The truth, the whole truth, half-truths, shades of the truth and other items admissible as Sweet 16 news:
- The NCAA is so efficient at tournament management and detail-specific game operations, that it makes available to each team a scouting-quality DVD immediately after each game.
The man who distributed those DVDs at Viejas Arena was Mac McBride, a communications specialist at the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, and no matter how quickly the NCAA cut the DVD, it couldn’t beat the Arizona courier.
As soon as the teams left the court Sunday night, Trevor Derrett, a fourth-year UA student manager, went directly to McBride at the electronics center to retrieve the DVD.
It was a little thing, a detail thing, but one that reflects the UA’s organization thoroughness as operated by Sean Miller. The coach wanted that DVD available for immediate review and breakdown, and wasn’t going to wait until Monday afternoon or until everyone jumped around and celebrated for a bit.
The most successful teams understand why they win (and lose), and Arizona’s commitment to the small stuff, to self-study, is what helps to set it apart.
Here’s a comparison: After UCLA beat Tulsa in Friday’s opener, the Bruins did not claim the DVD. Ever.
Arizona was so prepared for Gonzaga that, even after 35 games, Miller’s strategy caught Zags coach Mark Few a bit off guard.
“They had a nice plan for our gap defense. They were cutting guys behind us, which we haven’t seen this year, and it was really effective,” said Few. “But again, you have to have a special kind of athlete to be able to do that.”
- In an ESPN interview with Andy Katz on Monday, San Diego State coach Steve Fisher said that much has changed since Arizona beat the Aztecs on Nov. 14.
“They don’t have Brandon Ashley, and we have a guy who didn’t play for us in the first game, Dwayne Polee,” said Fisher.
Why didn’t Polee play?
Fisher said it was simply a coach’s decision. In fact, Polee, a 6-foot, 7-inch, fourth-year junior, didn’t play in three of SDSU’s first 10 games.
“He has been absolutely phenomenal coming off the bench,” said Fisher.
Polee and Arizona sixth man Rondae Hollis-Jefferson are about the same size but fully different players. Polee is 22; Hollis-Jefferson 19. Polee is a distance-shooting specialist, with 87 three-point attempts. Hollis-Jefferson has made one three-pointer since November.
I thought Hollis-Jefferson played his top college game Sunday night. It wasn’t just the 8 for 8 from the foul line, which was significant, nor was it his season-high 18 points. It was that he had five assists, no turnovers and blocked four shots.
Hollis-Jefferson was so aggressive, and so unafraid, that he, as much as anyone, was a game-changer.
Remember this: Hollis-Jefferson has played 36 college basketball games. When he traveled to San Diego State, he had played just 41 minutes of college basketball. He’s a much different player now.
Fisher’s Ashley-for-Polee statement is only half accurate. The other half is that Hollis-Jefferson is essentially a new player for Arizona.
He is a load.
- So much of Arizona’s restoration as a basketball power is a piece of serendipity related to Tim Floyd’s decision not to be the UA’s head coach five years ago this week.
But the debris from Floyd’s subsequent exit at USC are still at play.
Polee’s father, Dwayne Polee Sr., was Floyd’s director of basketball operations at USC and was retained by Kevin O’Neill. Why? Some of it was because Polee’s son was part of the 2010 California state championship team at Westchester High School, a teammate of UA senior guard Jordin Mayes.
But once Polee Jr., announced his recruiting finalists to be St. John’s, Oregon and Georgia, and not USC, the O’Neill-Polee Sr., relationship went bust. They parted ways.
College basketball is such a combustible game, with moving parts and temporary players, that the 2010 Westchester vs. Mater Dei state semifinal playoff game remains Exhibit A of how difficult it is to operate a stable program.
Polee started at St. John’s. Mayes was a standout in Arizona’s run to the 2011 Elite Eight but has since had his playing time shaved significantly.
The Mater Dei team they beat in March 2010 included four-star prospects Keala King, who signed with ASU; Gary Franklin, who went to Cal; and Tyler Lamb, who was viewed as a coup for UCLA coach Ben Howland.
Today, as Mayes and Polee prepare to meet in the Sweet 16, King is playing for NAIA Pikeville (Ky.) College, Franklin is a sub for the Baylor team that will play Wisconsin in the Anaheim Sweet 16, and Lamb is a journeyman at Long Beach State.
You never know.
- Schools currently in the Mountain West Conference have not won a Sweet 16 game since Jerry Tarkanian coached UNLV to back-to-back Final Fours in 1990 and 1991.
That’s staggering. It has been a conference whose trademark is good college hoops.
But former member BYU hasn’t won a Sweet 16 game since 1981, when Danny Ainge was a Cougar. The New Mexico Lobos, who average about 17,000 fans per home game, haven’t won a Sweet 16 game ever, and have only played in it in 1968 and 1974.
Nevada last played in the Sweet 16 in 2004, Fresno State in 1982, Utah State in 1969, Wyoming in 1987.
But here’s the catch: Arizona, as a No. 1 seed, lost a Sweet 16 game to UNLV in 1989, and the Wildcats, as a No. 1 seed, lost to ex-Mountain West power Utah in the 1998 Elite Eight.
You have been warned.
