This summer, each member of the Star’s sports team will assemble a list of the five most memorable Arizona games they’ve covered since joining the beat. This week, Bruce Pascoe will reflect on five UA basketball games.
Pascoe’s No. 5:
Late foul costs Cats in NIT Season Tip-Off loss to UAB
What went down: Back when home games were actually part of fixed brackets in early-season multi-team events — instead of being meaningless “add-ons” to today’s MTEs (or multi-team events) — an unnecessary foul by Jamelle Horne led to UA’s 72-71 loss to UAB in the 2008-09 NIT Season Tip-Off sent the Wildcats to a seemingly uneventful consolation bracket at Georgia instead of the widely expected semifinals at Madison Square Garden.
What we wrote at the time: Highlights will show the final foul over and over, maybe even within Jamelle Horne’s head for a while, but the Arizona Wildcats knew there were plenty of other things to blame Tuesday.
Arizona guard Nic Wise is heavily guarded by UAB while trying to go up for a shot during the second-half of what would turn into a 72-71 UA loss to the Blazers in McKale Center on Nov. 18, 2008.
In a 72-71 loss to UAB in the second round of the NIT Season Tip-Off, UAB’s Paul Delaney was racing near midcourt in a frantic attempt to get off a final shot with one second left and the score tied — until Horne slapped him with an intentional foul.
Delaney then sank 1 of 2 free throws, enough to send the Blazers (3-0) on into the NIT semifinals.
The lost kept Arizona (1-1) out of the NIT semifinal in New York next Wednesday, and the Wildcats will instead be scheduled into one of three consolation brackets for games to be played on Monday and Tuesday. While UA will likely be assigned games at either Davidson, Georgia or St. John’s, UAB will face Oklahoma in the NIT semifinals on Nov. 26.
“When he fouled Paul,” UAB’s Lawrence Kinnard said of Horne. “It was like a blessing.”
Or just one of a couple of simple mental mistakes toward the end of Tuesday’s game. Not only did Kyle Fogg foul Aaron Johnson just after stealing the ball and making a tying basket with 26 seconds left, Horne was whistled for his foul when time had nearly expired.
Not only did Horne go after the foul despite the score being tied, he also appeared to think Delaney would have somehow had enough time to reach the basket.
“I don’t think he had a clock in his head,” UA interim head coach Russ Pennell said. “I think he thought that Delaney could get all the way to the rim. And he was caught between a rock and a hard place. And instead of just letting him go he made a poor decision and he’s broken up about it.”
Despite efforts from teammates to keep media away from Horne, he retreated to his locker stall afterward and said he thought Delaney could have made it.
“I saw the guy with the ball going 94 feet and the last thing I wanted to do was give him an uncontested shot,” Horne said. “And I saw him in front of me so I tried to foul him and the ref called what. … I don’t know what he called it.”
But well before Horne’s foul, the Wildcats ran into trouble: All night, they were bombarded by the Blazers’ three-pointers. UAB made 13 of 30 3-pointers and shot 50% overall, while UA made just 4 of 16 long-range shots.
— Bruce Pascoe
Arizona center Jordan Hill hits traffic while driving the basket early in the Wildcats' eventual 72-71 loss to visiting UAB in McKale Center on Nov. 18, 2008.
Player of the game: UA forward Jordan Hill, who went on to become a lottery pick in the 2009 NBA Draft, had 13 points and set an NIT Season Tip-Off record with 22 rebounds, breaking the mark of 21 set by Larry Richard of TCU against LSU in 1986.
By the numbers: Only about 10,000 fans attended the game at McKale Center, held less than a month after Lute Olson’s retirement became official, with Mike Dunlap opting to stay in his associate head coach role and Russ Pennell being promoted to interim head coach.
The aftermath: Their Times Square hotel reservations — and an invitation to a swanky Central Park reception — were given away. The Wildcats instead checked into a Courtyard Marriott in Athens, Ga., to prepare for consolation bracket games against Mississippi Valley State and Santa Clara, games that were played before three-figure crowds and weren’t on broadcast via television or streaming in any form.
But Pennell tried to make the best of it. First, he held an exorcism of sorts, asking his players in practice to re-create their positions at the end of the UAB game.
“I said, ‘Now, we’re going to replay the last 17 seconds,’ “ Pennell said. “I said, ‘I don’t know the outcome again but I know one thing: Jamelle is not going to foul.’ He kind of laughed and everybody kind of laughed.”
Russ Pennell, in just his second game as interim head coach of the UA men's basketball team following the preseason retirement of longtime program head Lute Olson, reacts in the second half of what would become a 72-71 Arizona loss to visiting UAB in McKale Center on Nov. 18, 2008.
It might have worked. Between that practice and the hours together at their decidedly mid-scale Georgia hotel, with virtually nobody paying attention to them, the Wildcats and Pennell later said they managed to tightly bond in the messy aftermath of Olson’s departure.
Arizona had already worked under an interim coach in 2007-08, when assistant Kevin O’Neill took over during Olson’s leave of absence, and Olson’s permanent retirement in October 2009 forced yet another interim situation on the Wildcats.
In Athens, the Wildcats wound up blowing out Mississippi Valley State 86-52, then edged Santa Clara 69-66… and went on to finish 19-13 in the regular season (9-9 in the Pac-10). While they lost in the Pac-10 Tournament quarterfinals to ASU, the Wildcats grabbled possibly the very last at-large berth in the 2009 NCAA Tournament, then beat Utah and Cleveland State to reach an unexpected Sweet 16 appearance as a No. 12 seed.
Arizona guard Nic Wise reaches to steal the ball from UAB's Lawrence Kinnard early in the Wildcats' eventual 72-71 loss to the Blazers in McKale Center on Nov. 18, 2008.
Personal reflections: From a media perspective, what also stood out was that Horne was available for comment. The NIT Season Tip-Off followed NCAA Tournament rules that require team locker rooms to be open to media for interviews, when many colleges would not voluntarily allow a player making such a mistake available to answer questions about it. (Arizona and most high-major schools close their locker rooms after regular-season games and only selected players can be interviewed).
Yet Horne did not shy away, despite teammates’ efforts to protect him. A small crowd of us approached him gingerly to ask his views on what happened, and he answered questions fully. No waving us away, no eye-glaring, no crying. He just explained what he saw and thought, and then we went away. Throughout his UA career, Horne was always a stand-up guy.
That sort of character could be seen within the rest of the 2008-09 team, too. You could see it within the efforts of what Pennell called its “Big Three” — Hill, forward Chase Budinger and guard Nic Wise — and you could see it in Pennell, a down-to-earth former club coach whose folksiness and honesty helped bond the team together.
The only crying I saw came after Louisville drummed Arizona 103-64 in the Sweet 16 at Indianapolis, and it wasn’t because of the game itself. Pennell and his father Dewey, a retired high school coach who had joined the Wildcats as an assistant, wiped away tears in the locker room because they knew their unexpectedly sweet run was over.
Less than two weeks later, the Sean Miller era began.
Arizona forward Chase Budinger is guarded by UAB's Aaron Johnson early in the Wildcats' eventual 72-71 loss to the Blazers in McKale Center on Nov. 18, 2008.
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The Arizona Wildcats basketball program will spend part of the summer abroad in Israel and Abu Dhabi. Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd said "the more you travel, the better, more well-rounded people you become.” Video by Justin Spears/Arizona Daily Star (July 24, 2023)
