Like many former UA basketball players, Dylan Rigdon bleeds his school colors.
Living in Wildcat alum-heavy Southern California, hardly a day goes by that Rigdon does not come across another UA graduate, either in a social setting or through his successful real estate mortgage business.
But no amount of pride would ever prompt Rigdon to wear the ring he earned as part of the UA's 1994 Final Four squad.
"My family would make so much fun of me if I wore it around," Rigdon, 34, said in a phone interview from his office in Laguna Beach, Calif. "I have it put away, and maybe someday I'll show it to my kids or my grandkids, but I'd take a lot of heat from my family and friends if I took it out. It's so big; it's not really my style."
There was very little that could have been considered big and boastful about Rigdon's game during his two seasons as a Wildcat.
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After sitting out a year following his transfer from UC-Irvine, Rigdon was never more than a role player for the UA, although his hard-working attitude and willingness to dive all over the court was just the kind of help the 1993-94 team needed to go so deep in the NCAA tournament.
"My senior year, we really came together as a team," said Rigdon, the UA's career leader in free-throw percentage (.872).
He made 89.1 percent of his foul shots as a senior.
"We had a great backcourt in Damon (Stoudamire) and Khalid (Reeves), and a real emotional leader in Kevin Flanagan," he said. "I was just a contributor off the bench, but it was the greatest years of my life."
Rigdon was not on the UA's radar when he finished high school, but the 6-foot-3-inch, 180-pound guard was not too interested in going too far from his Laguna Beach roots.
After two solid seasons at UC-Irvine, including several strong performances in games against Pac-10 schools, Rigdon decided, "I wanted to move up into a bigger program."
That is when Rigdon's ties to the UA's talent pipeline kicked in.
Rigdon, a 1989 graduate of Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, Calif., took advantage of a strong relationship between his school's coach and Jessie Evans, then a UA assistant.
After his release from UC-Irvine, Rigdon expressed interest in playing for the UA, prompting coach Lute Olson to make a trip to California.
"It all just came together," Rigdon said. "Coach Olson came down to UC-Irvine where we were playing some pickup games, and there were a bunch of guys there playing, and he offered me a scholarship the next day."
PROFILE
l Name: Dylan Rigdon
l Age: 34
l Family: Wife Molly; daughter Liliana, 3; son Eamon, 1.
l Business: Owns real estate mortgage company, Platinum Equity Corporation/ Genisys Financial Corporation, based in Laguna Beach, Calif.
l UA career: Played two seasons at the UA from 1992 to 1994, serving as a reserve guard. He transferred from UC-Irvine. Rigdon still holds the school record for career free-throw percentage at .872, and his .891 rate as a senior in 1993-94 is the fourth-best single-season mark in UA history.
l He said it: "(The UA program) is just a class act. Those are some of the funnest times of my life. I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world."
