DAVID SANDERS / arizona daily star 2008

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LAS VEGAS — Bleary-eyed and short on sleep — if they slept at all — the Arizona Wildcats left Las Vegas on Sunday and returned to Tucson on a charter plane.

They won't forget their Sin City experience anytime soon.

Arizona's football team took in a few nights on the Strip, experienced snow and — when it mattered the most — put together a statement win in its first bowl appearance in a decade.

Arizona's 31-21 dismantling of BYU in Saturday's Las Vegas Bowl will stand as one of the great moments in recent history. The Cats finished with an 8-5 record, their best since 1998.

It was reason enough to party.

Players and coaches spent Saturday night at The Venetian Hotel on the Strip, reveling in their big win and recalling a memorable week.

"This is a great city. It's been an unbelievable week," UA coach Mike Stoops said. "To finish this way makes it really special. How you play — and winning — really matters a whole lot. We're going to get a lot out of this win."

It was the best kind of Las Vegas show.

Here are the top five moments of Arizona's Las Vegas Bowl experience:

1 Wonderful Willie: Playing in his last college game, Arizona senior Willie Tuitama was superb. The Wildcats' quarterback threw for 325 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for another one in the second half.

Tuitama leaves the UA as the Wildcats' all-time leading passer and scoring leader. Thanks to his performance Saturday, Tuitama has a bowl win to go with all the numbers.

2 Thomas takes record: Senior wide receiver Mike Thomas made history — even if it took him until the final play to do it. Thomas' 3-yard catch on the game's last play made him the Pac-10 Conference's all-time receptions leader with 259.

Thomas finished with four catches for 29 yards — one of the worst games of his career — but was often double-teamed and schemed by a tough BYU defense.

Still, Thomas called it "a perfect game."

3 Stoops chokes up: Arizona's coach is well-known for being fiery on the sidelines. On Friday, his players and fans got to see a softer side. Stoops choked up three times during a news conference and ensuing kickoff luncheon at the Las Vegas Convention Center. He struggled for words during his speech at the luncheon; the entire room fell silent as he composed himself.

"We know he's an emotional guy," linebacker Xavier Kelley said. "That's the same way we feel about him."

Stoops' emotions bubbled up when talking about his players and the five years of frustration and near-misses that the program has had to endure.

"We've been under a lot of pressure," Stoops said. "To see our kids play well makes me feel great as a coach. It's been five years in the making."

4 Snow on the Strip: The Wildcats experienced something even rarer than a UA bowl game — snow! A winter storm dumped several inches of snow on Las Vegas on Wednesday, closing McCarran International Airport, shutting down highways and snarling traffic throughout the city.

Arizona's players seemed fascinated by the stuff, even though Las Vegas' biggest snowstorm in 30 years marred the team's first practice of bowl week. The snow melted by Friday; Saturday night's game was played in the cold, though snow was noticeable on the Sunrise Mountain north of Sam Boyd Stadium.

5 Hoff! C'mon, you knew David Hasselhoff had to make it in here. The "America's Got Talent" judge and former "Baywatch" and "Knight Rider" star belted out the national anthem before Saturday's game, and it wasn't half bad.

Hasselhoff donned a "Shaft"-style black leather coat, but he might as well have been wearing red. His daughter, Taylor-Ann, is a freshman at the UA.

Hasselhoff told the Star that the UA "reminds me of kinda the college I wish I had gone to." He attended California Institute of the Arts.