Arizona basketball seen and heard: UA fans turn Suns' arena into another 'McKale North'

While the Wildcats' move to the Big 12 next season means they will head to Kansas City for men's basketball conference tournament games — that's instead of enjoying a semi-home court environment at Las Vegas' T-Mobile Arena — the Footprint Center in Downtown Phoenix made its case Wednesday as the Wildcats’ new home away from home.

Despite Arizona's game having a 9 p.m. start during the week before Christmas, Wildcat fans brought the Suns’ homecourt to life in the final game of Wednesday's quadrupleheader, dubbed "Jerry Colangelo's Hall of Fame Series."

Only about 4,000 fans took in the early evening game between ASU and Northwestern, while the UA women’s game against Gonzaga attracted 1,875 fans earlier Wednesday. But Arizona followers began taking over Footprint well before the No. 4 Wildcats tipped off after 9 p.m. against Alabama in what would turn out to be a 97-74 UA win over the Crimson Tide.

In fact, the atmosphere for the uncompetitive ASU-Northwestern game was so quiet that with Northwestern leading 44-25 with 13 minutes to go in the second half a “U of A” chant broke out. And as Northwestern dribbled out the ball in the final seconds that cheer became even louder.

Alabama’s 9-0 start kept UA fans mostly quiet during the early moments of the nightcap but they were in full force before long, emitting a deafening level of boos after UA coach Tommy Lloyd picked up his first-ever technical foul as UA’s coach in the first half.

Arizona fans often stood, especially in the second half when the Wildcats used a 10-0 run to pull out of a tie game.

"This was a home game for us," UA center Oumar Ballo said. "Wherever we play, Arizona fans show up. Today, they showed up and and helped us a lot. Seeing them like on their feet cheering for us. It means a lot for us and for the program, so we are nothing but grateful for them for coming out tonight to support us."

In-state showcase 

Before the game, UA coach Tommy Lloyd enthusiastically supported the idea of putting both UA and ASU’s men’s and women’s team on the Suns’ court on the same day.

“I think it's really cool that we're coming together for the state of Arizona for high level division one basketball, all four teams playing in the Phoenix Suns Arena on the same day,” Lloyd said. “I I hope other people are in the state of Arizona think it's a big deal and are coming out to support all their teams. If you're a basketball junkie and you love men's and women's basketball, you get to come out and watch four games … from your power five teams in your state.”

For the Arizona-Alabama game, there were about 15,000 fans in the stands, with the lower level full and the upper half about half full in the 18,000-plus-seat venue.

Familiar faces

Arizona commit Emmanuel Stephen of Glendale Dream City took in Wednesday’s late game from a midcourt section that also included UA target Koa Peat of Glendale Perry High School. Dream City coach Kyle Weaver sat in a corner floor section, too.

Among the other notables at Wednesday’s game, of course, was Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne, the former Arizona AD who left in 2017 for Tuscaloosa; Byrne is also an ASU grad (1994).

Bedeviled

Not surprisingly, ASU coach Bobby Hurley and guard Frankie Collins didn’t appear for interviews until about a half-hour passed after the first evening game Wednesday.

It was that rough for the Sun Devils. Northwestern went on an early 16-2 run en route to a 36-13 halftime lead, while ASU shot just 19.2% before halftime. For the game, ASU shot 31.4% but was never competitive, losing 65-43.

“Really inefficient offense,” Hurley said. “Northwestern is physical, tough, very disciplined and has great guard play. But we were terrible in the first half, essentially.”

Dukies

Wednesday’s early evening game between ASU and Northwestern made for a reunion of two Duke teammates who both played under former Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski.

Both Hurley and Northwestern coach Chris Collins played for Duke in the 1990s, spending one season together in 1992-93, when Hurley was a senior and Collins was a freshman.

That season, Hurley led Duke in scoring (17.2) and assists (8.2) while Collins averaged 5.8 points and 1.2 assists. They roomed together during road games, with Hurley telling ESPN jokingly that Collins was a “cocky” freshman while Collins said Hurley became a mentor.

Both are sons of well-regarded basketball figures: Hurley is the son of Hall of Fame high school coach Bob Hurley while Collins’ father, Doug, is a former NBA player and coach who became a prominent basketball analyst.

Bobby Hurley began his head coaching career at Buffalo in 2013-14 and also spent 2014-15 there before joining ASU for the 2015-16 season. Collins joined the Duke coaching staff in 2000-01, was promoted to associate head coach in 2008 and took over the head coaching job at Northwestern in 2013-14. Collins has led Northwestern to its only two NCAA Tournament berths, in 2017 and last season.

Parallel Cats

Arizona hasn’t faced Northwestern in more than a half-century but the two sets of Cats have had a recent habit of crossing each other’s paths.

Before Northwestern faced ASU in Wednesday’s first game at Footprint Center, the Chicago-area Wildcats played in the same Sacramento first-weekend NCAA Tourament site that Arizona did last season.

While Arizona lost in the first round to Princeton — whose top players included Ryan Langborg, now a Northwestern guard — Northwestern beat Boise State in the first round before losing 68-63 to UCLA in the second round.

In 2017, Northwestern made its first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance in Salt Lake City, where Arizona beat North Dakota and Saint Mary’s to reach the Sweet 16. Northwestern squeaked by Vanderbilt 68-66 and lost 79-73 to top-seeded Gonzaga in the second round.

Sparky has hops

Mixing a little Phoenix Suns culture into the Colangelo games Wednesday, the Suns Gorilla and other Suns acrobats took turns with ASU’s Sparky mascot in throwing down dunks off a trampoline.

There were other elements of a Suns vibe during the games Wednesday. The game was played on the Suns “El Valle” floor while Suns courtside emcees ran timeout contests, and loud music blared often. There were also packed cornerside bars and the FanDuel sportsbook. The Dos Equis Grab & Go area, however, was closed.

School spirit

In one corner of the Footprint Center $35 T-shirts were for sale, representing each of the teams involved with the Colangelo games.

Some had slogans. Arizona went with a retro 1997 Final Four logoed shirt, while Alabama’s said “basketball is life; the rest is just details.”

The big number

45: Total fouls called, the most in any Arizona game this season (25 were called on Alabama and a season-high 20 on Arizona.

Quotable

"I think they're one of the best teams in the country on both sides of the ball. I mean, their physicality on defense — they've got rim protection in Ballo, (Keshad) Johnson is the best rebounder in the country for a kid 6-7 and under, so on the defensive side they're good," Alabama coach Nate Oats said of Arizona. "On the offensive side, they do a good job getting downhill and getting to the free throw line."