They say the first cut is the deepest.
OK, so you ask Oregon what cuts two-through-87 feel like.
Arizona sliced and diced its way through the Ducks on Wednesday night at McKale Center in a 90-56 win.
Forget Duck confit, this was Duck confetti. By the time it was over, there were green and neon yellow shards strewn all over the floor.
The Wildcats found all the right spots on the floor against an Oregon team that ranks 11th out of 12 Pac-12 teams in opposing points per game.
Arizona used the back door like a fence for stolen goods, and given the Ducks’ poor passing in return, there were a lot of stolen goods.
“When we take care of the ball and we move the ball, a lot of good things follow,” UA coach Sean Miller said.
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“We have balance; not one or two guys on the court who can score, but really four or five. So as the ball moves, and we move, a lot of success follows.”
After watching the Wildcats dazzle Oregon for a half and twirl the Ducks into a tailspin, it is no wonder the stat sheet was so friendly to the home team.
Arizona shot a sparkling 60 percent in the first half as all nine Wildcats who appeared had at least a field goal.
They assisted on six of its first nine field goals and eight overall in the half, and they outscored Oregon in the paint, 24-8, in the first half, and 42-18 in the game.
They must have; the Wildcats got so deep into the Ducks’ interior that it’d take stain remover to get them out.
“Going into the game we really thought that could be a weak point of their defense,” Kaleb Tarczewski said.
“Everyone did a great job passing into the post. We really tried to focus on that.”
If there was a way to get McConnell and the offense out of rhythm, Oregon didn’t find it.
McConnell was both the benefactor from and disher of the near-perfect passing, finishing the half with 10 points on 5-of-5 shooting and three assists with no turnovers.
His biggest assist may have been in the form of pure adrenaline for a sleepy McKale Center crowd that watched Arizona take a double-digit lead just 10-plus minutes into the game and remain in control for the duration.
With 1 minute 47 seconds left in the first half, McConnell lofted an ideal alley-oop to Tarczewski to put the Wildcats up 11; a minute later, he darted through the Duck defense for a brilliant scoop layup.
“We’ve emphasized that, and we did not do very well at that against Cal,” said Miller, whose team capped off its first sweep of Oregon since 2010-11.
“We had better ball movement, player movement. The first 12 minutes of the Cal game, we were very stationary. It was self-inflicted as much as Cal was playing hard. We didn’t test their defense, didn’t screen them, didn’t move.
“We were more in place and we had more flow to what we were doing tonight.”
Not that there weren’t a few wild moments for the Wildcats.
There may have been some fancy passing, but it was not without fault.
Arizona committed turnovers on its first possession of both the first and second halves, and the Cats had 10 giveaways on the game, including multiple gaffes by every Arizona starter other than McConnell.
Ultimately, though, the Wildcats passed yet another test with flying colors, light green and neon yellow, specifically.
“When we’re all aggressive it only helps us,” McConnell said.
“When we play tentatively, like we did at Oregon State, they made us pay for it. When we’re all aggressive on offense and defense, it shows.”
