Shooting position: That's a good look for Lavender, who is making better than 60 percent of his 3-pointers. Photo by Kim Klement-US PRESSWIRE

I talked to Arizona Wildcats guard Brendon Lavender for nearly 10 minutes in a quiet locker room after Arizona lost to UConn in last year’s regional final in Anaheim. Never used a word of the interview.

Got busy writing about other things. Meant to come back to it. Other news happened. The interview got old. I eventually deleted it from my voice recorder to clear up space.

But I remember what we talked about last March. His role. His acceptance of his role. How tough it was having to be that part-time player, knowing he had a lot of potential to help the team win. How he hoped to increase that role as a senior.

I bring this up now because of what Lavender did Thursday night in an 81-73 overtime victory against Oregon State. He hit five 3-pointers in the second half and then drew just about the highest praise you can get from a coach.

“I haven’t coached too many guys who have a better team-centered attitude than Brendon Lavender,” coach Sean Miller said. “He’s one of our hardest workers, one of our hardest practice players. …

“I’ve never been around a guy that commits to the process like he does. Every day it’s the same thing. Tonight, he was huge.”

Lavender has been easy to overlook throughout his Arizona career. He averaged less than five minutes per game as a freshman. He started eight games as a sophomore — Miller’s first season — but averaged just 3.2 points. Mostly, even this season, he has been clutching to the tail end of the playing rotation.

By the end of last season, as the Wildcats sat, stunned, in that locker room at the Honda Center, many probably thought Lavender was a goner. Arizona was loaded in the backcourt.

Star freshmen Josiah Turner and Nick Johnson were on their way to save the day. MoMo Jones, Kyle Fogg and Jordin Mayes were coming back. Kevin Parrom could play shooting guard, too.

Lavender? He’d be better off transferring in an upcoming roster squeeze, right?

But I remember I didn’t hear a hint from Lavender about wanting to bail. He said he had something to offer. As for the newcomers, he said it’s never as easy for freshmen as people think it is. I left the interview thinking it was possible he was deluding himself, but he was not lacking for fire or confidence.

Well, Jones ended up leaving and B-Lav was right. It hasn’t been as easy for the freshmen as everybody thought it would be. Aren’t you glad Lavender is still around?

For three years, Miller has been saying that Lavender is either the team’s best shooter in practice or close to it. That accuracy didn’t always translate into games. He shot 34.8 percent from 3-point range as a sophomore, 37.7 percent as a junior.

Good. Not great.

“I’ve been working really hard on my shot,” he said.

This is great: He made 5 of 6 3-pointers against Oregon State. He is shooting a Kerr-esque 60.5 percent from 3-point range (23 of 38).

“That’s my job,” Lavender said.

“When I come in the game, I’m one of the best shooters on the court. If I’m open, I’m going to shoot the ball. I’m just glad my teammates found me at the right time.”

His 18 points against the Beavers tied a career high. He also scored 18 against Bryant on Dec. 22. That was nice, but nobody much cared. Those points came in a blowout against the worst team on UA’s schedule.

Thursday night was different. Every shot he made was critical. In a conference game.

“It was definitely more meaningful to me because those shots came at a real clutch time and kind of sparked us,” he said.

That was the career highlight, but Lavender is still a role player. He is averaging 4.7 points and 10.5 minutes per game. The key part is that he is a role player who has accepted his role despite wanting more. Just like he talked about last March. That’s being team-centered.

And he might soon be getting a slightly longer taste.

“One of the things he has settled into doing is to come into the game not worrying about making mistakes or making shots,” Miller said.

“If he misses, it’s not like he has to look over at the bench. We believe in him. He has earned that. You look at him statistically, you can really look back at me and say, ‘Coach, does he deserve to play more?’

“And the answer to that is yes. Not by leaps and bounds, but giving him a bigger window is something that will make our team better at this point. That is a credit to Brendon.”

Hugs and smiles for everyone. Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images

Sean Miller: ‘The toughest teams survive’

Arizona Wildcats sophomore Derrick Williams didn’t even know the shot went in.

He just drives to the hoop as Texas’ Jordan Hamilton crashes into his legs, flips up a shot with his right hand, braces for the fall and hopes for the best.

With the game hanging in the balance.

A berth in the Sweet 16 vs. Duke on the line.

And the shot goes in.

“Surprised it went in,” Williams said in the postgame interview. “Glad it went in.”

Then, Williams made one more shot go in — the free throw for a 70-69 lead.

And then Arizona forced a slashing J’Covan Brown into a wild shot. And then time ran out while Williams — of course — was right there to prevent Gary Johnson from attempting a last-second shot after grabbing the rebound.

All this after the Wildcats forced Texas into a turnover — a five-second violation — as the Longhorns tried to in-bound the ball. And they only did that after coach Rick Barnes, somewhat questionably, called timeout with 14.5 seconds left and his team up two points. Shouldn’t he have just waited for Arizona to foul?

Whatever. That’s Texas’ problem.

Hey, is this fun or what?

I mean, what’s been Arizona’s margin of error in the past two games? About half a second?

UA is making its most satisfying run in the NCAA Tournament since Salim Stoudamire’s dagger against Oklahoma State in the 2005 Sweet 16, and it never hurts to have the luck of a lottery winner and the toughness of a backstreet brawler.

“In this tournament,” coach Sean Miller told his team in the locker room (video here), “the toughest teams survive. Nastiness is required. And I’m going to tell you right now, to a man, we earned that win.”

For the record the margin of error has three points: 77-75 vs. Memphis, 70-69 vs. Texas.

Derrick Williams hits the game-winning shot. Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

Yes, Arizona, has Superman — that’s what his teammates are increasingly calling Williams — but to a man, the Wildcats have needed every single contribution. Big or small. One Shining Moment … or completely lost in the box score.

The latest heroes not named Williams:

Solomon Hill. Best game ever. Sixteen points and eight rebounds, spinning his way through the Longhorns defense.

“He had a lot of post moves and a lot of NBA post moves, put-backs, rebounds,” Williams said. “If we didn’t have him playing aggressive and hard tonight, we would have lost this game.”

Kyryl Natyazhko. An invaluable defensive presence as Arizona essentially battled Texas to a draw on the boards and — voila! — turned freshman star Tristan Thompson invisible.

Brendon Lavender. Back-to-back 3-pointers in the first half.

Jordin Mayes. Best game ever. The freshman hit 4 of 4 3-pointers en route to a career-high 16 points.

It is the improbable that makes all the Madness possible.

“Not too many people had us winning this game,” Hill said. “I thought as a team if we pulled together and everybody came through with our deep rotation of 10 men … you could see it wore them out.”

With finishes like this, Arizona might be wearing out its fans. Go back to the Washington game in the Pac-10 tournament final. Have the Wildcats ever played three consecutive games that were still undecided with less than 1 second to play?

Unreal.

And yet it’s real … and it’s spectacular.

The plot couldn’t be juicier.

No. 1 seed Duke awaits at 6:45 p.m. on Thursday in Anaheim in a rematch of the 2001 national championship game. The Blue Devils opened as a double-digit favorite, which is perfect for the chip-on-their-broad-shoulders Wildcats.

“Today everybody had us losing. And we all took that to heart,” Williams said after beating Texas.

“You never want to be the underdog, but today we were the underdog, and we wanted to prove that we could beat anybody. We have more games to win. Two down, four more to go. That’s all I can say about that.”

Chances are, before this ride ends, Williams and the Wildcats will have a lot more to say about that.

More from the TucsonCitizen.com Sports Network:

Scott Terrell: Five-second fury: Breaking down the end of the Arizona-Texas game

Steve Rivera: Sean Elliott remembers his games against Duke

Steve Rivera: Lute on Arizona-Duke: It should be another great game

Javier Morales: Arizona Wildcats finally get rematch with Duke 10 years later

Christopher Wuensch: What was a-Twitter as Arizona beat Texas?

Arizona Republic columnist Paola Boivin: Unlikely contributors key part of Arizona’s win over Texas

So, how big of a favorite is Duke?

Arizona-Texas: Images of the game

Game blog: Wildcats do it again, advance to Sweet 16

Sean Miller shows his intensity during last weekend's game at Arizona State/Photo by Nick Oza, The Arizona Republic

Arizona is beginning to look more and more like Sean Miller‘s Xavier teams.

There is the defense. None of Miller’s five Xavier teams allowed teams to shoot better than 43.3 percent in a season. Arizona is at 43.0 percent this season.

There is the rebounding. Arizona is basically breaking even on the boards for the season, but is at plus-5 per game through eight conference contests. That’s more like it. Miller’s Xavier teams out-rebounded their opponents by more than four per game over five seasons.

There is the toughness, which the Wildcats showed in last weekend’s victory at Arizona State, exemplified best by freshman forward Kevin Parrom … or, as Javier Morales of our sports partner WildAboutAZCats.com calls him, “Scare ‘Em Parrom.”

And, ultimately, there is the winning.

Arizona has won three games in a row for the first time this season, emerging from a Pac-10 free-for-all to be alone in second place after Thursday night’s 76-68 victory over Stanford.

The Cats won despite a rec-game shooting performance, hitting 21 of 64 for 32.8 percent. It’s not like UA was jacking up poor shots; the shots — even a couple of dunk attempts — just weren’t falling.

That’s going to happen from time to time, but hustle and defense and rebounding should never go into a slump. And that’s why Arizona won. The Wildcats had 19 offensive rebounds leading to 20 second-chance points, and they had nine steals that contributed to Stanford’s 18 turnovers.

“If you’re a good defensive team and a good rebounding team, you have a chance to do it,” Miller said of winning when shooting such a low percentage. “The odds are against you. … But we’re making progress on defense and it really helped us tonight.”

He said it
“That’s just effort. They came at us hard in that aspect of the game. I hate to say it, but they wanted it more than we did.” — Stanford forward Landry Fields, on Arizona’s 19 offensive rebounds.

More-than-fair foul shooters
Derrick Williams, Kyle Fogg and Nic Wise have combined to take nearly 80 percent of Arizona’s free throws in Pac-10 play, which helps explain why Arizona is making nearly 80 percent of its attempts in Pac-10 play.

Or something like that.

In any case, if you had to send three guys to line, those would be the three. In Pac-10 games:

–Wise is hitting 84.9 percent (45 of 53).
–Fogg is making 82.6 percent (38 of 46).
–Williams is hitting 81.3 percent (52 of 64).

That’s just more of the same for Wise. Fogg’s increased attempts come from a recent epiphany — Hey, I can dribble the ball into the lane! Williams’ free throw shooting — shaky earlier in the season — helps explain why he has scored at least 20 points in four consecutive games.

Overall, Arizona is hitting 79.5 percent of its free throws in Pac-10 play, way ahead of second-place Arizona State (74.7 percent) in that category. UCLA is last at 61.7 percent.

He said it, Part II
“I can’t imagine nationally there are many forwards better than him. I don’t think he gets nearly the respect he deserves.” — Arizona coach Sean Miller, on Stanford’s Landry Fields, who scored 31 points.

Look … over there in the corner … it’s B-Lav
Arizona had a cold shooting night against Stanford but it did heat up for a couple of key runs, including a stretch late in the first half when it took the lead for good.

The Wildcats got 12 points out of four consecutive possessions — beginning with a 3-pointer by Jamelle Horne and ending with a traditional three-point play from Williams. In between, were two 3-pointers from Brendon Lavender.

Miller keeps saying that Lavender has been the team’s best 3-point shooter in practice, but you couldn’t tell from games, as the sophomore guard was 10 of 40 from behind the arc heading into Thursday night’s game. Lavender has been making his coach look like a liar for most of 20 games.

“Sometimes you hit a couple in a game and it really takes the pressure off of you,” Miller said. “It was great to see him make a couple. He helped us by doing that.”

What has helped Arizona was the addition of Parrom to the rotation 10 games ago. His emergence after a stress fracture injury has helped Miller more clearly define roles.

That has meant a significant reduction in minutes for Lavender. He averaged 25.6 minutes in non-conference games, but is playing just 10.8 minutes through eight Pac-10 games.

That is more in fitting with his ability … and if he can start hitting shots, then those can be 10 or 11 really good minutes for the Wildcats.

Battle for first place
Arizona will move into a tie for first place in the Pac-10 on Sunday if it knocks off Cal, which is 6-2 in the league after beating Arizona State on Thursday.

The Bears won in Tucson last season for the first time since 1995, getting a huge game out of point guard Jerome Randle, who scored 31 points and hit 8 of 11 3-point shots. He came out of a shooting slump Thursday by scoring 25 points against the Sun Devils.

“You just have to try your best to slow him down,” Fogg said. “He’s one of the quickest players in the country and he can shoot from anywhere, so it’s tough to guard him.”

The officials looked at the play for about four minutes, as the Wildcats watched, their hands in the air to signal a 3-pointer. Eventually, official Chris Rastatter stepped away from the monitor and gestured with his hand that the basket was good. Arizona wins.

Whew. All this to beat Lipscomb?

(I was watching on the small monitor here from Fox Sports Net Arizona. I thought it was late. But announcer Dave Sitton swears the ball was out by less than the width of a phone book … sounds OK to me.)

For Wise, SportsCenter here he comes.

POSTGAME REACTION: Miller: Horne talking about being out until February

* * *

4.7 seconds left: Adnan Hodzic boosts the Lipscomb lead to 82-80 with two free throws.

* * *

10.4 seconds left: More late-game misery by Arizona. Solomon Hill turns the ball over on a spin move in the lane, and Lipscomb converts two free throws on the other end for an 81-78 lead.

* * *

28.3 seconds left: Lipscomb takes a 79-78 lead on a 3-pointer by Johnny Lee. The Bisons have scored six consecutive points.

* * *

MoMo Jones: Four 3-pointers entering the game. Jones in the first half of overtime: three 3-pointers. Go figure.

* * *

3:35 left in overtime: Arizona’s Derrick Williams (13 points, nine rebounds) fouls out. Adnan Hodzic makes one free throw to bring Lipscomb to within 75-73. Hodzic has 33 points.

* * *

Overtime! Hard to believe. Arizona and Lipscomb going to overtime. 69-69. The Bisons tied the game on a Brian Wright 3-pointer with 1.5 seconds left. Smart play by Adnan Hodzic (whose name I have typed so much that I don’t have to look up it for the correct spelling anymore) who grabbed a miss underneath the basket and didn’t panic and kicked it back out. Nic Wise nearly pulled off a Miles Simon shot by heaving a 65-footer at the buzzer that went off the backboard and the rim.

* * *

With about a six-second differential between the game clock and the shot clock, Lipscomb lets Nic Wise dribble time off the clock — hey, that’s one guy you don’t want to foul — but the Bisons foul him with 12.2 seconds left. Wise makes both — he’s 10 of 10 tonight — for a 69-66 lead.

Wise at the line for the season: 46 of 48.

* * *

29.5 seconds left: Arizona has the ball and in clinging to a 67-66 lead. The Cats have been brutal in late-game situations in recent seasons. Nic Wise had a key play with a steal and a layup with a minute left.

* * *

3:47 timeout, Arizona 60, Lipscomb 59: Arizona’s guards have been much more aggressive in attacking the basket in the past few minutes, and it has paid off in trips to the line … or dishes to an open 3-pointer shooter. MoMo Jones gave UA the lead by making 1 of 2 foul shots with 4:03 left. Nic Wise is headed to the line after the timeout.

* * *

5:08 timeout, Arizona 57, Lipscomb 57: When did this turn into a vintage UA-UCLA game? The teams have been trading baskets, with a big 3-pointer by UA’s Kyle Fogg negated by a trey from Brian Wright.

* * *

6:44 left: Cats lead 54-52 on two free throws by Nic Wise, who is 40 of 42 from the line this season.

* * *

7:27 timeout, Lipscomb 52, Arizona 50: I didn’t take Alex Jacobson completely seriously when he told me in the preseason that he had been working really hard on his 15- to 17-foot jumper in the offseason. I asked him if he was comfortable shooting from that range in a game, and he said, “We’ll, I haven’t really been in a game.”

Well, the little-used junior center is in a game now, hitting two jumpers from about 15 feet and tipping in a rebound to make the score 52-50 with 7:55 left.

There is a lot of nervous energy in McKale Center right now.

* * *

11:17 timeout, Lipscomb 45, Arizona 42: Typical of how the game has gone for Arizona, Lipscomb has had two buzzer-beating attempts this half as the shot clock was winding down. On the first one, Josh Slater drained a 3-pointer. On the other possession, the Bisons missed the shot but got the rebound.

* * *

13:30 timeout, Lipscomb 43, Arizona 38: The crowd is (almost) getting into it now, standing as UA had a recent possession with a chance to tie with a 3-pointer. Alas, Solomon Hill traveled. The Bisons responded with a basket.

* * *

17:02 timeout, Lipscomb 38, Arizona 30: UA calls timeout after another basket by Adnan Hodzic (who now has 22 points). The Wildcats have opened the half by missing their first four shots (have they never seen a zone before this game?). Any chance of a hot start to fire up the crowd is gone.

* * *

Just a thought: Arizona was up 5-0, so the Cats were outscored 34-25 the rest of the half. Ah … there used to be days when UA’s bench players could beat a team like Lipscomb by 30 wearing blindfolds with one hand tied behind their backs. Now, I know Lipscomb is not a bad team at all; the Bisons are tested and were chosen preseason co-favorite of the Atlantic Sun Conference. But still …

* * *

Halftime: Lipscomb leads 34-30: The star of the show has been Bisons 6-9 center Adnan Hodzic, who has 18 points and has scored a variety of ways around the basket. Where can Arizona get one of these guys? Most UA fans hadn’t heard of him until about 45 minutes ago. Now, they know. This guy would be first-team All-Pac-10 (and not just because the league has a dearth of big men this season.)

OK, there’s a long way to go, but there is no energy in McKale Center (students are on break), the Cats are without injured Jamelle Horne … and imagine the fallout if, gulp, the Cats lost.

UA shot 9 of 25 from the field in the first half, and was 2 of 11 from behind the arc. Just as bad, Arizona was 10 of 18 from the free throw line.

* * *

2:26 timeout, Lipscomb 33, Arizona 29: Does this team miss Jamelle Horne that much? Well, at one point late in the first half, senior Nic Wise was on the floor with four freshmen. That’s not a good way to be. It shows in the score.

After the lackadaisical loss at San Diego State on Dec. 12, coach Sean Miller wanted to see better effort. Can’t say that he’s seen that when his team is trailing Lipscomb — Lipscomb! — late in the first half.

With 5:15 to go in the half, UA freshman Derrick Williams stepped up to the line for two free throws. He was 3 of 7 at that point, and the McKale Center crowd gave mock applause when he made both.

* * *

7:23 timeout, Lipscomb leads 24-21: The Bisons –they are from Nashville, Tenn. — won’t be awed by anything tonight. They have played better competition than Arizona this season, although they haven’t beaten any of those good team. They are 4-6 this season.

Stat to note: Adnan Hodzic has eight field goals. Arizona has seven.

* * *

8:33 timeout, Lipscomb leads 22-19: Arizona’s Sean Miller calls a timeout after Adnan Hodzic takes a lob and throws down a one-handed dunk for a three-point lead. He has 15 points. Getting nervous yet?

* * *

11:58 timeout, Arizona leads 16-14: The Cats don’t have an answer for Lipscomb 6-9 post Adnan Hodzic. (Don’t worry, most teams don’t — not even the good teams on the Bisons’ schedule, such as Vanderbilt, Ohio State and Cincinnati. Hodzic scored 18 points against each of those opponents.)

Hodzic is skilled around the basket, making 4 of 8 shots so far, including a pretty jump hook. He has nine points. Hodzic, from Sarajevo, Bosnia, is averaging 21.4 points.

* * *

15:17 timeout, Arizona leads 11-10: UA Kyle Fogg hit his first 3-pointer of the game, making him 13 of 21 for the season from behind the arc. That’s 61.9 percent.

* * *

Freshman big man Kyryl Natyakhko is in the starting lineup tonight for Jamelle Horne.

* * *

Arizona Wildcats junior forward Jamelle Horne, the team’s leading rebounder at 8.1 per game, is out for tonight’s game against Lipscomb because of a foot sprain suffered against San Diego State on Dec. 12. Horne was wearing a boot on his right foot during warmups.

Horne is averaging 11.1 points per game, third-best on the team.

There’s no immediate word on how much longer Horne will be out, although coach Sean Miller is sure to address the injury after the game.

Sophomore guard Brendon Lavender, who has missed the past two games because of a thigh injury, went through warmups and entered the game before the first media timeout.