Seen and heard at USC: Final Pac-12 regular season game hits longtime Wildcats hard, LeBron on hand, more

LOS ANGELES — USC’s Galen Center was only about two-thirds full on Saturday, with a strong minority of fans pulling for Arizona.

That gave the Wildcats the sort of friendly road environment they often see in California — although, sensing an upset might be in progress, USC fans eventually did crank up the energy late.

Still, Arizona fans out West being vocal in road environments probably won't be something the Wildcats experience often see in the Big 12.

But that’s not why some members of their traveling party will miss it.

For former UA standout Reggie Geary, now a UA senior development director and radio broadcaster, trips to USC and UCLA were part of a Pac-12 fabric that is being torn up.

“To think that the Pac-12 has come to this, with its long history and our opportunity to participate and we’ve been one of the premier programs on the West Coast… it’s definitely, definitely a sad day” Geary said before Saturday's game. “We’re excited and optimistic about the future in the Big 12 but today, first and foremost, it’s sad.”

The topic was hard to avoid. Geary played for the Wildcats in the 1990s at the peak of the Lute Olson years, when UA dominated the league but also had a tense rivalry with UCLA.

By the time UA player relations director Jason Gardner joined the Wildcats in 1999, they were coming off the 1997 national championship and and a Pac-10 title in 1998 but were also fighting off Stanford and Oregon.

“A lot of big time kids, a lot of big-time players, came through here,” Gardner said before Saturday’s game. “To know this is the last game, it’s different.”

UA won the conference title only once during Gardner’s four seasons, finishing second behind Stanford in 2001 despite later reaching the national championship game.

The Pac-12 was tough.

Now, with only Washington State and Oregon State hanging on to the name after this season, it might be gone forever. And maybe, the record book with them.

“Those are our memories,” Geary said. “So obviously with the league going away to a degree with only two teams (Washington State and Oregon State), we just don't know how the history and the legacy of the league is going to stand up. All the names like Lew Alcindor and Bill Walton and Sean Elliott, after 10 years of no basketball do they kind of fade away? That's a scary thought for anybody.”

Missing McKale, too

Meanwhile, the fact that West Coast players signing with UCLA or USC may not get the chance to visit McKale Center could also be a bummer.

That’s the way former UCLA player Sean Farnham, who worked Saturday’s ESPN broadcast with Dave Pasch, looks at it.

“I just know as a player there was nothing more I loved than going to McKale,” Farnham said before Saturday's game. “I knew it was gonna be loud. I knew it was gonna be crazy. I knew it was gonna be hostile. I knew the students would say some crazy stuff to us. And we loved it.”

Only once in UCLA’s four visits to McKale during Farnham’s playing days did the Bruins pull off a victory – against the eventual national champions in 1997 – and he said that win ranks up there with a defeat of top-ranked Stanford.

“It just meant so much because that was the only one I had in four years in that building,” Farnham said.

The memories even came back when Farnham was working a game at Oregon and spoke with former UA player and coach Josh Pastner, who was doing studio work.

“I was talking to Josh about the old Mac Court (at Oregon) where the bus sopped right in front and the graveyard was too your left and old Mac Court was to the right,” Farnham said.

“I know I sound like the old guy who says `I remember the old days,’ but my point is that this conference has great tradition and great history and the fact that there is no more (Pac-12) is sad to me because now the West Coast has been engulfed by the Big Ten, the Big 12 and ACC – and none of those are conferences that have ties to the West region, the United States and or understand the geographical rivalries of the schools in the West.”

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

‘Minimalizing the West’

Farnham said the conference realignment has “minimalized the West region,” which can in turn accelerate the already occasional trend of top West Coast talent heading East.

While Farnham said the moves won't hurt everybody — he said Arizona’s basketball, football and even softball programs will benefit from being in the Big 12 — he described feelings of sadness and disappointment overall.

“It’s broken my heart over the last couple of years that we've led into this,” Farnham said. “The complete mismanagement aspect of it has been very frustrating, and the fact that we've devalued West Coast sports as much as we have.

"I get that the landscape has changed. But traveling the country as much as I do, covering games around the country, there is a sense of pride for regional rivalries and we have lost some great regional rivalries in this realignment.”

Boogie Boogie

After opting to return for a fifth season of college basketball last spring, guard Boogie Ellis went through USC’s Senior Day ceremonies for the second straight year.

This time, he was joined by center Joshua Morgan, forward DJ Rodman and walk-on Zach Brooker.

It was the third time the Wildcats had been in the building for a Senior ceremony: First, ASU’s on Feb. 28 in Tempe, then their own last Saturday and now the Trojans.

Love named to Wooden ballot

Before USC held him to just two points on 1 of 10 from the floor Saturday night, Arizona guard Caleb Love was one of 15 players named earlier in the day to the ballot for the Wooden Award, one of the major college basketball player of the year honors.

The Wooden Award will narrow down to a 10-player all-American team and a winner next month. Purdue's Zach Edey won the award last season and is a frontrunner to win it this season.

Love's former teammate at North Carolina, RJ Davis, was also named to the Wooden ballot, and the two are also among the five finalists for the Naismith's Jerry West Award for the nation's top college shooting guard.

Other players named to the Wooden ballot include: Auburn's Johni Broome, Kansas' Hunter Dickinson, Duke's Kyle Filipowski, Dayton's DaRon Holmes II, Tennessee's Dalton Knecht, Marquette's Tyler Kolek, San Diego State's Jaedon LeDee, Kansas's Kevin McCullar Jr., UConn's Tristen Newton, Kentucky's Antonio Reeves, Alabama's Mark Sears and Houston's Jamal Shead.

LeBron courtside

With the Lakers between home games on Friday and Sunday, it was no surprise to see LeBron James sitting courtside to watch the Trojans and son Bronny from what is often his courtside seat across from the visitors bench.

That close vantage point not only allowed LeBron to see the action up close but also get his voice heard.

On the other side of the court, behind the Wildcats' bench, sat UA president Robert Robbins and AD Desireé Reed-Francois and about 50 other UA staff and supporters. Other UA fans were spread all over the building.

Photos: No. 5 Arizona upset at USC, Pac-12 men's basketball regular-season finale