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Arizona cruises to 69-50 win

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Just nine days ago, the Wildcats' world was gloomy enough that UA interim head coach Kevin O'Neill interrupted a practice to assemble the team at midcourt.

Arizona was 1-3 in the Pac-10 at that point, before winning three straight games, including a convincing 84-69 win over Washington on Saturday at McKale Center. The Wildcats had a game at Cal the next evening, then a home game with sixth-ranked Washington State, and a potentially brutal trip to Los Angeles during the week after that.

Their 20-year 20-win streak, their 23-year NCAA tournament streak, their ability to walk around campus with their heads up … all that was at risk.

"I just told them, 'Listen, you never know when you're going bad how close you are to going good — and when you're going good, you don't know how close you are to going bad. What we need to do is stick together here and play the way we're supposed to,'" O'Neill said.

Not a believer in the standard, sit-down team meeting, O'Neill crammed the rest of his message into a 15-minute speech on the Haas Pavilion floor.

Then he let the players return to shooting, and everybody went back to the team hotel soon after.

"I thought it was the right thing to do," O'Neill said. "I said, 'Let's re-evaluate where we're at here. Why are we in this situation? We've had some injuries. Now we're back healthy. So let's start playing.' … I wanted them to keep in mind we had lost two of those games without Jerryd (Bayless) and two of those games we had led late."

According to wing Chase Budinger, the players also held their own meeting to voice gripes and encouragement alike.

It was "inspirational," Budinger said. "We got to see all the opinions of all the different players. It made us come closer as a team."

The Wildcats' performance in the past three games indicates something changed that day in Berkeley. After knocking off the Bears on Jan. 19 and the Cougars on Thursday, Arizona again Saturday had the kind of balanced, unselfish offensive play that it thrives with, shooting 62 percent from the field and recording 20 assists for 45 shots.

"In both games we've played this weekend, we've really made the extra pass, we're not taking contested shots and we're not turning the ball over much," O'Neill said. "I'm very proud of the effort of our team this weekend. … I like how we're moving the ball. I like how we're sharing it."

The ball also ended up mostly in the right hands, at the right times, too. Bayless led the Wildcats with 26 points on 9-for-11 shooting, and Budinger had 25. Budinger hit 5 of 10 from three-point range, and Bayless was 5 for 6.

Helping them get open was the fact that the Wildcats had their critical inside presence on the floor for 38 minutes: Jordan Hill had 16 points, 11 rebounds and just three fouls while recording his sixth double-double this season.

"It's very important" to have all three players going, wing Jawann McClellan said. "When (Hill) is not on the court, we have to go with four smalls, and they can focus on the penetrating. They don't have to worry about the big man. It's important to him to stay out there. Chase and Jerryd will do what they're supposed to."

Thanks to Hill's five blocks, giving him 11 for the weekend, and overall presence, O'Neill mostly was able to piece together enough size to counter the Huskies and standout forward Jon Brockman, who had 24 points but just six rebounds. Without forward Bret Brielmaier, who sat out a third straight game with his ongoing shoulder issues, O'Neill started Kirk Walters at center and used big guards Zane Johnson and Daniel Dillon at times.

But O'Neill also used Nic Wise for 34 effective minutes, getting six points, two steals, six assists and just one turnover from him. It was Wise, on one occasion, who found Bayless in the corner for a three-pointer against the Huskies' zone defense and McClellan, with four total assists, who did the same.

McClellan wound up assisting Bayless three times on three-pointers in the second half, one expanding UA's 13-point halftime lead all the way to 60-40, with 10:29 left, and the final two helping UA push it to 79-53 with just under five minutes left.

Bayless, in turn, dished the assists for three of Budinger's five three-pointers.

"Our guys do a great job of finding" Bayless and Budinger, O'Neill said "Those guys shoot well when our guys pass well and make good decisions."

Together, the Wildcats moved to 14-6 overall and 4-3 in the Pac-10 with the win Saturday while Washington dropped to 12-8, 3-4. They still have that brutal trip to Los Angeles this week, but at least the Wildcats will enter it with some confidence.

"We showed we're for real," Bayless said. "A lot of people didn't think we were for real because we were struggling a little bit. A lot of us were out with injuries, like me and Bret, so we weren't 100 percent. Now we just need to get Bret back out there and I think everybody's going to start looking over their shoulder at us."