Once out of Gronk's playful shadow, Brayden Burries and Wildcats shine in Red-Blue game

Not long after his Red team exited halftime with a double-digit deficit, Arizona freshman guard Brayden Burries spotted up in the left corner for a 3-pointer that could change the momentum in Friday’s Red-Blue scrimmage.

Out of the corner of his eye blitzed a long-haired, mustachioed and headband-wearing player who had been introduced as “Rocky Gronkstone,” a new “recruit from the Buffalo State Penetentiary” who was frantically trying to close out on the well-regarded freshman combo guard from Southern California.

The crowd knew “Rocky” as Rob Gronkowski, the former UA and NFL standout.

In the moment, Burries knew him only as a shadow.

Swish.

“I didn’t realize it was him, honestly,” Burries said, grinning. “At the time, we were down 10 points, so I just wanted us to win. I didn’t really notice it was him at the time, but looking back on it, that was pretty funny.”

That was Gronk’s role, of course, to be funny.

The exuberant future football Hall of Famer stole much of the show Friday at McKale Center while serving in a host of roles — as a dunk-contest judge, a dunk-contest prop, dunk-contest “winner” ... and as an actual player in the scrimmage.

His appearance in the scrimmage lasted just 87 seconds, after “Gronkstone” was bluntly inserted into the second half as a Blue team starter. While he generally kept up the pace with the rest of the Wildcats on the floor, Gronk missed all three shots he took, failed to close out in time on Burries’ corner 3, and was ejected from the game when protesting his blatant foul near midcourt.

Gronk had bumped freshman Mabil Mawut in the chest to draw the whistle, then voiced his complaint by spiking the ball with the same sort of force he threw down countless footballs after touchdowns, and was immediately tossed from the game.

He was never to return.

“Actually,” the announcer told McKale fans, “he has not been released from Buffalo State Penitentiary.”

As it turned out, Gronk’s departure wound up allowing Burries more room in the spotlight, and may have triggered his torrid second-half run. Burries scored 17 of his game-high 22 points in the second half and drove inside for a game-winning layup with 10 seconds left to lead the Red team to a 45-44 win over the Blue.

“It felt, like, pretty good to finally play in front of the fans,” Burries said. “I’ve never played in front of that many people before, and they just gave me energy I needed. My teammates had my back, and the coaches drew up plays for us to be successful. It was just fun out there.”

For Burries and all of the Wildcats’ seven freshmen, as it is every year, the Red-Blue scrimmage was a chance to first experience the size and passion of McKale Center crowds, even if it is a somewhat different vibe as the scrimmage is not on the season-ticket package.

Still, about 10,000 fans showed up Friday, and freshman Dwayne Aristode could feel the difference from a normal practice or certainly one of his games at New Hampshire’s Brewster Academy.

“First few minutes, I was kind of nervous, I’m not gonna lie,” Aristode said. “But as the game went on, I got into shape, got a little sweat out of me. Nerves went out. It was a great opportunity for us to play in front of a great group of fans with my brothers over here.”

With eight points before halftime, Aristode actually may have already gotten nerves out of the way even before the scrimmage started. Neither he nor walk-on guard Addison Arnold could make any of the several dunks they tried in the final of the pregame dunk contest, frustrating Aristode and wiping away Arnold’s notably creative early-round dunk that drew perfect 10s from all five judges.

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Of course, Gronkowski was at the center of that one, too, literally and figuratively.

Scheduled to be only a dunk judge, the likely future football Hall of Famer bent over under the basket, and snapped a football to Arnold at the free-throw line. Arnold then backed up as if to look for a receiver to pass to, but kept the ball, raced to the basket, elevated over Gronkowski and threw the football into the hoop.

Upon returning to the ground, Arnold spiked the ball in true Gronk style, beat his chest and went over to get mobbed by teammates.

Arnold wasn’t available afterward to describe the moment but, when asked in the McKale interview room if any of them saw such a thing coming, Aristode, UA wing Anthony Dell’Orso and Burries all shook their heads.

“Hell no,” Aristode said. “It was out of the blue. It was impressive.”

But Gronk somewhat stole that show, too. After Aristode and Arnold slumped into a dunk-contest stalemate in the final round, Gronk was introduced as a new competitor for the finals. He then threw in a few baskets and was declared the “winner.”

Earlier, in the 3-point contest, Dell’Orso also had something of a surprise competitor ... whose performance was actually no surprise.

UA opted to mix in women’s basketball players for the 3-point contest, ultimately creating a matchup between Dell’Orso and UA women’s guard Mickayla Perdue in the finals.

Dell’Orso shot 42.1% from 3-point range last season to lead the Wildcats among those who took at least one long-range shot per game. Perdue was the Horizon League’s Player of the Year last season at Cleveland State, averaging 20.0 points a game while taking 6.4 3-pointers a game and hitting them at a 32.5% rate.

After losing 17-16 to Caleb Love in the 3-point contest last season, Dell’Orso hung on for a 19-18 win this time, shooting on the south end of McKale while Perdue aimed at the north basket. The grad transfer guard missed her final shot from the left corner to give Dell’Orso the win.

“It was a different experience,” Dell’Orso said. “It was fun. I didn’t, honestly, really know who I was going against. You can’t really see out there. It’s kind of confusing. But she did great. She almost beat me, but I still got the crown.”

Dell’Orso continued his efficiency into the scrimmage, scoring 10 points on 4-for-5 shooting while making both 3s he tried and collecting five rebounds for the Blue team.

Point guard Jaden Bradley led the Blue in scoring with 12 points and four assists, but his one turnover cost the Blue a chance to win the game in the final seconds after Burries had made his go-ahead layup.

Burries was hardly the only freshman talent on display: Koa Peat had 10 points, three rebounds and two assists for the Blue team, Ivan Kharchenkov had nine points, and Bryce James hit an early 3-pointer while Aristode had 12 points on 4-for-5 shooting.

Burries was a five-star recruit and California’s Gatorade Player of the Year, but when asked Friday if he was as good as advertised, Lloyd complimented his entire roster.

“You know, all these guys are really good players,” Lloyd said. “I mean, an intersquad scrimmage is definitely not going to be the end of the story. I’ve been comfortable with these guys all along, and these guys are winners. They’re built for it. They’re fearless, they’re physically ready. They’ve got to get a little bit more experience, but I think we’ve got a good mix of guys.”

They’ll just have to figure out what to do without Rocky Gronkstone for the rest of the season.

“That new kid, Gronkstone, Rocky, he’s got great energy,” Lloyd said jokingly. “We’ve got to work on his temper a little bit, but he’s got a great personality.

“I’ll tell you what: That guy will try to sell anything. I mean, he’ll do advertisements for anything. Like, this guy’s gonna crush it in NIL.”