Arizona Looking To Repeat Past Tournament Successes

This time last year, the Arizona men’s basketball team had just fallen to Bucknell on its home court in the first round of the NIT.

In its first year in the Pac 12, the Wildcats were defeated by Colorado in the finals of the conference tournament, causing Arizona to miss an NCAA tournament bid after making the Elite Eight in 2011.

“It was kind of a burden off our back, fighting with the demons of the season,” senior forward Solomon Hill said. “A couple of guys left the program after that year.”

Under former Xavier coach Sean Miller—now in his fourth year with Arizona—the Wildcats looked to rebuild. With a highly touted freshman recruiting class that included a consensus top 10 newcomer in seven-foot center Kaleb Tarczewki, Arizona turned the page.

“Focusing on the next year and being able to have a great recruiting class of big time freshmen, [we were able to] finish up the year and school and get ready for the summer,” Hill said.

As the Wildcats looked to make a fresh start in the 2012-2013 season, they got help from outside the freshman class. Senior guard Mark Lyons—who played under Miller at Xavier—transferred to Arizona over the summer. As a Wildcat, Lyon—who leads the team with 15 points per game—was asked to transition from a combo guard into a true point guard.

After starting the season ranked No. 12 in the AP preseason poll, the Wildcats came out hot and won their first 14 games, quickly moving into the No. 3 spot in the rankings by week seven. Lyons led the way, putting up the team high in points in seven of the 14 contests.

During the opening of the Wildcats season, the trio of freshman bigs—Tarczewski, Brandon Ashley, and Grant Jerrett—began to shine. Ashley notched two double-doubles during the win streak, and Jerrett scored in double digits three times.

“If you think about the experience [the three] have gotten from start to finish, they are no longer freshmen, and you can see that out there,” Miller said. “They’re more sure of themselves on offense and defense. Like any team, our team is so much better and difficult to beat when those three guys are playing well.”

But just when it seemed like Arizona couldn’t lose, it met Oregon on Jan. 10. The Ducks scored the first 11 points of the game and didn’t look back, and a late push by the Wildcats couldn’t get the job done in Eugene.

The former darlings of the Pac 12 struggled as they got deep into the heart of conference play, going 5-5 to close out the season. Arizona finished second in the Pac 12 after falling to UCLA—a team which beat the Wildcats twice during the season.

“The quality of our conference from top to bottom is the best it’s been since I’ve been the coach at Arizona,” Miller said. “I think anytime you’re playing on the road and playing these teams at the end of February and early March, these are huge games and you could play really well and not win them.”

Three of the Wildcats’ five losses came on the road, including in back-to-back contests at USC and UCLA. Arizona’s struggled defensively—especially on the perimeter—and allowed the Trojans to shoot over 60 percent from the field.

“From a defensive perspective, there are times when we have been dominant, times when we have been really good,” Miller said. “Unfortunately for us, it’s just a half or just a game where our defense left us. When it has, it has hurt us in the win-loss column.”

After snapping a four-game win streak with consecutive losses to California and Colorado—its first back-to-back defeats of the season—Miller decided to shake up his starting lineup and replace Ashley with senior sixth-man Kevin Parrom.

Parrom had started one game previously in the season and saw around 20 minutes of playing time. When he was given the start in mid-February, the senior was averaging 8.0 points per game, and—after starting the remaining eight contests—brought his scoring up to 8.3 points per game.

After being rocked by personal tragedy in 2011, Parrom finished the 2012-13 season shooting 49 percent from the field—including 40 percent from three. Two years ago, the senior lost his mother and grandmother and suffered a gunshot wound when visiting his home in the Bronx.

“I believe as you get closer to the end that the players on your team that are your guiding force are your seniors,” Miller said. “They have the most to gain, the most to lose… When you have someone like [Parrom] on your team, it gives your team a lot of character and a lot of courage, and it’s these moments that you appreciate him.”

Coming into the NCAA tournament, the Wildcats seem to have turned their defensive struggles around—at least in their first round matchup against Belmont. With a 23-point contribution from Lyons, Arizona held the Bruins to 30 percent shooting from the arc in an 81-64 blowout to advance to face No. 14 Harvard, where the Wildcats will look to extend their tournament push.

“Nobody wants the season to end, in large part because of Kevin Parrom, Solomon Hill, and Mark Lyons,” Miller said. “Those guys have represented Arizona in a first class manner, and they’re great kids.”

—Staff writer Hope Schwartz can be reached at hschwartz@college.harvard.edu. Followe her on Twitter @HopeSchwartz16.