On Friday when most of the college basketball world was scrambling to host “Midnight Madness” events, the Arizona basketball team was done for the day. The Cats have chosen to bypass the pomp of the first day of official basketball practice and focus on another event entirely.

Kentucky spent $100,000 on lighting alone for their Midnight Madness, while Sean Miller was likely having dinner at the same time. Teams scrambled to bring their top recruits for their events, while Arizona bided their time.

There was no Midnight at McKale. No Friday Night with Sean Miller. Arizona simply had a normal day of practice and will instead spend their time and energy this weekend with the annual Red/Blue game.

Arizona will have over 14,000 fans in the stands on Saturday, creating a great environment for recruits. Instead of competing with 20 other programs, Arizona carves out their own weekend and can bring in most, if not all of their top recruits for official and unofficial visits.

“With that type of atmosphere on that weekend that we have here in Tucson, we really target some of the best prospects in the country, future players who can help us do great things,” Miller explained. “To have them here during that weekend and experience that, that says it all.”

Last year the event was very successful, helping to land Kaleb Tarczewski and introducing the program to many other younger prospects.

“If you talk about Kaleb a year ago, Kaleb was the one who was uncommitted at this time,” Miller explained. “Having him at the Red-Blue Game helped us secure him, no question about it. No matter what we talked about on the telephone, or how much you think this atmosphere is special, until you’re actually here you don’t feel it. It helps the future. It’s something that I believe continues to be as crucial today as it was the day I came here.”

Among the prospects expected to be on hand include Aaron Gordon, Rondae Jefferson, Elliott Pitts, Stanley Johnson, Justis Winslow and Parker Jackson-Cartwright.

The second added bonus of bringing in recruits to the Red/Blue game is they (and the fans) will get to see a more polished team on the floor. They will be far from a finished product, but they will get a better idea of what Arizona basketball is really like a week plus into full practices.

The recruits and fans will also get a chance to see the 1988 team reunited. Last year the team hosted a number of locked out NBA players, this year they honor the school’s first Final Four squad.

“To be able to bring them back in front of our group where our own team can be around them and the future of Arizona recruiting and to see their reaction, to me it is a really important weekend,” Miller said.

In 1986 I listened to Arizona win the College World Series on the radio. On Monday night I did the same…inadvertently.

Back in 1986 I was a 13-year old middle school student just starting to enjoy his summer vacation. I remember few details from that game or that run. About all I remember is listening to it in the living room on the house’s intercom system that could broadcast radio to any room in the house. I cannot even remember why I was in the living room, that was the room reserved for entertaining (and indoor baseball when my parents left me in charge of my little brother.)

In 1986 Arizona baseball was king. The 1986 title was the third in 10 years. In 1986 Larry Smith was still football coach, just getting the team off of probation. In six months they would beat North Carolina in the Aloha Bowl and the Cats would trade Smith for Dick Tomey.

In 1986 a first year coach named Mike Candrea guided Arizona to a 5-6-1 Pac-10 record and missed the postseason. It was the last time the Wildcats missed the NCAA Tournament. In 1986 Lute Olson had yet to win an NCAA tournament game, much less lead Arizona to a Final Four.

That 1986 team was led by the likes of Gar Millay, Kevin Long, Gary Alexander and Tommy Hinzo.

This year’s team was led by a group that defied the odds, not only this year, but in life.

At 2 ½ months of age Robert Refsnyder, the CWS MVP, was living in South Korea, waiting to be adopted. Less than a month later he was in the loving arms of his American family. A family that was baseball crazy.

Three years ago Seth Mejias-Brean made the difficult decision to turn down a football scholarship to I-AA San Diego to pursue baseball at Pima College. Two weeks before the start of school Andy Lopez lost his freshman third base signee to the MLB and scrambled to sign a quality player. At the suggestion of one of his sons, Lopez turned to Cienega product Mejias-Brean. Sine then the local products has played over 180 games and hit nearly .330.

Alex Mejia got on Lopez’s radar screen because he shared the last name of a high school opponent that Lopez respected. Turned out that player was Alex’s father. Three years later Mejia was the Pac-12 Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year.

Joseph Maggi was an ASU legacy, but scored the first run of the championship clinching game. So much for doubting the loyalties of a guy that Lopez has joked was a “spy” for the Sun Devils.

Brandon Dixon, who drove in the game-winning run, was not supposed to hit in the ninth. After going 0-7 in the CWS, including a weak fly out in the 7^th with a runner in scoring position. Lopez was going to lift the defensive specialist, but assistant Matt Siegel talked him out of it.

Siegel, a former Lopez player at Florida, would not have been on the Wildcat bench had longtime Lopez assistant Mark Wasikowski not left for Oregon.

Lopez turned to a pitching staff that was thought to be a weakness. The maligned bullpen, the few times they were used, failed to surrender a run in Omaha.

Sure Heyer was a well regarded prospect, but Konner Wade, who looked like Randy Johnson in the CWS, was just 9-7 his final two years in high school with an ERA over 4.00. Lopez saw something he liked (and to be fair Wade was a 35^th round draft pick of the Diamondbacks in 2010) and Wade has gone 14-3 at Arizona.

If Heyer looked like “The Big Unit”, then James Farris was Curt Schilling. Farris, who had not pitched in nearly three weeks, shutdown the Gamecocks. He limited them to just two hits and a single run. Not bad for a guy who pitched in just two games as a freshman and had an ERA hovering around four.

Even Andy Lopez was a somewhat unlikely character in this drama. Frustrated with the NCAA’s near castration of college baseball and an administration that could not or would not deliver him a regional, Lopez considered other jobs or just walking away. Instead he came back, he rallied around the recruiting class that are now juniors. He also received a blessing when Jim Livengood was not retained and Greg Byrne assumed the role of Director of Athletics.

Instead of throwing more money at a sub par facility, Byrne angered many old school Wildcat fans by moving the baseball team off campus. While Hi Corbett Field was inadequate for the spoiled players on the Colorado Rockies, it was a godsend to the Wildcats.

It was a bigger park, with an actual clubhouse. It’s dimensions called on the Wildcats to be more aggressive and they responded. Fans thrilled with easier parking and beer, especially beer, showed up in droves.

Arizona hosted a Regional and a Super Regional. Teams that host have a 78% chance of advancing. The Wildcats advanced.

The Wildcats dominated these playoffs. They made the teams they faced in the regional look foolish. Other than one bad inning against St. John’s, the Wildcats were awesome.

In Omaha, where they did not have enough arms or enough talent, they shined. Arizona never trailed in Nebraska. Their pitchers gave up eight runs total, never more than three in a game. Offensively they scored 27. Not the gaudy numbers they put up in Hi Corbett, but not bad at all.

Freshman Matt Troupe stood on the mound in the ninth, wearing his trademark glasses and sweat stained camp. He allowed three of the first four batters on base. With the bases loaded and the winning run at the plate, he did not panic. Mejia trotted out to the mound, to play therapist for one of his pitchers for the 10,000^th time this season. At that time Troupe was not thinking about how he almost took the pro dollars when he found out that Lopez may leave. He was not thinking of his challenge to his coach to stay and win with him. He was not thinking about his inconsistencies this season.

Troupe lived the Arizona motto, as cliché as it might have sounded at that point. Troupe did indeed Bear Down with the help of his defense. Trent Gilbert snagged a rocket line drive and came within a breath of a double play.

For a split second Gilbert almost lost his cool, but Mejia was there to calm him down. Mejia, whose mom and dad made two separate trips to Omaha.

A 10^th of a second more and Arizona would have been celebrating. Instead the freshman took Button Salmon’s creed to heart, got a fly ball fittingly hit to Refsnyder and the Wildcats were celebrating.

It may have been an unlikely team to win a title, but they deserved it. For three weeks they played better than anyone. They hit the ball, they fielded the ball and they pitched the ball. They forgot about the MLB draft, their personal issues and the doubters.

They donned great No. 1 hats and national championships shirts. They came together. They won.

I listened to it on the radio, but watched it again at home. I saved the TiVo recording and will probably watch it again. It was a special moment with a special team.

The shirts said Wildcats Own Omaha, but could have said Wildcats Own College Baseball.

This may wind up being the most unique spring practice in Arizona history. For the third time in my career covering Wildcat football I have covered a spring after a coaching search and this one is fairly unique. Rich Rodriguez is not just getting ready for next season, but he’s transforming a program.

There were radical transformations when John Mackovic replaced Dick Tomey and then later when Mike Stoops replaced Mackovic. The coaches took time in the spring to put their own stamp on the programs, but spent most of it implementing schemes and evaluating talent. Although Stoops tried to create a positive culture change, it is nothing compared to what Rich Rodriguez is attempting.

Like Stoops, RichRod is making changes based in schemes, intensity and a new conditioning program, but he is also playing mental games to change the culture. He is not trying to slowly move the program in his image, he is trying to break the mold and drastically change things.

Rodriguez is using every avenue at his disposal. Like Arizona basketball coach Sean Miller, he is subtly, and not so subtly, using the media to get his message out. Whether it was the preseason comments about the Wildcats lack of strength, or more recent comments about how the team cannot go full speed due to a lack of overall conditioning. Past coaches worried about public perception and ticket sales would not have aired their dirty laundry. Rodriguez is not worried about that. He wants his players to know what they have been doing is not good enough. My guess is the strength and conditioning issues are not as bad as RichRod makes them out to be, but he wants the players and the public to know that things have to get better. The commitment level needs to be amped up.

“If they have not lifted or worked or trained a lot since November, they’re not treating themselves like an elite athlete,” Rodriguez said prior to the spring. “I believe if you are a division one college athlete, in any sport, I think you should be considered and treating yourself as an elite athlete. This is a high level in every sport, so elite athletes never take two months off from training or two weeks off from training.”

This was the first case of Rodriguez raising the bar and some of the players instantly responded. Several players cancelled spring break plans to remain in Tucson to train. Others adjusted plans to make sure they got workouts in around or during their breaks.

The fact that Rodriguez is calling his players “elite athletes” and expecting them to behave, train and perform like that shows a new level of expectations.

Stoops completely changed the culture from what Mackovic did, but Rodriguez is trying to take it to another level.

He has not just used the media to make his points, but has implemented things during practice. He jumped all over players in the first practice that did not move fast enough on and off the field or from station to station.

He installed a stoplight to let the players know at what pace they should be practicing. When the green light is lit, they should be at full speed…and the green light is lit a lot.

On Monday he cancelled on-field practice and instead had the team concentrate on film study from that weekend’s scrimmage. I can’t imagine Stoops or Mackovic giving up on-field practice time to watch film of a scrimmage, but Rodriguez obviously felt more could be learned by watching the tape. He seems less focused on today and tomorrow, than he is the long term changes he needs to make to the culture of the program. So if that means, two hours less on the field and two hours more in the film room, so be it.

By all accounts it was a humbling viewing for many players.

“It humbles some people,” said receiver Dan Buckner in an interview with TucsonCitizen.com’s Anthony Gimino. “You’re going to be put on the spot in front of all your team. You don’t want to let your team down. It’s not to embarrass you. It’s not personal. He called me out. He called a lot of players out.”

You get the feeling that Rodriguez hopes the desire to not be “called out” leads to better efforts, better performances.

“I think we all came out and worked harder today,” Buckner said after Wednesday’s practice. “Me personally, I didn’t want to put the film on and let my teammates down, let my coaches down. What you put on the field, that’s your resume.”

His most recent addition is the blue line. Rodriguez had a blue arc painted in front of the entrance of the practice field. Rodriguez wants the line to be the place where, for a few hours, players put school, family and personal issues to the back burner and focus on football.

“Once they cross the blue line, academics, personal issues and everything else has to go in the background and it’s all football,” Rodriguez told the media before Wednesday’s practice. “And when they cross back over, I hope they still think about football a little bit, but then their focus can go to other things as well.”

It’s again another ploy to shake things up. Rodriguez obviously felt the things he had been doing and saying were not enough, so a not-so-subtle reminder was painted on the grass.

With two weeks left of spring practice, you can bet Rodriguez is not done. You can also bet there have been other tactics have been used behind the scenes.

Rodriguez is, of course, building towards the season opener, but he is also building for the future. He is using spring to install an offense and defense, but to also see who is committed for the long term. He is seeing who will buy in and be ready to do it his way, not just next season, but the next few seasons.

Rodriguez does not want to coach a .500 program. He is not interested in a string of Las Vegas Bowls, he has his sights set on bigger and better things and that means changing things right now. He does not want to make small changes over the next few years, he wants to change things right now and will do what he needs to do to make those changes.

While many debate whether Arizona and ASU are really rivals in basketball due to the one-sided nature of the rivalry, the players do not. Nick Johnson, Solomon Hill and Jesse Perry talked about the game, the rivalry and even threw a little gasoline on the fire.

Sean Miller then spoke to the media about the win over ASU.

Arizona got the win over Clemson after the game Sean Miller and Wildcat players Solomon Hill, Angelo Chol and Nick Johnson discuss the game. (more…)