BOISE, Idaho
Favorite NCAA Tournament memories? Deandre Ayton doesn’t have any. “No,” he said. “I don’t remember any. I didn’t watch.”
Of course he didn’t watch in 1993 when Michigan’s Chris Webber called an infamously fatal timeout in the final heartbeats of a national championship game loss to North Carolina. Ayton wasn’t born until 1998.
Nor does Ayton have memories of the 2007 Final Four, when Ohio State 7-footer Greg Oden produced a 23-11 double-double in a loss to Florida.
But those two No. 1 overall NBA draft picks — Webber in 1993 and Oden in 2007 — have watched and know all about Deandre Ayton, who is positioned to join their select fraternity in June’s NBA draft.
Webber, a college basketball analyst, and Oden, a graduate assistant manager at his alma mater, sat with a TNT production crew Wednesday afternoon as Ayton became part of the dialogue.
An hour later, when Ayton walked onto the court at Taco Bell Arena, Webber turned away from a production meeting and watched Arizona’s 7-foot freshman.
“He looks bigger in person than on TV,” Webber said. “He’s all of 7 feet.”
Over the last week, Ayton seemed to be more like 8 feet. He has become the most-talked-about player in college basketball. He was so good in Pac-12 Tournament victories over UCLA and USC — 64 points and 32 rebounds in two games — that it caught the attention of Webber and Oden and everybody at ESPN, Fox, TNT, TBS and TruTV, whatever that is.
If Ayton feels any pressure from all the attention, he’s putting on a good act.
He kidded that his mother probably won’t be in Boise this weekend, although if she wants to drive from Phoenix “good luck with that.”
He reflected on the difficulty of college basketball.
“Somebody told me that this season was gonna go by fast,” he said. “No, it did not. This season was a long, hard season. We’ve been through a lot.”
I don’t think it’s an act at all. Ayton comes off as a happy-go-lucky, just-one-of-the-guys personality whose ego is nothing close to 7-feet tall.
“He has an energy about him,” UA coach Sean Miller said Wednesday. “He’s always got this smile. He’s exceptional.”
In many ways, Ayton’s first act at Arizona will also be his last act. You won’t remember much of what he did in the Bahamas, or treasure the day you learned he was the Pac-12’s Player of the Year. Most of his Arizona legacy will be determined by how he plays in the NCAA Tournament.
“We’re not even done,” he said. “There’s a whole new season in March Madness.”
Ayton has played just 34 games, but if he scores 10 points Thursday against Buffalo, he will join Sean Elliott, Khalid Reeves and Derrick Williams as one of four Wildcats ever to score 700 points in a season.
He has been so good that it’s not absurd to think he might even get to 800 points. That would require a run to the Final Four. But that’s how legends are made in college basketball. That’s how Webber and Oden did it at Michigan and Ohio State.
They were at their best in March.
Webber scored 115 points and gathered 66 rebounds in Michigan’s 1993 run to the national championship game. Oden scored 97 points and had 55 rebounds in the Buckeyes’ 2007 burst to the title game.
If you are superstitious and believe in karma, the happenstance of Webber, Oden and Ayton meeting Wednesday at Taco Bell Arena can only be viewed as a good sign from the basketball gods.
No. 1 pick meets No. 1 pick meets potential No. 1 pick in, of all places, Idaho.
Michigan’s ’93 Final Four team was much more than Chris Webber. He was part of the Fab Five. Ohio State’s ’07 national championship game club wasn’t solely Oden. His point guard, Mike Conley, was the No. 4 overall draft pick after his freshman season.
Ayton isn’t a solo act, either. He is surrounded by enough good pieces to keep playing until April.
The great unknown lies ahead, and that doesn’t necessarily mean the 2018 NCAA Tournament. Even though Webber and Oden were the first chosen in their respective NBA drafts, their pro careers were dramatically different.
Webber earned $193 million and played in five All-Star Games.
Oden started just 66 NBA games in a career undone by seven knee surgeries. He went back to college to earn a degree.
Now it’s Ayton’s turn.
As he walked off the court at Taco Bell Arena on Wednesday, 10 or 12 school kids called for an autograph. They were clutching “March Madness” T-shirts. They wanted his signature.
If the Wildcats are to go deep in this Tournament, Ayton’s name must be all over it.
