Arizona junked its traditional pre-game video Wednesday, eliminating mention of Final Fours and Lute Olson flashing his national championship ring.
It went to the stock 60 minutes of dunks, 3-pointers and locker room celebrations, a pregame salute you can see at ASU or Stanford or anywhere.
But you know what? It works.
Iβm not filing a complaint here. Not trying to cling to the past (but I sure miss hearing that βSTEEEVE KEERRRR!ββ chant a few times a year). Arizona hasnβt gone to a Final Four for 20 years and the new leadership at McKale Center, from Dave Heeke to Tommy Lloyd, would probably like to create a more modern identity in a game that has so thoroughly changed the last 10 years.
Itβs more about today and tomorrow than yesterday.
This UA basketball team is more like the epic Beach Boys song βFun, Fun, Funβ than the old Tark vs. Lute days. Change? In Thursdayβs 94-65 blitz over Wyoming, Arizona sophomore Dalen Terry was outfitted in what appeared to be beach wear underneath his high-cropped uniform shorts.
Terry wasnβt made available to answer media questions, but I was curious: had he been at the pool lately? Is this team that casual? Terryβs light-blue and yellow-ish undergarments looked like surfer dude apparel.
Said Lloyd: βI love Dalen; heβs got a great spirit.β
Game day at McKale has changed. So have the Wildcats.
UA coaches no longer wear expensive suits and shiny shoes; they wear informal matching Nike gear. They donβt stomp and shout. Old boundaries have been broken. In the first 10 minutes of Wednesdayβs game, Arizona took 11 3-point shots. It shattered previously undefeated Wyomingβs strategy to slow down the nationβs fastest-moving team, taking a 35-14 lead with the new model of Arizona basketball: 8 oβclock lightning.
No school in Pac-12 history has played a full season at the lightning pace to match Lloydβs 11th-ranked Wildcats, not even in the early nonconference season when many of the games are blowouts. But thus far, McKale Center fans canβt sit down because they are too busy celebrating Bennedict Mathurinβs breakaway dunks and a flurry of 3-pointers from Kerr Kriisa.
About the only semi-complaint came from UA sophomore forward Azoulas Tubelis, who noticed about 1,400 empty seats in the upper deck. Hereβs a bit of reality: although undefeated, Wyoming had gone 8-0 against the No. 241 schedule in the country.
Wait βtil January. Once the calendar flips and Pac-12 games begin, youβll see no empty red seats at McKale. It could be a lot like 1994, a Final Four season, when Arizona created the nickname βThunder and Lightningβ for the nationβs most feared backcourt, Damon Stoudamire and Khalid Reeves.
Given the UAβs ability to solve and destruct Wyomingβs defense in, oh, 2 Β½ minutes, the Damon and Khalid Show of the β90s almost came off as an old-fashioned crawl.
After Mathurin hammered two dunks through the rim to give Arizona a 43-20 lead, Terry laughed all the way down court, unable to disguise how fun it has become to play basketball for Arizona. A few plays later, Kriisa attempted a between-the-legs pass that was intercepted. How many coaches in the Pac-12 wouldβve quickly pulled Kriisa from the game and given him (a) a lecture or (b) a silent treatment?
Instead, the animated Kriisa played on, scoring 14 points in the first half. Whatβs semi-insane is that these are mostly the same guys from the staid and often underperforming Sean Miller team of a year ago.
So my only suggestion to the pre-game video crew is to think about using βFun, Fun, Funβ as a soundtrack someday.
Now comes the full disclaimer: Itβs early December. The between-the-legs passes and surfing gear may not be as entertaining Saturday afternoon at Illinoisβ old Assembly Hall (now called the State Farm Center), which will be filled, with 14,907 fans, the first truly hostile environment Lloydβs team will encounter.
βItβs got a McKale feel to it,β said Lloyd, who quickly acknowledged that his old school, Gonzaga, was 0-2 in games at Illinois.
Itβll be like a night at Oregonβs old Mac Court. Lloyd described Illinois coach Brad Underwood as βa guy that oozes toughness.β
Weβre about to discover if Lloyd and his team do, too.
Illinois is ranked No. 14 in the KenPom.com analytics and has played a schedule exceedingly more difficult than Arizona’s path to Saturday’s showdown. The Illini have beaten Iowa, Notre Dame and Kansas State. One of its two losses, on the road at Marquette, came when the Big Ten’s preseason Player of the Year, double-double machine Kofi Cockburn, was injured and did not play.
Cockburn, who will be the best player Arizona has seen this season (by far), is a legit contender to be the national player of the year. Lloyd referred to Cockburn as βthe Shaq of college basketballβ but isnβt backing down.
He said that βthere is nothing better than going on the road and kicking somebodyβs ass.β Game on, right?
At its highest level, college basketball is more about surviving imposing road challenges than it is about entertaining hometown fans with 95-64 laugh fests.
As for the once-unbeaten and shocked Wyoming Cowboys, theyβll get their day at the beach Dec. 22, when they play Stanford in Honoluluβs Diamond Head Classic. It may take the Cowboys that long to get over Wednesdayβs thunder-and-lightning treatment at McKale Center.