Home away from home
Of course Nick Johnson would feel comfortable at Viejas Arena on Friday.
He does consider it home, sweet, home, even if Arizona is just one of the temporary inhabitants in San Diego State’s primary base.
Considering his performances in the building this year, though, it makes sense.
Johnson scored 18 points on 6-of-12 shooting Friday in Arizona’s 68-59 win over Weber State, a little more than four months after his brilliant game in Viejas.
The Pac-12 Player of the Year had 23 points and four rebounds in the UA’s 69-60 win over eventual No. 4 seed San Diego State on Nov. 14.
“It’s kinda like a home game,” Johnson said. “We played here, we had a good game here, shot the ball well, came out with a win at SDSU. … We definitely feel at home here.”
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Wildcats shushed
Arizona fans turned the MGM Grand Garden Arena into McKale Center last week for the Pac-12 tournament, but the Wildcats faithful were much more demure on Friday at Viejas Arena.
Scant “U of A” chants broke out in the balanced crowd, though Arizona heard some support late in the first half, particularly on a beautiful Gabe York to Rondae Hollis-Jefferson slam dunk with 6 minutes 39 seconds left.
Advanced scouting
Weber State’s open locker room gave the press a glimpse of what the Wildcats had in store for the Wildcats.
On a white board, Arizona’s main rotation players were each assigned their strengths. Among them…
T.J. McConnell: “Playmaker.”
Gabe York: “Shooter (No 3s!).”
Nick Johnson: “Scorer!”
Aaron Gordon: “Scorer/rebounder.”
Wildcats for Wildcats
Weber State players seemed not to be too offended by Arizona in the loss, and now they’ll root for the Wildcats to win the whole thing.
“Yeah we have to root for them,” said center Kyle Tresnak, who already was a fan of Arizona because of family members who are alumni. “If they win the national championship, we can say we lost to the champs. That’s not that bad. ”
McConnell humbled
Arizona guard McConnell was honest about his mediocre, scoreless performance .
McConnell went 0 for 4 from the field and had four rebounds and four assists in the game as he was stuck in neutral against Weber State’s Jeremy Sanglin.
“When you get into the tournament you’re not playing against any bad teams,” McConnell said. “For my first NCAA game, I learned that today. The hard way. I wasn’t myself out there. That won’t happen again.”
Mascot watch
Wilbur Wildcat, you’ve got competition.
The mascots were in full force on Friday, and a few got pretty good receptions from the crowd.
The best? Weber State’s Wildcat, who thrilled the crowd with impressive leaps and gymnastics moves.
Less impressive: Stephen F. Austin’s mascot, basically, a guy with a beard and a mullet in a flannel shirt. No costume — unless you count the flannel.
Big Number
25 percent
As a team, Arizona held Weber State to just 30.2 percent shooting. They did even better on Weber State’s best player.
Arizona held Big Sky Conference Player of the Year Davion Berry to 24 points, but it took 5-of-20 shooting to get there, though Berry did hit 10 of 10 free throws.
Tweet of the night
“I think I just got the Sean Miller death stare. Must not have ... I didn’t burst into flames.” – ESPN 1490’s Zach Clark (@ZachEClark)
Jon Gold
