Greg Hansen: Wildcats' sometimes-sloppy showing still something to savor

SAN DIEGO – After losing to Texas Tech early Friday afternoon, Montana State’s basketball team showered, dressed and returned to sit in the lower grandstands as Alabama and Notre Dame began the second of four NCAA Tournament games at Viejas Arena.

About 15 minutes later, an NCAA representative walked to the Bobcats’ group and told them it was time to leave.

And with that, less than an hour after MSU’s first NCAA Tournament game since 1996, the Bobcats were handed a box lunch, led to a bus and headed to the airport for a flight to Bozeman, Montana.

They were home before dark.

It was another cautionary tale of the fleeting nature of March Madness. Enjoy it while you can. No team in the tournament’s 82 years has avoided a lonely trip home to Bozeman.

Every NCAA Tournament game should be cherished, adored and treasured, even one like Arizona’s 87-70 not-quite-a-romp over Wright State on Friday. The value of each NCAA Tournament victory is greater than almost any regular season win over UCLA or Oregon, maybe all of them.

I mean, it was the UA’s 2,873rd game in school history, but only the 91st played in the NCAA Tournament. That’s 3%.

Arizona Wildcats forward Azuolas Tubelis, left, and center Christian Koloko team up to force a turnover from Wright State forward Grant Basile during Friday's second half.
Kelly Presnell, Arizona Daily Star

So what if Arizona committed 19 turnovers? UA coach Tommy Lloyd didn’t lose sight of what it means to advance in the Big Dance. He insisted his team "dance with what brung ya."

"I don’t want these guys to play conservatively," he said. "We were excited to play. It’s a great opportunity."

Arizona didn’t try to reinvent itself at the worst possible time, by playing slow and playing tight. That type of approach in March often leads to the most sobering of all statistics in college basketball, one not even tracked by KenPom.com: "sent home too soon" losses.

Lloyd was so unfazed by the high stakes that he said at times he didn’t know, or seem to care, who played point guard, Dalen Terry or Justin Kier.

Let it rip, baby.

For almost 40 years, Arizona fans have endured the crushing "sent home too soon" torment of losing to East Tennessee State, UNLV, Santa Clara, Buffalo and so many others that they have come to appreciate what it means to beat Wright State and avoid the dreaded "your plane is on the tarmac" messenger.

Wright State had its one shining moment Friday, and even though it fell behind 16-5 and never had much of a chance, the Raiders have a different kind of appreciation than Arizona does. The Raiders have played 1,063 games in history; only five of those games have been in the NCAA Tournament.

That’s 0.4%. To the Raiders, it was like a golfer getting a chance to play at Augusta National. Even though they shot a 98, they’ll remember being on the same stage as the No. 1 seeded Wildcats and all of those players they’ll someday be watching in the NBA.

Wildcats guard Bennedict Mathurin drives the baseline for a reverse scoop against Wright State forward Grant Basile on Friday night in San Diego. UA won 87-70.
Kelly Presnell, Arizona Daily Star

The Raiders were encouraged, not deflated.

"It’s a stepping stone," said guard Tanner Holden. "We were ‘in’ this game. We’re going to get back to this point."

A day before Lloyd coached in his first NCAA Tournament game, he spoke of a recent phone conversation he had with Wildcats icon Steve Kerr, who had suffered through first-round NCAA exits to Alabama, Auburn and UTEP before, as a senior in 1987-88, he was part of Arizona’s 90-50 first-round victory over Cornell.

Kerr told Lloyd to enjoy his initial journey as an NCAA Tournament head coach. "There’s a beautiful innocence about it because you haven’t become institutionalized yet," Kerr told Lloyd.

Using Kerr’s term, Arizona became "institutionalized" the last four seasons, failing to win an NCAA Tournament game. Somewhere along the way, the school, its fans and the Tucson community may have forgotten how much of an achievement it is just to reach the Sweet 16.

About the only times I remember Arizona and its fans feeling it had maxed out, gone as far as it could in March, was a 1991 Sweet 16 loss to Seton Hall; a 1994 Final Four exit to Arkansas; and a 2009 blowout loss to Louisville in the Sweet 16.

Almost every other exit has been a UA fan’s version of basketball perdition. Kentucky fans know the feeling well this week.

That may yet happen to Arizona this month. The road ahead is always a ledge-walk, but at least Lloyd seems to have perspective and is enjoying the moment.

About an hour before Friday’s game, he stood outside the Wildcat locker room in a corridor at Viejas Arena. Lloyd was with UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond, a member of the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee, and Pac-12 deputy commissioner Jamie Zaninovich. You could hear the laughter from 10 yards away.

Whatever stories they were telling, they weren’t about Arizona’s 2017 Sweet 16 loss to Xavier or any of those seemingly-incurable Elite Eight losses to Wisconsin.

Lloyd still had a game to coach, but to his credit he wasn’t sitting alone in the locker room, thinking about all that could possibly go wrong.

Instead, Arizona won the 1,900th game in school history. So what if it was against Wright State? If it’s in the NCAA Tournament, you count your blessings and have sweet dreams.