Askia Booker jumped, behind the three-point line, as 6-foot-7-inch Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and his wild wingspan — all 7 feet-plus of it — enveloped him defensively.
No matter, fading away, the 6-2 Booker fired it over Hollis-Jefferson’s head, and as the ball went around the rim and then through the net, Booker landed awkwardly on his ankle.
He hopped back on defense until he couldn’t any longer, and then called over to his coach, Tad Boyle, to take him out. He checked out of the game with 5:29 left, hopped like a kangaroo past his bench and straight into the locker room.
He needed to return. He had the hot hand.
“I didn’t want to come out,” he said. “Period.”
The way Booker plays, basketball expert Bill Simmons describes his type as “irrational confidence guy.” Think Kemba Walker, Jason Terry, guys like that. Booker shoots from all over the court, whether there’s a defender in his face or not, often off-balance. Nights like Thursday don’t necessarily come often. For him, really, they never have.
But it happened against Arizona. Five seconds before halftime, he launched a 25-foot, contested three-pointer, and made it.
“My teammates kept hyping me up,” Booker said, “telling me they wanted to see Kemba Walker Askia.”
His three-pointer just before he left with the injury gave Booker a career-high 30 points, and improved his shooting night to 11 of 17. At that point, though, the Buffs were down 61-49. Colorado’s No. 2 and No. 3 scorers, Xavier Johnson and big man Josh Scott, were out with injuries. As hard as Booker tried — he returned to the game briefly, but didn’t attempt another shot — his one-man show ended in a 14-point loss 68-54.
“One player scored 30 of his team’s 54 points,” said UA coach Sean Miller. “Askia Booker, the only guy I’ve seen do that since I’ve been at Arizona is Jimmer Fredette. He (Booker) could’ve got 40. We didn’t have an answer for him.”
That’s high praise. BYU’s Fredette came to McKale Center in 2009 and scored 49 points. Outside of Booker, Jaron Hopkins was next with eight points Thursday, and nobody else had more than five.
“He played excellent. Superb,” Hopkins said. “When he gets in the zone, he’s pretty good. He got going early and we kept getting him the ball so he kept making shots for us. We just gotta get the ball in the hole. Other guys gotta make shots.”
In the first half, Booker had 18 points, two other players had two, and one had three.
“Coach (Boyle) told me to be aggressive,” Booker said. “I think I just took the confidence from the other guys that they had in me and just ran with it. When I get hot, I don’t feel like anyone can guard me really.”
That includes Hollis-Jefferson, considered by many to be one of the better on-ball defenders certainly in the Pac-12, possibly the country. A fact not lost on Booker.
“That was just a statement,” Booker said. “I feel like I can play against anybody.”
Last season, after Colorado lost to Arizona by 12 points at McKale, Xavier Johnson declared the Wildcats unimpressive, and predicted his team would beat Arizona by 20 points when they traveled to Boulder.
It turns out that bravado was a bit irrational; Arizona won the next game by 27 points, and then beat Colorado again the Pac-12 tournament by 20.
After Thursday’s game, Booker echoed a similar sentiment.
“They’re a really good team,” he said, “but I feel like we can compete with them. We had two of our best players out. I think we have a really good chance of beating them at home when we meet up with them again.”
