There are a lot of great college basketball tournaments every late-November: the Maui Invitational, the Battle 4 Atlantis, etc. When the Wooden Legacy organizers announced that its 2019 field of 8 schools would include both Penn AND Arizona, HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel had no choice but to request a media credential/buy a plane ticket/check out his 2 alma maters in person. He expected to see a total of 6 separate games (3 involving the Quakers and 3 involving the Wildcats) but due to some travel nightmares and wild finishes he only saw 3 games during the weekend. We begin with a recap of a tumultuous Thanksgiving followed by the dream/nightmare matchup of the 2 teams above in Part 1 of our coverage.
What a Thursday: I woke up in Phoenix where I spent the 1st half of my Thanksgiving week, enjoyed some quality time with the fam, then headed to the airport to fly west to see my 2 schools play back-to-back in the evening session in Anaheim. The good news is that there was no traffic so I arrived at the airport with time to spare. The bad news is that the subsequent 2 ½ hour delay gave me plenty of time to…watch some NFL action at an airport bar. By the time I arrived at the rental car facility near LAX I had already missed 1 fantastic finish, and rather than drive an hour in the rain to watch Arizona face a team that it has never lost to (Pepperdine) and would probably blow out (the Cats were leading the nation with a scoring margin of 30.3 PPG) I decided to meet up with a friend at a bar in Redondo Beach to see the nightcap while enjoying a nightcap. The Penn finish was a tale of 2 video reviews: the Quakers had a 3-PT lead and the ball with 3 seconds left before throwing away an inbounds pass that was awarded to UCF after a video review, then Darin Green Jr. made a 3 at the buzzer to send it to OT…until video review confirmed that he had stepped on the line as the Quakers held on for a 68-67 win. The Arizona finish was a tale of 2 shots: Pepperdine’s Colbey Ross made a floater with 7 seconds left to tie the game at 91-all, then Arizona freshman Nico Mannion made a running hook shot with 2.1 seconds left to clinch a 2-PT win.
Then it hit me: the “who does Jon cheer for” game was going to take place after all. My 2 teams would be facing each other for only the 2nd time ever and the 1st time in almost 25 years: I know because I was there! It was December 30, 1996 and I was a recent Penn grad living in Phoenix. Back then the Wildcats hosted their own holiday tournament every December (the Bank One Fiesta Bowl Classic) so I decided to drive 2 hours south to see the red and blue face the red and blue at the McKale Center. I had a great seat on press row and then spent the next 40 minutes questioning my life choices as Arizona destroyed Penn by a score of 93-51. It was so long ago that 1 of the freshmen on that Wildcat team was a guard named Josh Pastner! If there is such a thing as a respectable 42-PT loss then that 1 might qualify based on the caliber of the 2 squads involved: the Quakers went 12-14 that season after winning the Ivy League during each of the previous 4 seasons, while the Wildcats became the only team to ever beat a trio of #1-seeds en route to winning the 1997 national title.
I visited some California friends who I had not seen in a long time on Friday afternoon and then headed to the Anaheim Arena for the big game. The pregame meal hit the spot: rice/beans/make-your-own tacos. The lower bowl was rather empty but the Arizona contingent was out in force (due in large part to Coach Sean Miller having 6 players on the roster who hail from southern California):
Wilma/Wilbur also spent their Thanksgiving in Anaheim:
As did a few lucky cheerleaders:
Let’s do this:
AJ Brodeur only made 3-10 FG in the 1st half but operated well inside against a Power 5 team with 2 layups and an open dunk while also adding 4 AST/2 STL. He/Zeke Nnaji may both weigh 240 pounds but the Penn senior and Arizona freshman have very different skill sets:
The 1 Wildcat who is no stranger at all to facing the Quakers is grad transfer Stone Gettings. He played against Penn 6 times while an undergrad player at Cornell and had some big-time performances, including 21 PTS/7 REB/5 AST in a loss at the Palestra on 2/12/17 and 20 PTS/17 REB in an 8-PT loss in Philly on 1/12/18. He only had 1 PT on Friday…but what do you expect from a guy wearing unlucky #13!
Chase Jeter had a perfect 1st half with 8 PTS on 4-4 FG and 4 REB. He did all of his damage down low with a variety of low post moves…and when you are rolling like that then you get to roll up the shorts on your right leg:
Coach Miller’s team outshot Penn from 1-PT land/2-PT land/3-PT land in the 1st half but still needed to huddle the troops as Coach Steve Donahue’s Quakers would not go away and were only down by 8 PTS at halftime:
Penn tried to cut into the lead early in the 2nd half but Brodeur picked up his 3rd/4th fouls in rapid succession with 17 minutes left and did not attempt a single FG the rest of the night. However, Coach Donahue decided to run the offense through his SR star, who somehow ended up with a double-double of 11 PTS/10 AST:
The star of the show for Penn was freshman SG Jordan Dingle. After making only a single 3-PT shot in the 1st half he got in the zone in the 2nd half and sunk a spectacular 6 long-range shots to finish with a career-high 27 PTS. He might not be the best freshman in the country…but the only other 1st-year player averaging 17+ PPG who has made 22 3PM so far is Virginia Tech FR SG Landers Nolley II:
Speaking of freshmen, Arizona has 3 of them in its starting lineup and they are all playing like veterans. Nnaji kept making layups (finishing with 16 PTS), Josh Green scored both inside and outside (finishing with 14 PTS), and Mannion continued his stellar play while making shots from all over the court. He scored a career-high 24 PTS/11-14 FG by nailing a couple of long jumpers and showing off his signature shot: a floater that he releases high into the air off of either foot.
Arizona won 92-82 but Penn kept it competitive deep into the 2nd half and with a resume that already includes road wins at Alabama/Providence they proved that they can play with the big boys. Hope you enjoyed Part 1, please check back later this weekend for Part 2.