams and Joe McLean, that Sean Elliott’s jersey No. 32 was retired at halftime.
Elliott played 133 games at Arizona.
When freshmen Nico Mannion, Zeke Nnaji and Josh Green are recognized before Saturday’s Arizona-Washington game, they will not exactly be referred to as “The Old Gang.” They have played a combined 88 games at Arizona.
After Thursday’s 83-62 victory over Washington State, Miller had a strong perspective on what it means to have a freshman-laden team: “If you’re a younger guy, all everyone talks about is points. Shots. Field goal percentage. But our goal is to make plays, not shots.”
After 30 games, Arizona’s freshmen seem to be getting the message, although it should be said that Washington State was not a quality opponent. The Cougars are 6-11 in the Pac-12. They, too, are part of the game’s shift toward non-seniors. WSU’s Jeff Pollard and Jervae Robinson are the only seniors to start for the Cougars this season.
The 2020 version of Senior Day in the Pac-12 won’t take long on any campus. Oregon guard Payton Pritchard, Arizona guard Dylan Smith and Oregon State’s Tres Tinkle and Kylor Kelley are the only seniors to start every game this season for a Pac-12 team.
Utah, Washington and Stanford have not started at senior at any time this year. Washington arrives at McKale Center with just one senior, Sam Timmins, who has started a game. Timmins has started twice.
Colorado is said to be a veteran team, the league’s oldest group. Yet the Buffaloes don’t have a full-time senior starter. Shane Gatling, a senior, has started just 18 games.
Of the 60 starting berths available in Pac-12 basketball, only 14 go to seniors on a regular basis. Most starts by a senior? That would be the first-place Oregon Ducks with 74, followed by USC with 70. No wonder the Trojans are experiencing a not-so-customary flirtation with the NCAA Tournament bubble.
Arizona has 60 starts, of a possible 150, by seniors.
Arizona’s Dylan Smith is one of only four seniors in the Pac-12 to have started every game this season. Three teams in the league — Utah, Washington and Stanford — have not started a senior at any time this year.
In Thursday’s victory over WSU, former Arizona and NBA draft pick Herman Harris sat in the second row at McKale, a few yards from UA president Bobby Robbins. Harris played four full seasons at Arizona, helping Fred Snowden’s teams go 86-29, play in two NCAA Tournaments and post a perfect 32-0 record at McKale his final two seasons.
Harris watched as Nnaji increased his career point total to 492, moving closer and closer to the 543 Harris scored in the 1976-77 season. When told that Nnaji was about to be the newest member of the 500-point club, Harris smiled.
“Hope the kid makes it,” he said.
The kid. Harris was 22 when he played his final game at Arizona. By the time Nnaji is 22, Arizona will be completing the 2022-23 season. Although it is a preposterous notion, Nnaji could probably break Sean Elliott’s Arizona career scoring record, 2,555 points, if he chose to stay at Arizona through his senior season.
He would likely be a first-team All-American and maybe help to break Arizona’s long drought of playing in the Final Four. Nnaji would return to McKale around 2030 to have his jersey retired.
Dream on, right?
Since McKale Center opened in 1973, saying goodbye to the senior class has been the hardest part of college basketball in Tucson.
Hello. Goodbye. Somebody could write a sad song about it.