Seen & Heard in SLC: Mike Candrea enjoys AD seats; Cats take (much) later flight to Denver

SALT LAKE CITY — There’s something different about being on a road trip as Arizona’s athletic director instead of as a retired softball coach, and Mike Candrea noticed quickly Thursday.

“Better seats,” Candrea said.

The longtime former UA softball coach, who has taken an interim AD role in the wake of Dave Heeke’s removal, sat in the first row of a corner of the Huntsman Center that was right behind Arizona’s bench. The Wildcats outlasted Utah 105-99 in triple overtime Thursday night.

There is a small price, of course, but one that Candrea is more than willing to pay. As Heeke did, being the AD on a road trip means spending time with UA boosters who are accompanying the trip as well as hosting the occasional rallies or get-togethers with fans and alums wherever the Wildcats go.

“We have a group of donors here, and that was a lot of fun,” Candrea said.

Candrea said he held a dinner with UA donors on Wednesday night and expected he would also be busy when the Wildcats move over to Boulder, Colorado, for their game Saturday.

“I’ve traveled with teams before, so nothing new,” Candrea said. “But it’s different.”

At least they flew charter

The 6 p.m. tipoff was supposed to give Arizona plenty of time to catch an evening flight to Colorado shortly after the game, with an expected arrival at their hotel before midnight.

But even after three overtimes, the Wildcats still did not miss their flight. They just told Sun Country Airlines they would be a little late.

The Wildcats finally cleared out of the Huntsman Center at about 9:30 p.m., pushing their charter flight to Broomfield, Colorado, back about an hour.

“We’re good,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said at the beginning of his postgame press conference. “We’re good. And you know what? The plane will be ready when we’re ready.”

By arriving late Thursday — or early Friday — the Wildcats still will receive two nights and over a full day of preparation in Boulder before their game with the Buffaloes at 8 p.m. Saturday.

They might be back

ESPN and CBS NCAA Tournament bracket projections have consistently put the Wildcats in Salt Lake City for the first weekend of the tournament, usually as a No. 2 or No. 3 seed in the West Region.

The only other Western first-weekend site is Spokane, Washington, and the NCAA selection committee usually tries to place teams seeded 1-4 at the closest geographical spot. So even though Lloyd spent 21 seasons in Spokane as a Gonzaga assistant, he’s more likely to begin the tournament in the hometown of the Utes and Jazz.

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The difference is that the tournament games, which were once held at the Huntsman Center, will again be held at Vivint Smart Home Arena, where the Jazz play home games.

That’s probably good news for Arizona, which is 4-0 in NCAA Tournament games at Vivint Smart, reaching the Sweet 16 in both 2013 and 2017 from there. The Wildcats beat Belmont and Harvard during the first two rounds in 2013 and beat North Dakota and Saint Mary’s there in 2017.

Good timing

After working Thursday’s game alongside Roxy Bernstein for Pac-12 Networks, analyst and former UA standout Matt Muehlebach says he won’t be working another game this weekend.

That’s pretty good timing for a Tucson resident who grew up in the Kansas City and San Francisco areas.

“I’m heading home to barbeque and get ready for the Chiefs,” Muehlebach said before Thursday’s game.

Although Muehlebach grew up in the backyards of both the Chiefs and 49ers, he lived in Kansas City until second grade — and by then it was too late to adopt the Bay Area teams too much.

“When I left Kansas City, I had already been to the Chiefs games and Royals games, so I was a die-hard as a little kid in second grade,” Muehlebach said. “Then I got to California and our rivals were the Raiders and the A’s, so I didn’t like them. But I became a Niner fan a little bit. They were kind of my second team because they were in the NFC and they were really good at the time.”

So while Muehlebach has some 49er roots, they aren’t enough to turn him against the Chiefs in Sunday's Super Bowl.

His prediction: Chiefs 27, 49ers 24.

That’s a score that might make his barbeque even better.

The big number

55 — Minutes of basketball played Thursday at the Huntsman Center, the most Arizona has played since losing at USC in four overtimes during the 2015-16 season.

Photos: No. 8 Arizona men's basketball team defeats Utah 105-99 in triple overtime