Kevin O'Neill went 1-1 against Arizona in his first season as USC's head coach.
Kirby Lee/Image of Sport-US PRESSWIRE
Game over. Arizona beats USC 82-73. Derrick Williams finishes with 20 points. MoMo Jones has 17. Overall, it’s as fine a team effort as the Wildcats have had all season.
So, at the halfway point of the Pac-10 season, Arizona is 7-2 in the league and appears to be getting better. Not bad.
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Derrick Williams back in. He makes another 3-pointer. He has his 20 points — 17 in the second half.
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Two 3-pointers today by Jesse Perry. Yep, a whole bunch of players stepped up vs. USC.
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USC has made only 3 of 15 3-pointers — 20 percent. Remarkably, that’s about average against Arizona. The Wildcats entered the game allowing eight Pac-10 teams to shoot 21.1 percent from behind the arc.
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Derrick Williams leaves with 4:17 to go. That’s probably it for him after a 17-point performance. Arizona leads 74-55.
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Derrick Williams hits another 3-pointer. He has 15 points, even with the bad hand and foul trouble. When he made the latest 3-pointer, USC coach Kevin O’Neill turned around with a look of “how do you defend that guy.” Or perhaps I was reading a little too much into that one look.
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Arizona maintaining a reasonably comfortable advantage, leading 65-52 with 8:03 to go. The Wildcats already have surpassed what USC typically allows per game (62.4 points). And the Trojans have allowed teams to shoot just 40.3 percent this season; Arizona has made 24 of 40 shots — 60 percent.
This is what happens when all (or nearly all) of the team’s role players come to play.
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Yes, Kevin O’Neill knows. When Alex Jacobson scores close to the basket, it’s time to call timeout. Arizona leads 61-44 with 11:13 to go.
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Tweet from Arizona cornerback Robert Golden: I can only imagine what the fans be saying at the football games.. you gotta love em tho… lol
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Derrick Williams four fouls with 12:44 to go. Other players have stepped up throughout the game and will have to continue to do so as Arizona protects its 56-41 lead.
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One of the best sights for Arizona: Kevin Parrom leading the fastbreak. He takes it all the way this time for a dunk and a 54-41 lead.
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Kevin Parrom goes crashing into the courtside seats. Misses university president Robert Shelton by three seats.
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MoMo Jones still out after leaving early in the half with an apparent hip injury.
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Bad hand and all, Derrick Williams can still throw down a two-handed dunk. Arizona leads 52-35 with 15:48 to play.
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Memo to Derrick Williams: How about shooting free throws left-handed?
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Well, the Wildcats are still hot. Derrick Williams and Jordin Mayes hit back-to-back 3-points to extend Arizona’s lead to 48-33 with 18:04 to play. The Trojans aren’t an explosive come-from-behind kind of team. After coach Sean Miller harped on his team’s inability to put away UCLA the other night, let’s see if the Wildcats can gain further separation.
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Arizona shot 60 percent in the first half (15 of 25). Can the Cats keep up that pace?
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Kyle Fogg and MoMo Jones combine to go 8 of 9 from the field in first half.
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Halftime. Arizona leads 40-31 despite just four points from Derrick Williams, bothered by an injury to his right hand and by early foul trouble. Momo Jones (10 points) and Kyle Fogg (eight points) have helped pick up the slack against USC’s man-to-man defense.
Guard Donte Smith has been a factor off the bench for the Trojans with seven points.
The UA guards have been smart and aggressive — a combination not often seen this season.
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USC only 1 of 5 on 3-point shots. What’s worse, Trojans are 2 of 8 from the line. Arizona leads 34-27 with 3:15 to play.
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Derrick Williams will check back in after the 4:22 timeout. He has only two points so far but UA leads 33-25. Good news that UA can play well without getting much from D-Will (although the Cats don’t want to try it too often.)
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No love lost between senior Jamelle Horne and Kevin O’Neill. We all know that. After Horne muscles into the lane for the hoop and the foul, he gets up off the court and points to O’Neill in front of the USC bench.
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Arizona leads 27-18 with six minutes to go in the half. Three-point shooting is making the difference. Wildcats enter the game as the nation’s leader in 3-point defense.
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Tweet from Nic Wise: Yooooo shout out to the people still wearing my jersey in the stands of the Arizona game! That’s love!
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Kyle Fogg loves playing against USC. Has eight points in first 10 minutes. Hit those three big free throws here last year vs. Trojans.
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Two fouls on Derrick Williams with 10:52 to go in the first half. Alex Jacobson in.
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Brendon Lavender tries a 3-pointer from Jimmer range. Not good.
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It’s Kyryl Natyazhko (not Alex Jacobson) as the first big guy off the Arizona bench. Either player (or both) could be key against USC’s beefy front line of Nokola Vucevic and Alex Stepheson.
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Derrick Williams makes his first basket of the game, using his left hand in traffic near the rim.
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Kevin O’Neill, perhaps the king of the early timeout, calls his first of the game — at 15:15 to go in the half. That was in response to back-to-back jumpers by Kyle Fogg. Arizona leads 11-7.
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MoMo Jones, who entered the game hitting 87.2 percent from the foul line (34 of 39), misses two free throws early in the game. Wildcats lead 7-6 at the first TV timeout at 15:56 left.
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USC coach Kevin O’Neill is going to play man-to-man — because, like Sean Miller, that’s what he does — but KO will double-team Derrick Williams down low. In fact, it almost looked like a triple team early in the game as the Trojans stripped the ball from Williams. With his right hand wrapped, ball security could be an issue.
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Arizona football trying to finish strong in recruiting. Looks like there are a few visitors from the islands on official visits and are taking in today’s basketball game.
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Just a couple of boos for Kevin O’Neill as he enters the court. Have people forgotten? (Nah, he gets a more hearty booing during pregame introductions).
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Arizona sophomore forward Derrick Williams has his right hand wrapped during pre-game warmups. He injured his pinkie finger during the UCLA game Thursday. Coach Sean Miller told Bruce Pascoe of the Arizona Daily Star yesterday that it didn’t appear the injury was a big deal. We’ll see.
Miller isn’t usually very forthcoming about the status of injuries. My guess is that Williams will be somewhat limited.
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From around the Pac-10: UCLA survives in Tempe, beating Arizona State 73-72. UCLA improves to 6-3 in the conference, so Arizona (17-4, 6-2) needs a win to stay in sole possession of second place.
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Former Arizona interim head coach Kevin O’Neill makes his second appearance in McKale Center since leaving the program.
He was, in many circles, considered the villain during the 2007-08 season when coach Lute Olson was on an unexplained leave of absence. The circumstances were extremely difficult for everyone because of all the uncertainty.
O’Neill inherited a mess not of his making — so I can’t blame him for that — as he was put in a nearly impossible situation. That said, he wasn’t the right guy at the right time. His personality was the anti-Lute when everyone still wanted Lute. O’Neill, not Sean Miller, who arrived after two seasons of interim head coaches, was the guy who had to replace a legend.
Plus, O’Neill had to coach the Wildcats through what was quite possibly the best Pac-10 conference in history.
He doesn’t care about any of that now. O’Neill inherited a mess at USC after the violations occurred under the watch of Tim Floyd. He has always said that the crowd should boo the opposing coach … and that will probably be the case later today.
Last season’s game between USC and Arizona in Tucson left O’Neill screaming at the refs. Arizona won 86-84 in two overtimes after Kyle Fogg tied the game at the end of regulation with three free throws with 0.2 seconds left.
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Javier Morales: Arizona-USC game preview
Sean Miller keeping things in perspective after beating UCLA