Photos by Dean Knuth / arizona daily star

More Photos (2):

Related articles:

Challenging time for Arizona

Other articles by Bruce Pascoe:

UA's 3 of a kind beats Jacks Arizona Wildcats Basketball: UA beats NAU 74-57 NAU coach happy to take his lumps, play at McKale Cats catch break with mediocre schedule 4 games into season, Budinger displaying clear leadership skills Cats on brief break from hoops, but not mentally Arizona 69, Santa Clara 66 Loss is Santa Clara's fourth close one this year Judkins, in starting debut, blossoms as forward option Horne plays, sounds fine in Georgia

Education
Assessment Technology, Inc
Social Studies Content Writer Health Care
Rio Salado College
PA's/Online Instructors General
CORT
WAREHOUSE/DRIVER Construction
Komatsu Equipment Co
Mechanic General
CORT
Warehouse Supervisor

Kevin O'Neill booked a 7 p.m. red-eye flight Saturday to visit UA signee Emmanuel Negedu in New Hampshire, yet he was fully prepared not to board it.

Arizona's interim head basketball coach also was ready to make his players cancel their nonrefundable tickets home for Christmas.

That is, until the Wildcats put up another strong defensive effort Saturday to beat San Diego State 74-58 at McKale Center, easily meeting O'Neill's mandate last week that they must play well in three games to earn a trip home.

Arizona won all three, improving to 9-2 entering a three-day break before resuming practice Wednesday to prepare for a Dec. 29 showdown at powerful Memphis, ranked second in the nation.

"Players asked me, 'KO, are you serious?' " O'Neill said.

"Yeah, I'm serious. I would never say anything like that if I wasn't serious about it. I wasn't threatening our guys but I think there needs to be a sense of urgency."

It worked. O'Neill said the Wildcats "grew up" a lot over the past week, as they continued morphing into a rugged defensive team.

Arizona, which beat UNLV on Wednesday by holding the Rebels to 31 percent shooting, held the Aztecs to just 32 percent in both halves Saturday, and minimized their usual slow start. They trailed 7-2 after four minutes but were up 32-26 at halftime and built double-digit leads in the last 10 minutes.

"I think we're developing a little bit of a camaraderie on the defensive end and a little bit of pride," O'Neill said. "It makes you keep playing hard … even when it seems like a hockey game sometimes when we can't get it out of our own end. When you keep fighting hard you're eventually going to get out of there and make a play."

One of O'Neill's top disciples is turning out to be guard Jawann McClellan, who was named the MVP of the Fiesta Bowl Classic game with seven points, nine rebounds, seven assists and solid defense on SDSU forward Lorrenzo Wade and others.

Not a bad all-around effort for the senior who described himself as mostly just a shooter entering his UA career before he spent most of the past two seasons being slowed by injuries.

"Coming out of high school, defense wasn't a big thing of mine," McClellan said. "People always told me in my whole career that I could be a good defender but I never listened to that. But when you have a coach that can tell you how you can make money playing that way, you have to listen."

But O'Neill isn't getting just a defensive stopper. He's also getting what he calls a "glue guy" who makes good passes and does a lot of smaller duties well.

"I can't say enough about Jawann's performance," O'Neill said. "He doesn't make any mistakes defensively. He makes big baskets. He's a great passer. He's done so many good things for us that go unnoticed. The things that Jawann does behind the scenes are remarkable for our team."

Remarkable enough that O'Neill nearly has to restrain himself whenever somebody questions why he plays McClellan as much as he does.

"I hear it from guys all the time: media guys, alcoholics on the street," O'Neill said. "I haven't heard it a lot lately, but I was hearing it a lot. You know, we all have friends who own businesses that know basketball. But basketball coaches never could know business. You know how that goes."

McClellan was even forced to play power forward for much of the second half Saturday, when forward Bret Brielmaier sat out after injuring his shoulder in the first half. O'Neill started guard Nic Wise after halftime and went with a smaller lineup.

But, with Wise having prompted O'Neill into smaller lineups often, that was hardly anything new. Or anything McClellan wasn't prepared to do.

Guarding bigger men. Scoring. Passing. Whatever.

He'll do it.

"I'm just doing what makes this team better," McClellan said. "I don't need to go out there and score a ton of points. I just take the shots when I'm open, make the right pass when it's there and just try to be aggressive and make other players on my team better. When I create, I'm not only creating for me but other players."

McClellan dished assists to five different players on Saturday, helping spread a balanced offense that had Jordan Hill and Jerryd Bayless scoring 15 points each, while Chase Budinger had 13 and Wise had 12.

Hill, who also posted his third double-double in the past four games with 10 rebounds, received three assists from McClellan. The only Aztecs who seriously hurt UA were wing Kyle Spain, who had 20 points, and post player Ryan Amoroso, who had 11 points and eight rebounds.

So by the end of the afternoon, not only was O'Neill able to pack for New Hampshire but Budinger was able to board a flight home to San Diego — with the Aztecs also on board.

"That was another reason why we had to win this game," Budinger said. "I didn't want to be on that plane going back after a loss."