Hansen: Arizona hushes Russell, Ohio St. zone

PORTLAND, Ore.

Even in the days of the telegraph or the telegram, word of Ohio State’s D’Angelo Russell saying “nobody” had effectively guarded him this season, would’ve reached Arizona faster than Usain Bolt running 100 meters.

There’s speed of light, speed of Bolt, and then there’s a faster speed: When a college basketball player talks smack 24 hours before an NCAA tournament game against a team whose calling card is DEFENSE.

Arizona’s Rondae Hollis-Jefferson was a perfect gentleman Saturday when asked about “nobody.”

“There’s nothing wrong with being confident,” he said. “But we tend to put stops to those guys, those 20-point guys.”

D’Angelo Russell, bless his 19-year-old freshman soul, missed 16 of the 19 shots he took Saturday. He ran into a maze of Rondaes and McConnells and Stanleys, a blur of Arizona bodies that guarded him with such fervor that he couldn’t stop to get their names.

Arizona won 73-58 and you can’t solely blame it on Russell because the rest of his Ohio State teammates weren’t much better. The Buckeyes were out-rebounded 43-26 and saw their zone defense fractured when probed by T.J. McConnell and bombed by Gabe York.

“We won our way,” said UA coach Sean Miller, which was code for: We wore them out.

McConnell has never played better when so much was at stake. He gave up 3 or 4 inches to Russell but, by the look of it, you’d have thought it was Russell giving up the inches. Hollis-Jefferson has long been the UA’s defensive stopper, but on Saturday it was McConnell.

“I wanted to be a pest on defense,” he said. “I didn’t shy away from guarding him.”

Shy? McConnell introduced himself on the game’s first possession, body against body, and took possession of the entire game. He had five steals, six assists, scored a game-high 19 points. It made you wonder why the Buckeyes hadn’t been asked what they planned to do to stop McConnell.

“For T.J. to impose his will, work as hard as he did … when you look at what he does for us on both ends, he’s like an All-American player,” Miller said.

“Like” an All-American?

How about “is” an All-American?

When Miller reported to practice Friday at the Moda Center, he informed the Wildcats that junior Kadeem Allen, who is redshirting, would play the role of Russell.

You could almost hear the team groan in unison.

All season, Allen, the 2014 national Junior College Player of the Year, has played the practice role of Oregon’s Joseph Young, Stanford’s Chasson Randle or Utah’s Delon Wright.

Allen should get a basketball Academy Award for best supporting player to best impersonate a go-to guy.

“He’s always the other team’s best player and it’s really an advantage for us,” said Kaleb Tarczewski. “He knows how to attack. He’s a beast: he’s physical, he can get to the rim, move with the ball and is a great athlete. I certainly want to play with him next year.”

Allen is a 6-foot-3-inch combo player, a wing, a shooting guard and a point guard. UA insiders let it be known this year that, at times, he is the club’s top player in practice.

“To guard him is like guarding one of the best players in the country,” Hollis-Jefferson said.

Allen shrugged when asked what his impact impersonating someone like D’Angelo Russell might be.

“I do what I do,” he said. “They just tell me to be like the other team’s best player and I go out and do the best I can.”

It’s not that Russell had the worst night of his life. He shot 6 for 20 in a loss to Louisville and 4 for 17 in a loss against North Carolina. Arizona’s Stanley Johnson shot 1 for 12 on Saturday, but he was blessed by a better supporting group, and at the end, his stats got lost in the box score.

“I’ve had worse nights than this,” Johnson said.

Winning covers up almost everything in March.

When Russell inevitably reaches the NBA, he will probably learn not to motivate an opponent that doesn’t need any extra fuel. On Saturday, he all but drove a fuel truck to the UA locker room and filled the tank to the brim.

Ohio State coach Thad Matta, a good guy among good guys, talked about Arizona’s “length” and “screens” and “depth” and “defense,” but put the game best in perspective by comparing the 2015 Wildcats to Arizona’s 2001 Final Four team. Matta, then the head coach at Butler, was paired against Arizona in a Round of 32 game. The Wildcats won 73-52 and Matta hasn’t forgotten.

“Probably 15 years ago to the day, I think I was a 10-seed and Arizona was a 2-seed,” he said. “They had Jason Gardner, Gilbert Arenas, Richard Jefferson, Michael Wright and Loren Woods with like nine All-Americans on the bench. That was a heck of a basketball team, too.

“But I probably think, without a doubt, maybe this is Sean’s best team.”

By the time the Wildcats left the Moda Center and headed to the Portland airport Saturday night, they had left Ohio State behind. The Next Big Story will be Miller’s Bittersweet 16 showdown with his old team, Xavier.

Nobody better talk no smack about the Musketeers.