Seen and heard at TCU: On the saguaro look, scaly floor lines and real Texas longhorns

FORT WORTH, Texas — It’s hardly unusual to see an Arizona fan, or family of a player, wear a customized UA jersey with the name and image of a favorite player.

But Donovan “LeSaguaro Don” Reed took this concept to another level Saturday at Schollmaier Arena when the Cats took on TCU.

The Austin resident and 2023 UA graduate wore a green saguaro outfit underneath a jersey that had the number, name and photo of freshman guard Brayden Burries. Then he accented it with a scarf from Ivan Kharchenkov’s former club, Bayern Munich.

“I’m a superfan,” he said.

Reed and Nick Nold, a Chandler native who also now lives in Austin, said they travel to many of UA’s away games and occasionally get back to McKale Center, too.

Many Arizona fans joined them Saturday, likely thanks to the UA's alumni presence in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Of the 6,082 fans inside the 6,800-seat Schollmaier Arena, about a quarter of them were rooting for the Wildcats.

EMOY connection

While the Wildcats had never played at TCU before, UA equipment manager Brian Brigger goes back a ways with Horned Frogs coach Jamie Dixon.

A native of Cincinnati who started his career as a student manager at Xavier under former Muskeeters coaches Skip Prosser and Thad Matta, Brigger caught his first fulltime job at Pittsburgh working Olympic sports before moving to men’s basketball in 2007.

He joined the Arizona staff in 2012 to work under then-UA coach Sean Miller, who was a Xavier assistant when Brigger was a student there.

“I’ve been lucky in my career to work for great basketball coaches,” Brigger said before Saturday's game.

Sight for (or from?) sore eyes

TCU’s home arena offers a floor design that is unique even by today’s standards.

The entire playing area is a “frog scale” patter of silver, gray and off-white shapes that somewhat resembles a lizard skin — or maybe the back of a horned frog — while the 3-point line and restricted-area arcs are painted red to symbolize how horned frogs defend themselves by squirting blood from their eyes.

Within the free-throw lanes, the “scales” also feature a purple overlay.

Temporary solution

TCU tried using the same tradition as McKale Center fans by standing until the opposing team scores.

This worked for the first two minutes, with UA missing its first two shots before Motiejus Krivas opened the scoring with a hook shot with 18:03 left. Not long later, Arizona went on an 11-2 run to take a 19-8 lead with 12 minutes left.

Townsend’s short commute

Former Arizona forward Trey Townsend made a short hop to catch Saturday’s game in person, sitting next to UA conditioning coach Chris Rounds a few rows behind the UA bench.

After spending last season with the Wildcats, Townsend played in the NBA Summer League with the New Orleans Pelicans, then headed to Sweden and is now playing for the G League’s Texas Legends in nearby Frisco, Texas.

Townsend has averaged 10.3 minutes and 3.5 points in four G League games so far.

Timeout karaoke

TCU celebrated the final media timeout of the first half by playing timeout karaoke.

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A game announcer passed around the microphone as fans seated courtside had the chance to join Jon Bon Jovi in belting out the words to “Livin’ On a Prayer.”

Radio analyst swap

For years, Arizona fans usually have been able to hear former Wildcat guard Reggie Geary working radio broadcasts of away games while longtime analyst and former Lute Olson-era staffer Ryan Hansen handled the home games.

But while Geary was on hand Saturday at Schollmaier Arena, and says he will work at UCF next Saturday, he will also handle UA’s home game Wednesday with ASU because he and Hansen swapped a few games.

“Ryan wanted to go on the road and I wanted to do some games at McKale,” Geary said.

Pregame cattle drive

For those seeking pregame entertainment earlier Saturday in Fort Worth, the Texas longhorns were performing across town.

The real ones. A group of Texas longhorns, some with horns sticking out 4 feet both ways from their heads, sauntered down East Exchange Avenue in the Fort Worth Stockyards Historic District as they do twice every day.

Afterward, two of them stuck around to allow spectators to hop on them for a $10 (plus tip) photo op.

Rest stop

An audio presentation over loudspeakers before the “cattle drive” told spectators of how the area served as a final rest stop to “enjoy a good meal and kick up their heels” before they would soon be “sleeping under the stars” on the open land.

“It’s a reminder of Fort Worth’s Western heritage, of the cowboy grit and rugged independence, sowing grain, Texas spirit,” the announcer said. “That spirit is still here and you are a part of that. So be sure and tip your hat and say hi as the Texas longhorns pass by ... every day is a new adventure and it starts right here with the Fort Worth Herd.”

On Saturday, folks used the Stockyards district to stop over and shop. They could drift into Western-themed shops such as Will Leather Goods, Double D Ranch, King Ranch, Leddy’s Boots-Saddles, Cavender’s Stockyards Outfitters, or get a drink and eats at the White Elephant Saloon and H3 Ranch, among many other options.

But the most popular spot on a chilly Saturday morning was actually Avocas Coffee Roasters, a modern-day coffee bard. And if anyone was searching for a true cowboy meal, they might have stumbled instead … into Shake Shack.

Cowboy up

While Schollmaier Arena was holding a featured event Saturday, there was plenty else on the schedule for Fort Worth.

On Fridays and Saturdays at the Stockyards, a free “gunfight exhibition” is held and spectators are later encouraged to try their luck at the “Cowboy Dueling in the Stockyards.” The “live balloon dueling event” is free to watch but with a $25 “dueling fee.”

There was also live entertainment at “Filthy McNasty’s Saloon,” which encourages patrons to “be a part of the rich history of the west in the place where it began.”

Some of the other top attractions around Fort Worth include the Fort Worth Water Gardens, Kimbell Art Museum, the Texas Motor Speedway and the Western branch of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, a U.S. government agency that produces paper money, as well as various government security documents.

Quotable 

"You can't be bigger than us and beat us down the floor at the same time. I thought they did that a lot early." — TCU coach Jamie Dixon

The big number

10.5: Average length of all Arizona shots entering Saturday’s game, the shortest average distance in Division I, according to CBB Analytics.