Northern Arizona at Arizona

The dessert meets the mountains in this game, and the Arizona Wildcats were pushed to the limit, not just by Kevin O'Neill, but also by the feisty Mike Adras and the NAU LumberJacks.



The Enforcer (Kevin O'Neill) was perhaps prophetic when he said during the half time interview on FSN Arizona that he wanted the team to be able to expand leads in their teens, not let teams back in the game. And this is exactly what happened. NAU came back strong, and Arizona had to scrap to hold them back. Mike Adras was "playing" almost as hard as his players on the sidelines, with the FSN cameras following all his moves and sudden facial expressions.

The team had maybe half a dozen possessions where they had fast-forward Princeton-esque possessions on offense with very crisp and speedy passing around the horn. This was one of the characteristics of last year's team, at least earlier in the season. But for the most part their offense did not resemble the feared Arizona juggernaut of the past.

While NAU was rolling players in and out of the rotation, Kevin O'Neill was on a relatively tight rotation, not being confident enough to give PT to Tangara (he made a "stupid" foul and got the hook in milliseconds), Onobun, Kirk Walters, seven foot Jacobsen, Zane Johnson. The seasoned veteran and walk-on Bret Brielmaier seemed to be a stabilizing force when he got in the game, and that may earn him a starting spot, which was given to versatile forward Jamelle Horne who has apparently become an Enforcer favorite. Jordan Hill's foul trouble showed that while Arizona has more big men on the bench, none of them are either trusted or effective (or both) at the moment. As expected, defensive specialist Daniel Dillon got his share of PT.

What was perhaps a bit more surprising is that Arizona struggled despite keeping turnovers under control. Some of course could argue that some of the shots and shot selection should be counted as turnovers :)