The Wildcats have a good time late in in their victory over Duke.
Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images.

Duke’s Coach K: ‘We had no stop for them’

I’m still waiting. Still waiting for Duke to make a run. For Duke to answer. For Arizona to kick the ball around a bit, take some bad shots, to let the Blue Devils back in the game.

I’m still waiting.

I’m still waiting for Arizona to stop treating Duke as shabbily as Robert Morris. For Derrick Williams to stop being Superman.

I’m still waiting to see if I can make sense of it all.

But when what you just saw defies the logic you thought you had acquired from 36 previous games, it’s probably time to simply submit to one feeling: Belief.

“Nobody really believed in us and that put a chip on our shoulder, like nobody in the world thought we could win this game,” sophomore forward Kevin Parrom told reporters in the locker room. “It’s a great feeling.”

The Wildcats’ wrecked the top-seeded Blue Devils 93-77 in the Sweet 16 on Thursday. They ruthlessly deconstructed Duke in the second half. Out-worked them in the second half. Out-hustled them. Out-Duked them.

Arizona out-scored Duke by 22 points in the second half, out-rebounded the Blue Devils by 15.

Who does that to Duke? Who the heck are these guys?

“We had no stop for them,” said Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski. “They didn’t miss many shots there for a while. They were already confident, but I thought their confidence level went up tremendously.”

Arizona did what it said it would do. You have to believe them. The Wildcats said they would match Duke’s intensity. They said they would be “all in.” They said they would be “nasty.”

“I think the word of the day, the week, the month has been for us to go out and be nasty,” senior forward Jamelle Horne told reporters in the locker room.

Said coach Sean Miller on his postgame radio show: “We had a saying going into the game: Attack or be attacked.”

Can’t wait to hear what he comes up with Saturday for the West regional final against UConn.

Attack. Be nasty. It’s all working — and at the right time. Talk about that good timing: You could make the case that four players have had their finest Wildcat performances in the past two games.

Freshman Jordin Mayes had a career-high 16 points vs. Texas. Sophomore Solomon Hill had 16 points and eight rebounds in that game.

Against Duke, point guard MoMo Jones had 16 points, tied his career high with six assists and had no turnovers against a Duke defense that ranks among the nation’s best.

Where's his cape?
Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

And then there’s Superman.

He had 25 first-half points, hitting 5 of 6 3-point shots, willing Arizona to stay in the game, using his superpowers to morph into an un-guardable combination of Sean Elliott, Andre Iguodala, Salim Stoudamire and Brian Williams.

“He’s a beautiful player,” Krzyzewski said.

Williams finished with a career-high 32 points, 13 rebounds and a couple of beautiful, powerful dunks. The only thing missing was that he didn’t jump over a Kia.

Williams had one of the best 20 minutes of basketball in school history. Then the rest of the Cats joined in and played one of the best halves in school history.

“Derrick kept us in there in the first half with maybe one of the best halves that you have probably ever seen out of a player against Duke,” assistant coach Archie Miller said on the 1290-AM postgame interview.

“Then in the locker room at halftime, the whole deal was rebounding. … Our guys on the glass on the second half, that was probably as good an effort as we have had. It gave us an opportunity to run, and it also stymied them a little bit. It really gave us a lot of confidence.

“I just can’t say enough about the effort. The second half was probably as good as we have played.”

The team that Arizona was — the one that had Sean Miller questioning its maturity several weeks ago — is not the team that Arizona is.

Just one win in the NCAA Tournament would have been nice, and then we would have put a pretty bow on Miller’s second season.

But now all things — and I do mean all things — are possible.

You do believe, don’t you?

Also from the TucsonCitizen.com Sports Network:

Javier Morales: Where does this win rank among UA’s most significant victories?

Steve Rivera: Shades of 1997 all over again

Scott Terrell: Nasty Cats: Arizona again exceeds expectations, needs to stay greedy

Early look at UConn, Kemba Walker

Arizona-Duke: Images of the game

What the national media is saying

Game blog: Duke dispatched

Here come Derrick Williams and the Wildcats. Photo by Jeff Gross, Getty Images Sport

Arizona Wildcats coach Sean Miller left behind his practice sheet after finishing with interviews Tuesday in McKale Center.

Nothing super secretive. It’s not like it would be valuable in enemy Duke’s hands.

And I don’t think it’s breaking protocol to disclose his daily motto at the top:

All in. Do what we do. No excuses. No explanations.

That about sums it up.

Miller probably has a million ways to motivate, and most of this group of Wildcats has been absorbing his relentless prodding for almost two years. The result is a team in his own image — tough, scrappy. It’s a pack of bulldogs.

Arizona teams of the recent past might have been dismissed as “all athlete, no heart” but these Cats are mostly the opposite.

The words from Miller’s postgame talk after beating Texas still echo: “Nastiness is required.”

I asked MoMo Jones earlier this week what that phrase really meant to him.

“It means to be physical, it means to rebound the ball, it means not to get punked most of all,” he said.

“It means to leave everything on the court and play with as much heart as you can play with, and with as much emotion as you can play with.”

So, add that to the list: All in. No explanations. Nastiness is required. Don’t get punked.”

It all leads to this. The Sweet 16 matchup against Duke tonight in Anaheim. The Wildcats are playing their best ball of the season but will have to muster their best effort of the season.

Miller has been throwing rose petals at Duke’s feet all week for how hard the Blue Devils’ play. All that other stuff — 3-point shooting, Derrick Williams passing out of the double team, surviving Duke’s defensive on-ball pressure, the return of Duke freshman star guard Kyrie Irving, Kevin Parrom’s ankle — won’t mean a thing if the Wildcats can’t match that intensity from the opening tip.

“You don’t want to be that team that’s just giddy about being there,” Miller said.

That might have worked for Arizona’s 2009 team that eked into the NCAA Tournament under interim coach Russ Pennell. With favorable matchups, the Wildcats went to the Sweet 16 … and were promptly handed their lunch and run out of Indianapolis by Louisville.

“I feel like this team is more focused and determined to win,” said junior guard Brendon Lavender. “Our freshman year, we didn’t have that same motivation. This year, we’re really on top of everything.”

Giving all-out effort, being on top of everything, won’t guarantee anything against top-seeded Duke. But the Wildcats will have no chance without it.

And they seem to be re ready to give just that, to be all in.

“It’s going to be probably one of the nastiest of the games you’ve seen in your life,” Jones was quoted as saying by FoxSportsArizona.com’s Jack Magruder.

“I’m pretty sure there are going to be heated moments. People are going to be in each other’s face. People are going to be pushing each other for rebounds. People fighting. Elbows thrown. I mean, it’s the Sweet 16. You’re fighting to win a national championship. You’re fighting to get to the Elite Eight. You’re fighting to live another day.”

More Arizona-Duke coverage from TucsonCitizen.com:

Javier Morales: Arizona vs. Duke: Starting frontcourt matchup

Javier Morales: Starting perimeter matchup

Javier Morales: Bench matchup

Javier Morales: Ex-Wildcats leery of Coach K’s impact on the referees in Sweet 16 game

Javier Morales: Arizona finally gets rematch with Duke 10 years later

Steve Rivera: Great games remembered — Arizona vs. Duke

Steve Rivera: Lute Olson on Arizona-Duke: ‘Should be another great game’

Miller has ultimate respect for Coach K … and little success against him

Ice-cold Blue Devils? Arizona can only hope

Confessions of a Duke fan

Mike Krzyzewski: Derrick Williams ‘doesn’t get the publicity’

Arizona in the NCAA’s: It’s a charmed life

Sweet 16 rewind: Arizona’s greatest upset over No. 1 Kansas in 1997

Brad Allis: Sweet 16 notes

Arizona Republic columnist Paola Boivin: Arizona must be confident against Duke

Letting Kyle Singler shoot 3-pointers seems to be a keen strategy.
Photo by Bob Donnan-US PRESSWIRE

Duke has lost four times this season. There is a common theme.

“They have struggled from the 3 sometimes in their losses,” Arizona Wildcats coach Sean Miller said. “And even in their tight games.”

And Miller was being kind. Duke hasn’t just struggled sometimes from 3-point range in its losses. The Blue Devils have struggled all the time.

Let’s just look at those defeats.

Duke:

–Was 11 of 35 from 3-point range in a 66-61 loss to Florida State.

–Hit 5 of 26 while losing 93-78 to St. John’s.

–Made only 4 of 20 in a 64-60 defeat to Virginia Tech.

–Was 6 of 27 from beyond the arc in an 81-67 loss to North Carolina.

Add it all up … and Duke has shot 24.1 percent (26 of 108) from 3-point range in its losses.

“What you want to do is really defense the 3-point line as best you can,” Miller said. “I will say that is something we have been very good at from start to finish, and we’re going to need to be really good at that on Thursday.”

True. The Wildcats have been among the national leaders all season in 3-point defense. That’s partially due to Miller’s all-the-time man-to-man defense, with one of its core principles being tough on-ball pressure.

Arizona enters Thursday’s Sweet 16 game against Duke in Anaheim ranked fifth nationally in 3-point field-goal percentage defense, allowing teams to make 29.1 percent.

The Blue Devils like to shoot the 3. They do it often and (almost always) do it well.

They have made 286 of 764 attempts, 37.4 percent.

Arizona has made 283 of 709 attempts, 39.9 percent.

Duke has many notable shooters, including Nolan Smith, Seth Curry, Andre Dawkins and Kyrie Irving, who returned from a long absence due to injury last week during the NCAA Tournament.

The Wildcats will take their chances with slumping Kyle Singler; he is just 2 of 25 from behind the arc in the past seven games. With any Arizona luck, Singler won’t have a Mike Dunleavy-like shooting performance from the 2001 national title game against the Wildcats.

“One of the goals against them is to do a really good job — as good as any team has done — in trying to make sure their 3-point shots are challenged,” Miller said. “They can really break the game open when they are hitting 3-point shots. …

“When they are making 3-points, to me they’re almost unstoppable.”

Arizona will have to defend like crazy … and then hope for the best.

This old T-shirt sums up how many college basketball fans feel about Duke.
Photo courtesy of Steve Rivera, TucsonCitizen.com

I have a confession to make.

I don’t hate Duke.

In fact, I used to love Duke.

I know. I know. College basketball fans — especially those Arizona Wildcat fans who know the history of the series between the programs and who are hyper-tuned to the frequency of East Coast Bias — are supposed to despise the big, bad Dookies.

It’s like hating the Dallas Cowboys (I do) or the Los Angeles Lakers (I really do) or the New York Yankees (I really, really do).

But Duke? I kind of feel like I was there from the beginning with Mike Krzyzewski.

Let me explain.

The year was 1981 and I was a freshman at Brophy Prep in Phoenix. The dear ol’ Broncos just happened to have a superstar basketball player — senior Mark Alarie.

(At one outdoor rally early in the school year, I ended up standing next to Alarie, who took one look at me, turned to his buddies and commented, “These freshmen are getting shorter every year.” Good one, Mark; how’s the weather up there?).

Basketball was a big deal around the school that season, with Brophy being one of the best teams in the state and Alarie, a 6-8 forward, facing off in some epic battles against 6-11 Brad Lohaus of Greenway High. In my first “journalism” job, I was responsible for calling in the home game box scores to the Arizona Republic.

“Alarie with 32 points … that’s A-l-a-r-i-e. … “

And it certainly was a big deal that Alarie was going to play basketball all the way across the country at a school named Duke. He was part of Krzyzewski’s most important recruiting class, the one that arrived after a 10-17 record in Coach K’s second season and would launch Duke into becoming the hated mega-monster it is today.

That class included Alarie, Johnny Dawkins, Jay Bilas and David Henderson … and Coach K put them all to work early.

WHY DO YOU HATE DUKE?

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Now, remember, for as overexposed as Duke is today, we we’re all enjoying a bright new spotlight called ESPN back then. The four-letter network debuted in 1979, and one of its early darlings — in addition to Australian Rules Football — was college basketball.

Duke basketball under Krzyzewski, ESPN and Dick Vitale all grew to outrageous proportions at the same time.

But, at the time, it was pure gold for a kid from Phoenix wanting to follow the prospects of his old schoolmate. The then-underdog Blue Devils, adding pieces such as Tommy Amaker and Danny Ferry, went from 11-17 in Alarie’s first season, to 24-10 to 23-8 to 37-3 and playing in the national title game.

They lost to Louisville 72-69.

With Duke, I had a “Before They Were Stars” affection.

While Alarie went on to an injury-plagued NBA career, the Blue Devils marched on to national championships in 1991 and 1992 with the core of Grant Hill, Christian Laettner and Bobby Hurley. Fun teams, fun times, and dispatching UNLV in the 1991 Final Four was classic.

After that, Duke became over-promoted, over-praised, over-everything. And, for much of the past decade, after beating Arizona in the 2001 title game, the Blue Devils became relatively insignificant, advancing past the Sweet 16 once in eight years.

I mostly stopped caring.

But I could never work up a good hatred of Duke, even if Laettner was the most despised college basketball player ever … even if Coach K gets all the calls … even if the Blue Devils are arrogant … even if we get Duke shoved down our throats by ESPN …

So go ahead and hate Duke. I understand. I’ll still have my fond memories.

Looking for a good read on the old days of Arizona-Duke? Read this Curry Kirkpatrick feature from Sports Illustrated from Jan. 1988.

Arizona hopes to see Derrick Williams in this pose frequently vs. Duke. Photo by Peter G. Aiken-US PRESSWIRE

Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, in comments made to media before the Blue Devils departed Tuesday for Anaheim, talked about Arizona sophomore forward Derrick Williams.

Williams has been a first-team or second-team All-American, as selected by various organizations.

“Derrick has to be a first-team All-American,” Coach K said. “I don’t know how he doesn’t get the publicity.”

(Of course, Duke detractors would say that the Blue Devils get more than their fair share of that.)

What Krzyzewski marveled at was Williams’ 313 free throw attempts, which leads the nation. That’s 8.7 per game … which doesn’t even tell the whole story, according to Krzyzewski.

“When he is going to the line, he gets his team to the line,” Krzyzewski said. “He gets his team into the bonus and double bonus. So whatever points he scores, he gets more points that he doesn’t get credit for that he gets for his teammates.”

Williams is averaging 19.1 points per game, the only double-digit score on the team. Arizona has four others who average between 7.8 and 9.5 points.

The Wildcats have five players who average at least one made 3-pointer per game and has others, such as Brendan Lavender and MoMo Jones who can hit the long-range shot.

“They can shoot the ball,” Krzyzewski said. “It’s not like you can just double and leave people. They’re a well-rounded offensive team and they play hard defense.”

Arizona and Duke will play Thursday in the Sweet 16 in Anaheim.

Kevin Parrom clutches his ankle after he landed on the foot of a Texas player on Sunday. Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images

Arizona Wildcats coach Sean Miller delivered good news Tuesday afternoon about the status of sophomore wing Kevin Parrom for the Duke game.

Parrom suffered a sprained ankle in the first half against Texas on Sunday; he returned only briefly. Miller said after that 70-69 victory that Parrom’s availability could be limited this week.

Now, he’s more hopeful.

“Kevin has made a lot of progress. That is one positive thing,” Miller said.

“When he went down in the game, sometimes you don’t know the degree of the injury. We feared it was more of a high ankle sprain, which sometimes can take longer to recover.

“But he’s worked tirelessly around the clock. Justin (Kokoskie) is a great trainer. I believe just from watching where he was and where he is, that he will be able to play and be effective.”

Miller expected Parrom to “practice some” Tuesday afternoon before the Wildcats departed for Anaheim, where they will play Duke in the Sweet 16 on Thursday.

“The good news is we still have a couple of days,” Miller said on Parrom’s ankle. “We’re not on a long flight.”

Although Parrom might be short of 100 percent on Thursday, he is a key reserve for the Wildcats, averaging 7.8 points and 3.4 rebounds in about 20 minutes per game. He also has hit 37 of 89 3-point attempts (41.6 percent), and he is part of the depth that has driven Arizona this season — as well as the All-American play of Derrick Williams.

“On any given night, anybody can step up,” said Arizona sophomore point guard MoMo Jones.

“Everybody kind of looks at Derrick, and Derrick is going to be Derrick night in and night out. We all can contribute and we all can have big games. As seen this year, we all can go through stretches where we play our best basketball.

“That’s why we’re in the Sweet 16. We’re not in the Sweet 16 because of Derrick or because of Coach Miller being the (Pac-10) Coach of the Year. We’re in the Sweet 16 because we’re a team.

“We win as a team, we lose as a team, we fight as a team.”

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

Duke's standouts include Kyle Singler (left) and Miles Plumlee. Photo by Bob Donnan-US PRESSWIRE

Arizona sophomore Derrick Williams was 9 years old when the Wildcats last played Duke — in the 2001 national championship.

Duke won.

Not sure how much he remembers about that, if anything, but he is not alone in this sentiment:

“Everybody wants to beat Duke when they’re younger,” Williams said after Sunday’s 70-69 victory over Texas, “and hopefully we can do that.”

The old rivals will meet in the Sweet 16 in Anaheim, Calif., on Thursday.

The Blue Devils, seeded first in the West Region, are big favorites against No. 5 Arizona. Duke opened as a 10-point favorite.

Related: Lute Olson on Arizona-Duke: ‘It should be another classic’