OAKLAND, Calif. – The Arizona Wildcats were undefeated at this time a year ago, and now they have two losses and some recent concerns on both sides of the ball.
But they can still get to the same place, the way Derrick Williams sees it.
The former UA star said before Friday night’s Kings-Warriors game that this season’s Wildcats just need to be patient.
“I think the difference between this year’s team and last year’s team is they had a few veterans who had been in big games before and I think this season they have some young guys on the team,” Williams said. “Some of their best players are young guys who are freshmen. They just gotta keep playing, trust coach Miller and he’s gonna lead them in the right direction.
“He’s a great coach and they have great players -- good freshmen, good seniors. It’s a good group of guys. At the end of the day, I think they’ll be all right going into tournament.”
People are also reading…
Later Friday, Williams and his Kings had to deal with the Warriors buzz saw and a certain former WSU shooter who turned into a video game.
So Steve Kerr wasn't about to over-coach Klay Thompson as he collected 37 points in the third quarter.
"We had two plays," Kerr said afterward. " 'Get the ball to Klay' and 'Klay, get the ball.' "
The way Kerr described it, he wasn't the only one creating one-liners off Thompson's crazy performance.
Kerr said assistant coach Jarron Collins "turned to me and said, `We've gotta have more balance in our offense,' " and that when Thompson appeared to be tiring he asked if he should take Thompson out -- to the quick objection of guard Leandro Barbosa.
"He said, `No, man!' " Kerr said.
Even Thompson played along. Asked if he'd ever put on a show like that, Thompson said:
"Uh, maybe in elementary school," he said. "Fourth grade. I was playing down. There were some third graders, too."
Kerr, who now lives in Berkeley, says he will attend tonight's UA-Cal game, while Lute Olson and wife Kelly have also made the trip for the UA-Stanford, Warriors-Kings and UA-Cal games.
Some other items related to tonight’s UA game (8:30 p.m. MST, Pac-12 Networks with Ted Robinson and Don MacLean):
-- Sean Miller is worried that the embarrassed Bears might rally tonight after their big loss to ASU.
-- We also had a scouting report and a look at what Cuonzo Martin is going through.
-- Cal's offense is in the tank.
--The Bears haven't been 1-6 in the conference since 1991-92, but they will be if they lose tonight.
-- Here's the box score of Cal's debacle against ASU.
Draft Express did a video matchup analysis of Stanley Johnson and Anthony Brown from Thursday's UA-Stanford game.
Maybe it's just not Colorado's year.
Bo Barnes has been making a difference for the Sun Devils.
Jakob Poeltl is back for Utah.
Other Pac-12 games today:
UCLA at Oregon, 2 p.m., CBS
USC at OSU, 4 p.m., Pac-12 Networks
WSU at Colorado, 7 p.m., Pac-12 Networks
ASU at Stanford, 10 p.m., ESPNU
