Top 5 Fan Favorite Players of the Sean Miller Era
By Brad Malone
1. Kevin Parrom
Arizona Wildcats
Kevin Parrom, A.K.A No Easy Buckets. A story I never get sick of happened when Sean Miller took his first Arizona squad up to Tempe.
Ty Abbott thought he had a breakaway dunk. He thought wrong. Kevin Parrom was trailing behind him and gave Abbott a nice love pat. Abbott thought K.P.’s foul was a little excessive.
When Abbott angrily approached K.P., he didn’t back down. Instead he smiled like an 8-year old kid and started talking trash like Gary Payton. The Cats thrashed the devils 77-58 and the phrase ‘No Easy Buckets’ was born.
Like Steve Kerr a quarter of a century earlier, the Old Pueblo adopted K.P. after family and personal tragedy affected his life.
One of the most touching moments of the Sean Miller era came in Parrom’s first game back after his mother had passed away. Parrom was also recovering from a near fatal gunshot wound he had received when visiting his mother in New York.
When Coach Miller took K.P. out of the game, he gave him a long hug (2:28 on the video above) that had Arizona fans fighting back tears.
K.P. missed lots of time on the court because of many injuries, but when he was heathy opponents could be sure that K.P. was there to play defense.
I wish K.P. would have had the opportunity to come back for one more year at Arizona, but getting a medical red shirt with the N.C.A.A, with their cooky rules would have been difficult.
Thanks for the memories Derrick, Rondae, T.J., Nick and Kevin!
Bear Down!