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 posted Parts 1 & 2 earlier this week:
https://hoopshd.com/2019/12/06/hoopshd-at-the-wooden-legacy-part-1-of-3
https://hoopshd.com/2019/12/07/hoopshd-at-the-wooden-legacy-part-2-of-3
We now conclude our coverage with Part 3 featuring the Sunday evening championship game between Penn and Wake Forest.
Great pregame meal of Caesar salad/ziti with meat! Great company on press row as I found myself sitting next to brand-new HoopsHD podcast guest Aaron Torres: as they say down the street in Anaheim, it’s a small world after all. The lower bowl was full of Wildcat fans who were hungry for a championship:
The Arizona cheerleaders brought their alternate blue uniforms and were ready to help the fans cheer their team to victory:
I assumed that Arizona’s Zeke Nnaji was going to be the best big man on the court but 7-footer Olivier Sarr won that award. After doing very little in his 1st 2 games against BC/Columbia he has turned it on in a big way and averaged 15 PPG/11 RPG in his previous 5 games. He showed some nice touch off the bench with a turnaround jumper and baseline jumper, some nice power with a rebound/follow dunk, and seemed to single-handedly take Nnaji out of the game on the other end of the court:
Fortunately for the Wildcats’ 3 freshmen starters their elder statesmen rose to the occasion. Redshirt senior Chase Jeter made a reverse layup and a couple of pretty hook shots:
…while redshirt senior Dylan Smith made a pair of 1st half threes, a tough runner, and even a floater off the glass to help his team open up a 39-33 halftime lead:
Arizona coach Sean Miller watched his team extend its lead to 15 PTS in the 2nd half but Wake Forest coach Danny Manning’s team kept fighting back and eventually cut the lead to single digits thanks to a 23-17 advantage at the FT line:
Sarr continued making shots and grabbing rebounds en route to yet another double-double with 21 PTS/13 REB. His teammate Brandon Childress had a horrible shooting night from the field (4-18 FG) but by draining all 9 of his FTs and a couple of shots from behind the arc he actually made a competent contribution with 19 PTS:
Arizona’s freshman trio of Nnaji (who fouled out after committing 4 turnovers)/Josh Green/Nico Mannion had an equally-putrid effort with 6-24 FG but the 6’6” Green hit the boards hard to end up with a career-high 12 REB:
Fortunately Jeter/Smith combined for 37 PTS/13-19 FG to help clinch a 73-66 win and 1 shiny new trophy:
And Wilbur wanted it BAD:
I walked onto the court for the trophy ceremony and witnessed some nifty scenes. Smith hugged Green to thank him for all of his rebounds:
The champs were getting excited to finally hoist the trophy:
..and then the chance arrived:
Coach Manning kept his team on the court to see what might have been but they did not seem pleased.
Jeter was torn between holding onto the trophy and picking up his all-tourney team medal:
Mannion’s underwhelming night could not erase the memory of his pristine performances against Pepperdine/Arizona, which is why he was named the Wooden Legacy MVP:
Jeter/Mannion were joined on the all-tourney team by Penn’s AJ Brodeur (not pictured), Smith, and Sarr:
Coach Miller is 1 cool customer but I hope he will show a little more emotion the next time that he wins a championship:
I assumed this would be the end of my story…until I arrived at LAX the next day and noticed that (like me) the Demon Deacons were waiting for their own flight back to the East Coast. I never truly understood why former NBA players like Patrick Ewing/Penny Hardaway returned to college to become coaches until today. Manning earned almost $60 million during his 15-year pro career and could have easily stayed at home doing anything he wants. Instead he spends his time trying to teach his student-athletes to be the best they can be both on and off the court. On Sunday night about 10 minutes before the title game tipped off Coach Manning announced that he would be holding out 2 of his players who were allegedly behaving badly during the team’s trip to Disneyland the previous day. Less than 24 hours later he could have simply sat in the waiting area listening to music or reliving his 7-PT loss, but he decided to go buy a case of water and then hand the bottles out to his players so they could stay hydrated for the 5-hour flight back to Winston-Salem. Your actions when you do NOT know that you are on camera speak volumes about the kind of person you are. Thanks coach, and keep up the good work:
