In his second season, Sean Miller's motto for the Arizona Wildcats is "attack."
If the spirit of the word is sometimes taken, well, internally, that's part of the deal when a team holds preseason practices as heated as the Wildcats have for a week.
At least that's the way Solomon Hill and Brendon Lavender described a recent flare-up involving center Kyryl Natyazhko.
"People get frustrated in practice," Hill said. "We have a lot of segments where we go after each other. Once you've done a couple of sprints after a drill, you get kind of mad and I've probably said a couple things in practice and everybody's said a couple of things in practice. I mean, that's probably normal.
"Some people crack and some people take it easy. It was one of these drills where Kyryl couldn't have it his way and he just said a couple of things. … We talked to him about it and moved on. It was nothing big."
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In fact, Lavender found it a good thing.
"Of course we're going to get after each other," Lavender said. "I think the best teams are the teams that have players who want to fight in practice. It just shows how competitive you are. We have that almost every day."
Besides, Lavender indicated, the in-practice tension does not translate off the floor. Hill and Lavender, who addressed the media Friday in advance of Sunday's Red-Blue scrimmage (Miller was unavailable), said the Wildcats have a stronger camaraderie this year than they did at this point last year, partly because of personalities and partly because they are familiar with Miller's system.
"Our chemistry is really starting to build," Lavender said. "A lot of guys had egos last year and we weren't trying to pick each other up, but this year it seems like we're coming all together finally. It comes from having a stable coaching staff."
The main difference fans will see Sunday compared to last year, Hill said, is a team that's more together, "a little more talkative on the court."
In addition, the year under Miller also means the Wildcats should be able to field a presentable offense Sunday despite having spent most of the early practices working on defense.
"We have sets," Hill said. "We do so many things we did last year. But the sets won't be as crisp because of the new guys, who will be relied on heavily in the Red-Blue Game.
"It'll be some things we learned last year and some things we put in this year."
Rim shots
• Arizona is scheduled to host 2011 forward Sidiki Johnson for an official recruiting visit this weekend, even though Johnson committed to the Wildcats before his junior season began over a year ago.
• The UA handed out tickets in person to selected season ticket holders in Tucson on Wednesday.
• Tickets for Sunday's 1 p.m. scrimmage are $6 (advance) and $10 (door) for adults and $3 (advance) and $5 (door) for youth. The Red-Blue Game will be shown only at arizonawildcats.com.
Up next
• What: Red-Blue Game
• When: 1 p.m. Sunday
• TV: Webcast only
cats clean the slate: No more ncaa streak
The Arizona Wildcats officially have erased all traces of their 25-year NCAA tournament streak, as well as Jamelle Horne's freshman season statistics.
The Wildcats 2010-11 media guide, released this week, scrubbed out records from 2007-08 because of NCAA sanctions levied in July for violations during the end of the Lute Olson era.
Horne's individual 2007-08 statistics carry an asterisk because he and former UA player Zane Johnson were ruled ineligible that season after receiving benefits during a summer recruiting tournament held at McKale Center. Johnson now plays for Hawaii.
It is the first public acknowledgment that Horne was one of the ineligible players. Before, UA had considered it a privacy issue and would not reveal the players when the sanctions were announced.
In its 2010-11 media guide, slimmed dramatically to 100 black-and-white pages because NCAA rules no longer allow media guides to be sent to recruits, Arizona makes no mention of its tournament streak because the NCAA vacated its appearances in 1999 and 2008 because of NCAA sanctions. The 1999 penalty was due to benefits then-Wildcat Jason Terry received from an agent.
Instead, Arizona has small charts mentioning NCAA tournament games played and NCAA games won between 1985 and 2010. UA is tied for fifth in games (63) and is seventh in wins (41) during that time.
In appearances, UA is tied for third during that time with North Carolina, having 23 non-vacated appearances, while Duke and Kansas lead the country with 25.
Arizona also formally lists the 2007-08 team as having an 0-14 record; its on-court record was 19-15 but it vacated all 19 wins and its NCAA tournament loss to West Virginia because it used the ineligible players. Arizona also adjusted the all-time and McKale Center winning percentages to reflect the vacated games.
Bruce Pascoe
