Arizona State spent a ton of money Thursday to have Michael Buffer do his βletβs get ready to rumble!β schtick before the Sun Devils turned Wells Fargo Arena into a furnace.
Spending even a dime was unnecessary. All someone had to do was say βGo!β because the Sun Devils and their fans had been itching for a fight for decades.
Forget that Arizona broke to a 28-11 lead. That was when the Sun Devils were jabbing and feinting, dipping and weaving. By the time ASU had fully measured Arizona, the Wildcats had thrown so many good punches that most teams wouldβve motioned to the referee and said βno mas, no mas.β
But there were still 25 minutes to play.
βWe battled,β said Sun Devil guard Kodi Justice.
It wasnβt long before the Sun Devils led 46-39.
For Arizona, it was the moment of truth unlike any before it this season.
The mood at Wells Fargo Arena was volcanic. It was as loud as any I remember in the Pac-12, going back to the days when Oregon State was No. 1 and nobody left Gill Coliseum without wondering why their heart was thumping so rapidly.
If you can hold and win a game like that, you are not just indefatigable, you are The Real Deal, in capital letters.
Arizona won 77-70 and it wasnβt until the final minute of the game that many in the crowd of 14,233 sat down for the first time.
βI feel like we emptied the tank,β said Sun Devil coach Bobby Hurley. βIt was an entertaining game to watch. It was a high-level game at times. It was a fun game to be a part of.β
Indeed, if there had been a tip jar near the press table, I wouldβve put in a few bucks. It was everything the UA-ASU series hasnβt been.
Arizona won because it took advantage of Deandre Ayton the way any team should take advantage of a player who comes your way every, what, 100 years?
βAfter competing against him twice, he may be the best big that Iβve seen in college, as a player and as a coach,β said Hurley. βIn terms of his future and his upside, heβs just scratching the surface. Itβs hard to imagine what heβll be.β
The timing of Aytonβs most significant game of the season couldnβt have been better. He scored 17 of his 25 points in the second half and got everybody but Sparky the Sun Devil in foul trouble. He had 14 rebounds in the second half.
Whenβs the last time anyone in the Pac-12 had a double-double in the second half? Lew Alcindor in 1968?
βThey had nine offensive rebounds in the second half and (Ayton) got most of them, honestly,β said Justice. βEvery shot they missed he seemed to put it back in.β
Aytonβs game-saving performance was impeccable and perhaps ironic.
Earlier in the day, ESPNβs NBA draft crew published a thorough breakdown of Aytonβs past, present and future. It wasnβt always polite. It left many wondering if Ayton was any better than, say, some guy who starts at center for USC Upstate.
According to the ESPN draft analysts, Ayton entered Arizona with the following traits:
βHe never boxes out.
βHe doesnβt always run back on defense.
βHe doesnβt always protect the rim the way you might hope.
βHis body language is awful at times.
βHe takes some awful shots.
βThe other team scored whenever they wanted when he was under the basket.
βNot sure how good his instincts are defensively.β
Other than that, heβs Hakeem βThe Dream,β right?
Hurley has seen it all in his playing days at Duke, his NBA career and now in his college coaching days. He was as impressed with Aytonβs durability as his killer numbers.
βHe doesnβt get that tired either,β said Hurley. βWe had him on the perimeter, running him around on ball screens. He holds his own away from the basket on defense. You canβt push him away.β
In a way, Ayton is βunreferrable,β if thatβs a word.
The Pac-12 officials have had to learn on the run with Ayton, often whistling two or three undeserving fouls on him per game. He always draws a crowd and, much like Shaquille OβNeal at LSU 25 years ago, referees look at him as a bully, not someone being triple-teamed.
But on Thursday, the Pac-12 assigned Final Four officials Randy McCall and Tony Padilla to the game, and they didnβt get sucked in and call the ticky-tack stuff on Ayton.
Instead, it was ASUβs inside gang that got into heavy foul trouble, allowing Ayton 12 free throws, a statistic that turned the game.
βWe were murdered at the free-throw line,β said Hurley, whose team was outscored 21-7. And that was fully unexpected; the Sun Devils entered the game ranked second in the nation in positive free-throw disparity.
βWeβve hung our hat all year on getting to the free-throw line better than our opponents,β he said. βItβs a huge, huge advantage.β
Until Thursday, Arizona was often connected to the most dreaded word in sports β underachieving.
But the way the Wildcats rallied to win in an environment that wouldβve buckled lesser teams, leads you to believe that at the best possible moment thereβs a better word to describe Sean Millerβs team β achievers.
