Flying into Salt Lake City on Thursday after a loss at Sacramento, a small group of Indiana Pacers found a fitting — if ultimately unsatisfying — form of entertainment at the Huntsman Center.
Former Wildcats Bennedict Mathurin and T.J. McConnell greeted several members of the Arizona traveling party before the Utah-Arizona game, then sat down behind the Wildcats’ bench to watch what became an 81-66 loss. Indiana teammates Andrew Nembhard and Buddy Hield joined them.
McConnell spent three seasons with the Wildcats under coach Sean Miller, one as a redshirt transfer from Duquesne, through 2014-15. Mathurin played a season each for Miller and UA coach Tommy Lloyd, while Nembhard played at Gonzaga in 2020-21 while Lloyd was a Zags assistant.
Two members of the Utah Jazz, assistant coach Jason Terry and forward Lauri Markkanen, were tentative to make it. While they weren’t on hand — the Jazz had an off day Thursday in the middle of a four day stretch with three games — they did attend the Red-Blue Game at McKale Center on Sept. 30.
UA coach Tommy Lloyd said McConnell and Mathurin both spoke to players individually.
“It’s awesome having these guys around,” Lloyd said.
Curtains for Utes’ crowd
One problem with the Pac-12’s plan to sandwich its football championship game with conference basketball games this week was in plain sight Thursday.
Black curtains covered the upper sections of the Huntsman Center. There were also thousands of empty seats in the lower bowl.
Utah announced a crowd of 6,490 for Thursday night’s game, in part because the football championship game pulled thousands of them to Las Vegas.
The Utes sold out their allotment of 10,000 seats at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium, and many thousands more are expected to be on hand for Friday’s sold out Utah-USC football game.
That left Utah basketball coach Craig Smith both excited and aware of how the game could impact his.
“Super happy for our athletic department, certainly, to Coach Whitt (Kyle Whittingham) and the entire football program to go back to the Pac-12 Championship Game,” Smith said before Thursday’s game. “I’m excited for our fan base and, and in our school, it’s a hard thing to do. It’s a great thing for our university and our state.”
Smith said he knew fans would be attending the festivities that happen on Thursday or be heading to Las Vegas, though he expressed appreciation for the fans who stayed for basketball Thursday and planned to head to Las Vegas on Friday.
“There’s a lot that goes into it,” he said. “I’m sure it will have an effect on our attendance but that’s part of how it goes. That’s part of how it works. You know when you play this week, there’s always going to be (basketball teams at) potentially two schools that are affected because of it.”
Rocky Mountain low
While the Wildcats lost for the fourth time in their past six games at Utah, at least they won’t have to head across the Rockies for a second road game this weekend to play Colorado.
The Wildcats have lost five games in a row in Boulder, last winning there during their 2014-15 Elite Eight season.
While the Pac-12 moved from 18 to 20 conference games in 2020-21, it pulled out two of the four teams each school was scheduled to skip that season and pushed games with them into December. So instead of missing the entire Utah-Colorado trip, as the Wildcats would have in an 18-game schedule this season, UA was asked to play only at Utah on Thursday.
Lute documentary set
The documentary about former UA coach Lute Olson, which premiered on Sept. 30 at Centennial Hall before the Red-Blue Game, is scheduled to air Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. on CBS Sports Network.
Home, finally
The Wildcats debuted their navy road jerseys on Thursday, their seventh game of the year. However, the UA hasn’t actually played a home game since they hosted Utah Tech on Nov. 17. They played three games in the Maui Invitational wearing their home whites and haven’t played at all since winning the event championship on Nov. 23.
The Wildcats are scheduled to return to McKale Center on Sunday against Cal in a game that could be a sellout. Less than 1,000 tickets remained as of Thursday.
The big number
4 — Arizona’s 3-pointers in 28 attempts on Thursday night. The Wildcats entered the game hitting 45% of their 3-pointers.
Quotable
“I can talk all day. I’m pretty excited.” — Utah coach Craig Smith, after taking four minutes to make his opening statement at the postgame news conference.
