BOULDER, Colo. – A high temperature of 19 degrees meant a foot of new snow wasn’t going anywhere, so the Arizona Wildcats’ team bus slipped as it tried to approach the Coors Events Center late Thursday afternoon.
Then, before the No. 7 Wildcats went inside to destroy Colorado 82-54, the bus managed to park safely. Kaleb Tarczewski got off and soaked it all up.
The New Hampshire boy was at home, sort of, on his 22nd birthday no less.
“It was great,” he said. “I love the snow. I’ve gotten used to the warm weather but it was great to see the snow.”
The thing was, while Tarczewski had 14 points, he wasn’t the only one playing happy Thursday. Virtually everyone in a UA uniform was, no matter where they hailed from.
Arizona had five players in double figures, including SoCal’s Gabe York, who was bundled up in a parka and Arizona Wildcats ski hat after the game.
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“I’m from Cali and I don’t like this,” York said of the weather. “I’m ready to get out of here.”
On the court, York was hardly uncomfortable. He had 11 points with 3-for-3 three-point shooting in the first half Thursday, when Arizona moved quickly ahead and stayed there, then added another three for good measure in the second. York finished with 14 points.
“Coach (Sean Miller) got me the first shot to get me going and the defense was giving me these open looks and I just knocked them down,” York said. “Right now I just have the utmost confidence. The basket just looks like a sea to me right now.”
York said Miller drew up a play to get his first shot, since York was coming off a 3-for-5 three-point shooting effort against UCLA last Saturday at McKale Center. But those threes came when the Wildcats desperately needed them; there was no such worry on Thursday.
In the first half, the Wildcats jumped out to an 11-4 lead and took a 37-25 halftime lead. The second half was more of the same: The Wildcats kept steadily ahead of Colorado in the second half and took their biggest lead at the end of the game.
The only real adversity arose when Rondae Hollis-Jefferson appeared to suffer a cut lip in the first half and a blow to the back of his head in the second half, but he returned from both incidents to finish with 11 points and eight rebounds. Miller said afterward that Hollis-Jefferson was fine.
Overall, no worries whatsoever for UA.
The ball was moving, guys were getting touches, and the offense was so effective that T.J. McConnell could actually be a point guard instead of being forced into carrying the team with offense. McConnell only took six shots, making half of them, and had six assists to his two turnovers.
“I told the team after the game that this is one of those games where you really have a great feeling about being their coach, about us all on the same team,” Miller said. “The reason why I say it is I really felt about four days ago the practices and the attitude of our team collectively has never been better and our preparation leading into this game was what you’d want especially this late in the year.
“You only hope it’s backed up by a good performance and it was tonight. It’s one of those total team victories late in the year and it’s not an easy place to come in and play.”
While the win moved Arizona to 25-3 overall and 13-2 in the Pac-12, with the chance to clinch a share of the Pac-12 title if it beats Utah on Saturday in Salt Lake City, Colorado dropped to 12-15 and 5-10.
That meant Buffs coach Tad Boyle was feeling pretty much the opposite of Miller. Boyle was called for a technical foul late in the game and vented throughout his postgame press conference.
“It’s extremely frustrating,” he said. “We’re not doing the things we’re supposed to do, we’re not making plays and we haven’t gotten any better.”
Colorado shot just 38.5 percent from the field, made only 2 of 9 three-pointers, and was out-rebounded 38-25 overall. Arizona, meanwhile, shot a blistering 52.9 percent from the field and made half of its three-pointers.
It was a quick turnaround offensively to the sour offensive performance that the Wildcats put up in their last game, shooting just 34 percent from the field and suffering from a lack of ball movement in a 57-47 win over UCLA.
Lessons from that loss may have sunk in quickly.
“Our UCLA game was unique,” Miller said. “But we didn’t talk a lot about it. We moved on from it. And sometimes through the course of a long season you have those games where it doesn’t happen for you on offense. But all that was left behind and we came into tonight’s game confident and ready to play.”
