PALO ALTO, Calif. — Seen and heard from Arizona's 69-60 win over the Stanford Cardinal in Palo Alto.
Birthday boy
Arizona Wildcats guard Brandon Williams, right, (2) smiles with graduate manager and former wildcat Justin Coleman while following the prep band's dances before Arizona's 83-53 win over New Mexico State at McKale Center in Tucson, Ariz., on November 17th, 2019.
The starting point guard for last season’s Wildcats, Justin Coleman may be more behind the scenes this season as a graduate assistant.
But he hasn’t been forgotten.
During the Wildcats’ team dinner Friday night at a nearby Palo Alto steakhouse, as shared via video on Instagram, waiters banged utensils and teammates sang while Coleman received a special sundae with a candle in it.
Coleman, who hasn’t been made available for comment this season, posted a birthday wish of sorts to himself on Twitter earlier Friday.
“Dang I’m getting old lol #ValentineBaby” Coleman tweeted.
He turned 24.
Da Silva returns
When Stanford forward Oscar da Silva collided with Colorado’s Evan Battey on Feb. 8 in Boulder, both his short- and long-term health immediately appeared uncertain.
Battey’s elbow had inadvertently pushed da Silva’s head toward the floor as they fell together; blood oozed from da Silva’s head and, according to Colorado’s McKinley Wright, his eyes rolled back.
“I just got down on my knee and said a prayer,” said Wright, who also led a group prayer between Stanford and Colorado players before that game resumed.
Maybe all that support helped. Da Silva received stitches in his forehead and had to undergo testing all week with Stanford’s sports medicine department. But he was cleared to play Saturday, exactly a week after the collision, the bare minimum of time generally needed to play after entering a concussion protocol (though Stanford never labeled it a concussion).
Da Silva didn’t practice fully all week, and his timing may have been off — but not his aggressiveness. Wearing a headband around where his stitches were, da Silva scored inside just 70 seconds into the game and was called for a charge while driving against Josh Green a minute later.
Then, just four minutes into the game, he was called for a defensive foul against Stone Gettings, and took a seat on the bench, playing just seven minutes in the first half.
Happy Father’s day
Nice road win on the farm tonight! Big time! @APlayersProgram #BearDown pic.twitter.com/KjmtkVQQol
— Dave Heeke (@Dave_Heeke) February 16, 2020
In between attending Arizona’s games at Cal on Thursday and at Stanford on Saturday, Arizona AD Dave Heeke spent Valentine’s Day in Las Vegas.
But it wasn’t what you might think.
First, Heeke was working remotely as he usually does. Second, he was there to take his son’s baseball game: Zach Heeke is an infielder for Central Michigan, which recorded a 12-9 win over UNLV on Friday in the season opener for both teams.
“Just trying to be Dad for once,” Dave Heeke said.
UA offers (another) West Coast Elite player
During the Wildcats’ trip to the Bay Area, word surfaced that they also offered a scholarship to a Southern Californian.
Not surprisingly, their latest target plays for the West Coast Elite club.. WCE director Ryan Silver tweeted Friday that four-star guard K.J. Simpson of Chaminade Prep in the San Fernando Valley was offered a scholarship from the Wildcats.
Already, half of UA’s active playing roster is West Coast Elite alums: Nico Mannion, Josh Green, Stone Gettings, Ira Lee and Jemarl Baker all played for the same California-based club ahead of Simpson.
Ranked No. 112 overall in the class of 2021 by 247 Sports and 115th in composite rankings, Simpson is now a junior at Chaminade College Prep High School in West Hills, California.
According to 247, Simpson also has offers from ASU, Georgia Tech, LMU and Pacific so far.
Stoudamire’s Tigers rising
Damon Stoudamire has struggled to find footing in his new gig as a head coach. In three seasons at the help of Pacific, the Tigers are 38-55.
Across the Bay on Saturday, Pacific lost 71-63 at Saint Mary’s, but Damon Stoudamire’s resurgent Tigers have already won 20 games for the first time in a decade — including a 107-99 quadruple-overtime win over the Gaels at Pacific on Jan. 4.
The former UA star and assistant coach took over the Pacific program in 2016-17 amid an NCAA investigation that resulted in 2017 sanctions for the actions of a previous staff.
UOP went 11-22 in Stoudamire’s first season, 14-18 in each of the past two and is now 20-9.
“No doubt he’s having a great season,” UA coach Sean Miller said, noting that former UA graduate manager Jaydee Luster is also on Stoudamire’s staff. “We’re really happy for him. They already have 20 wins and he’s built the program (despite that) when he first went there they had to get through a couple things.”
Stoudamire spent the 2013-14 and 2014-15 seasons as an assistant at Arizona. One of his assistants, Jaydee Luster, was on the UA staff as a graduate assistant in 2012-13 and 2013-14 after being named the 2012 Mountain West defensive player of the year.
Mathurin under NBA eyes
Ben Mathurin has been playing for NBA Global Academy.
Arizona commit Bennedict Mathurin is being coached by former UA forward Lauri Markkanen and others during the Basketball Without Borders Global Camp that is being held this weekend in Chicago in conjunction with the NBA All-Star Game.
A total of 64 boys and girls players from 34 countries were invited to the camp, which is being held at the Quest Multisport complex that also hosts the NBA Combine every May.
A 6-foot-6-inch wing from Montreal with Haitian roots who committed to UA on Jan. 15, Mathurin has been playing for the NBA Global Academy. He has played for the NBA Academy Latin America club and the NBA Global Academy Australia.
Quotable
“THANK YOU FOR COMING” — Signs adjacent to the Maples Pavilion box office and inside the arena concourse. Stanford was averaging just 3,586 fans entering Saturday’s game, when the 7,233-seat arena was more than half full thanks in part to UA fans.
