ANAHEIM, Calif. --- As Sean Miller and Jamelle Horne walked to the locker room at halftime Thursday, they had the kind of talk they probably have several times before.
Only this time the stakes were higher than ever.
“He just said, `Are you gonna play or are you not going to play?’ “ Horne said.
“I said, `Yes, coach, I will.” He said, `You’ll have to show me’ and I did.”
Horne was one of several Wildcats not named Derrick Williams who rose up in the second half, Williams already having done his part with 25 first-half points.
Horne had seven points and three rebounds in the second half, making a three-pointer with 14:35 to go in the middle of UA’s 19-2 run, expanding the Wildcats’ lead from two to five. Horne also hit a pair of free throws and had an emphatic dunk with seven minutes left that put UA ahead 77-63.
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“That’s the beauty of our team,” Williams said. “I can go for 20 and 10 or 15 and 8, and there’s going to be other people who step up and contribute. We just hit big shots at the right moments. Jamelle when he hit that three, was probably one of the biggest plays we had all season.”
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The victory was probably no sweeter for any UA player than it was for Horne, who signed for Lute Olson and wound up playing for three other coaches as a Wildcat – and had an up-and-down career that drew its share of criticism.
But now he’s gone further in the NCAA tournament than any other Wildcat player has since 2005.
“I think anybody as a senior can only thank God to have a senior season as I have,” Horne said. “I’m definitely blessed. I have a great team, a great coach who changed the way Arizona’s been over the last few years. I just been taking everything in, to be honest with you. It was a great win for us.”
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The last score on the Wildcats’ 19-2 run came when Brendon Lavender stole the ball and raced downcourt for a layup with 12:06 remaining.
At that point, it was becoming clear that Arizona was actually running away from the defending national champions, though not necessarily to those in the moment.
“I was so into game, that I didn’t know,” Lavender said. “I knew we were going on a run but I wanted to do my part. I was tired, but also pretty relieved I got that steal.”
Later, as the second half wore on and Duke continued to trail by up to 19 points, it finally hit Lavender what was going on.
“Everyone in the gym was like ‘Man, U of A came to play,’ and we were almost up by 20 at one point,” Lavender said. “I hope a lot of the nation is happy for us because Duke is one of those teams that only Duke fans love.”
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Wins by Arizona and Connecticut meant assistant coach Book Richardson had reason to be proud.
As coach of the New York Gauchos traveling team, Richardson worked with not only MoMo Jones and Kevin Parrom but also Kemba Walker, the tireless UConn guard who had 36 points against San Diego State.
“I had Kemba since he was 14, had MoMo since he was 10 and Kevin since he was 10,” Richardson said. “So that’s one thing I feel, selfishly, is that I’ve done a good job as their mentor.”
Jones said he would always have “love” for Walker, except for two hours on Saturday.
“That’s like my brother,” Jones said. “When you’re on the court, you’re enemies. I got to go with my teammates. He’s got to go with his teammates. That’s basically the bottom line.”
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In his podium interview, Miller spoke of continuing to build the Arizona “brand” that Lute Olson developed.
“In an NBA game, many times you have a player on both teams playing who’s from Arizona,” Miller said. “In some cases, maybe it’s to restore it, rebuild it a little, to change things with a little bit of a different personality but when you go to McKale Center there are 14,500 people, and there is not a better homecourt in the country.
"The love of the game started in Tucson a long time ago and we’re taking advantage of that. And that’s one of the reasons that young people like these three (MoMo Jones, Solomon Hill and Derrick Williams) decided to come to Arizona when we had a new staff.”
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Lots of coverage on our Wildcats page.
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After Thursday's game, Scott Wolf wondered why, exactly, Mike Garrett allowed USC's 2009 recruiting class to be nuked.
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Moe Hicks wonders what he might have had at Rice High if Jones and Walker had played together there.
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A University of Wyoming plane flew to Oregon for the apparent purpose of interviewing Mike Dunlap.
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Bud Withers says Ken Bone's message isn't getting through (the haze) at Washington State.
