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WHAT IS PRODUCTIVITY RATING?:
PP: Productivity Points (Points, assists, rebounds, steals, blocked shots, FGs made, FTs made added together and then subtracted by missed FGs, missed FTs, personal fouls and turnovers)
MIN: Minutes played overall
PR: Productivity rating per minute played (Productivity points divided by minutes played)
ARIZONA 72, DUKE 66
PRODUCTIVITY RATING
* — STARTERS
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Arizona's win on the road against San Diego State looks that much more impressive after watching Aztecs past two days.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanESPN) November 30, 2013
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Sean Miller slammed the advertising board with his hand in the second half while kneeling near the scorer’s table following another of Arizona’s 16 turnovers.
He knew his Arizona Wildcats were good enough to beat Mike Krzyzewski’s team if they could just play to their ability. With only seven points from Nick Johnson and Aaron Gordon, the Arizona Wildcats trailed by just a point at the second TV timeout in the second half against Duke on Friday night.
ARIZONA-DUKE SERIES
a-Steel Bowl Tournament; b-EA Sports Maui Invitational; c-NCAA title game; d-NCAA West Regional semifinal; e-NIT Season Tip-Off title
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The Blue Devils led 43-42 with 11:43 remaining in the game. Gordon just made his first three-pointer in the NIT Season Tip-Off title game at Madison Square Garden. At that point, Gordon had only five points and Johnson had four turnovers compared to only one field goal. The junior guard also had three fouls.
“Foul trouble early in the first half kind of got my rhythm a little down but I just tried to stay with it,” Johnson said in the postgame press conference.
Jabari Parker came out of the TV timeout with two free throws — following Gordon’s third foul — to put Duke ahead 45-42 with 11:42 left.
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Coach K was on the opposing bench. The national media was fixated on the game at one of the most storied venues in sports. The Wildcats were on the verge of leaving New York City with pundits commenting that the best in the West can’t measure up to an East coast power.
That’s when Johnson made his first three-pointer with 11:10 remaining, tying the game at 45. That’s when it became Arizona’s game to win, not to lose.
Nick Johnson was the NIT Season Tip-Off MVP after scoring a team-high 15 points against Duke
Duke went more than six minutes without a field goal while Brandon Ashley scored on an aggressive tip-in and Johnson converted on a strong move to the basket to increase Arizona’s lead to 49-45.
Johnson capped a 15-3 run with another three-pointer with 6:25 remaining. The Wildcats led 57-48. The tone of the game completely changed because Johnson became the catalyst Arizona has grown accustomed to early in the season.
Arizona overcame Krzyzewski, Duke’s mystique, the aura of Madison Square Garden, Parker and adversity to bring home another early-season NIT title similar to Lute Olson’s vintage teams. This is the same team that trailed Drexel 27-8 in the first half Wednesday night.
“Two things happened in both games that I think will really be with us all the way to the end of the season,” Miller said. “No. 1, (Kaleb Tarczewski) against Drexel put behind him a bad half. You know, I think if you were watching the game, you would say, is he going to go small and maybe sit Tarczewski out.
T.J. McConnell had eight assists with only two turnovers in 39 minutes against Duke
“Well, in the second half of that game, he was the reason that we won and the difference. Two days later, you fast forward to tonight’s game. In this case Johnson, not only because of foul trouble but some uncharacteristic turnovers really was not playing all that well. But he was able to put it behind him, and no question, he was the most outstanding player in the tournament.
“Really from the 15-minute mark to the end of the game, I thought he was the best player on the court. It’s always good when some of your key players can put kind of some adversity or bad play behind them and finish so strong. That’s a quality that we really gained by coming here.”
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ARIZONA OVERALL PRODUCTIVITY RATING
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ARIZONA PAC-10/12
PLAYERS OF THE YEAR:
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ARIZONA SCHEDULE/PRODUCTIVITY RESULTS
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WILDABOUTAZCATS.net publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He also writes articles for Bleacher Report, Lindy’s College Sports and TucsonCitizen.com.
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