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AG's Wildcat Report - Dispatches on the Wildcats, from Anthony Gimino

My new rallying cry: It’s not over until Kyle Fogg says it’s over

by on Mar. 05, 2010, under Sports
Kyle Fogg scored 51 points in two games against UCLA this season<br>Photo by WildcatSportsReport.com

Kyle Fogg scored 51 points in two games against UCLA this season./Photo by WildcatSportsReport.com

There isn’t as much media seating as there used to be at McKale Center, so I was relegated to auxiliary seating behind a basket while Steve Rivera of TucsonCitizen.com sat courtside for the Arizona-UCLA game.

This is simply a way to explain that our usual in-game bantering on media row was reduced to occasional text messages, including one from Steve with more about 15 minutes left in the game: “It’s over.”

Arizona was trailing by 14 points at the time, but let me further explain.

“It’s over” has become something of a joke between us ever since I wrote that about Arizona last season after it dropped to 2-5 in the Pac-10. Then came the game against Houston. I was attending that game with my son as a non-media member and I sent Steve the “It’s o-v-e-r” message when Arizona trailed by 10 points with 52 seconds left.

The game, the season, maybe even the program as we knew it … it all seemed over.

And then Arizona rallied to win in overtime.

Same thing Thursday night. A little less dramatic, but thrilling nonetheless.

The UCLA lead was 12 when Kyle Fogg hit a 3-pointer with 13:28 to go, and I sent Steve back a reply:

“It’s not over until Kyle Fogg says it’s over.”

Damn right.

Fogg poured in four 3-pointers in about an eight-minute span, and his two free throws with 3:19 left gave the Wildcats a 65-64 lead that they would not relinquish.

Arizona won 78-73 and it’s not over by any stretch.

“It doesn’t look like we’re sleepwalking at this point,” coach Sean Miller said.

“We’ve stayed with it. Just when you think things aren’t going to get better, they do. Just when you think we have all the answers, we don’t. But we continue to have that resolve and move forward.”

Arizona hasn’t been great this season. Arizona hasn’t been awful this season. But Arizona, at 15-14 overall with a chance to tie for third place in the Pac-10, has almost always been interesting.

And the thing that Miller counted on the most might finally, just in time, be happening.

The Wildcats are playing their best ball of the season.

In any case, Miller called it his team’s best performance of the season, which came on the heels of a comeback and last-second win at Stanford. Now, all UA needs to do is beat reeling USC on Saturday to continue the momentum heading into next week’s free-for-all conference tournament.

If Fogg had a choice, he’d opt to play UCLA in the first round. The mild-mannered dude turns into Sean Elliott, circa 1989, against the Bruins. Remember Elliott that year? He had a combined 61 points in two games against UCLA.

Fogg’s effort was a reasonable facsimile. The sophomore guard had 51 points in the season sweep, following his career-high 25 in the first meeting against UCLA with a career-higher 26 points Thursday, when he made 7 of 10 3-point shots.

“Felt good out there,” he said.

“I really owe it to these two (Nic Wise and MoMo Jones) because they really did a great job of penetrating and drawing attention so I could get some open looks.”

Fogg is averaging 10.9 points and is now the team’s leading 3-point shooter at 43.0 percent (46 of 107). He’s not the most vocal of kids — and he almost all gets ribbed by teammates for something when he shows up for media interviews. Even the coach jokes.

“He’s quiet,” Miller said.

“I try to give him some of my blood sometimes, a little transfusion on the side just to give him that incredible toughness you need sometimes. That’s not to say that’s he’s not tough, but he has that easy-going style. It serves him well on offense and it’s probably something he is learning how to deal with on defense.

“But nobody chased the cutter more than he did tonight. For him to do what he did on offense while working as hard as he did on defense, that’s a heck of a testament to him.”

Like I’ve always said. It’s not over until Kyle Fogg says it’s over.

Contact Anthony Gimino at anthonygimino (at) gmail.com

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This entry was posted on Friday, March 5th, 2010 at 1:56 am and is filed under Sports. Tags for this post: , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  • Mark Johnson

    The comparison to Sean Elliot’s performance was interesting. If you recall, Sean was going nuts the second game between the two at McKale as he was attempting to become the Pac 10 scoring leader over Lew from UCLA that game. In fact, even was questioned by a UCLA player (Reggie Miller?) on why he was deliberately pounding him.
    My opinion, the team stepped up on defense against a tiring UCLA team. And, we needed Fogg to get way to hot to win. This was not a blow out by any means; it is a 40 minute game that was quite close down to the end. If Fogg went a solid 4-10 from three version 7-10 from 3, we loose. These kids need to step up and listen to coach and play all 40 minutes. However, Jones’ will-to-win in infectious; really starting to emotionally trust this kid.
    To rely on Fogg to push the limits of a 3 point record in the building to win is not exactly what Miller wants however fun to watch. The tenacity on defense in the final 10 minutes is what Miller’s Xavier teams do for 40 minutes. Hopefully the file tape of this game can help show the team a night and day defensive effort.
    Bottom line, Arizona ca win any game against the zone given someone, anyone gets hot from the outside. When Chase was on last year from outside, we would win; if not, we would loose. Take a look at the 3 point percentage this season when winning and loosing against the zone; glaring stats on this.  The difference is that if no one gets hot from the outside, the game comes down to a consistent high level of defense with a close game played into the 50’s. Miller gets the grinder game but the kids need to understand that type of game too; and it is played with 40 minutes of great defense for 40 minutes to win.

    And Anthony, I have the tear sheet from that Sean Elliot Pac 10 record game. If you recall, there was a woman named Leslie who would pass out the half time stats to the media. She would take 5 steps up into the pep band and hand me the sheet. I kept the one showing and stating Sean broke the Pac 10 scoring record (all be it in 4 years versus 3 and a 3 point shot now in play). Have the 1988 3 foot by 10 foot Pac Ten Tournament banner from McKale as well.

    • Anthony Gimino

      Mark…
       
      Thanks for your comments (I do remember Leslie, by the way). When Javier Morales asked me last night who has had a better pair of games vs. UCLA, the first thing I checked was Elliott’s senior year because that 35-point game was so memorable. There have been other great performances against UCLA … maybe I’ll have to spend some time looking it up if UCLA and Arizona meet again next week.

      • Mark Johnson

        One game at Paully I attended about 6 or 7 years ago, the refs for an entire series did not catch that UCLA was playing with 6 on the floor. A good 3 minutes of game time. During that AZ was blowing UCLA out; probably should have had 7.   Bizzare. Media never caught it either.

        And I am sure you remember Leslie; not easily forgotten. Hey, I get credible resource points for naming Leslie by name BTW… and as a non-media member.I used to get to McKale about 4 hours before each game; easier to stay on campus and do homework than to come back for pep-band later in the day. Often there would only be three people in McKale; Javier the plant manager prepping for media, Steve Kerr shooting practice free throws (in which I would get up and spot for him from time to time) and myself doing homework.  There was really something special about McKale being empty and then watching over the next few hours knowing there would not be an empty seat in the house, #1 in US, national TV. I did get to go to the Final Four with the team and on their plane; wish I understood what a bigger deal that was back then. Even spent some time with Bobby and Lute that trip; crazy. Anyway, I have my tickets for the Tournament Thursday. I will be in section 101 Row A Center Court for the first session with AZ. This should put me just about behind Brian Gepheries if they have him at the same location as last year. And then up to the Premier level for dinner for the evening games. Regardless of AZ beating UCLA, I will be in the Premier section 5 Friday night with my 9 year old daughter; which I have turned into a Wildcat at this point; probably a bad idea as out -of-state tuition is not $2K any more… slowly need to turn her into a UCLA fan; might just be easier to move to Arizona than to do that. Still happy to buy you lunch/dinner between sessions. Probably just going to go over to the Fox Sports Bar and hang out until the evening session.  Not sure if your press pass can get you to the premier level for the evening games but they have a nice built in restaurant that has seats over looking the floor of Staples; I am planning on that for Game one of the evening games.  I suspect you will be writing and working; but the offer stands. 

  • aza

    great article!

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