In a wardrobe rarity for college basketball, both coaches in Friday night’s Arizona-UTEP game, Sean Miller and Tim Floyd, didn’t wear a tie.
That’s not style, it’s the new way of Arizona basketball. It has become a working man’s game. How can you be buttoned up when the tension pounds at your nervous system?
Arizona fans grind it out, too. Friday’s final score, 60-55, was 40 minutes of tension. You can’t watch without a lump in your throat.
Do these scores sound familiar?
- 66-63 Gonzaga, win.
- 61-59 San Diego State, win.
It was no different last year:
- 64-63 Wisconsin, loss in overtime.
- 67-63 Utah, win in overtime.
- 69-66 ASU, loss in double overtime.
- 67-65 Oregon, win.
- 60-58 Cal, loss.
- 60-57 Stanford, win.
Somehow, Arizona beat UTEP while committing 17 turnovers, which matched its high of a year ago. Somehow it won while shooting 15 of 26 from the foul line. Somehow it won when the best player on the court, UTEP’s 6-foot-8-inch Vince Hunter, had an 18-12 double-double. (Hunter is averaging 17 points and 12 rebounds in games against Arizona, Washington and Washington State this year.)
Arizona won because Friday’s game was its game. That’s the way the Wildcats play.
No more than four or five college basketball teams would’ve won Friday in El Paso, and no other Pac-12 team seems equipped to handle UTEP’s skill, coaching tactics and the howling crowd at Haskins Center.
From now on, especially when Arizona plays Pac-12 road games against Utah, Cal, Washington and Colorado, you can almost book the final score in advance.
One team gets 65, the other 62. Or something close.
No ties.
