EUGENE, Ore. — Even before Parker Jackson-Cartwright returned to Arizona early Sunday to play his final two home games as a Wildcat, it was clear he and his teammates were in for a bumpy ride toward Senior Day this week.
After the Wildcats played through a 45-minute game during which Oregon fans booed and teased them over the alleged improprieties within their program, Jackson-Cartwright was ushered to an interview podium tucked away in a nondescript corner of Matthew Knight Arena.
Where only three or four reporters usually surround UA players and coach Sean Miller following road games, nearly 25 crammed into the makeshift interview room Saturday. Included were staffers of ESPN’s broadcast and digital arms, plus USA Today.
And, of course, the questions PJC had to answer weren’t exactly about the game. They included:
“What should America know about the ethical nature of your basketball program?”
“Are you concerned your program is being dragged through the mud?
“What’s it like to have this happen at this point of the season?”
Jackson-Cartwright didn’t flinch at any of the questions, though he did pause at times and speak carefully.
“It’s obviously difficult,” he said about what it was like to deal with the controversy now, with Miller reportedly having been caught on a wiretap discussing a $100,000 payment to UA forward Deandre Ayton. “I’m not gonna sit up here and say it’s not. But I’m a senior. I’ve been battle-tested. I have experience.
“My job is as a leader is to make sure myself and the rest of the team is ready to play. Regardless of who’s coaching, we have a job as players and that job is to come out and play extremely hard for the name on the front of our jersey. If we do that, we’ll be fine.”
Jackson-Cartwright said the Wildcats didn’t do that well enough on Saturday, losing 98-93 to Oregon in overtime, and went on to answer the question about what America should know about UA’s ethics this way:
“That as basketball players, we have a job and we’re not gonna allow outside noise to let it mistreat us, in a way. We’re just gonna keep pushing, keep grinding, and we have games to play. We have practices to practice and that’s what we’re looking forward to. Nothing else.”
Arizona has at least 10 more practices remaining, and at least four more games, depending on how far the Wildcats go in the Pac-12 and NCAA Tournaments.
But that “outside noise” that appeared Saturday isn’t likely to go away through the season that remains, even if the coziness of their McKale home this week provides the Wildcats some relief.
Dark clouds could still hover over the Senior Night honoring PJC, Dusan Ristic, Keanu Pinder and Talbott Denny. They could be there even if Ristic becomes the winningest Wildcat ever by playing in one more UA victory, a distinction that could eventually disappear if the UA gets hit with NCAA sanctions that require it to vacate victories.
And the questions will certainly be around into the postseason, when the NCAA mandates that locker rooms be opened to the media, meaning the UA won’t be able to control who gets interviewed.
So far, though, Arizona associate head coach Lorenzo Romar said the Wildcats have shown they can deal with it all.
“Tonight, I thought we blocked it out pretty good,” said Romar, who served as head coach at Oregon in Miller’s absence. “I thought we got a start on (dealing with it). We just have to continue to persevere and wait and see what’s going to happen tomorrow and the next day, and then we’ll tackle it then.”
Romar said Miller has done a “phenomenal job” keeping the Wildcats focused in the face of distractions this season, but now there’s another set of distractions to deal with at a time of the year when college basketball’s profile is highest.
Will Miller be indefinitely suspended or fired? Will there be a protracted legal battle? Will Ayton have to sit out, even as his family denied involvement?
Romar says he doesn’t know what will happen next. He says he doesn’t know if he’ll be the acting head coach Thursday against Stanford, or for whatever UA games are remaining.
Romar already spent the 24 hours leading up to Saturday’s game witnessing change and uncertainty, saying he “wasn’t privy” to meetings on whether Ayton would be allowed to play. He did say he was told by both Miller and UA athletic director Dave Heeke on Saturday that he would coach the Wildcats against the Ducks.
But so much happened that, when pressed for times and more details about what he was told, Romar ultimately gave up.
“I’m not being a wise guy when I say this, but I wasn’t keeping a journal. And I don’t remember,” Romar said.
“The last couple of days it’s been like a blur. … It’s been a blur.”
