"Tell them … tell the team to bear down"

NIT LITANY O’ LINKS:

• Anthony Gimino of TucsonCitizen.com has a site for you to visit if you need an NCAA tournament fix
• Steve Rivera of TucsonCitizen.com questions: Is NIT next for the Cats?
• Texas Texas coach Pat Knight is actually looking ahead to the NIT
• South Florida anticipates an in-state opponent to start the NIT
• The Hartford Courant reports that the NIT could soothe UConn’s misery
• Former UA player and assistant coach Josh Pastner lost to Houston today as Memphis coach, which means he is likely headed to the NIT along with his alma mater

The last time Arizona played in a postseason tournament other than the NCAA tournament was in 1975, when the Cats played in something called the National Commissioner’s Invitational Tournament. Haven’t heard of it? That’s because it lasted only two years, ending with the Cats’ loss to Drake in the 1975 championship game at Louisville, Ky.

It was an eight-team postseason tournament run by the NCAA. The NCAA supposedly tried to get rid of the NIT by introducing the tournament. It was a collection of teams that came in second in their conferences. In 1974, the NCAA Tournament only invited conference champions. In 1975, when Arizona played in the NCIT, at-large teams were added to the NCAA tournament.

In terms of the NIT, Arizona has not played in that tournament since 1951, when the NIT rivaled the NCAA tournament as the premier postseason tournament in college basketball. So, really, the UA has never played in the current framework of the NIT, which is basically a consolation tournament.

By the way, to answer the headline’s question: It was Penn State over Baylor.

Please read more about Arizona’s NIT scenario at TucsonCitizen.com

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His behavior and friendship with Tarkanian questioned

By Javier Morales

Perhaps Bobby Knight should phone his good buddy Jerry Tarkanian today and call off his friendship with the former embattled UNLV coach, who built the Running Rebels program and tore it down just the same with recruiting violations.

Or Knight should call and apologize to all those former Indiana players whom he personally belittled during practices, questioning their manhood (to put it mildly), as is well documented in the book “A Season on the Brink”.

Knight criticized Kentucky coach John Calipari for affecting the integrity of the game because two of the programs Calipari has coached — Massachusetts and Memphis — have fallen under the NCAA microscope and received sanctions for violations.

This statement alone at a fund-raiser for the Indiana Hall of Fame shows how much Knight is still full of himself. Why did he find a need to take a shot at Calipari at such an event? I can understand maybe a forum on NCAA Coaching Today, but an event for the Indiana Hall of Fame? He should have taken the opportunity to talk about his integrity, since he is a legend in that state. Perhaps he did not have enough material so he went after Calipari.

Don’t get me wrong, the violations Calipari allowed to happen on his watch at UMass and Memphis are troubling.

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Hall of Fame coach talks to Memphis in locker room after win

TUCSONCITIZEN.COM LINK OF INTEREST: Gimino: Ranking the biggest home games in Arizona football history

By Anthony Gimino and Javier Morales

Lute Olson and a Memphis fan pose for this photo taken Friday before Tennessee Tech played Memphis

Former UA coach Lute Olson followed through on his promise to visit his protege Josh Pastner as he attended Memphis’ game with Tennessee Tech on Friday night. The Memphis Commercial Appeal wrote this about Olson’s visit: Hall of Fame coach Lute Olson, who brought Pastner to Arizona as a player and then hired him as an assistant coach, was in attendance Friday. Olson was in the Tigers’ locker room after the game and spoke briefly to the team. The 75-year old Olson retired from coaching in October of 2008. “This guy has 780 wins, he’s in the Hall of Fame, 24 consecutive years he took Arizona to the NCAA Tournament and from 1988-2005 had more players in the NBA and at one time than anyone,” Pastner said. “He was great. I’m glad he was here. I’ve been fortunate to learn under a guy like him.” Olson reportedly received an ovation from the Memphis fans. …

This should be interesting: Olson is staying in Memphis for the weekend and is slated to attend the Bucks-Grizzlies game Saturday night. Former UA guard Damon Stoudamire is an assistant coach with the Grizzlies. Milwaukee features former UA recruit and current NBA phenom Brandon Jennings, who Olson and Pastner recruited to Arizona. You know the rest: Jennings never qualified academically, and Olson went on a leave of absence because he was going through a heated divorce. Jennings eventually played professionally in Italy. It will be interesting to see if Olson and Jennings say their hellos. They always maintained a decent relationship. It’s just that their paths unfortunately did not cross. … Last week, we asked you to contribute questions to a Matt Minkus‘ podcast interview radioexiles.com with Memphis coach Josh Pastner. He did, indeed, fit in some of your suggestions. Was he approached by Arizona athletic director Jim Livengood during the school’s coaching search last spring? “At of all honesty, I talked to Mr. Livengood once and he let me know to hang on and another time he let me know that they were looking in another direction. I understood that. I think Mr. Livengood made a tremendous hire with Sean Miller.” Regarding Pastner’s year as an assistant under interim head coach Kevin O’Neill – when everybody was thrust into an uncomfortable situation — Pastner said of O’Neill’s style: “Everybody does it different. That is just a fact. … There is no exact way. There is no wrong way or right way. He was the head coach and I was his assistant, and as an assistant, your responsibilities and loyalties are to always back the head coach. If he wanted me to run a lap around the court, I would have done that because he was the boss man.” You can listen to the entire podcast at radioexiles.com and Minkus also started blogging this week at TucsonCitizen.com. …

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The young coach is already recruiting Bibby’s son

FRIDAY’S GAMES (Tucson times)
Memphis at Philadelphia (Iguodala), 5 p.m.
Houston (Budinger) at Atlanta (Bibby), 5:30 p.m.
Washington (Arenas) at Oklahoma City, 6 p.m.
Sacramento at Dallas (Terry), 6:30 p.m.
Portland (Bayless) at Golden State, 8:30 p.m.

FEATURED EX-CAT LINKS:

>>Lakers’ Walton has back procedure (L.A. Times)
>>Jerryd Bayless’s new blog
>>NBA & ABA players who attended the University of Arizona (Basketball-Reference.com)

Olson credits Pastner with helping Bibby start as a freshman on that title team, and the coach noticed his Wildcats looking surprised at the first meeting as the gung-ho Pastner said they would win a national title.

“After a while that just rubbed off on everybody. ‘Hey, if we work hard enough and play together as a team, who knows what we can accomplish,”’ Olson said.

Please read the rest of the article: No caffeine needed by Memphis’ energetic Pastner (SI.com)

LINE OF THE DAY:

[TABLE=32]

READ MORE LINKS AFTER THE JUMP

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Fiery coach saves temper only for the refs

By Anthony Gimino and Javier Morales

Arizona football coach Mike Stoops can still get plenty hot on the sideline, but he has mellowed as the Wildcats have become more consistent winners — going 17-8 in their past 25 games ain’t bad. Stoops’ main motivational tactic in his early years was screaming obscenities, but he likely doesn’t have to dip into that bag of tricks as often on the practice field. Stoops has learned to trust his assistants and be more judicious with his bouts of raw emotion. Fifth-year senior defensive lineman Donald Horton was asked this week about the biggest difference in Stoops from his freshman season until now. “He doesn’t seem as stressed,” Horton said. “We have conversations now. When I first came here, I was like, ‘I ain’t never talking to that dude.’ Now, we can have conversations and stuff like a regular dude.” …

Sometime last week, Arizona updated its 2010 football schedule on ArizonaWildcats.com. The Nov. 20 game at Oregon has been moved to Friday, Nov. 26, the day after Thanksgiving. For many years, that was the date of the Arizona-Arizona State rivalry. The Nov. 27 home game against Arizona State was changed to Dec. 2. TV potential is always a factor in these things, but keep in mind, the schedule is still tentative. … Looking way down the road, Arizona’s first three road games in 2011 are at Oklahoma State, USC and Oregon State (when Jacquizz Rodgers would be a senior). Yikes. … Arizona basketball coach Sean Miller has plenty on his plate, but he’s happy to be keeping an eye on the football program, which is something he couldn’t do at Xavier because the Musketeers don’t have football. But Miller is from Pittsburgh, so you know the guy loves his football, especially on Sunday when the team in black and gold is playing. “I’m as big of a football fan as there is in Tucson,” Miller said. “I have really gained a great appreciation for the program Mike and his staff have built. It’s really an exciting brand of football to watch.” …
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Ex-UA guard one of the more courageous to play for Cats

By Javier Morales

Jawann McClellan’s tearful embrace with Lute Olson during the 2008 Senior Day is one of the more memorable scenes in the Olson era

Josh Pastner, who can get on a roll with words because of his exuberance, only needed a sentence or two Monday afternoon to sum up his thoughts on Jawann McClellan:

“Jawann is a warrior. Heart, toughness, and determined are some of the words I would use to describe him.”

Pastner stood a few feet away from McClellan on Senior Day two seasons ago when McClellan, a former UA guard, hugged Lute Olson and could not immediately let go. McClellan buried his head on Olson’s shoulder and teared up. When they pulled apart, Olson’s face had a genuine look of grief for his former player, one who arguably endured more hardships than any other Wildcat during Olson’s tenure.

Pastner, normally the cheerful sort, wore a long face. His appearance was similar to when he and fellow former assistant Jim Rosborough drove with a priest to McClellan’s apartment in 2005 the day his father and best friend George McClellan passed away from an apparent heart attack while driving in Houston.

When McClellan was told the news via a phone call from his former high school coach Jim Duffer, he collapsed. Pastner and Rosborough stepped in to help him.

“It’s the worst thing I’ve ever had to do in my coaching career,” Rosborough said to the Arizona Daily Star in reference to making the trip to McClellan’s residence that day.

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Freshman’s desire important for Cats

STREAK FACT: When the UA’s run of 25 consecutive NCAA tournament appearances started on March 15, 1985, Sean Elliott was still a senior at Cholla High School and Lew Alcindor’s conference scoring record was safe.

By Javier Morales

Revisiting the motivation theme for our streak series, the poster boy for that word is definitely freshman forward Derrick Williams.

Try to find Williams among the top 150 recruits from the Class of 2009 listed by Rivals.com, one of the more reputable recruiting services around. His name will not appear. He’s rated a three-star player but is not included in the list of top 150 players of that class.

Williams is slighted although he was originally recruited by former USC coach Tim Floyd, who might lack in knowing right from wrong off the court but is a good judge of talent nonetheless.

At least Scout.com ranks Williams, albeit No. 95. What gives? Williams averaged a double-double last season at La Mirada (Calif.) High School with 25 points and 10.3 rebounds per game. He also averaged 2.2 assists and 2.2 steals per game for the Matadores, which finished 27-4 and lost in the semifinals of the CIF Southern Section Div II-A playoffs.

Division II-A is the fourth level of classification among California high schools, although the Southern Section is the largest in the state because it encompasses the Los Angeles area.

“I don’t think a lot of people knew about me, to be honest with you, because of where I played high school basketball,” Williams said during media day two weeks ago. “La Mirada is not a big school.”

It may not be a big school but it has produced legendary UA athletes Jennie Finch (softball), Antoine Cason (football) and recent Wildcat Hall of Fame inductee J.T. Snow (baseball). Williams wants to join this list of Wildcat greats in the future.

“Trust me, I plan on surprising a lot of people,” Williams said.

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