Where’s a Niq Wise senior day rewrite when you need one?

That certainly wasn’t what we had in mind. The Cats scored the first basket on Thursday then never led again. The game looked a lot like last week’s UCLA game for the first 27 minutes but there was no McKale crowd (and Kyle Fogg 3s) to turn things around.

Our young team gave us one last memory of inconsistency. How do you get out-rebounded and fail to get back on D every other possession?

Ben Howland had his guys in the perfect defensive position all afternoon. The Bruins knew exactly where Derrick Williams would try to go with the ball when faced with a double-team. They knew which lanes to step into when an Arizona player got caught in the air or trapped on the baseline. Of course, it would help if the Cats didn’t self-trap themselves but that’s a discussion for one of our many offseason days.

And so the moment we’ve been dreading is here. Selection Sunday will come and go without any selecting of the team from Tucson. Will you be able to watch?

Personally, I don’t know what I’m going to do on Sunday. Part of me wants to watch to get some closure and see what we hope Sean Miller is building toward. But I know it’s going to hurt.

The thing is, it’s completely understandable that we don’t know how to react. The last time an Arizona fan went through missing the tournament we weren’t “Arizona.” We were coming off a season with our third coach in three years. Back then “the streak” was the UA missing the tournament seven straight years. This is brand new for all of us.

But life goes on. And so might the games. The streak is over but the season may not be. Yes, an NIT bid is possible and, yes, I want it. I hope the Cats get invited, I hope they accept, and I hope the team plays well. The more games our freshmen play the better.

How funny would it be if ASU just stole our NIT bid when they also lost in the first round of the Pac-10 tournament? Even though I hope the Wildcats’ season continues sometimes you have to give credit where credit is due. ASU and the NIT belong together.

For one sad year, Arizona hopes to join them.

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The BatCats bounced back nicely from their rough week. Arizona punctuated its 2-1 series victory over top-25 Cal State Fullerton with a 10-1 victory last Sunday. Daniel Workman went six innings without giving up an earned run to secure his first win of the year and guarantee he’ll be in the starting rotation again this weekend.

Next was the age-old college baseball tradition of warm weather teams beating up on their chilly visitors from the north. This week’s victim was St. Joseph’s as the Cats swept the two games by a combined score of 29-5.

As a result our guys are sporting some gaudy offensive numbers. Arizona is hitting a cool .334 as a team highlighted by five players above .350. The highlights of the highlights are Steve Selsky at .446 with a .492 on-base percentage, and Jett Bandy with his video game .490 average, .559 OBP and .863 slugging percentage.

On deck are the Northern Colorado Bears who sit at 3-5 on the year. The UA looks to build another three games’ worth of momentum before top-25 Wichita State pays a midweek visit.

Game times for the UNC series are 4 p.m. on Friday, 1 p.m. on Saturday and noon on Sunday. The WSU games are Tuesday and Wednesday, both at 6 p.m.

Perhaps on Sunday you can select some baseball and let the ping of leather meeting aluminum sooth your Wildcat soul.

Now we can talk about the streak.

Twenty-five glorious years. The second-longest NCAA basketball tournament run of all time. And the Arizona Wildcats have a chance to make it 26.

All season long the message has been to let go of the streak and prepare for it to end. I still maintain that was the proper mindset…for the first 30 games of the season.

Now it’s time to give in to four months of built-up anxiety. Arizona’s beloved March Madness streak ends if the Cats lose this week! Dwell on it, obsess about it, and hope our team plays like it.

This week isn’t about foundation-building and long-term thinking. This week Sean Miller needs to do all he can to win three games and get into the Dance.

Whatever it takes. Gimmicks. Tricks. Junk defenses. Hack-a-Boateng. You name it, it should be in play.

The best players get all the minutes they can handle this week. You can develop other players next week. Just win. No excuses. No distractions.

The streak is on life support. But it’s not dead yet.

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Nic Wise. Dominique “Niq” Wise. How often do you get four chances at a storybook ending on your senior day after playing for four coaches in four years?

Dribble it off your foot down one at the end of regulation. Miss two free throws up four with 49 seconds left (then your coach draws up the next in-bounds play to get someone else to the line). Miss a jumper at the end of the first overtime. But Niq got his rewrite and the fourth time was the charm for #13.

How does Kyle Fogg go from 0-for-9 against Oregon (and 28% from the field over a five game streatch) to raining seven threes on UCLA and making the most intense three free throws possible against USC? Let’s hope Kyle hasn’t used up his cool guy points.

Note to the McKale Center technical staff: Before next season you may want to adjust the scoreboard closed captioning so it no longer credits the occasional basket to “Bobo Jones.”

You have to bench Jamelle Horne for the UCLA game, don’t you? After floating around for nine rebounds in three games Horne sat for the opening tip last Thursday and responded with 16 boards over the weekend. Mind games should certainly be in play this week.

It took Kevin O’Neill 31 seconds to call his first timeout on Saturday. Ah, the memories.

"And don't get me started on the Gem Show!"
Photo from TucsonCitizen.com

So how much does KO hate the University of Arizona right now? He gets run out of town after being named Lute’s successor, then he takes over at USC after the UA has pillaged his recruiting class. In this game you had the shot clock violation (no way Fogg got that shot off), the three-point foul (hardly ever called), and the game-winner where Wise may or may not have travelled (I don’t think he did). The Tucson Visitors Bureau should probably cross O’Neill off the list of potential spokespeople.

The longest regular season in the past 25 years didn’t want to end but the postseason is finally here. How on earth are the Cats going to win the Pac-10 tournament? I’m glad you asked.

Start stronger.
Arizona has been trailing at the half in each of its last six games (and the margin has been at least five every time).

Attack.
If someone is Fogg-like from beyond the arc, so be it. But don’t launch up three after three while you wait for someone to get hot. Get into the lane and make things happen. Niq and MoMo – a.k.a. Wise and Otherwise – need to keep the pedal down.

Feed the big man.
Derrick Williams is our best offensive player. Give him the ball. I don’t care if they’re playing a zone. Move the ball, dribble-penetrate, and create lanes for #23 to get clean touches.

Big man, feed yourself.
Williams made 63% of his free throws in his first 12 games. It then jumped to 80% over his next 12 games, but now he’s back down to 57% over his past six games. I’ve never heard of a streak free-throw shooter, but it would help a lot to have the good streak come back.

Win on Thursday.
Just don’t lose to UCLA in the first round. Please? If Cal’s big three all hit their shots and you exit in round two, so be it. But don’t kill the 25-year tournament streak by losing to the worst UCLA team since Steve Lavin and his exercise bike were involved.

Bottom line, is it possible? In a word, yes. If you could hand-pick a year to try and steal the Pac-10’s automatic bid this is it. Six of the nine teams in the tournament are 16-14 or worse. This is the time to be thankful for conference mediocrity.

The Wildcats could have quit any number of times this year. But they didn’t. They could have been defeated in each of the past three games. But they weren’t. Now they might end the most impressive achievement in the history of UA athletics.

Might.

Uh oh. Here come the upped hopes.

Forget the pedestrian 12-9 record. Forget the RPI in the 50s. Sunday’s game was about the Pac-10 standings and the young Wildcats challenging themselves with something significant on the line.

On this one day the Cats played in a big game and Sean Miller guided them to a win.

This wasn’t a case of upsetting someone who was looking ahead to someone else. First place vs. second place gets everyone’s attention.

It wasn’t a case of a long-time champion getting complacent. We know about Cal’s football drought (last Rose bowl in 1958-’59) but their basketball void is even worse. The Bears haven’t won even a share of a Pac-10 hoops championship since 1959-’60. Winning this title would be a huge deal for Mike Montgomery and his team.

(It begs the question: Is Cal good at anything? Turns out the answer is rugby and crew.)

Look, we get it. This wasn’t #1 Arizona clinching the Pac-10 against Monty’s top-20 Stanford team in 2003. Or Montgomery beating top-20 Arizona on his way to a 26-1 regular season the following year.

We all know the league is down. If the Pacific-10 were the Pacific Ocean, this year’s version would be the Mariana Trench.

All that mattered on the final day of January, 2010, was that Arizona hosted the top team in the Pac-10 and the Wildcats left McKale Center as the new top team in the Pac-10.

Winning at ASU may have been the turning point but young teams really grow up when they can succeed in close games against quality opponents. The Cal game was as back-and-forth as they come. The contest was tied with five minutes left. The lead changed hands four times after that. It was like overtime in regular time.

The Bears’ final lead came as a result of what would have been the game’s signature play if Arizona had let it slip away. I’m not up-to-date on my cardinal sins but I have to think fouling a 93% free throw shooter behind the arc with a two-point lead and less than a minute to play has to rank pretty high.

But Niq Wise atoned for his error by scoring the game’s final five points and adding to his crunch-time legacy. This particular game-winner was slower in developing than his previous two but Niq’s right-then-left-then-right-again drive got the job done.

The old McKale magic also did its part. After Wise’s and-one, Kevin Parrom was too far off Theo Robertson with just a two point lead but Robertson’s three just missed. After Cal secured the offensive rebound Theo got into the lane but lost the ball out of bounds without attempting a shot. Two more Niq foul shots and the Cats were back in first place.

After going 2-0 in rivalry games (UCLA still counts in my book) Sean Miller is now 1-0 in Really Big Games.

We thought we were going to be able to cruise through pressure-free games until the Pac-10 tournament. Now we have to sweat through nerve-racking road games and get back to anxiety-inducing scoreboard watching.

Isn’t it great?

Cat fans should get their hopes up. We’re in first place! And we have the tie-breaker for the #1 seed!

The reality, however, is that even though Cal has an extra road game remaining the Bears still have the advantage on the back nine. Trips to L.A. and the Oregons are easier than the Cats’ trips to the Washingtons and the Bay. If Cal can survive SoCal (and USC is fading) the Bears could go on a major tear to finish the season.

So what exactly would it take for Arizona to win this thing? Another 6-3 to finish at 12-6 is the minimum to be in the discussion. That would be 4-1 at home and 2-2 on the road, which would be no easy task considering the final four road games are against teams that are a combined 43-7 in their own gym.

The more likely requirement is winning every remaining home game (Oregon, OSU, ASU, UCLA and USC) and then establishing the value of your championship bid by winning one or two road games.

Possible? You have to be worried there are going to be a couple more 33% shooting nights down the stretch. Then there’s the constant threat of foul trouble for one of our top two scorers. And just how many more game-winners does Niq have in him?

All questions to be answered in time. What cannot be questioned is we have a really good basketball coach (again) and we have talented young players who are responding to their coach (again). And it’s happening already halfway through their collective first Pac-10 season.

All to the delight of our championship-loving nerves.

More coverage from the TucsonCitizen.com sports network:

Steve Rivera: Wise to the rescue again in victory over Cal

Anthony Gimino: Can we consider Derrick Williams a top 150 freshman now?

If this was the Pac-5 the Wildcats would be in big trouble.

The stat has been repeated many times. Since the start of Pac-10 play Arizona is now 0-3 in the first game of the weekend and 3-0 in the second game. Can we schedule a quick game before taking on ASU this week? Is there a high school team available?

The rule for Pac-10 basketball fans has always been: Don’t judge the weekend until you’ve played both games. There’s no sense in going crazy about a Thursday loss when there’s still a game on Saturday. This is especially true when you have a team for which any weekend split is a good thing.

With the Oregon State defeat the last-second-shot book is now balanced for the 2010 Cats. Two for the good guys, two for the other guys. Live by the buzzer-beater, die by the buzzer-beater.

While I’m happy with the road split it’s still frustrating that a very valuable sweep was there for the taking. The UA had a double-digit second-half lead in both games but could only hold on to one of them thanks to an offensive drought in Corvallis. We’re used to dreaming of the Final Four. Now we’re going scoreless in the final four (minutes).

That added a bit of pressure for the Oregon game. Win and you’re tied for fourth. Lose and you’re alone in tenth. That’s life in the jumbled Pac-10. As it stands there are three teams each with two conference losses and the other seven teams have exactly three losses apiece. Ten-way tie or bust!

Right when Arizona was in danger of replacing UCLA in the cellar the Ducks reverted to their 2-16 form from last year. We are much obliged for your 33% shooting!

Oregon’s McArthur Court always looks like one of those high school courts that’s not quite regulation size. It was nice to see our guys walk out of that place for the last time with a win.

It was also good to see the red uniforms back. Don’t be a stranger, cardinal kit!

Wise’s behind-the-back split of the double-team drive and no-look pass to Williams was the highlight reel play of the night but it was the first behind-the-back split of the double-team that won the game. The lead had been trimmed to eight with just over two minutes left when Wise kicked it out to Fogg for the dagger three.

I wouldn’t recommend behind-the-backing against good defensive teams but a guy who has that in his bag of tricks needs a flashier name. Niq Wise is back.

Baseball has bad-ball hitters. Jamelle Horne is a bad-ball shooter. The less in rhythm he seems the better the chances of the ball going in. Maybe he should shoot free throws on one foot.

It’s great to watch Kyle Fogg’s confidence soaring. He’s aggressive going to the basket, he’s not afraid to launch it from deep and you can count on him to finish games at the free throw line (12-for-12 is pretty good).

At the other end of the non-freshman esteem spectrum is Brendon Lavender. To say he isn’t looking for his shot is an understatement. I don’t even think he knows it’s missing. “What? Score points? No thanks, I’m good.” I hope Brendon finds the trigger again soon because he’s not going to be out there much longer if he’s a zero threat on the offensive end.

I am a big fan of Derrick Williams’ post-dunk surfer pose. Hang (on the) ten (foot rim), brah!

I also love when DW draws yet another foul on the road and the entire crowd groans. Get used to it, people.

I am not a fan of turnovers. You have to feel pretty lucky to win a game in which you turn it over 18 times. The Cats had gotten the giveaway number down to 11 against UCLA, 10 vs. WSU and 12 against UW, but it was a 16-per-game turnover frenzy on the Oregon Trail.

I am conflicted about Jerryd Bayless. I’m still not sure how I feel about our first one-and-done, but if he keeps showing up at games to support the school where he hung out for a couple semesters I’m willing to give him the chance to grow on me.

I am a huge fan of college rivalries. That’s right, it’s ASU Week. They’ve beaten us five straight times. They’ve won their last four games by a combined 70 points. They’re preparing for their only home sellout of the year. It’s not looking good for the boys from Tucson.

The whole state knows the Devils are going to pack it in with their zone and dare the Cats to beat them from the outside. Fogg (48% for the season on threes), Horne (44%) and Wise (37%) are all going to have to be hot from deep. We then need ASU’s four guys who shoot it at 39%+ to all run cold. Piece of cake, right?

This will be Sean Miller’s first game against the Orangish-Yellow and Almost-Brown. You never get a second chance to make a first impression. How important is it to win your first rivalry game? Mike Stoops did it…and proceeded to lose his next three.

But, hey, ASU is alone in first place as we approach the halfway mark of the conference season. This is a chance to “knock them out of the Rose Bowl,” hardwood style.

That’s the kind of sweep I like best.