Jamelle Horne, alone with his thoughts. Photo by Anthony Gimino, TucsonCitizen.com

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Jamelle Horne’s first reaction was to bring his hands, balled into fists, near his face. Disbelief. Dismay.

Time had run out. UConn was celebrating. Arizona was stunned.

Just moments earlier, Horne had launched a 3-point attempt from the right angle with about three seconds left. UConn star guard Kemba Walker watched in fear. This was it. Make or miss. Win or lose. Final Four on the line for both teams. With the ball in the air, Walker shouted, “Game time!”

The shot looked good. Horne said later it felt good.

It wasn’t good.

Arizona’s season — the one with 30 victories, a Pac-10 title and a thoroughly memorable and satisfying run to the West Region final — took an unkind bounce off the front of the rim and came to an end with a 65-63 loss to UConn on Saturday at the Honda Center.

Horne immediately turned to walk off the court toward the locker room. An official wouldn’t let him leave. It’s the NCAA Tournament. There is no damn place to hide.

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Washington's Matthew Bryan-Amaning is one of the Pac-10's post players who have done a lot of this vs. Arizona.
Photo by Mike Nelson-US PRESSWIRE

The Pac-10 regular-season championship. The national rankings. The Pac-10 Player of the Year and All-American honors for Derrick Williams. The Pac-10 Coach of the Year award for Sean Miller.

All nice.

All now in the past.

It is as Miller said in the CBS interview following the team’s regular-season-ending victory over Oregon on Saturday: “We have to add some defense to the equation starting from this point forward.”

That point forward begins Thursday afternoon against Oregon State in the quarterfinals of the Pac-10 tournament.

The game begins at about 3:40 p.m. Tucson time from the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Starting with this game, it’s all about defense.

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Kevin Parrom (left) helped lead the overtime effort after Derrick Williams fouled out.
Photo by Chris Morrison, US-PRESSWIRE

Nothing helps a team’s confidence, its chemistry, more than winning a close game on the road against a good team.

Not to mention winning in triple overtime.

With your star player on the bench.

The Arizona Wildcats, playing their craziest, most blood-pumping game of the season Saturday night, pulled out a 107-105 victory at Cal behind the New York swagger of point guard MoMo Jones and wing Kevin Parrom.

Arizona, back in the AP rankings for the first time in more than three years, is still climbing … and so much more seems possible than you might have dared to dream a few weeks ago. The Wildcats have won five in a row — three on the road — and are 20-4 overall. They lead the Pac-10 at 9-2.

“Sometimes in the long season that we go through, wins like this are very meaninful,” coach Sean Miller said in his postgame radio interview on KCUB 1290-AM. “Tonight, that’s certainly the case.”

Parrom scored 13 points through the overtime periods and had a career-high 25 points. Fellow sophomore Jones had 27 points, including 12 in the overtimes. He extended the game with a 3-pointer near the end of the second overtime.

Derrick Williams fouled out late in regulation with 12 points and 18 rebounds.

“I don’t think I have ever — nor has any of us — felt that we a one-man show,” Miller said.

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Doug Haller of the Arizona Republic has nicely compiled videos of what he considers the top 10 dunks of the season by a Pac-10 player.

It’s a fun list … even if it might be painful for Arizona fans to look at that monster follow jam by Oregon State’s Jared Cunningham.

Arizona has three entries to consider. We’ll put those YouTube videos here, and you can check out the top 10 dunks on Haller’s blog at azcentral.com.

Jesse Perry is looking at his first career start tonight for Arizona.
Photo by Mark Evans, TucsonCitizen.com

Arizona forward Jesse Perry, a junior college transfer, will make his first career start tonight against Robert Morris, taking the place of senior Jamelle Horne.

Perry is coming off a good effort at North Carolina State on Sunday, when he had 10 points and six rebounds off the bench.

Horne was in foul trouble in that game, playing only seven minutes. A game earlier, Horne managed just two points on 1 of 4 shooting and four rebounds in 19 minutes.

Coach Sean Miller has praised Perry’s effort and rebounding in recent weeks. Perry doesn’t provide the 3-point threat that Horne does, but he is more aggressive on the glass, especially on the offensive end of the court.

Perry is averaging 4.2 rebounds in 14.5 minutes per game. He has 21 offensive rebounds in 12 games.

Horne is averaging 4.0 rebounds in 19.3 minutes. He has only 11 offensive rebounds.

This is the second lineup change of the season for Miller, who used Brendon Lavender at shooting guard for one game — vs. Kansas in Las Vegas — in place of Kyle Fogg.

Miller has said recently that no starting job is safe, and this move reinforces that notion and puts the other starters — other than post player Derrick Williams — on notice.

More from the TucsonCitizen.com Sports Network:

Pregame notes from Javier Morales of WildAboutAZCats.com

Fabbians Ebbele, from Chicago, should be one of the new building blocks for the offensive line/Photo by Brad Allis, WildcatSportsReport.com

You might not have been able to tell from the kind of vocabulary offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh was using during Monday’s practice, but he seems to really like his young offensive linemen.

It’s this group of four true freshmen, combined with three redshirt freshman offensive linemen from the class of 2009, that will be the future foundation of everything the Wildcats want to do on offense.

For now, the true freshmen might give up a speed rush to Brooks Reed coming off the edge in practice. They might not go hard every time from snap to whistle. That’s OK. It’s early. What is encouraging is they look the part.

Mickey Baucus, Fabbians Ebbele, Carter Lees and Trent Spurgeon are part of what appears to be Mike Stoops’ most physically impressive freshman class.

“These guys, there are all in the 6-6 to 6-8 range, and they all have long arms, and they are all 290 to 300 pounds. They’re athletes,” Bedenbaugh, also the co-offensive coordinator, said of his linemen.

“But the biggest thing is, just mentally picking up the game. They’re getting a lot of reps right now, but it’s going to take some time.”

With six seniors and one junior (guard Vaughn Dotsy) in the two-deep, Arizona doesn’t have much margin or error with injuries. The experience drops off quickly. Redshirt freshman Eric Bender-Ramsay is listed as a possible backup at left tackle. Chris Putton is a second-stringer at left guard.

The opportunity could be there for a true freshman.

“We’ve got to have one of them develop in case we get into a situation where we need them,” Bedenbaugh said.

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Jamelle Horne (42) will have to rise above the competition from junior college transfer Jesse Perry next season/Photo by Wildcat Sports Report

When Arizona basketball coach Sean Miller spoke critically of senior-to-be Jamelle Horne last month, it seemed like a move designed to publically prod the enigmatic forward toward a better performance.

Maybe it worked.

Miller met with the media Tuesday afternoon — sort of a spring update on the program — and said this about Horne, who has been a starter for most of the past two seasons but with wild fluctuations in terms of effort and production:

“Jamelle has done everything we have asked him to do,” Miller said.

“He’s had a really good second semester academically. He played this year below 210 pounds. I don’t think that’s physical enough or big enough for what he wants to do and what we need him to do. Right away, he’s really jumped up in that area.”

Miller said Horne, having worked hard in the weight room, is at about 220 pounds.

“If you look at him, you notice the difference,” Miller said.

What everyone wants to see is a difference in attitude, too.

Last month, Miller said this about Horne:

“He has to do a better job of being a teammate. A better job of being about one thing only — winning. A better job of having a positive body language, regardless of whether things are going well for him.”

We’ll see.

The best thing Miller can do is keep the pressure on Horne. The coach can very clearly do that this season because he has more options. Arizona has depth. As coaches say, the prospect of sitting on the bench is a great motivator.

The Wildcats didn’t bring in junior college forward Jesse Perry to just sit on the bench.

Perry plays the same spots Horne does. Each is 6-foot-7. Each can play the small or power forward positions. It’s a little early to figure out lineup permutations, but Miller said they could play on the floor at the same time, but, more likely, Perry is directly coming after Horne’s playing time.

How will Horne respond?

“Like a lot of players, when does that light bulb go on?” Miller said.

“Sometimes it’s early. Sometimes it’s late. I do know this: A senior cares more about things than any other player on your team. It’s the last time. I think Jamelle is anxious to have a final year that we can all point to as being his best at Arizona.”

Each player in Arizona’s three-man recruiting class has a chance to be in the playing rotation next season. Freshman Jordin Mayes can play both guard spots and will back up MoMo Jones at point guard. Freshman Daniel Bejarano can play both wing spots and provide 3-point shooting (as can Mayes).

As for Perry …

“He really puts the ball on the floor. Versatile in his approach. He has a toughness about him. He is older. He can help us at a forward position right away. Not only does he have some toughness to him and age to him, but, like the other two (recruits), he is a very capable shooter,” Miller said.

“He rebounds the ball, gets to the foul line. Even though he’s not a 6-10 frontcourt player, he plays bigger than his height and gives us a much-needed player there.”

If Perry pushes Horne to be better, and Horne pushes Perry to be ready to make an impact right away, then Arizona is much better off. It’s that kind of competition throughout the roster that will drive practice and fuel better performances.

“To me, we have 10 or 11 players who are going to expect to play,” Miller said. “Not everyone is going win that race.”

Where does Jamelle Horne go from here? (Photo by WildcatSportsReport.com)

Arizona coach Sean Miller has some straight talk for senior-to-be Jamelle Horne.

“He has to do a better job of being a teammate. A better job of being about one thing only — winning. A better job of having a positive body language, regardless of whether things are going well for him,” Miller said Monday.

“He is going to have to really do some things this spring, summer and fall that will allow all of us to say, ‘You know what, Jamelle Horne had a great senior year.’”

Horne has been one of the most vexing Wildcats to come through the program in recent years. On the positive side is his athleticism. On the other side has been everything else: Low basketball IQ. Immaturity. Inconsistency.

You’ve seen it. You know the drill.

“Jamelle and I have had one talk, and he’s done a really, really good job since our season has ended — working hard, doing the right things,” Miller said. “That is way more important than any talk we can have. But we are going to have a number of others.”

Jamelle, a 6-foot-7 forward, will be the only senior on the team next season (although center Alex Jacobson will be a fourth-year junior).

Miller notes that Horne, like some of the others in the Arizona program, has never had offseason stability. For the first time in his UA career, Horne has the same coach and the same way of doing things for more than 12 consecutive months.

“Perhaps that can bring out his best in his final year,” Miller said. “I also recognize that for our team to be best we can be, he’s going to have to change. And he knows that.”

Horne averaged 9.4 points and 5.6 rebounds last season, and he surprisingly was the team’s best 3-point shooter, hitting 50 of 115 for 43.5 percent. But being physical hasn’t been part of his game, and for all his athleticism, he isn’t a dribble-drive kind of player.

He started 28 games last season, which is no guarantee of playing time next season. Arizona will have sophomore-to-be Kevin Parrom for a full season, and he fits the profile Miller is looking for in a wing player — a tough guy who can play defense.

Arizona also is expected to sign junior college forward Jesse Perry on Wednesday and is still in the hunt for power forward Kadeem Jack, from Rice High in Manhattan, N.Y. (Miller said Monday he hopes to add one player to this recruiting class, which includes signed shooting guard Daniel Bejarano and committed guard Jordin Mayes.)

Miller says, “I believe I owe Jamelle that,” referring to trying to get the best out of Horne as a senior. The coach says he sees it all the time — a player finally “gets it” as the finality of his senior season hits home.

“That is something you want in your program. You want seniors to go above and beyond and have the best year of their career,” Miller said, referencing the impact center Brian Zoubek had as a senior in helping Duke to the national championship.

Miller also said he’s tried to help seniors in the past and had to “throw him off in midseason, in terms of it wasn’t working for him and wasn’t working for our team.”

Bottom line: It’s up to Horne.

He has the talent to help.

Does he have the work ethic, the attitude and the desire?

“It’s a very crucial part of our success next year that Jamelle has the right perspective on his last year and is able to do some things the right way,” Miller said.

Related on TucsonCitizen.com:
New basketball facility helps Sean Miller’s plan fall into place

Nic Wise (right) and MoMo Jones celebrate after beating USC/Photo by WildcatSportsReport.com

OK, so let’s analyze Arizona in the Pac-10 tournament bracket. On second thought, let’s not.

Does it really matter?

Arizona plays UCLA on Thursday in the quarterfinals and faces a likely semifinal game with league champ Cal.

Good draw? Bad draw? Do you want to play a team you have defeated twice (like Arizona has done to UCLA)? Or would you have preferred to play a team that swept you in the regular season (like Oregon State).

Do you want see a zone defense or man-to-man?

Whatever. At this point, it’s all the same coin toss. Maybe you’d like to avoid the No. 1 seed before the championship game, but it’s not as if the Golden Bears have anybody in the Pac-10 shaking in the Nikes.

“It’s not about your opponent,” Arizona coach Sean Miller said.

“It’s about when you enter the court, are you really revved up to play, are you going to play with great effort, are you going to do the things that you worked on? Our defense will be much more about us winning than who we are playing? …

“There may be matchups that may be favorable, but a lot will depend on how that team is. Sometimes you catch a team at the right moment.”

Or not.

Who knows? In this season’s Pac-10, logic left the building a long time ago.

I’m not sure the other half of the bracket is any bargain. Washington has won four in a row overall and four in a row away from home after starting the season 0-6 on the road. Arizona State has won six of seven.

Unlike Cal (probably), both of those teams are in desperation mode, needing to add to their resume — or maybe just win the whole tournament — in order to the get the NCAAs.

“I can’t imagine a better setup for a conference tournament than the Pac-10,” Miller said. “There is going to be so much at stake. You are going to have a number of players and teams playing for the lives.”

FOUR COACHES IN FOUR YEARS, PART II
Much has been made about Arizona senior Nic Wise having four head coaches in four seasons. You know who might be the next player to have that dubious honor?

Ex-Wildcat Zane Johnson.

He was a freshman under Kevin O’Neill and played for Russ Pennell as a sophomore before transferring to Hawaii after last season. He redshirted this season for coach Bob Nash.

But the Warriors went 10-20 in Nash’s third season, finishing last in the nine-team WAC and missing out on the league tournament. Nash’s fate could be decided this week — he has one year left on his contract — and if Hawaii makes a change that will be four coaches in four years for Johnson.

Johnson, a shooting guard sitting out because of transfer rules, wasn’t able to do much with the team this season after undergoing offseason surgery to repair a patellar tendon.

ANOTHER REASON TO LIKE NIC WISE
There was a nice moment at the end of the Arizona-USC game that you probably saw on the telecast. Wise and freshman guard MoMo Jones embraced at mid-court for several seconds and you could tell they were talking in each other’s ear.

What were they saying?

“I was basically telling him that it is his turn now. I was handing over the keys to him,” Wise said.

“He’s the point guard of the future here. And he was telling me that he loves me for everything that I have done for him this year and vice-versa. We have a great relationship.”

Don’t give up those keys just yet, Nic. There’s still some driving to do.

JUST LIKE HIS PREDECESSORS …
My favorite moment of Arizona’s postgame press conference on Saturday? Arizona Daily Star beat writer Bruce Pascoe basically asked Miller what was the difference in junior forward Jamelle Horne, who had seven points and eight boards against UCLA and then 16 points and eight rebounds vs. USC.

Horne had been slumping for several weeks.

Miller’s answer, with a chuckle: “I’m not sure.”

Miller is now the third UA head coach who hasn’t quite been sure what to expect from Horne.

“I will say we’re going to stay with him and hope that he is really ready,” Miller said.

HERE’S A BIG MAN WHO COULD HAVE HELPED
It’s been hard to keep track of the comings and goings of Arizona recruits in the past few years, but here’s one that got away that Miller would have liked to have inherited: Greg Smith.

The center committed to Arizona for about a month in the summer of 2008 before deciding to stay closer to home and attend Fresno State. On Sunday, he was selected the WAC Freshman of the Year in a league that doesn’t often get such highly talented big men out of high school.

Smith averaged 11.8 points and 6.0 rebounds in the regular season, and while the WAC isn’t overflowing with quality big men, neither is the Pac-10, so maybe his numbers would have translated fairly well this season.

RANDOM NOTES
Miller said freshman forward Kevin Parrom, who has missed four games with a foot injury, could be ready for Arizona’s first game in the Pac-10 tournament. … In the 13 years of the Pac-10 tournament, including the initial stint from 1987 to 1990, only three teams have not been the No. 1 seed. They are Washington State, Arizona State and USC. … Arizona has played 14 games decided by six points or less. The Wildcats are 7-7 in those games. You win some, you lose some.

More coverage from the TucsonCitizen.com Sports Network:
WildAboutAZCats.com: UA swept by last-place team for first time in Pac-10 history
UASports.net: Streak or die
Derrick Williams selected Sporting News Freshman All-American

Now that I’ve had time to digest Arizona’s loss to Arizona State, catch up on my Olympic curling and have a couple of cups of coffee, here are five thoughts on UA basketball:

Derrick Williams was the lone UA player to speak to the media after the painful loss to Arizona State / Photo by Wildcat Sports Report

1. Don’t blame Sean Miller just because he sat at the table when the bill was due.

Players leaving early, lost recruiting classes, two years of interim head coaches, all kinds of off-court drama, four systems in four seasons … none of this is Miller’s fault.

Amid all the uncertainty, Arizona duct-taped together NCAA Tournament seasons in each of the past two years, thanks to NBA talents such as Jerryd Bayless, Jordan Hill and Chase Budinger.

Miller has a down-the-road NBA prospect in freshman Derrick Williams, who has to play out of position right now at center.

Take a look at an 18-year span of Arizona hoops, from 1987-88 to 2004-05. Amazingly, the Wildcats were no worse than a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament in all but two of those seasons.

Could Nic Wise have started for any of those teams? No.

Kyle Fogg? Definitely not.

Kevin Parrom? He’d probably be redshirting.

Jamelle Horne? He’d be a Gumby.

Derrick Williams? Yeah, he might have started for a few of those teams, but he mostly would have had to get behind a veteran in the frontcourt rotation.

Point is, let’s not kid ourselves about the talent Miller inherited.

2. Miller’s media policy needs tweaking.

Miller is definitely a “control the message” kind of coach, allowing no regular one-on-one interviews, very limited access to assistant coaches, no open locker room … with nearly everything funneled through those face-the-cameras news conferences that don’t inspire in-depth discussions.

I know, I know. This will come across as a media whine. But when only Williams, a freshman, is made available after Sunday’s loss to Arizona State, the real losers are the fans who might be interested in a range of emotions and explanations.

As it is now, pretty much everybody — from the Arizona Daily Star, to the TucsonCitizen.com Sports Network, to the local TV stations, to the websites — has the same audio and video in the same antiseptic environment.

Miller doesn’t have to open the locker room (although Lute Olson did for much of his time at Arizona, other than when he was mad at the media), but he also doesn’t have to insist on the press conference setting, either.

As was the case for years, several players could be made available on the court or in a room in McKale during weekly interview times, allowing for less-informal — and better — discussions.

In those cases, as a media member, you could work on stories or angles that didn’t have to be shared with all your competitors. And the fans received cumulative deeper coverage to help satisfy their passion.

3. I can’t hate Nic Wise.

He’s not the ultimate leader or the ultimate point guard. He’s not headed to the NBA.

In the past three seasons, he’s had to play minutes far above his skill level, and he hasn’t always made the play. But he’s certainly not afraid to take a big shot. He’s made a few of them, too.

Bottom line: The season would have been disaster without him.

4. Let’s put Arizona’s chances in the Pac-10 tournament at 14.3 percent.

I’m still bullish on UA’s ability to pull it all together and get hot in the Pac-10 tournament, where a championship would earn a ticket to the NCAAs.

Let’s break it down. USC is out because of self-imposed sanctions. Oregon isn’t good enough to compete. I don’t like Stanford’s depth or its road record.

That leaves seven teams of fairly equal ability, with the capacity to get hot or to really stink. Let’s give them equal 1-in-7 chances … or 14.3 percent.

5. It will once again be an Arizona-UCLA league.

Miller is lucky in this sense: He came into the Pac-10 not having to chase any program.

He doesn’t have to play catch-up on the court or on the recruiting trail to a UCLA program in the midst of three consecutive Final Four appearances. The Bruins have struggled right along with the Wildcats this season.

Arizona State should be more-than-solid for years to come, although the program has a lower ceiling than UCLA or Arizona. Washington hasn’t shown staying power. Cal might win its first Pac-10 title in 50 years, but will lose four seniors.

Other teams will rise and fall, but only UCLA and Arizona have dynasty potential. And they will go into next season neck-and-neck in the race to get back to the top.