To almost no one’s surprise, Derrick Williams declared for the NBA Draft. What came to a mild surprise was that he elected to hire an agent. Yup, that’s right, Williams is gone. So what does that mean for the Wildcats?

The initial reaction is that is means the Wildcats go from a top-5 team to a fringe top-25 team. They go from a clear Pac-10 favorite, to one of four teams that can win the league (joining Cal, UCLA and Washington). In many ways they go from the team they were at the end of the season to the team I thought they would be before the season.

It means the pressure is on the frontcourt players. Jesse Perry needs to step up and be more consistent. Kyryl Natyazkho has to become a space eater and rebounder. It means at least one, if not both of the incoming freshmen need to step up next season. Either Sidki Johnson or Angelo Chol needs to be able to log 15-25 quality minutes a night and probably grab 5-7 rebounds.

There is a positive, the Wildcats only need t say goodbye to a pair of players to fit in their entire recruiting class. Had Williams returned, Sean Miller would have had some decisions to make.

For a more detailed analysis of Williams’ departure, check out WildcatSportsReport.com

Arizona coaches and players were back at the Honda Center on Friday for a shoot around and mandatory interviews. What did they have to say and what else is going on in Wildcat hoop land?

STAYING PUT
Sean Miller’s name keeps being attached to the vacant NC State job but you can put those rumors to bed. Arizona AD Greg Byrne said Miller is not going anywhere and Miller himself has essentially said the same thing. Well on Friday two more pieces of information came out indicating Miller’s commitment to Arizona. Miller’s father, John Miller, was quoted by the Raleigh News Observer that Sean was not even going to interview for the vacant Wolfpack job.

The elder Miller spoke with NC State AD Debbie Yow but said his son will not do the same.

The Arizona Daily Star’s Greg Hansen indicated in an on-line chat that Miller has agreed with the school on an extension.

ALL-TIME GREAT?
Most of us feel that Derrick Williams is an all-time Wildcat great. Sean Miller has said so, but he went to the expert to find out just how good his sophomore forward is. (more…)

It was an amazing second half. Arizona outscored Duke 55-33 in the second half on their way to a 93-77 win over Duke.

THE TWO HALVES
Derrick Williams had an individual first half for the ages. He scored 25 points grabbed nine rebounds and dominated Duke, but the Wildcats still trailed. He made 5-of-6 three pointers, had a highlight reel put-back dunk and was the best player on the floor with at least four All-American types.

As a team the Wildcats had one of the best halves of basketball in school history. Considering the stage and the opponent, it is hard to argue that the team’s 55 points and dominance on the glass is a thing of beauty. Maybe only the second half of the 1988 North Carolina Elite 8 win compares.

MOMO
MoMo Jones was the spark for the Wildcats. The sophomore scored his14 of his 16 points in the second half. More importantly, he had six assists and zero, count them, zero turnovers.

POWER FORWARD
Arizona’s two power forwards, Jesse Perry and Jamelle Horne, combined for 11 rebounds. They also had 12 points combined. If that was not enough, Perry had three assists.

CHALLENGE
At the half, Sean Miller could be seen issuing a personal challenge to Horne, essentially asking him if he was going to play in the second half. Horne responded with a great half, including two monster dunks.

GOOD BUT…
Arizona was a solid 9-15 (.600) from behind the arc but if you take out Kyle Fogg’s 1-5 shooting, he Wildcats were 8-10 from three-point range.

MORE THREES
Williams shot all six of his three pointers in the first half. Duke only shot 14 for the game and were a paltry 2-6 from behind the arc in the second half.

SIR CHARLES
Charles Barkley was a co-host for the halftime studio show. Barkley has been riding the Wildcats the entire tournament, picking the Wildcats for the championship game. At the half Barkley said Arizona had Duke right where they wanted them and that they were going to come out strong in the second half. He was right.

REBOUNDS
Arizona out-rebounded Duke by nine and pulled down 13 offensive rebounds. It did not look like that would be the case in the first half where Duke had 11 second chance points.

KYLE SINGLER
Singler scored 18 points in the game, but just four in the second half. He played for over 10 minutes with four fouls and never did foul out.

 30 WINS

For only the fourth time in school history the Wildcats have won 30 games. This year’s team joins 1988, 1998 and 2005.

THE POND

Arizona is 6-2 all time in Anaheim, but have lost both of their Elite Eight games. The Cats fell in 1998 to Utah and 2003 to Kansas.

Arizona had two practices today. Earlier in the day Arizona practiced at La Mirada High School, the alma mater of Derrick Williams.

“Going back to my high school brought back a lot of memories,” Williams said. “My senior season we won the league championship and I think that was the best thing. That was the best thing my school has had basketball wise, first time since ’82 that we had a league championship, so that brought back good memories, CIF and finals.”

Later in the day the Wildcats had a public practice at the Honda Center.

The Wildcats have several players from the Los Angeles area and they will have some friend and family on hand, but not as many as you might think.

“Honestly, I don’t expect to have too many people there,” Williams said.  “The tickets are like $400. Not many people have that much money to have to spend on a 40-minute game, but a lot of people will be at a pizza place, someplace that has a lot of TVs, gather around and watch the game right there.”

Sean Miller’s sons turned down a chance to go to Disney Land so that they could go to watch the shootarounds at the Honda Center. At one point the Miller boys got to meet the CBS announce crew of Verne Lundquist, Bill Rafftery and Leslie Visser.

You may recall that Rafftery had the famous “send it in Jerome” call when Pitt’s Jerome Lane broke the backboard with a one-handed dunk in a nationally televised game against Providence College. The player making the pass? Sean Miller.

The Arizona coaches use a lot of mottos to motivate and keep their payers motivated. In his postgame speech after the Texas win Sean Miller stressed that “nastiness is a requirement.”  The Cats are also using the motto: “all in, do what we do, no excuses, no explanations.”

Former Wildcat great Channing Frye and his Phoenix Suns teammate, Duke alum Grant Hill have a friendly wager on the UA/Duke game. The loser has to wear the winner’s gear until Saturday’s Elite 8 game.

Arizona recruited Jordan Hamilton, but with all the turmoil during the final years of Lute Olson era, the Southern California swingman chose to look elsewhere and signed with Texas. Hamilton was very familiar with the Wildcats; he is Hassan Adams’ cousin and made a few unofficial visits to Tucson.

He’s still familiar with the program; he and Derrick Williams were AAU teammates.

Hamilton and Williams played on Team Odom, an AAU team sponsored by Lamar Odom and featuring players from the Los Angeles area.

“Yeah, our relationship is pretty strong,” Williams explained. “I’ve known him since ninth grade. We played on the same team throughout high school, and we played each other once in high school.”

Although the two are no longer teammates, and are not even in the same conference, they still keep in touch. They hang out when both are in LA over the summer and frequently text and call during the season. Well, that is until this week.

 “I’ve been talking to him during the season and things like that because we’re really good friends,” Hamilton said. “It was just crazy, like I said, how they put us in Tulsa together. And now that we’re playing against each other it’s going to be like a reunion. But there are no friends out there on the court until afterwards. So as of right now he’s not my friend. I didn’t talk to him last night. Not last night, no.”

Williams echoed those sentiments.

“Whenever you play a teammate like that, of course we’re not friends right now,” said Williams. “I’m not going to text him. I’m not going to BBM him tonight or tomorrow. We’re not friends right now, just like he said.

“But after the game, win or lose we’re going to be friends after that. But leading up to the game, we’re not friends. We’re not friends during the game, through the game, it doesn’t matter. Right now we’re not friends, and that’s all I can say about that. But after we’ll be the same way we were before.”

The 6-7 Hamilton leads Texas in scoring with 18.7 ppg and is second on the team with 7.7 rpg. Williams leads the Wildcats in scoring and rebounding, scoring 19.1 points and grabbing 8.1 rebounds a game.