Raising Arizona: How the Wildcats Got Their Groove Back

As the University of Arizona men’s basketball team has slowly but surely climbed back into contention for their 25th consecutive NCAA Tournament berth, several factors have gotten credit for fueling the turnaround.

The first and most obvious was the Chase Budinger face stomp incident. When Houston junior Aubrey Coleman stepped on Budinger’s face in the second half of their Jan. 24 game at McKale Center in Tucson, Arizona was just going through the motions. They had lost three in a row and were down a dozen, less than 10 minutes from a fourth consecutive defeat, and only a miracle away from the first Arizona-less NCAA Tournament since 1984.

But Arizona would end up coming back against Houston, rallying from 10 down with less than a minute to play to force overtime, then outscoring the Cougars 8-2 in overtime to take the game 96-90.

Since then, the streak’s been on: A beautiful 106-97 win over Washington followed by a grind-it-out 10-point victory over Washington State. Then it was on to Oregon for their first two true road wins of the season, beating the hapless Ducks (Ernie Kent is going to need a miracle to survive this) and Barack Obama’s favorite Pac-10 squad, the Oregon State Beavers.

Then it was back home with a sweep of the Los Angeles schools, putting on a clinic against UCLA in a nationally televised game on Saturday.

The Wildcats now stand at 18-5, 8-5 and just two games out of first in the Pac. Budinger, who leads the conference in minutes played at over 37 per game, has averaged 20.4 points, eight rebounds, 4.3 assists, and 1.7 steals per game during the streak. His line against UCLA: 17 points, five rebounds, five assists, and five steals.

And it all started with a foot stomp.

But that hasn’t been the only reason for the resurgence. Here are a few others.

BMOC

You could have made yourself a whole lot of money a few years ago betting somebody Jordan Hill would one day be selected higher in the NBA draft than Budinger, but that’s exactly what’s going to happen.

Hill not only leads the team in rebounding with 11.2 per game (first in the conference, seventh nationally), but he’s taken over the team scoring lead as well at 18.2 points per game (third in the Pac-10). He leads the conference in double-doubles with 15, including a monster 30 and 18 in the critical Houston game.

Against UCLA, he not only put up 22 and 13, he also thoroughly outplayed Bruins forward Alfred Aboya, who finished with just eight and eight in 32 minutes.

Perhaps most important for the Wildcats, Hill is averaging over 35 minutes per game. That might only rank third on the team (behind Budinger and point guard Nic Wise, who is third in the conference at 36.4 mpg), but it’s a huge improvement over the 29.4 he was able to average as a full-time starter last season. Hill has only fouled out of one game and has played 38 or more minutes 12 times this season (with a high of all 45 in the Houston game).

As for the draft, Hill is up to No. 8 on Chad Ford’s Top 100 prospects, behind only Blake Griffin, Greg Monroe, and Hasheem Thabeet as eligible big men. Budinger has fallen from the lottery into the first/second round bubble at No. 36.

Nic the Quick

Sure, that nickname was stolen from Nick Van Exel, but Wise has certainly earned it with his fearless drives to the basket against much bigger opposition.

Wise has had three games of over 25 points scored in his time in Tucson. All three have been during the current winning streak. Not only is he shooting better from the field, but he’s also getting to the line in what has become a great indicator of Wildcats success.

A look at the four top free throw shooting performances by Wise this season:

10-for-10 in a 17-point rout over Kansas

7-for-8 in the seven-point win over USC last Thursday

7-for-9 in a five-point win over Gonzaga

7-for-9 in the 12-point win over UCLA on Saturday

When Wise is driving the lane, it’s not just about opening the floor for everybody else. It’s also about putting the ball in the hole and drawing fouls. We’ve seen that when Wise is taking the ball at the opposition, the Wildcats can hang with anybody.

Out of the Fogg, into the Future

With all of the craziness surrounding the final days of the Lute Olson era, recruiting has been absolutely cut off. All the typical high-ranking recruits that annually headed to Tucson have found themselves more stable situations elsewhere.

Out of this year’s freshmen, Emmanuel Negedu has found a niche coming off the bench for Bruce Pearl at Tennessee, averaging just under 10 minutes per game. Brandon Jennings, the guy who was supposed to continue Arizona’s tradition as Point Guard U, is off in Europe getting his ass handed to him by real professionals. And Jeff Withey, who was supposed to be Hill’s heir apparent in the post, decided to cut bait and run. He’ll be suiting up for Bill Self in Kansas next season.

Next year’s class will even be worse, if there even is a next year’s class. The No. 16 overall prospect in ESPN’s Top 100, Abdul Gaddy, was an Arizona commit. Instead, he’ll be suiting up for Lorenzo Romar at Washington.

The rest of the class is...empty. Arizona, without a head coach for 2009, doesn’t have a single recruit signed up to head to Tucson next year. And no matter who they choose to replace interim coach Russ Pennell, it will take at least a year to get his recruiting feet under him.

But all is not lost.

As just the 55th-ranked shooting guard of his class according to ESPN, Kyle Fogg may not have been a highly-touted recruit, and he certainly didn’t bring the hype of fellow Pac-10 freshmen Jrue Holiday or Demar DeRozan, but Fogg has been an absolute godsend for the Wildcats.

As the season has gone along, Fogg has not just become a starter in the backcourt; he has also become the catalyst for Arizona’s much-improved defense. Whether it’s stealing the inbounds pass after a made basket or hounding the opposing point guard on the perimeter in the half-court game, Fogg has helped redefine Arizona from a weak-kneed team that will lay down and die to one that will get back up, smile with blood in its teeth, then punch their opponent right back in their smirking faces.

Fogg has also taken a huge load off of Wise when it comes to the perimeter offense. In beginning this seven-game streak, Fogg first tied his season high with 14 points against Houston, then set a new season high with 16 against Washington, and then followed that up with 15 against Washington State.

And while Wise was named the Pac-10 Player of the Week after averaging 26.5 points in the two contests over USC and UCLA, it was Fogg running the offense with five assists in each game (to Wise’s four combined). Fogg, playing 34 minutes in each game, only turned the ball over twice in the two games.

Wise isn’t on the radar for the NBA, so while next season will certainly be a struggle with Hill and Budinger likely off to the NBA and no freshman class to replace them, at least Wildcats fans have a backcourt of Wise and Fogg to help bridge the gap to the next generation.

Mr. Bad Things to the Bench

With all due respect to Jamelle Horne, he reminds me of watching Rex Grossman play quarterback or George W. Bush discuss foreign policy. You just know something bad is about to happen.

Horne this season is responsible for the two dumbest fouls anyone has ever seen. Without going into the excruciating detail, Horne cost the Wildcats an opportunity to go to Madison Square Garden to play Oklahoma or Davidson in the Preseason NIT (instead going to Athens, Ga., for strength of schedule-killing games against Mississippi Valley State and Santa Clara). He also cost Arizona a chance to go to overtime against USC in Los Angeles.

I mean, we all know not to foul in a tie game with less than a second left and the other team in the bonus, right? That’s just basic Basketball 101 stuff.

Anyway, Horne’s last start came in a demoralizing 23-point loss to UCLA in Los Angeles. Though the Wildcats would lose the first two games with guard Zane Johnson in the starting line-up, Johnson has provided a calming effect on the offense, plus a much better touch from three-point range (42 percent to Horne’s 26 percent).

And, to Horne’s credit, he has proved to be a much more effective spark plug guy off the bench than he was a starter.

Finally, the Guy Who Ain’t Lute

Russ Pennell couldn’t have been put in a more difficult situation. This is a guy lured out of the AAU ranks to be an assistant under Olson. Then, when it became obvious Olson would be unable to continue, Arizona AD Jim Livengood first tapped associate head coach Mike Dunlap as the interim.

Dunlap said no, so Livengood turned to Pennell, perhaps the least qualified head coach of any of the 73 BCS schools.

But give Pennell full credit. He told his guys, “Hey look, none of us signed up for this. Let’s do what we can to make the best out of the situation.”

And the Wildcats have fully bought in to what Pennell is selling. With Dunlap still on staff, the switch to a more aggressive trapping defense has been the true spark that lit the fire. Though they still go into lulls and give away leads, this has been one of the most fun Arizona teams to watch in a long time. Pennell deserves as much credit for that as anybody.

Pennell realizes he has no hope of getting the full-time job beyond this season. Whether it’s Mark Few, Jamie Dixon, or some other high-profile coaching star looking for an upgrade, Arizona will spend big money on a new coach this offseason. And the check won’t be made out to Russ Pennell.

But right now, Pennell is carrying a .692 winning percentage, second to only Cal’s Mike Montgomery among all Pac-10 coaches. If nothing else, he’s earned a decent mid-major head job next season.

Whether it’s Pennell, Budinger, Fogg, Wise, or Horne on the bench, this Arizona team is something we haven’t seen in a long, long time: an underdog on the rise that nobody wants to play.

Considering how this season started, no Arizona fan could ask for anything more.

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