LOS ANGELES – Stanley Johnson said he was certain this could all happen again, and with better results for the Arizona Wildcats.
“We’re gonna be back one day and be in the Elite Eight eight very soon once again,” Johnson said after Wisconsin beat UA 85-78. “Very, very soon.”
But … with him?
Almost certainly not. Johnson has been widely expected to leave for the NBA draft and Arizona has been recruiting and planning as if a whole bunch of guys are going to go with him. You may even note below that Miller said "we're going to miss them" in reference to both senior T.J. McConnell and Hollis-Jefferson, a sophomore.
But none of the guys expected to leave, naturally, offered much about their plans for the future, their second-straight Elite Eight loss to Wisconsin still just sinking into their gut.
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“Right now, I don’t know,” Johnson said. “It’s not really about future decisions. I’m a student. I attend school and I plan to graduate here. So I’ll just keep going to class.”
Ashley said he was “not worried about that right now,” and declined to say what kind of timetable he might have. Hollis-Jefferson wasn’t in much of a mood to discuss it either.
“Right now, I’m just still trying to get over this,” Hollis-Jefferson said, “and in due time, I’ll talk to my family and the coaching staff.”
(An aside here: we know it's obvious nobody wants to talk about leaving early right after a loss like that but also know UA players are generally kept off limits once it becomes the offseason, so we probably won't have a chance to ask them later).
Whatever he does, Johnson reflected briefly on his freshman season with positive words.
He wound up Arizona’s leading scorer with an average of 13.8 points a game and was second in rebounding at 6.5. Johnson also led the Wildcats with 178 free throws taken over 38 games, and he hit them at a 74.2 percent rate.
“I’ve been around people who are disciplined and made me a better person and a better man,” Johnson said. But “it was tough a year ago to watch (the Elite Eight) and losing to the same team this year while being a part of it.”
Johnson disagreed with the notion that he had to compromise his game to fit into the UA system.
“I was the same player I was in high school,” Johnson said. “I had the same freedom. I’m playing with better players. The excuse of not being involved or being comfortable is not apparent.”
There was nobody visibly sadder in the UA locker room than McConnell, who sat red-eyed at his locker stall a full 30 minutes after the game and typically kept answering questions even though it would be hard to blame him if he didn’t. (Gotta think he wins this year's dealing-with-media award BTW).
Somebody asked McConnell about the Wildcat fans and he choked up.
“I’ll always remember them and I’m gonna miss them,” McConnell said. “They’re the best fans in the country and I’m gonna miss them more than anything and I love them.”
“The fans make it so fun, the teammates, and the coaching staff. Went to battle with them every day. I’m going to miss playing with them.”
At the same time, McConnell was able to reflect somewhat on what was actually UA’s most successful season by winning percentage (89.5) since 1987-88.
“We went to Maui and won. Went to Vegas and won three games in three days” in the Pac-12 Tournament, McConnell said. “Won back-to-back regular-season (Pac-12) championships. And we made an Elite Eight for the second year in a row. Our guys need to be proud of what we did, and we’ve just got to keep our heads up.”
McConnell and Hollis-Jefferson were named to the all-Region team, while Josh Gasser, Frank Kaminsky and Sam Dekker of Wisconsin joined them. Not surprisingly, Dekker was also named Most Outstanding Player.
When asked about how McConnell felt a burden in not getting Sean Miller to the Final Four, Miller turned it around.
Miller felt a burden not getting them to the Final Four, too.
"T.J. McConnell and Rondae, the two guys that were up here (for interviews), they're the greatest kids that I've ever coached,” Miller said. “They've done everything that we've asked. They play so hard every day that what they do becomes contagious, and it goes throughout the locker room. In my estimation, the greatest compliment that you can give these guys when they leave is that you're trying to find those that are like them to bring more in. Those two guys are unbelievable winners. We're going to miss them. We really are. ...
“As much as this hurts, it's so important for us and for me to give them that feeling that what we did over the last six months was the right stuff, and how they went about it was something that we're all really proud of, and I'm proud of them.”
Our full coverage of the game is being posted to our Wildcats basketball page as the night goes on.
The final boxscore and UA’s final statistics are attached as PDF files.
