March Madness: Xavier is Out, Arizona is In the Elite Eight

March Madness: The Arizona Wildcats barely made it out of Staples Center tonight with a win; it wasn’t until the final minute or less when fans could relax and feel confident a win was just around the corner, and that chance to play in the Elite Eight on Saturday as well.

Coach Sean Miller just added one more notch in his legacy belt, a third Elite Eight game in four years, and it didn’t come easy. Arizona defeated Xavier 68-60 on Thursday night after a 19-7 run at the end of the game. The team came out in the first five minutes or so and looked strong, but then their shots stopped falling and they were making silly mistakes or should we call them what they were: turn overs.

Mar 26, 2015; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Arizona Wildcats head coach Sean Miller watches game action against Xavier Musketeers during the second half in the semifinals of the west regional of the 2015 NCAA Tournament at Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports

Both teams stayed out of foul trouble in the first half, but that was troubling to most of us who thought there was a Pac-12 referee on the court due to the calls which were being made against Kaleb Tarczewski. Xavier’s starting center Matt Stainbrook was playing just as hard as Kaleb, but Stainbrook was not getting called for any fouls, and folks I mean zero fouls.

We all had a huge scare in the first half when Rondae Hollis-Jefferson went down fast and hard and wasn’t moving much. On replay, it looked like he knocked knees with his teammate Stanley Johnson. It took him a long while to get up, and when he did, the trainers took him back to the locker room for evaluation.

Maybe five to ten minutes later, Rondae emerged from the locker room, ready to play, he came out to a standing ovation! Twitter was ablaze with Rondae gasps and prayers for his return, they got what they prayed for he was okay and was a factor towards the end of the game, grabbing a much needed rebound. Thank you basketball gods!

Matt Stainbrook “committed” his first file with six or so minutes left in the game and Arizona fans were quite aware that the referees where not calling any fouls on this huge player who was wrestling Wildcats under the basket. To make up for it, the referees called two more quick fouls on Stainbrook one play after another. Just like that Xavier’s Stainbrook was in foul trouble, which helped.

What helped even more was that Arizona was shooting close to 90% of their free throws, most of which came on whistles from the referee’s late in the second half.

Zone defense has seemed to mystify this team the entire season, and their opponents know it. None knew it more than Xavier’s Coach Chris Mack because it seemed that was the only defense his team knew, and they seemed to play in a zone the entire game. Not to mention, the Musketeers were shooting over 60% in the first half of the game. What is amazing is that Arizona ended up tied with Xavier at the half, and Arizona was only shooting around 37% (12-32.)

At the end of the night, the Wildcats had three starters in double digits. T.J. McConnell had 19 points, seven rebounds and five assists, which gives him a total of 233 total assists (228 pre-game plus the five tonight). This moves T.J. into second place all time for the Arizona Wildcats. Stanley Johnson and Kaleb Tarczewski both had 12 points each, and Kaleb also scored a double-double tonight making 12 rebounds.

Mar 26, 2015; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Arizona Wildcats forward Stanley Johnson (5) reacts against Xavier Musketeers during the second half in the semifinals of the west regional of the 2015 NCAA Tournament at Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sports

Kaleb seemed to start slow, frustrated with all the foul calls, but he found his heart somewhere in the last 10 minutes of the second half, and it showed! He never gave up, and Gabe York made some sweet clutch three-pointers to keep the Wildcats close to the Musketeers.

In the players press conference after the win, Kaleb Tarczewski was asked about his point guard T.J. McConnell, “In clutch situations, everyone on our team is confident with him having the ball in his hands…we are all confident in him, he always makes the right play.”

What was it like for Kaleb to play 270 pounds of Stainbrook? Zeus’s answer: “He’s a great basketball player. His size, he does a great job of using it, his team does a great job of getting him the ball in positions where he can be successful. With him its tough, because he’s not just a great scorer, but he is also great passer, and that was something we had a game plan for tonight.”

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Questions were then asked about the back and forth in the game, trying to gain control and what the turning point ended up being. Stanley Johnson had an answer for that, “I think the big turning point in the game was our rebounding. We were getting out rebounded the whole game..when he’s [Stainbrook] out of the game, maybe having a 270 pound body out-of-the-way to get rebounds, we started getting rebounds, and we got the advantage on the boards and you know the story of the season for us, when we defend the rebound, its hard to beat us. [giggles by T.J. and Kaleb]”

Question for T.J. about the team about maybe losing the game,”I am determined to not let it end, We are kind of playing with a mentality with ‘refuse to lose’ and ‘do whatever it takes’..we showed a lot of heart and resiliency,

Mar 26, 2015; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Xavier Musketeers forward James Farr (2) falls on top Arizona Wildcats center Kaleb Tarczewski (35) during the second half in the semifinals of the west regional of the 2015 NCAA Tournament at Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports

big players made big time plays and I am proud of all my teammates.” About when his game changed, “In the first half you could have said I was practically playing for Xavier, how many times I passed them the ball. And I couldn’t hit water if I fell out of the boat from three..I gotta credit all my teammates, they were the ones who got me the ball and made all the plays.”

On the rematch with Wisconsin, Kaleb said “it provides a level of familiarity with how they play..they are a very similar team to the one they were last year..we are all looking forward to being in the Elite Eight, it’s an accomplishment, we are 34-3.” And T.J. had this to say, “After we lost to them, it gave us a long time to think about it. We watched them go to the final four and lose at the buzzer to Kentucky and you know we thought it should have been us…we have great respect for Wisconsin and we are going to come out ready and play Arizona basketball.”

Sweet Sixteen game highlights against the Xavier Musketeers via Brian Jeffries on the IMG Sports Network:

120 Sports video on the upcoming game with Wisconsin:

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