NCAA Tournament: Gabe York and T.J. McConnell came through big time for the Wildcats as Arizona beats The Ohio State University by 15 points, 73-58, and go to the Sweet-Sixteen for the third year in a row!
Arizona Wildcats
You could feel the love and emotion between Coach Sean Miller and T.J. McConnell. T.J. was interviewed post-game court-side, “This guy right here, he’s like a second dad to me, and you know I don’t want to stop playing for him so I am going to keep playing as hard as I can and try to get to a final four for him and my teammates.”
Sean Miller post game on T.J. McConnell and the win said, “Tonight was different than the other night. Their zone stole our passing, but that’s to their credit. We rallied and I thought that in the second half we were much more ourselves. And this guy right here is one of the best players in the country, not just one of the best point guards, but one of the best players because of what he does on defense. I don’t know if anybody guarded D’Angelo Russell any better than he did today.”
Early on in the first half the Wildcats starting turning the ball over, again and again it seemed. They were behind OSU for quite some time. But then a Wildcat miracle was granted to the team by the basketball gods and their shots started to fall!
The first half of the game was a battle: Arizona shot 44.4% FG against OSU ‘s 22% early on, but then the drought came on and Arizona’s production dropped off; they were shooting 35% vs. OSU who was shooting 47%. The Wildcats were on a three of sixteen run before they made four of their last seven shots. Arizona ends up only one point at the half 26-25 over OSU, fans were just happy they were ahead.
With 7:38 to go in the first half, Arizona was a measly one for four on three-point shots, but OSU was three for four, that would change in the second half. The turnovers were even between the teams. Interesting to note that with three minutes left in the half both coaches held on to their time-outs, only Arizona had used one.
Arizona Players are not used to not hearing whistles every couple of minutes, like the Pac-12 referee’s do quite often during the regular season; these refs were letting them play.
Coach Miller’s assessment at the half, “Their zone for the first eight or ten minutes was giving us trouble..you give them two breakout dunks you lose, you have to get back, if you can’t get back, you are going to lose”
T.J. started the second half by making a giant three-pointer which set the tone for the rest of the game. Deep into the second half, the referees were still not calling any fouls under the basket. It seemed the Wildcats got used to this change from regular season play and turned up the heat on defense, and especially on D’Angelo Russell. At some point Brandon Ashley fouled out of the game with 5:33 left, the score was Arizona 59 to OSU’s 44. Brandon was an instrumental big body to have under the basket, so he was a factor, just not a deciding one.
Gabe York was phenomenal in the second half this game; he seemed to take over the Buckeye’s and made back-to-back three-pointers. There was no one guarding York, they must have been busy guarding the rest of the team. Arizona was now up by seven with 15:24 left in the game. York was five for nine for three-pointers in the game, and ended up with 19 points, two rebounds and was a perfect four out of four from the charity stripe.
According to Zack Rosenblatt, Pac-12 Pundit for the Tucson Star, “Gabe York felt like a kid again, on the playground, on heat check: “It brought me back, and I was just so happy.” Here are some tweets about York’s performance for your enjoyment, Zack Rosenblatt stating that York was going to talk to former Arizona Wildcat Kevin Parrom, not knowing that Kevin was backing him during the game.
Excuse my language but ...THATS HOW YOU SHOOT THAT SHIT GABE LOL
— Kevin Parrom (@KevinParrom3) March 21, 2015
Gabe York said he’s gonna call first Kevin Parrom, then Mark Lyons and Nick Johnson after the game since they’ve always believed in him.
— Zack Rosenblatt (@ZackBlatt) March 22, 2015
Our other star of the game is T.J. McConnell who also ended up racking up 19 points. But T.J. also had six assists, six rebounds, and five steals! Wow! T.J. now with total 230 assists, just one more and he ties for 2nd place with 231, two more in the next game and he moves into second place all-time. Some of those assist were just brilliant, like the one to Kaleb Tarczewski who had two monster dunks in the game.
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For Ohio State, their star D’Angelo Russell‘s was shut down by a combo of Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and McConnell, he missed eight straight field goal attempts. Russell had made only two of 15 at that point with 11:11 left in the game. Conversely Arizona was on a 10-3 run at that point and also they were up by nine points winning 46-37 over OSU.
At the end of the game, D’Angelo was three for 19 shooting field goals and one for seven shooting three pointers.
Russell ended up with only nine points in the game, making six rebounds and six assists. OSU’s high scorer was Sam Thompson with 18 points.
In case you missed it, Russell a had come out publicly before the game and responded quite a bit full of himself to Jason Scheer, senior editor of WildcatAuthority.com. Jason asked D’Angelo Russell who the best player that’s guarded him this season is? His answer? “Nobody.”
Mar 21, 2015; Portland, OR, USA; Arizona Wildcats forward Stanley Johnson (5) celebrates with center Kaleb Tarczewski (35) after the game against the Ohio State Buckeyes in the third round of the 2015 NCAA Tournament at Moda Center. The Wildcats defeated the Buckeyes 73-58. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
The announcers pointed out several times how loose Russell was bantering back and forth with the referees like he had the game in the bag. Well Arizona had a few players to guard him and they did a great job!
ZonaZealots prediction was that the wildcats would win 68-61. The final score was close at 73-58, so we are feeling pretty smart and happy the gap was larger that we thought it would be.
On to Xavier in the Sweet Sixteen.
Xavier’s Head Coach Chris Mack was interviewed post game on the court and his response to having to play against Coach Sean Miller was poignant, “Honestly it stinks, it stinks from a personal standpoint, you know Sean Miller was so good to me. We are going to go out there an play hard. I would rather face him in a tournament rather than a regular season game”
Our Wildcats won a very important game in Portland, but more importantly, they ruined the only perfect bracket on ESPN.com:
That's what you get for going against the Cats!! #beardown4indy #marchmadness #sorrynotsorry #APlayersProgram pic.twitter.com/06X9qjyvU4
— Jane Lindley (@quinntelligent) March 21, 2015
Next Game:
Arizona vs. Xavier (coached by Sean Miller’s former assistant coach Chris Mack)
Thursday March 26th, game time TBA per CBS.
BEARDOWN ARIZONA!