Nick Johnson’s defense will be key to stopping Siyani Chambers and short-circuiting Harvard’s attack. Photo by Casey Sapio-USA TODAY Sports

SALT LAKE CITY — Arizona takes on Harvard for a berth in the Sweet 16, and I trust the Wildcats defense to get this down.

Harvard is more athletic than a typical Ivy League team, but Arizona, as it did against Belmont on Thursday, has the superior size and talent. Sometimes, you don’t have to make things more complicated than that.

Arizona’s Nick Johnson has taken the defensive assignment on all manner of talented point guards in recent weeks, from lightning fast Jahii Carson, to big Spencer Dinwiddie, to passing ace Larry Drew II … and now look for him to get after Harvard freshman Siyani Chambers.

(Arizona assistant coach Book Richardson calls Chambers a consummate point guard.)

Sophomore wing Wesley Saunders is the Crimson’s leading scorer at 16.5 points per game, with Solomon Hill likely drawing the primary defensive assignment there.

Although Harvard is smaller — center Kenyatta Smith is the only starter taller than 6-5 — the Wildcats don’t have to be worry about this being a bad matchup for 7-footer Kaleb Tarczewski. Smith isn’t the type of player who can pull Tarczewski away from the basket with his outside shooting. Zeus can stay in his comfort zone close to the basket, and the Crimson will get precious few second-chance points because of Arizona’s tall front line.

Harvard is capable of an epic game from behind the arc, and results from a difficult non-conference schedule suggest a competitive game. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is close well into the second half, but Arizona’s depth, defense and dominance on the glass will eventually kick in.

The Wildcats wear down the Crimson late and win 69-60.

Arizona drew three charging calls against Colorado, including this one that sent Kevin Parrom flying. Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images

LAS VEGAS — The Arizona Wildcats don’t have ready-to-go NBA first-round talent. They don’t have a go-to scorer. They don’t have a pure point guard. They don’t have an all-the-time fearsome defense.

What they have to have, what they often have not had, is a crazy-eyed sense of desperation. A we’ll-play-harder-than-you attitude. A big, fat chip on their shoulders.

Maybe, just maybe, now they’re getting it.

The game against Arizona State last Saturday was a sign. But it was only one game, on Senior Night, against a rival. The Cats would have qualified for extras in The Walking Dead if they didn’t have a pulse.

Say goodbye to the Zombie Wildcats.

Arizona needed every bit of an inspired effort to hold off hard-charging Colorado, 79-69, in the Pac-12 tournament quarterfinals Thursday, further gathering momentum and establishing a style of play heading into the NCAAs.

“We played really hard. That’s what matters,” said guard Nick Johnson. “Playing hard is what will win games.”

Said guard Mark Lyons, “When we play hard, we’re tough to beat.”

It sounds so simple. So simplistic. It begs the question: Why the heck were there stretches when Arizona wasn’t playing so hard as its conference season began to decay?

Whatever. Old news now.

Arizona seems to have found something. Johnson seems to have found something.

He scored a team-high 18 points, including the key basket when Colorado had trimmed a 14-point deficit to 71-69 with less than a minute to play.

Johnson got the ball on the right side, worked Askia Booker down low, twisted and squeezed through just enough space to make a layup with 34.6 seconds left.

After Lyons pushed the lead to six with a pair of free throws, Johnson swatted Booker’s 3-point attempt out of bounds. Johnson made 6 of 7 shots vs. Colorado after hitting only 9 of 38 in his five previous games against the Buffs.

Johnson has excelled in the past two games after slumping late in the season.

“I think I’m now just getting into my groove, getting that back, you can say,” he said.

Has Sean Miller been making this face in practice? Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images

“We had the last game against ASU and I shot well. I took it personally in this game with how I’ve played against Colorado. I wanted to play well and hit my open shots. …

“With my personality, playing hard, that’s when I’m at my best. I got away from that a little bit in the middle of the Pac-12 season. I’m starting to get it back right now.”

Just in time.

Coach Sean Miller has been pushing buttons and decided to hit the button called “Push.”

He pushed the Wildcats hard in the week before the Arizona State game, harder, he said, than he has ever worked a team in mid-March, when coaches typically ease off the accelerator after a long season.

Miller’s strategy worked then. It is working now.

“We were all really happy with that after the Arizona State win,” said freshman center Kaleb Tarczewski.

“We felt really good. He asked us, ‘Is it good that we keep practicing like this?’ We said, ‘Yeah, we want to keep going hard every day in practice. We think it’s going to make us a better team.’ So that’s what we did this week.”

The Wildcats’ season began with high expectations, and they were chosen, by a hair, to win the Pac-12 regular season. That didn’t happen. UCLA won it, beating Arizona twice along the way, and the Cats will look for revenge Friday night in the conference tournament semifinals.

Whatever point spread the oddsmakers here in Las Vegas decide to slap on this game, the Wildcats need to play like their 20-point underdogs.

Arizona was once No. 3 in the country this season, but the Cats are no bullies and had no reason for swelled egos. Miller can’t merely roll the ball on the court and say, ‘Go win.’

Forget swagger. Arizona must define its season by its sweat, by playing differently than it did in two losses to the Bruins.

“The UCLA games were a point in season when we were not really locked in with our defense,” Johnson said.

“We gave them a lot of easy shots. We feel in the last two games we really turned things around, starting in practice. Just playing hard.”

Nick Johnson celebrates after making a second-half basket against Arizona State. Photo by Casey Sapio-USA TODAY Sports

Arizona Wildcats sophomore guard Nick Johnson hasn’t missed a game in two years. Perhaps it just seems like it.

The Nick Johnson of November, December and early January re-appeared for Arizona just in time for the Cats to bring down the curtain on the regular season, as they eventually ran away from Arizona State for a 73-58 victory at McKale Center.

Johnson scored a team-high 17 points — including a one-man 7-0 run that squashed the Devils’ second-half charge — and otherwise stuffed the box score and the highlight reel in all the right ways.

Three steals. Three assists. No turnovers in 36 minutes. A huge one-handed dunk over Carrick Felix.

Senior forward Kevin Parrom smiled at the postgame interview table and said slyly, “It was good to have him back and hopefully he stays here.”

It hasn’t been easy to peg anything about these Wildcats, so up and down in the conference season, managing only to split their past eight games, but a rejuvenated Johnson would be huge as the postseason begins at the Pac-12 tournament next week.

He had scored in double figures in just two of the past nine games. The 17 points marked his best output since he has 23 vs. UCLA on Jan. 24. His reputation as a lock-down perimeter defender had soured, too.

“If he’s not energized defensively or playing with confidence on offense, we’re not nearly as good as team,” coach Sean Miller said.

“It’s not just his responsibility to play good; it’s everyone’s. But today he was a big reason why we were able to win. He came out there today and just played the game. Had fun, played hard, was himself. And that’s when he’s the best player he can be.”

Arizona State wing Jonathan Gilling, who managed a mere three points on 1-of-4 shooting, called Johnson “strong, quick and aggressive” on defense.

“And annoying,” Gilling added.

That’s the Johnson that was probably the Wildcats’ MVP through a 12-0 non-conference season that took them to No. 3 in the polls.

Johnson is one big piece to the Wildcats having a successful March. He knows what the biggest one is — and Arizona showed that it might have sifted through the late-season nonsense and found that missing ingredient, too.

“I feel good,” Johnson said.

“But everything started with our team defense. This past week in practice was all about defense — getting stops and getting out on the fast break.”

Arizona State did shoot 46.5 percent, higher than Miller would like to see from an opponent, but that number didn’t reflect the true nature of the game. Arizona forced 17 turnovers and dominated the boards, finishing with a 35-23 edge.

The Devils had only three second-chance points. To use the words of Parrom from another season and another game against ASU: “No easy baskets.”

That energy on defense was no accident.

“We had a really hard week of practice,” Miller said.

“I don’t know if I have ever gone longer or harder in mid-March than we did this week. It wasn’t coaching staff vs. the players; I think everybody just wanted to get back to becoming a good defensive team.

“Today, Arizona State earned their points. We played hard and collectively on defense. We’re just a much better team and much more difficult to beat when we’re locked in and playing hard on defense.”

Johnson and the defense showed up when the game was at its tightest in the second half. Arizona’s 15-point halftime lead was down to five, at 50-45, with 10:46 to go.

Johnson scored the next seven points of the game — a 3-pointer, two free throws and a layup — in a span of 80 seconds. And that was that. The Devils were done.

In that 80-second span, Johnson had more points than Arizona State would score in a nearly nine-minute stretch that extended past when the Cats took their largest lead of the game at 73-50 with 2:11 to play.

Johnson slumped down the stretch last season. Arizona can only hope he’s working toward a peak.

The guy who is averaging 11.6 points, 3.6 rebounds, a team-high 3.1 assists … with all that high-energy athleticism? That’s who Arizona needs.

“He’s one of the best defenders on our team, if not the best defender,” Parrom said.

“I think he needs to continue that for us to go deep in the Pac-12 tournament and the NCAA Tournament. … I want to get to the Final Four.”

Related: Cats off to Pac-12 tournament as the No. 4 seed

A big shout out to all my seniors! Thankful for each and everyone of you! @kingxsolo @kevinparrom3 @onlymoog @quecrawford @maxwiepking52

— Nick Johnson (@Air_Zona13) March 10, 2013

Nick Johnson scored all 12 of his points in the second half. Photo by Casey Sapio-USA TODAY Sports

This was the team that beat Florida, that beat Miami, that beat San Diego State, that was ranked as high as No. 3 in the nation.

The Arizona Wildcats, after a sleepy opening 12 minutes, ran Washington out of McKale Center on Wednesday night, winning 70-52 and showing all the pieces that can make them dangerous in March.

The 3-point defense wasn’t “pathetic” — which is the word coach Sean Miller repeatedly used Tuesday in describing his team’s recent effort in that area.

The Cats didn’t back-slide in the second half, another Miller criticism.

They were physical, out-rebounding Washington by six.

They got scoring punch and balance from several players.

They didn’t have to deal with any drama … and, man, was that nice.

“It was a fun game,” said senior forward Solomon Hill, who led Arizona with 19 points, 14 of which came in the first half. “One thing we talked about before the game was to have fun. I think we had gotten away from that.”

Fun. Miller also used that word. But in a different sense. As is “it’s not fun” to play the kind of defense Arizona absolutely needs to play for a full 40 minutes. That’s what it is going to take for the Wildcats to feel as good as they felt Wednesday night.

The fun Arizona had on offense, especially in terms of scoring in transition, isn’t possible without first getting defensive stops.

Arizona stopped Washington plenty of times. The Huskies shot 30.8 percent (20 of 65) and made just 1 of 11 3-point attempts.

“It all starts for us on the defensive end,” Miller said. “We have to be a team that is hard to score against. We’re vulnerable if we aren’t, because that’s our strength. …

“I know most of the world has forgotten that we beat both Florida and Miami, but we haven’t. The reason we were able to beat teams of that caliber was because of our defense, not our offense. If we’re going to be good in March, or finish this deal off like we want to, this defense has to be in place from start to finish.”

Arizona (22-4 overall, 10-4 Pac-12) didn’t find its way until there were about 8 minutes left in the first half. The Cats trailed 13-8 when Mark Lyons hit two free throws, igniting a stretch in which he scored 10 consecutive points for Arizona in 90 seconds.

By the time he was done, hitting a 3-pointer with 6:37 to go in the half, Arizona led 18-16. The Cats led by eight at halftime and zoomed away from the Huskies after the break.

Arizona started the game by shooting 3 of 15 from the field. It went 21 of 36 the rest of the way.

“I thought we played probably the best 28, 30 minutes that we played all season long,” Miller said.

Arizona had played 13 conference games before Wednesday night, with only a couple in the bag in the final stretch. A game like this against the Huskies is what the Wildcats needed.

“When you’re the hunted like we are and you’re trying to compete for a conference championship, there’s a lot of pressure on you constantly, just not on game night but in practice. That pressure can really wear on a player, wear on a team,” Miller said.

“It can beat you down being in close games. We’ve been in so many that every once in a while to be in the situation we were in tonight helps you. It helps you moving forward with confidence.”

Lyons and Hill carried the scoring load early in the game, and then Nick Johnson sparked the offense in the second half. He had a stretch in which he scored nine points in a row for Arizona, scoring twice on fast breaks with assists from Lyons.

When Johnson finished his run with another fast-break layup, Arizona led 49-29 with 13:42 to go. Washington trimmed the lead to 14 but was never a serious threat late in the game.

Lyons finished with 14 points, playing only 21 minutes because of second-half foul trouble and an eventual disqualification with 6:55 to go. Johnson scored 12. Freshmen post players Kaleb Tarczewski and Brandon Ashley each had 10.

Hill said it was the team’s best performance since beating USC at home 74-50 on Jan. 26.

“That was a game that was comfortable,” he said.

“Any game we’ve won, it’s always been a fight. It’s good to get a great win like this in front of your home crowd, a place where we’ve dropped two. It’s something we want to change. You don’t want to lose in front of your home crowd.

“I wouldn’t say it’s OK to lose on the road, but protecting home is always key to winning the Pac-12 championship.”

Arizona is only a half-game behind Oregon in the race for that regular-season league title, and Wednesday’s night win looks like a potential catalyst toward a big finish.

Just have more fun.

“I think our guys have been very consistent,” Miller said. “I don’t think they have approached any game as not being fun. It’s never fun to lose, but it’s not as if we’ve lost a whole lot this year. …

“There’s the fine line between pushing and working and also enjoying what we’re doing. We try to balance it as much as possible, and I think we’re in a good place right now in that light.”

Allen Crabbe hit 12 of 15 shots in the best offensive performance against Arizona this season. Photo by Casey Sapio-USA TODAY Sports

Allen Crabbe’s last basket was like most of his other 29 points: A thing of beauty.

With Arizona having climbed back within 71-69 on a 3-point shot by Mark Lyons with 2:02 to go, McKale Center rocking, eager to see another comeback from the Cardiac Cats, Crabbe answered with the play of the game.

He had the ball near the top of the key, and dribbled right. Arizona’s Solomon Hill was erased on a screen, leaving the defensive assignment to 6-10 freshman Grant Jerrett. Crabbe took the ball to the baseline, elevated, hung in the air, and put up a contested floater over Jerrett.

The ball took a bounce off the rim … and fell in.

It was that kind of night for Crabbe.

Arizona, now trailing by two possessions, missed three shots near the rim on its next possession, followed by Justin Cobbs going the other way for a layup. No McKale miracles for Arizona. Cal squashed the comeback attempt and won 77-69 in a game in which Crabbe scored 31 points and made 12 of 15 shots.

“Allen Crabbe is a great player,” Arizona coach Sean Miller said.

“It wasn’t even close how much he dominated the game and the activity. He is truly a great player. Today, I think he showed everyone in a performance like that how special he is. We had no answer for him.”

Arizona’s perimeter stopper, Nick Johnson, tried. But he was giving up three inches to the 6-6 Crabbe and wasn’t up to the task. Hill had his turns, too. Arizona usually switches on screens and handoffs, so several Cats had their chance against Crabbe, who entered the game leading the Pac-12 with a scoring average of 19.3 points per game.

But he had never had a conference performance like this.

Crabbe made 3-pointers right in Johnson’s face, including one that barely beat the shot clock. He had a four-point play one time when Johnson fouled him on a shot from behind the arc. Crabbe turned in a key basket at the end of the first half, scoring with one second left on a fast-break layup after a steal to trim Cal’s halftime deficit to 38-33.

Arizona had been looking to end the half with a nine- or 10-point lead.

Cal carried the momentum through the break, starting the second half on a 17-2 run in which Crabbe scored 11 points.

“I don’t know how to explain this feeling. It’s wonderful,” Crabbe said.

“To come in and play a No. 7-ranked team in front of a sold-out crowd and upset them out of nowhere is something. Arizona is the only team I haven’t beaten in the Pac-12, and to do it here in their house is a great feeling.

“I can’t think of any other moment in my college memory that felt this great.”

His 31 points were the most by a UA opponent this season. The previous high was 24 by Stanford’s Dwight Powell on Wednesday night.

“He played tremendously well tonight,” said Cobbs, who added 21 points.

“The team fed off him and his energy. He played with confidence and he’s tough to stop. When he gets aggressive and sets his mind to score, he’s unstoppable.”

Crabbe and Cobbs combined to make 20 of 29 shots. Cal shot 58.8 percent (30 of 51).

“I tell you 30 of 51 is about as big of a punch as you can take,” Miller said. “They played the best against our defense as any team has played this season.”

Hill and Kevin Parrom talked about how they should have asked to take on a bigger defensive role against Crabbe because of their superior size to Johnson. Maybe that would have helped. Maybe not.

“Nick has done an outstanding job all season as our go-to defender,” Miller said.

“He ran into a player tonight who made some really tough shots. Allen is taller; certainly his size advantage helped. But if you watch the game closely … we switched quite a bit.

“It didn’t matter. He also got a lot of points in transition. He scored off backdoor cuts. He just did a fantastic job.”

Nick Johnson helps out defensively and strips the ball from Washington center Aziz N’Diaye for one of his four steals. Photo by Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports

Way back at Arizona basketball media day in October, sophomore Nick Johnson was talking about the biggest improvement in his game.

“I realize we lost our best defensive player last year in Kyle Fogg, so I’m working on that, be at least a little bit of what he was,” Johnson said.

After 20 games, Johnson is at least most of the way there.

Johnson helped hound Washington’s C.J. Wilcox — who was the Pac-12′s leading scorer in conference play at 20.0 points per game — to a 4-of-16 shooting night as Arizona beat the Huskies 57-53 on Thursday night.

“It’s his talent level and his will right now that are just making him an exceptional defender,” Arizona coach Sean Miller said on his postgame radio show on 1290-AM.

While Fogg, as a senior, might have been more technically sound on defense, Johnson’s combination of athleticism and want-to is making him a close facsimile. Johnson is handling most of the toughest assignments, such as Wilcox.

He leads the league with 2.3 steals per game.

“Nick Johnson is an elite defender,” Miller said Thursday night.

“When we start to feel that way, you get comments from the opposing coach or players that would admit that he’s very good on defense, and he is.”

Defense is, in large part, a function of effort — and former NBA player Rex Chapman had something to say this week about Johnson’s on-court effort when he was younger. A lot younger.

More than a decade ago, Chapman coached a Phoenix-area youth team that included his son, Johnson and Jahii Carson. Chapman wrote about his experience with a young Nick a few days ago at NCAA.com.

Wrote Chapman, in part:

“I kept up with all of the kids on the team through the years. Nick really began to work at becoming a basketball player during middle school. By the time he became a freshman in high school you could tell that he had a chance to be a very good ball player.

“The one question I had about Nick was that he rarely played as hard as he could. As most really gifted athletes do during high school, Nick took shortcuts — because he could. After his sophomore year at Gilbert Highlands High School in Arizona, he transferred to Findlay Prep in Henderson, Nev. This did Nick Johnson wonders.

“I spoke to (Sean) Miller last year after their second game of the season and asked Sean how Nick was adjusting to college. More directly I asked, “Is Nick working hard?” Sean looked me dead in the eye and said, “Rex, Nick has come early to practice and stayed late since Day 1. I couldn’t be more pleased. He can help us get this thing turned back around here very quickly.”

Johnson did help Arizona get things turned around in the second half at Washington. The Wildcats trailed 28-23 at the break, having committed 12 turnovers.

“We didn’t play well tonight,” Miller said. “I thought that was the worst first half we’ve had on offense all season long. … Everything on the stat sheet was just pathetic. When you consider how bad our offense was, our defense kept us in the game.”

Johnson helped spark the Cats offensively, too, in the second half. That’s when he scored 13 of his game-high 15 points. Miller called him the best player on the court in the second half.

Washington, meanwhile, missed its first 10 3-point shots and finished 1 of 12 from behind the arc.

Johnson’s final line in a night of defense: 15 points, six rebounds, four steals, three assists, three blocks.

“He did everything,” Miller said.

That everything helped Arizona get out of Seattle with a victory for the first time since 2007, feeling good despite often-ugly play.

“Sometimes on the road, man, when you can find a way and you can play great defense and learn, it means the world, because you’re not going to be perfect every game, especially in conference play,” Miller said. “To me, this is one of our hardest-earned victories of the season.”

Hard-earned. Echoes of Johnson from media day when he said about Fogg, “He would always bring it on defense.”

You can say that about Johnson now, earning his rep as an elite defender.

This 360-degree dunk vs. East Tennessee State is one of the highlights of Arizona’s non-conference season. Photo by Marco Garcia-USA TODAY Sports

The Arizona Wildcats basketball team is built on depth and balance.

UA doesn’t have anyone who can score like Sean Elliott, shoot like Steve Kerr, pass like Mike Bibby, play defense like Reggie Geary, block shots like Loren Woods or rebound like Pete Williams.

What it does have, among other things, are two remarkably versatile players in senior forward Solomon Hill and sophomore guard Nick Johnson. With the Pac-12 starting conference play Wednesday night, CBSSports.com’s college basketball insider Jeff Goodman picks Hill and Johnson as co-favorites for Player of the Year in the league.

Makes sense. Their scoring is identical; their stats similar.

They have been the best, most consistent, players on the third-ranked Wildcats, who are 12-0 and immediately jump into the deep end of conference play with a home game against Colorado on Thursday night.

Coach Sean Miller might lean toward Johnson in this debate, however.

“He might be our most important player when you consider what he’s done through 12 games,” Miller said Tuesday.

“His defensive effort on a daily basis and in games is incredible. He steals the ball and he guards the other team’s best player many times. From an offensive perspective, he plays like a point guard, even though he’s not.

“If you look at his shooting percentages and his points per game right now, he does a great job. He rebounds much better than you think. And he really has just a great feel for the game. He makes his teammates better.”

And it doesn’t hurt to have the athletic ability to trail San Diego State Chase Tapley down the lane, spring into the air and block his layup attempt from behind to preserve a 68-67 win at the Diamond Head Classic in Honolulu on Christmas Day.

“That last play, in a nutshell, really shows everything in Nick,” Miller said. “Great concentration. Great effort. Obviously, tremendous ability.”

Nick Johnson saves the win over San Diego State with this blocked shot. Photo by Marco Garcia-USA TODAY Sports

Point guard Mark Lyons leads the Wildcats in scoring with 13.4 points per game. Johnson and Hill are next, tied at 12.7 points per game.

Pick which stat line you like best after that:

– Johnson: 3.5 rebounds per game, 2.9 assists per game, a team-high 28 steals, 49.5 percent shooting (17 of 43 three-point attempts, 39.5 percent).

– Hill: 5.0 rebounds per game, 3.1 assists per game, 18 steals, 42.1 percent shooting (17 of 47 three-point attempts, 36.2 percent).

Miller called the 6-4 Johnson the team’s most improved player from last season. Johnson averaged 8.9 points per game as a freshman, when he faded down the stretch, failing to reach double-digit points in any of the final seven games and shooting about 25 percent (12 of 49) in that stretch.

“I really credit these guys around me,” he said of this season.

“We have a lot more pieces than last year and it allows me to do some of the things that I’m naturally good at — as far as making plays and being able to roam a little bit. I credit them.”

Johnson, inheriting the defensive stopper role from departed Kyle Fogg, has been able to roam more on the perimeter because the Wildcats have more size in the lane behind him. An aggressive Johnson already has two more steals through 12 games than he did all of last season.

“I’m very, very happy with and proud of Nick’s performance through the entire non-conference,” Miller said. “I believe he can only grow and build from that performance.”

The Pac-12 season awaits.

Arizona celebrates its championship at the Diamond Head Classic. Photo by Marco Garcia-USA TODAY Sports

The Arizona Wildcats are 12-0. Couldn’t be better.

Arizona will ride high into the new year, ranked No. 3 and coming off a Christmas Night victory in Honolulu when (Saint) Nick Johnson swatted away a layup in the final seconds to give UA a 68-67 victory over San Diego State in the Diamond Head Classic.

The 12-0 start matches the program’s best since the 1987-88 season — that can’t really be a quarter century ago, can it? — but college basketball is a process, gathering speed toward March, so the 12-0 record has to be put into context.

Coach Sean Miller did.

“One of the things we learned about our team is we have a big heart,” Miller said in his postgame radio interview on 1290-AM (KCUB).

“We have the ability to make big plays at the right time. So much of this comes down to the ending of games, and players being able to make big free throws, being able to make a drive to get fouled … ”

And soar through the air for a blocked shot.

“Nick’s block was just incredible,” Miller said. “Without him there, the ball goes in the basket and we lose.”

So, Arizona marches on, one of five undefeated teams. This is a Final Four-good squad that still has a tremendous amount of upside as its young post players keep growing over the next several weeks. But Miller doesn’t need all his young bigs all the time. That’s the thing with this team. Deep. Versatile.

Arizona led throughout the first half Tuesday night but then the Aztecs, buzzing around the Wildcats’ post players and limiting their production, went on a run and led by eight on two occasions, the latter coming at 45-37 with 14:22 to go.

Unlike last season, Miller has options. He shelved 7-footer Kaleb Tarczewski downshifted to an athletic lineup that included wings Kevin Parrom and Solomon Hill with one post player, sometimes 6-8 Brandon Ashley. Bingo. That smaller combination matched up better against SDSU’s lineup.

“I don’t know if anybody panicked on our team,” Miller said.

Nick Johnson blocks the shot of San Diego State’s Chase Tapley in the final seconds. Photo by Marco Garcia-USA TODAY Sports

“We had some individual players not having a good night and we had some bad moments. When a team like that gets up eight points in the second half, it’s not a good feeling because you know they’re very good and it is not an easy team to come back against. They’re not going to beat themselves.

“But we just stayed with it.”

Hill was a big part of that. As aggressive as he has been all season, the senior had 21 points, six rebounds and three assists in the title game. He was chosen the tournament MVP.

Parrom was a big part of stick-to-it attitude, too.

Arizona was down 41-33, when he grabbed a missed 3-pointer from Johnson and put in a layup. On the next possession, he led a fast break and a fed a bounce pass to Johnson for a reverse layup. That was a huge sequence that put Arizona right back in it.

His layup gave Arizona a 62-61 lead with 3:37 to go. His 3-pointer put the Cats on top 65-64 with 2:22 left. Parrom shot 7 of 11 from the field — the rest of the team was 15 of 48 — for a season-high 17 points.

“I can’t give Kevin Parrom enough credit,” Miller said.

“He came into the game and he made a huge difference, both in the first half and the second half. Every shot he took seemed to be a big one. He played like a senior and he played like somebody who has been through a lot of adversity and knows how to handle it and is at home in pressure situations.”

Jamaal Franklin gave San Diego State a 67-66 lead with 31.4 seconds left when he hit the second of two free throws. That set up Mark Lyons time for Arizona.

The senior transfer from Xavier is the go-to guy for the Wildcats in clutch situations. He’s what Arizona didn’t have last season. The Cats spread the court and let Lyons go to work; he drove to the basket and was fouled with 13.1 seconds left. He made both shots.

Chase Tapley had the ball in his hands at the other end of the court for the win. He dribbled left across the top of the key in the final seconds, losing Johnson on a screen. Tapley turned the corner and headed for what appeared to be the game-winning layup.

But Johnson recovered from the screen and followed him all the way down the lane, using his incredible leaping ability to block the shot from behind.

With that, the Cats were 12-0 and champs of the Diamond Head Classic … and the new year looks full of exciting things.

Mele Kalikimaka.

Related: Video highlights of Arizona-San Diego State

You might just want to skip to the end to watch and replay Nick Johnson’s block about five times. I know I did.

Nick Johnson celebrates a 3-point shot against Florida. Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Solomon Hill finishing for two points. John Bonano kicking for one.

The basketball team forcing three turnovers in a 16-second span with less than a minute to play. The football team scoring 14 points in 27 seconds in the final minute.

Mark Lyons driving, undeterred and confident, for the game-winning basket. Matt Scott coolly connecting to Tyler Slavin for the game-winning 2-yard touchdown.

Nick Johnson proclaiming, “We’re the real deal.” Scott getting choked up, eyes red, when reflecting on his five seasons at Arizona.

It was one program, two teams and a pair of ridiculous comeback victories separated by less than eight hours and about 450 miles of driving distance on one glorious Saturday for the Arizona Wildcats.

Call it Bear Down Saturday.

It’s as if Rich Rodriguez’s football team and Sean Miller’s basketball team took December 15, wrapped it in a big cardinal-and-navy bow, presented to Arizona fans and said, “Happy Holidays!”

The eighth-ranked basketball team beat No. 5 Florida 65-64 in McKale Center on Saturday night, winning on Lyons’ bull-rush to the hoop with 7.1 seconds left.

The unranked football team stunned Nevada 49-48 in the New Mexico Bowl in Albuquerque for its eighth victory, tied for the most in a season since 1998.

The football team led for all of 19 seconds. The basketball team led for 1:24.

But each was ahead by one point when it mattered, imprinting indelible I-remember-when moments.

“It’s a great Saturday if you like Arizona,” Miller said.

“Gosh,” said senior center Kyle Quinn after the football victory, “that was amazing.”

The basketball team, trailing by six points in the final minute, came up with arguably its biggest home win in McKale in about a decade.

The football team, down 13 points with less than two minutes to play, produced one of its most improbable victories ever.

Not a day day for Arizona on ESPN.

“Both teams looked ugly for a moment,” Hill told reporters late last night in McKale Center. “We both made our share of bad plays, but we kept staying in there and fighting.”

Those were the echoes across Bear Down Saturday. Keep fighting.

Now, there’s not a coach who doesn’t preach that, and few athletes who fail to practice that. Arizona isn’t unique in that. But that doesn’t make it any less inspiring when that never-give-up-spirit combines with opportunity, execution — and a little luck — to construct, out of the thinnest of possibilities, a day like Saturday.

This is why you watch, right?

Because you never know.

Football is now over, the victory total washing away (well, mostly) the bitterness of the loss to Arizona State in the regular-season finale.

“It’s incredible just to go out and end my career — and the career of the seniors — like that and get this program going in the right way,” Quinn said. “Eight wins in year one with Coach Rod has been amazing. It’s indescribable almost.”

For basketball, this was the leap forward that plants the Cats as a serious threat in March.

“It’s a game that can change seasons,” Miller said.

No, Arizona didn’t win the national championship in basketball Saturday night. And the New Mexico Bowl is more than six degrees of separation from the Rose Bowl.

On Saturday, the scripts trumped the stakes. And the message from Bear Down Saturday was clear: “Keep fighting.”