Arizona Showing Signs of Resurgence

TUCSON, Ariz. – Even as his star player Derrick Williams, broken pinky and all, lay underneath a pile in celebration of a thrilling victory in front of him Saturday afternoon, University of Arizona coach Sean Miller was too preoccupied with his own emotions to deal with the dangers there.

Miller was still a bit out of sorts as he approached Washington coach Lorenzo Romar for the customary game-ending handshake following the Wildcats' 87-86 win at their McKale Center. Not at all meaning to be a jerk, Miller looked Romar in the eye and with a straight face said "Good win."

"I didn't mean to say that," Miller admitted later. "Really what I meant to say is what a game."

Let's chalk up the slip to Miller's coming down from an edge-of-your-seat-ending in which Williams needed to make three incredible defensive plays to secure the win for the Pac-10 leading and 12th-ranked Wildcats. Let's also chalk it up to the excitement Miller has to be feeling as the resurgence of the once-dominant Arizona program takes form in his second year on the job.

Miller came out here from Xavier for the challenge of returning the Wildcats to the prominence they enjoyed throughout most of the Lute Olson years. There is still plenty of work to be done to get Arizona back to the point where the program is in the national championship conversation each year, but Miller seems well on the way.

He has a stud of a player in Williams, who as a sophomore, may be the best player in the Pac-10 and he's definitely the most underrated star player out West. Williams is blessed with the God-given instincts of a special player, whose basketball savvy just seems off the charts as we saw him score 26 points, grab 13 rebounds and come up with two blocks on a night that clearly wasn't his best (6-of-13 shooting from the field and seven turnovers).

"He's such a gamer," Miller said. "He's so clutch and he just has a way about him."

Primarily because of Williams the Wildcats are 23-4 and 12-2 in the Pac-10 and riding an eight-game winning streak. And for this success, Miller and Wildcats were rewarded Saturday with an Olson-era like crowd of 14,619 fans all dressed in white T-shirts and ready to support their team through the ups and downs.

"I've never played in a game like this before, the type of crowd we had and the type of team we played," said UA junior Jesse Perry, who has no idea that enthusiastic crowds were once the norm around McKale. "It was a physical game and it came down to the last seconds."

What was most impressive had to be the resolve of the Wildcats as they fought through a late comeback by Washington to avenge their last loss this season. Williams was huge down the stretch but he was far from the lone contributor. Lamont Jones made big baskets, so did Perry and it was Solomon Hill who converted the go-ahead for good basket on a putback with 17.6 seconds left in the game.

Sure, you would have liked to have seen the Wildcats not squander a cushiony lead they had enjoyed since the start of the game. Certainly, the senseless turnovers in the front court throughout the second half need to be corrected.

But fighting through such adversity in one of the more exciting finishes this college basketball season before a national viewing audience should bring about a little more respect for the Pac-10 in general and the Wildcats specifically.

The picture is becoming a little clearer for the Wildcats and their place in the Pac-10. They have a couple difficult league games coming up next week against USC and UCLA before closing out the regular season at home against Oregon State and Oregon.

The Wildcats are a lock to return to the NCAA tournament after a one-year hiatus, but they'd still rather not discuss it at this point. They have a more tangible immediate goal in sight.

"The rest of the Pac-10 season really sets that up," Hill said. "We still have major games coming up. The last two home games were big for us but the next two games are what we are concentrating on and what we are looking forward to.

"Once we get done with the Pac-10 season then we can think and move forward to the tournament but right now we still have the Pac-10 play and that's our tournament."

With any luck, Arizona will remain atop the league standings and cement its return to the NCAA tournament.

But in the meantime there is still work to be done with UCLA still on their heels.

"The window starts shutting for a conference championship in every game that we play," Miller said. "But the bottom line for us is we didn't win anything tonight. We may have hurt Washington's chances."