Arizona’s Red-Blue Game is a lot of things.
It’s a preview of what’s to come in the upcoming season for the Wildcats, the first look at all the newcomers.
It’s a prime recruiting weekend, where coach Sean Miller often will host Arizona’s top targets — and commits — for upcoming classes.
It was all of that on Friday, but it wasn’t only that — this year’s Red-Blue Game was, over everything, a commemoration of Arizona’s best team ever on its 20th anniversary.
Twenty years ago, the Wildcats improbably defeated three No. 1 seeds — the first team to ever do that — on their way to a national championship.
The bulk of that roster returned Friday for Arizona’s season-opening scrimmage. Included in that group was Miles Simon, the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player during that title run. He had his jersey retired at McKale Center on Friday night.
Before the festivities began, Miller took a microphone and spoke to the crowd about that team, and Simon.
“There have been a lot of great teams and great players” at Arizona, Miller said. “This weekend is a reunion weekend, players from many generations have come back. On behalf of our program, let’s all congratulate the 1997 team.”
Loud applause rained down.
“They did it with such style,” Miller said of that team. “To win it all is something that’s obviously not easy to do.”
Who was in attendance, besides Simon?
An NBA standout: guard Mike Bibby.
The key players: A.J. Bramlett, Bennett Davison, Eugene Edgerson, Donnell Harris
The head honcho: Lute Olson.
The lead assistant coach: Jim Rosborough
The walk-on freshman who became a coach: Josh Pastner, the Georgia Tech coach who flew to Tucson on his day off to celebrate with his old teammates.
Also there: John Ash, Jason Stewart, and some former team managers, including Ed Orr, who eventually became a team trainer at Arizona State.
Jason Terry and Michael Dickerson were the most notable absentees.
During player introductions, all of Arizona’s players wore Simon shirts to honor the former UA star, who was wearing a suit.
