Greg Hansen: Sun shines on Wildcats' Red-Blue Game, and outlooks are rosy again

On Saturday afternoon, Tommy Lloyd told about 10,000 people at McKale Center that “I’m one of you; support us; help us; let’s all enjoy this great ride together.” As if on cue, the UA pep band the played Pharrell Williams’ 2013 Grammy Award winning song “Happy.”

Saturday was about letting the sunshine in. Happy faces instead of sideline scowls. Over five months, Lloyd has engineered a personality transplant of Arizona’s basketball program.

Dalen Terry danced, arms stretched out, as if he was ready for takeoff. Oumar Ballo and Justin Kier appeared to be rehearsing a two-step for “Dancing With the Stars.” I almost expected Kevin Bacon to grab the microphone from Lloyd and shout “LET’S DANCE!” the way he did in “Footloose” 37 years ago.

It seems like it’s been 37 since Arizona’s basketball program had reason to dance — or smile.

“Last year you could hear the shoes squeaking and the coach screaming,” said Terry.

Maybe having fun won’t get Arizona back to the Final Four — or put an end to what seems like being under an FBI and NCAA investigative microscope forever — but it’s worth a try, don’t you think?

As Williams sings in “Happy,” “clap along if you feel like a room without a roof.”

For far too long, this basketball-crazy community has felt restricted, working under a low ceiling after what had been 30 years of a no-goal-is-too-bold approach.

Earlier Saturday, I got a copy of the 2021-22 Athlon’s college basketball magazine. Arizona was picked to finish eighth in the Pac-12. (Full disclosure: I occasionally write for Athlon). But after watching the Wildcats scrimmage for 20 minutes, I thought back to Lute Olson at the 1984-85 Pac-10 media day when he discovered the Wildcats were voted to finish No. 8 that year.

“We won’t be finishing eighth,” Olson said with conviction. The Wildcats finished third, swept ASU and began a 25-year reign atop the conference.

Lloyd’s first Arizona team won’t finish eighth, either. The Wildcats don’t have all the pieces to be a Final Four team, but they’ve got resources necessary to be an NCAA Tournament team. You probably haven’t had enough time to match names and faces, but Bennedict Mathurin, Azuolas Tubelis, Kerr Krisa and injured Pelle Larsson could play for anybody, in any league, at a high level.

The train is back on the tracks.

It’s also encouraging that the community came out in such big numbers Saturday. It reaffirmed that Tucson is a basketball-mad precinct that is not taking a wait-and-see approach.

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No other Pac-12 school has scheduled the equivalent to a Red-Blue Game. Not even UCLA, which is a trendy (and worthy) choice to reach the Final Four. Other college communities usually spend October embracing football season, but Tucson (and Lloyd) was eager to get Act I on stage and it was like old times at a new time.

Kansas began the we-can’t-wait-for-basketball-to-begin movement Friday night by drawing 16,000 to its annual “Late Night at Phog” celebration, at which KU students began to line-up for admission at 11 a.m.

Duke will stage its “Countdown to Craziness” on Oct. 15, with every ticket at Cameron Indoor Stadium already sold. And Kentucky, which is also scarred by an ongoing NCAA investigation, has scheduled two “Big Blue Madness” sessions, Oct. 15 and Oct. 22, both of which are sold out.

Gonzaga? The Zags will hold its annual “Kraziness at the Kennel” on Friday. Seats? All gone.

The entertainment needle at McKale Center on Saturday was a combination of Kraziness and Madness, one of the few places on the map that has bought in a month before the games count.

This looks to be a basketball program that won’t be of the coach, by the coach and for the coach. At last.

“You’re the head coach at Arizona, I get it. It’s a big deal,” said Lloyd. “But I want to make it about them.”

A players program. Get it?

During Saturday’s introduction, freshman walk-on point guard Addison Arnold of Simi Valley, California, was introduced to the McKale crowd for the first time. Addison Arnold? Ordinary, a walk-on freshman would’ve been intimidated by the moment, hushed by a domineering coach whose sideline was a solemn place.

But Arnold danced his way onto the court the way ex-Baltimore Ravens star linebacker Ray Lewis danced before a big-time NFL game. Energy. Passion. Personality. The crowd loved it. So did his teammates.

Two years ago, Arnold spent 10 weeks in a wheelchair, hoping to recover from surgery to both ankles and someday play basketball again. The grandson of former BYU head coach Frank Arnold — an assistant coach during John Wooden’s glory years at UCLA — was not intimidated by the large crowd. He enjoyed and made the most of the moment.

He should fit right in with Tommy Lloyd’s refreshing approach to Arizona basketball.