Wildcats write 'storybook ending' to tumultuous week, cut down nets in McKale Center

Senior Day has never been about just seniors at Arizona, so Deandre Ayton and Sean Miller did a little updating Saturday.

Ayton went out and reminded everyone why he isn’t coming back to McKale Center, either, collecting 26 points and a season-high 20 rebounds in Arizona’s 66-54 win over Cal, the first “20/20” game a UA player has recorded since before it joined the Pac-12 in 1978.

Ayton’s dominance helped the otherwise shaky Wildcats (24-7, 14-4) clinch their fourth outright — and fifth overall — Pac-12 regular-season championship in the nine-season Miller era.

Then, after Arizona waved goodbye to its four seniors in the traditional postgame ceremony, Miller took over the mic and introduced three other guys who will leave early for professional careers this spring: junior Allonzo Trier, sophomore Rawle Alkins, and Ayton, a freshman who could become the No. 1 pick in the June NBA Draft.

When asked why he did so, Miller chuckled.

“Yeah,” he said. “They’re not coming back.”

Of course, the Wildcats have lost players early to the NBA draft for decades, with Miller having lost them almost every year, and the early departures are widely expected well by the time Senior Days come around.

Nothing usually gets said, but this time was different.

“What it used to be sometimes isn’t today,” Miller said. “You have to adjust with the times and those guys deserved an ovation just like the seniors because they’re not gonna play in McKale again.”

The fact that at least those seven players are taking off pointed to how much emotion was really on the line in McKale on Saturday.

UA officials spent five days determining Miller’s fate after ESPN reported that he allegedly discussed paying Ayton $100,000. Miller, who did not coach the Wildcats from Feb. 24 to Feb. 28, vehemently denied the report while ESPN says it is standing behind the story.

The Wildcats also didn’t know Trier would be back until just hours before their game Thursday against Stanford, since Trier had to appeal what turned out to be a two-game suspension over a positive PED test.

Trier tested negative in a subsequent test in Utah on Feb. 23, and the test helped him win the appeal that makes him eligible for the rest of the season.

On Saturday, they said goodbye.

“It was an emotional week,” senior Parker Jackson-Cartwright said. “Lot of things flying around.”

Miller and Jackson-Cartwright, the only UA player made available for comment, both said that emotion played a significant role in the Wildcats’ stumbles on the court.

UA led the Bears just 38-35 at halftime and then missed 12 of its first 15 shots in the second half, needing a 13-1 run over the final five minutes to finally get a double-digit win over the Pac-12’s last-place team. Cal fell to 8-23 overall and 2-16 in Pac-12 play.

What was most surprising: That the normally efficient Dusan Ristic (1 for 9) and Trier (1 for 10) were both woefully off from the field.

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“I think everyone was just drained, mentally and physically,” Jackson-Cartwright said. “Even Coach coming back — it was good to have him back and ‘Zo back, but everybody is just a little worn down. Mentally, it takes a toll on you when you’re going through stuff like that.”

Leave it up to the player ESPN recently referred to as “Arizona’s cyborg” to cut through all the emotion.

While the Wildcats were stumbling out of the gate, and at the end of the first half, and well into the second half … Ayton was his usual consistent, dominant self. He already had a double-double of 14 points and 11 rebounds before halftime, giving him 21 double-doubles for the year, a total that is only one shy of the UA season record set by Al Fleming in 1974-75.

The 21 double-doubles also are the most ever by a Pac-12 freshman in the regular season, and only two off the record of 23 set by UCLA’s Kevin Love in 2007-08, when the UCLA freshman had four in the postseason.

“There’s not many guys who come around like him, ever,” Jackson-Cartwright said.

More? Ayton also broke the UA freshman scoring record of 592 set by Jerryd Bayless in 2007-08, with his 26 points giving him a total of 616 with at least two more games to play. And Ayton’s 20-20 game was believed to be the first at Arizona since Fleming had 22 points and 23 rebounds against Old Dominion in 1975-76, according to UA.

To Miller, who said Ayton will undoubtedly be the Pac-12’s Player of the Year when awards are announced Monday, the pace of Saturday’s game made Ayton’s feat even more remarkable.

“Don’t get lost in the shuffle with what you witnessed today,” Miller said. “You saw a player score 26 points and have 20 rebounds in a very low-possession game. You could watch games in McKale for the next 10 years and not see that happen ever again.”

When Ayton was finally done, leaving with 1:05 left and the Wildcats up by 10, Ayton and Miller shared an emphatic and extended hug, one that rivaled the most emotional embraces of any Senior Day.

Of course, that was hardly all. Trier, Jackson-Cartwright and Ristic also came off the court at the same time, and none of them could reach the bench without their grateful coach grabbing them for another hug.

And by the time Ristic greeted Miller, he had already flipped off his jersey to reveal an undershirt that had red letters spelling out “Thank You Arizona” on the front and “Dusan Loves Tucson” on the back.

That one cracked Miller up in heartfelt way.

“He loves college basketball. He loves the University of Arizona. He loves Tucson,” Miller said. “You don’t do what he did at the end of the game, pull off your uniform and have a special T-shirt to thank the fans … the guy is just really an incredible kid and we’re very, very lucky to have him.”

In return, Ristic and Jackson-Cartwright helped the Wildcats capture three of the five Pac-10/12 titles they’ve had since Miller arrived in 2009. The Wildcats won the conference outright in 2010-11, 2013-14 and 2014-15, the last when Ristic and Jackson-Cartwright were both freshmen in the regular playing rotation.

As juniors last season, they joined Pinder in helping UA tie for the conference title with UCLA and as seniors this season, Ristic and PJC were starters for another outright title team.

After the buzzer sounded, the seniors, the early pro departees — all of the Wildcats — raced up and down the student section in their Miller-era tradition, then cut down the nets to celebrate.

“It was a storybook ending,” Jackson-Cartwright said. “We’ve taken a lot of punches and we always respond in the right way. Never get down on ourselves, never feel sorry for ourselves, we kind of just keep going.

“To cut down the nets at home, this year with all we’ve been through, was really special.”