SALT LAKE CITY — When the door to the Arizona locker room opened about five minutes after the Wildcats reached the Sweet 16 on Saturday, there were no empty water bottles lying around.
Nobody was wet. No hats. No messed up hair.
“No, no,” center Oumar Ballo said. “I’m telling you, we have a long way to go. This isn’t our final destination.”
Even freshman guard KJ Lewis expressed the same measured spirit.
“I think it’s great, but we’ve still got more work to do,” he said.
Uh-huh. Of course, that’s what players are supposed to say.
But the Wildcats have individual histories that suggests they mean it this time.
Then-North Carolina guard Caleb Love is consoled after the loss to Kansas in the national title game two years ago.
Not only were three of their regular rotation players on the floor for one of the more embarrassing losses in the program’s NCAA Tournament history, a first-round loss to 15th-seeded Princeton last year, but most of them have felt the heartbreak of March Madness in different ways.
Guard Caleb Love was part of a North Carolina team that lost in the 2022 national championship game after holding a 15-point halftime lead, forward Keshad Johnson was part of a San Diego State team that went to the title game last year and Jaden Bradley was part of an Alabama team that lost in the Sweet 16 last season.
“C-Love was able to get to the national championship, but wasn’t able to get it done,” Bradley said. “Keshad wasn’t able to get it done. And these guys who were here last year were upset in the first round. So being able to get back there and trying to get it done this time is key.”
In a way, Johnson has felt the pain twice: From losing to UConn in the national championship game last season but also from sensing the hurt among his new Arizona teammates upon arriving in Tucson last summer.
“We’re not really worried about what happened last year,” Johnson said. “That’s in the back of our mind but I carry that burden that they had lost to Princeton, so I’m not going to let it happen this year.”
Arizona forward Keshad Johnson gets a few minutes to cut off his tape and check out his phone after the Wildcats beat Dayton on Saturday. Johnson was part of a San Diego State team that lost to UConn in the 2023 championship game.
Bradley didn’t make it to the national championship game, but that’s what makes his heartbreak as tough as anything. The Crimson Tide was the No. 1 overall seed in last season’s tournament, expected to at least reach the Final Four, but Johnson and the upstart Aztecs sent them home 71-64 in the Sweet 16.
Bradley played just five minutes in that game and transferred to Arizona after the season.
“I was blessed and able to do it last year, and came up short,” Bradley said. “But this time gave me another opportunity. We’re gonna have a different outcome hopefully.”
They all hope so. The second-seeded Wildcats will need two more wins in Los Angeles to get to the Glendale Final Four, with a first game Thursday against No. 6-seeded Clemson, then another Saturday in the NCAA West Region final Elite Eight game.
Arizona center Oumar Ballo walks dejectedly off the court after the stunning first-round loss to 15th-seeded Princeton last season.
That’s why the locker-room mood Saturday afternoon was happy, but not crazy.
It was a stop along the road.
“Of course, winning these games is priceless,” Ballo said. “If we win them, you got to enjoy them. But there is a long way to go. You gotta take it game by game and we are not satisfied.”
Ballo went as far as to compare the Wildcats to “lions searching for food,” but the analogy actually was sort of fitting the way they held on Saturday to beat Dayton 78-68.
Just eight days earlier, against Oregon in the Pac-12 Tournament semifinals, the Wildcats took a 14-point early lead against the Ducks, but pretty much slipped downhill for the rest of the game. Oregon came back at the end of the first half and second half to completely wipe it out and win 67-59.
Then-San Diego State forward Keshad Johnson, left, fights for a rebound during last year’s 76-59 championship game loss to UConn.
This time, Arizona built a 17-point first half lead that Dayton cut to just seven at halftime and, in the second half, the Flyers trailed by as little as three points.
But Dayton never got any closer.
“We learned from experiences like that, the Oregon game where we kind of came out flat,” wing Pelle Larsson said. “I didn’t think we came off flat this time. I think we had the energy.”
As seniors who have felt disappointment twice before, Larsson and Ballo weren’t expected to hold anything back this time.
A year before losing in the first round, they were sophomores on a UA team that reached the Sweet 16 but, as a No. 1 overall seed in the South, barely survived an overtime second-round game with TCU and were taken completely out of their rhythm in a Sweet 16 loss to fifth-seeded Houston in the Sweet 16.
Larsson said the 2022 run feels “long ago” in part because so many players from that team have moved on, including NBA Draft picks Bennedict Mathurin, Dalen Terry and Christian Koloko after that season. Then forward Azuolas Tubelis and guard Kerr Kriisa left after last season.
“But all that stuff we keep in the back of our minds,” Larsson said of the 2022 run. “Then it was the first time for everyone. Now we have guys who have been to the Final Four and J.B. played for a No. 1 team last year. We have a lot of experience.
“It’s great to be back and I think we feel more ready for it this year.”
