LAS VEGAS β
Paying the freight at the Pac-12 Tournament isnβt just buying those nosebleed tickets β three days for $300. Itβs the $19 hamburgers, the $13 beers, the $40 resort tax on top of the $179 per night in a hotel, the parking, the airfare and the $32 for a 5-mile cab ride.
And letβs say you throw down $500 at the sports book and it doesnβt work out.
Itβs a big number.
But if you are a fan of winning β if you are a fan of Arizona basketball β itβs more fun than a weekend in Pinetop or a getaway to the beach.
Long before Arizona took Colorado to the woodshed Thursday afternoon, winning 83-67, thousands of Wildcat fans in their ever-present red gear were drinking and singing. Not just in the lobby of the adjacent New York New York hotel or on the uber-fun courtyard outside the T-Mobile Arena. But everywhere you looked.
This is the real Big Red Machine.
Bloody Mary, anyone?
There mustβve been 10,000 Arizona fans in the T-Mobile seats before noon. By comparison, Colorado filled most of Section 7 in the lower bowl. Thatβs what, 400 people?
About an hour after Colorado coach Tad Boyle confessed βtoday was not Coloradoβs day,β the UCLA-Stanford quarterfinal game tipped off. In terms of fan engagement, it came off as a junior varsity game.
Letβs just say there was a significant lack of powder blue at the T-Mobile Arena. It would be a stretch to say there were as many UCLA fans as there were Colorado fans.
Boyle was asked about Arizonaβs pronounced advantage β McKale North, you know β and said βif they have an advantage, thereβs nothing we can do about it. We canβt move our campuses.β
With the exception of expanding the conference to include Utah and Colorado, the most resounding move made by Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott was to move the leagueβs basketball tournament to Las Vegas.
Duh.
He added to that bright idea by moving the tournament across the street from the MGM Grand Arena to the T-Mobile Arena, which has about 7,000 more seats, including suites, loges and space for everyone.
On Thursday afternoon, Scott took his well-positioned seat on the front row, center court, with his new buddy, Magic Johnson.
Forget the ACC and the Big Ten; the Pac-12 Tournament is the place to be.
At some point, especially if Arizona regresses for a year or two while the NCAA sorts through an FBI investigation, the league may learn that its dependency on the Big Red Machine could be troublesome.
For now, though, Arizonaβs Allonzo Trier seems to have the best perspective on the βhow-long-can-we-keep-this-up?β question. After he scored a game-high 22 points, Trier was asked how the Wildcats feed off senior Dusan Ristic, who had another of what is becoming a routine double-double β 16 points, 11 rebounds.
βThis is the last time Dusan has a chance to go down this road,β said Trier. βHeβs making the most of it.β
That seemed to be the way Arizona played Thursday. Enjoy the moment and make the best of it.
UA coach Sean Miller has never publicly said anything but βweβre in this to win it.β If he privately buys into the old βour seed is secure, we can use some rest before Selection Sundayβ theory β one supported by Lute Olson over the years β his teams sure donβt play that way.
Trier was coming off the worst night of his college career. He shot 1 for 10 afield and scored two points last week against Cal, and if heβs human, he was still stinging from a January loss at Colorado when he shot 3 for 9 and, more telling, did not shoot a free throw.
Since then, in two UA victories over Colorado, Trier has forced his will on the Buffaloes, making 15 of 15 free throws and scoring 45 points.
βMy body of work over the years makes up for that one bad game,β he said. βI didnβt lose confidence a bit.β
It might be that Arizonaβs most positive development of the week was that Colorado eliminated Arizona State and prevented a soul-draining 40 minutes against the Sun Devils. Even a victory over ASU is like giving blood.
Colorado? Just another game, dude.
The Wildcats are now on an 11-2 run against Colorado, a redemptive mission after ex-Buffalo Xavier Johnson declared CU worries so little about Arizona that he didnβt consider it a rivalry.
Boyleβs team exited the season with a far different demeanor than the day he soaked in a January victory over Arizona and admitted that βhell, yesβ it was especially enjoyable to beat a team under the FBIβs microscope.
Boyle was not as buoyant Thursday.
βWe werenβt good enough,β he said. βThis is the end of the road for our seniors.β
In a sense, even though itβs March, even though the future of Arizona basketball is uncertain, the Wildcats had the look of a team at the beginning of a challenging mission.
The Big Red Machine marches on.
