Seen and heard at McKale: Adam Sandler plays hoops; Frank Caliendo enters Walton's world

Known to always be on the lookout for a good pickup basketball game, Adam Sandler landed in the basketball center of Tucson on Thursday.

Wearing a pink polo shirt decorated with palm leaves and baggy blue shorts, the veteran comedic actor dropped by McKale Center to play pickup basketball with UA managers before Arizona hosted Colorado.

Although Sandler is 57, he still showed plenty of game, dribbling between his legs, dishing no-look passes and hitting reverse layups while playing for about 30 minutes against managers nearly four decades younger.

Sandler's enthusiasm for the game is well-known, not only in movies but in engineering or joining pickup games wherever he goes. The New York Post reported last July that he and actor Timothée Chalamet even joined in a 3-on-3 pickup game in Soho.

Sandler took his hoop act this time to McKale after mentioning during a November appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" that his sister had received medical treatment in Tucson.

“She had to deal with some stuff,” Sandler told Kimmel. “She went to a hospital in Tucson, Arizona, and the staff took amazing care of her, the nurses and two doctors particularly. Took care of her the whole time. Just wanted to tell them, thank you very much for looking out for my sister.”

After seeing the interview, Arizona athletics officials reached out to Sandler’s management and told them he would be welcome anytime. Leading up to Thursday, Sandler asked if he could take UA up on it, and time was found before the Wildcats and Buffaloes began warmups before Thursday’s game.

The Walternative

For those who simply can’t get enough of Bill Walton, on Thursday there were two.

That is, comedian and impressionist Frank Caliendo sat between Walton and Dave Pasch during the first half of Thursday's game, going on a long-winded introduction of the Sonoran Desert with a voice and style that could only be Walton’s.

“The desert, here we are. The cacti — that’s plural for cactus, as if you didn’t know. Look at the beauty ..."

At one point Caliendo looked over at Walton and said, “You’re not getting a word in." He continued, saying, “Here it is, loving and enjoying the Earth we’re in, the McKale Center ...”

When Caliendo did stop for a breath at the end of all that, Walton grinned.

“Where have you been?” Walton said.

Caliendo also did impressions of Stephen A Smith, Sandler, Tommy Lloyd and Liam Neeson. He later referred to his performance on X as “The Walternative.”

Rebuffed

Colorado was playing without two of its top three scorers Thursday, forward Tristan da Silva and wing Cody Williams, but guard KJ Simpson said he wasn’t going to use it as an excuse for the Buffaloes’ 47-point loss.

After all, Colorado swept Washington and WSU last weekend without them. Da Silva missed both those games after suffering a mid-level ankle sprain last week in practice, while Williams has missed the Buffs’ past six games with a wrist injury.

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“We showed we can win with people down,” Simpson told Buffzone.com. “I can’t make that same excuse just because we lost. Credit to Arizona, they were ready. We just didn’t follow with our game plan. We kind of let the crowd get to us. The turnovers, that’s my fault. We just didn’t run our offense to the highest of our capability that we’ve been doing.”

Having played at Gilbert Perry High School — where he once was a teammate of UA’s Dylan Anderson — Williams still made his homecoming trip. He and da Silva were both in sweats for Thursday’s game, and it remains possible that both return during the rest of CU’s trip, to ASU on Saturday and to Cal on Wednesday.

In any case, barring further injury, both players are almost certain to be around on Feb. 10, when Arizona and Colorado will meet in Boulder. The Wildcats have lost five straight games at the CU Events Center.

“Those are two really high-level players, and I know coach (Tad) Boyle well,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said. “ I'm sure they’ve got something waiting for us when we go back to Colorado. I'm sure those guys will be healthy and they'll be locked and loaded.”

Where Buffaloes roam

Colorado’s game at McKale Center was the first stop of a week-long road trip, the sort that hasn’t been seen around the Pac-12 since “COVID makeup” games were a thing during the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons.

Because the Pac-12 this year is squeezing all 20 games after Christmas, the league crammed the one-off games previously held in December into the schedule. In Colorado’s case, that meant a Thursday-Saturday swing through Arizona would be followed by a game at California on Wednesday.

So, rather than go home for a day or two when school isn’t in session anyway, the Buffaloes are scheduled to stay an extra night in Phoenix, then travel to Oakland on Monday and begin preparations for the Bears.

It was expected that the Buffs would be treated to some sort of extracurricular affair in Phoenix, possibly a stop at Topgolf.

New kicks

Many of the Wildcats wore a new pair of Nike G.T. Cut 3s, featuring a solid red band extending up about an inch from the sole, with a dotted red swoosh and mostly white elsewhere.

UA said Nike provided an early release of the shoe for its players, most of whom wore them. KJ Lewis, Caleb Love, Oumar Ballo, Motiejus Krivas and Paulius Murauskas were among those who stuck with others.

Hola

Although Francisco Romero has moved permanently to Houston, where he’s the Spanish-language voice of the Astros, he returned to McKale Center on Thursday to visit what is still his other employer.

Romero, who used to call UA games in Spanish at courtside, still runs Spanish-language social media for UA athletics, going by the @azathleticsesp handle on both X and Instagram. On Facebook, the site is at AZAthleticsEnEspanol.

The big number

47 — Arizona’s victory margin Thursday, the most lopsided win it has had in conference play since beating Oregon State 99-48 on Jan. 23, 1997. It was also Colorado’s largest margin of defeat since it lost by 49 to Kansas on Jan. 7, 1998.

Quotable

“We didn’t execute the game plan. We just got our (butts) kicked in every facet of the game. Including coaching.”

— Colorado coach Tad Boyle, to Buffzone.com