The Arizona Wildcats beat them by 13 points on Dec. 20 at the Footprint Center, dropping Alabama to 6-5. The Tide didn’t receive a single vote in the Associated Press poll the following week while Arizona, where Byrne served as athletic director from 2010-17, maintained its Top 5 ranking even as the Wildcats lost to FAU just three days later.
But this week, Byrne was strolling the hallways of State Farm Stadium with a men’s basketball team that had reached its first Final Four in school history.
The way he explained it, Alabama’s two visits to Phoenix may be related. That is, the loss to Arizona, as well as nonconference losses to Purdue, Creighton and Clemson may have played a role in the Tide’s Final Four run.
“I’m surprised we don’t have the Boston Celtics on the schedule, because we will play just about anybody,” Byrne said. “I think those games helped prepare us for where we are right now. When you look at the NET and different measurements …. it’s also nonconference strength of schedule and overall strength of schedule. And we obviously represented very well there.”
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Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne cheers on the Crimson Tide during the first half of matchup between Alabama and Tennessee on March 2, 2024, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Next season, Alabama will continue its rugged nonconference scheduling by facing Arizona in Birmingham, the second half of the “semi-neutral” home and home series that started this season in Phoenix.
While Bryne said he and former UA coach Sean Miller arranged a home-and-home series in 2017-18 and 2018-19 — each team won on its home court — it was Oats and current UA coach Tommy Lloyd who put together the current arrangement.
“Our students will be gone but we’ll have a great crowd in Birmingham,” Byrne said.
For the Wildcats, next season’s game in Alabama could be the kind of test to help them at unfamiliar Big 12 sites ahead and maybe even the NCAA Tournament next season.
Addition by subtraction
There was also a specific benefit the Tide may have gotten out of that Dec. 20 loss to Arizona. Alabama forward Grant Nelson said the Wildcats basically told them to scrap a pressure defense scheme.
“We had a thing where if we took a shot, everyone would crash the glass, and then we kind of press up after that,” Nelson said. “But Arizona did a great job of finding a way to get out in transition on that. The main goal was to get offensive rebounds while staying back and not letting teams get out in transition.
Alabama forward Grant Nelson (2), top, and guard Mark Sears (1) throw up the defense over Arizona guard Jaden Bradley (0) in the second half of the Crimson Tide’s Dec. 20 loss to the Wildcats in Phoenix.
“We kind of stopped going to that after that game because if they found it out, we knew other teams would try to do the same thing.”
Nelson said the overwhelmingly pro-Arizona crowd at Phoenix’s Footpriint Center also helped toughen the Tide up for SEC play.
“It was a tough environment to play in,” Nelson said. “Their fans are great here in Arizona. It kind of prepared us for what we’re going into the season because I feel like that was that was one of the best away environments we played in all year.”
Emph-F-sis
Much like Arizona fans have increasingly embraced the “BTFD” slogan (“Bear The F — Down” as a play on the UA’s traditional mantra), Purdue fans have their own, um, more emphatic of an established Boilermaker chant.
That’s why one Purdue fan strolled around State Farm Stadium with a black shirt featuring gold lettering that read “BTFU.” He explained that it stood for, not surprisingly, “Boiler The F — Up.”
Purdue fans look on prior to their Boilermakers taking the court against North Carolina State on Saturday at State Farm Stadium in Glendale to kick open the 2024 Final Four.
Gear games
Purdue fans appeared to slightly outnumber those wearing red N.C. State gear outside of State Farm Stadium as the atmosphere heated up early Saturday afternoon, but all sorts of teams and slogans were represented.
Among them: Washington, Washington State, Ohio State, New Mexico, North Dakota State, UCLA, Wabash College, the Indianapolis Colts and others, while two guys also wore full uniforms of the “Flint Tropics” (the fictional basketball team in the 2008 Will Ferrell comedy).
Then there was the guy accompanying a group of Purdue fans wearing a black shirt with gold lettering reading “I Married Into This.”
3x3 showcase
USA Basketball’s 3x3 men’s team stopped by State Farm Stadium to put on a modified exhibition during halftime of the UConn-Alabama game Saturday evening.
The team, which has qualified for the Paris Olympics, comprises only four players, three of whom are on the floor at any one time: Jimmer Fredette, Canyon Barry, Kareem Maddox and Dylan Travis.
A star at BYU who briefly played for the Suns, Fredette made himself known at Arizona during the 2009-10 season: He set what still is the McKale Center scoring record by dropping 49 points on the Wildcats in the Cougars’ 99-69 win during then-UA coach Sean Miller’s first season with the Wildcats.
Across town, USA Basketball is also hosting a Junior Team minicamp that features top players from the high school classes of 2025, 2026 and 2027 — including some that may wind up playing for UA’s Lloyd in U18 competition this summer.
Hall of FamersRepresenting the Pac
Group effort
Instead of hiring a professional singer to perform the national anthem, the NCAA instead brought out its own for the first semifinal game Saturday.
A student singer from each of the four schools, including a cheerleader from Purdue, belted out the anthem with backup help from four ASU students, since ASU is the host of the Final Four this season.
The big number
73,000: Seats (approximately) available in State Farm Stadium for its Final Four basketball configuration, with nearly all of them full for Saturday’s first game.
Contact sports reporter Bruce Pascoe at bpascoe@tucson.com. On X(Twitter): @brucepascoe
Bruce Pascoe
Reporter
