Mathurin’s back

Arizona freshman wing Bennedict Mathurin is approaching a week since spraining his right ankle in Monday’s win over rival Arizona State, which put his status for this week’s Bay Area home stand in jeopardy. After playing 26 minutes and scoring 10 points off the bench in Thursday’s loss to Stanford, Mathurin returned to the starting lineup against Cal on Saturday.

Mathurin played 33 minutes and tallied 10 points, three rebounds and an assist.

The big number

5:28

Time it took for Cal to score its first points of the game.

Carrying the load

Arizona Wildcats center Christian Koloko (35) tries to block California Golden Bears guard Matt Bradley (20) from moving the ball down the court during a game at the McKale Center, on Jan. 30, 2021.

Cal guard Matt Bradley ended the game with 21 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field. Take Bradley out of the equation, and the Golden Bears shot just 11 of 37 (29.7%) from the field.

Remember when…

Tuesday will mark the 10-year anniversary of Arizona’s 107-105, triple-overtime win over Cal in Berkeley. MoMo Jones played the hero by making a go-ahead layup in the third overtime. In the second overtime, Jones sank a tying 3-pointer before locking the score up with a three-point play in regulation.

Jones’ clutch performance down the stretch came after star forward Derrick Williams fouled out in the final minute of regulation.

Not all memories of Arizona-Cal during the Sean Miller era are pleasant for UA: Monday will be seven years to the day since the Golden Bears knocked off the top-ranked, undefeated Wildcats 70-68 on Justin Cobbs’ game-winning shot at the buzzer. Since 2014, Arizona is 13-1 against Cal.

UA mall used as drive-thru vaccination clinic

Normally, the section of the UA mall closest to McKale Center is full of cars in the hour leading up to an Arizona basketball game. That was certainly the case on Saturday, except the cars were in line to receive a COVID-19 vaccination via the drive-thru clinic.

The UA began serving as a vaccination distribution space under Pima County’s direction on Jan. 22, and is currently in Phase 1B.

The grass area adjacent to McKale Center and the Richard Jefferson Gymnasium was the observation stage for those who took the vaccine.

A little — but important — number 

0

Turnovers James Akinjo had in his 20-point, 8-assist performance on Saturday. It was Akinjo's first game not turning the ball over since Feb. 3, 2019, his freshman season at Georgetown, when the Hoyas played at Villanova.

Miller said he thought Saturday "was James' best game since he's been with us here at Arizona."

"Tonight was one of our best performances and I thought James led the way," Miller said. 

Remembering Chaney

John Chaney, Temple’s hall of fame basketball coach, died Friday at age 89. Known for his matchup-zone defenses, Chaney coached Temple for 24 seasons and led the Owls to 17 NCAA Tournament appearances. The Owls finished the 1987-88 season as the No. 1 team in the AP poll after finishing 32-2 and a perfect 18-0 record in the Atlantic-10 Conference.

Chaney is also known for interrupting then UMass head coach John Calipari’s press conference following Temple’s one-point loss to the Minutemen in 1994.

The exchange ended with Chaney charging the stage to physically confront Calipari, but he was stopped before he could reach the now Kentucky head coach.

“I’m so saddened to hear that we have lost John Chaney, a coaching icon, a Hall of Famer, a molder of young men, the ultimate competitor and a dear friend,” Calipari said on Twitter. “Being able to compete against the best at a young age gave me a great opportunity to grow and learn.”

Calipari later added to his chain of tweets a picture of Chaney jokingly choking Calipari.

“Coach Chaney and I fought every game we competed — as everyone knows, sometimes literally — but in the end he was my friend,” he said. “Throughout my career, we would talk about basketball and life. I will miss those talks and I will (miss) my friend. Rest in peace, Coach!”

Calipari wasn’t the only coach Chaney had some words for during his time at Temple.

During the 1995-96 season, Arizona was scheduled to face St. Joseph’s in Philadelphia, but a forecasted blizzard on the East Coast led Arizona to cancel the trip “for safety reconsiderations,” which came on the heels of St. Joe’s overtime loss to top-ranked UMass. The UA’s decision to not play the Hawks led St. Joe’s officials to believe Arizona was afraid of a potential upset.

Chaney chimed in.

“If that had happened to me, I’d be on my way to Arizona to kick somebody’s ...” Chaney told the Daily Press in 1996, “and I wouldn’t need any boxing gloves.”

A couple years later, Olson and Chaney were both extras in Spike Lee’s film, “He Got Game,” in the montage scene when Jesus Shuttlesworth — played by Ray Allen — was being recruited by college coaches.

He said it

“This isn’t football!” — Arizona freshman guard Kerr Kriisa to Cal guard Matt Bradley from the bench while pretending to throw a football.

Utes rally

Arizona’s next opponent, Utah, pulled off a memorable, come-from-behind win over Colorado on Saturday. The Utes trailed by 19 in Boulder, but Alfonso Plummer’s 21 points in the final eight minutes of the game, including a go-ahead 3-pointer with 13.8 seconds left, to rally the Utes to a 77-74 win. Utah is now 7-7 on the season.

— Justin Spears

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