Wild About '88: The Rise of Arizona Basketball
Chapter 1: March 13, 1987 vs. the UTEP Miners(NCAA First Round)
This season marks the 35th anniversary of one of Tucson’s most beloved teams of all time, the 1987-88 Arizona Wildcats that finished 35-3 and went to the program’s first Final Four. We will celebrate that team by recapping each game during that unforgettable season by referencing newspaper archives and interviews conducted during the making of the upcoming documentary film ‘Wild About ‘88: The Rise of Arizona Basketball.’
March 13, 1987
NCAA First Round vs. UTEP at McKale Center
Leading 78-73 at the friendly confines of McKale Center, the Arizona Wildcats were 50 seconds away from the only thing they had yet to accomplish in the Lute Olson era.
In four years Olson had taken a 4-win team that played in a nearly empty arena and helped make Arizona Basketball something that mattered.
Year one was rough, but a late-season run had Tucson believing something special was brewing.
In year two the Wildcats battled for the conference title into the final weekend, before losing on the road to the hated UCLA Bruins.
In year three Olson helped lead the Wildcats to its first Pac-10 conference title in any sport. They clinched the crown against new rivals UCLA at Pauley Pavilion with Olson’s mentor John Wooden watching in the crowd.
Year four had challenges but Arizona clawed its way into the NCAA tournament for a third straight year and finished only a game out of a second straight Pac-10 title.
The main struggle in the fourth season for Arizona was they excelled at losing games that should have been in the bag. Before the NCAA Tournament, they would lose seven games in which they held comfortable leads in the second half. Five of those were lost in the final moments of the game.1
But if Arizona could just hold on for 50 more seconds they would be celebrating their first tournament win of the Lute Olson era, and all of their late-game struggles would be forgotten.
Unfortunately for Olson’s crew, the UTEP Miners got the memo and took advantage of Arizona miscues down the stretch, and with no time remaining it appeared UTEP’s Chris Blocker had stuck a dagger into Arizona’s heart by hitting a game-winning three from the top of the key.
Junior big man Tom Tolbert had enough. “Anthony Cook and I walked to the locker room and we thought it was over. So we’re in the locker room getting undressed and somebody runs in. I think it’s our ballboy. ‘It’s not over! It was a two! It was a two! It was a two! We’re going to overtime!’, and I remember telling him ‘Just let them keep it. This season’s cursed, ’” Tolbert said.
Tolbert would go back on the court but it didn’t matter. Arizona would lose in overtime 98-91 at McKale Center, ending one of the most frustrating seasons in school history.
Olson said, “It’s been an absolute reversal of a year ago, where every time we’d get into close game situations, we’d come up with the plays we needed to make to win.”2
Arizona had a generational talent in Sean Elliott, the program’s first McDonald’s All-American in Craig McMillan, a high-flying rebounder in Anthony Cook, a future multiple Major League All-Star and Gold Glove winner in Kenny Lofton, and future NBA journeymen Tom Tolbert and Jud Buechler.
So with all this talent why did chaos follow Arizona in so many late-game situations?
Rewind back to the previous summer in 1986.
Lute Olson was coaching the United States in the World Championships in Madrid, Spain. In the pre-Dream Team era, Olson went to Europe with all college players to take on the world’s best. Two players from Arizona made the squad. Sean Elliott and Steve Kerr.
Before Kerr was winning countless rings in the NBA, he was an essential part of getting Arizona its first Pac-10 title. In 1983 he came to Arizona as a guard with few prospects, but in 1986 he was a leader and had become Arizona’s starting point guard.
When Olson recruited Kerr he never dreamed he would be in the NBA or win multiple championships at the next level.
“I thought we'll take him and we'll probably end up recruiting over him the following year,” Olson said in 2014.
That summer in Spain, Kerr’s dreams for a successful senior campaign at Arizona hit a gigantic speedbump.
“In the semifinal game we played against Brazil and I tore my knee up, just tore my ACL and my MCL, cutting in the lane with the ball and planted my leg and it just gave, and it was a tough injury. The team doctor there told me I might never play again, which I had a hard time believing,” Kerr said in 2013
Kerr spent the next year working hard to get his knee back into shape. That left Arizona shorthanded at point guard going into the 1986-87 season.
Losing Kerr before the season concerned the team, especially the usually positive and happy big guy Joe Turner.
“Now we're a ship without a navigation system out there,” Turner said.
With the 3-point shot being implemented into college basketball in 1986-87 for the first time, sharpshooting skills of Kerr from the perimeter could have been a big help. But Olson missed something bigger from Kerr.
“If we had said (Kerr) can’t take a shot all year long, he still probably would have been our most valuable player just because of the late-game leadership that never developed,” Olson said.3
With everyone returning for the 1987-88 season Arizona fans still had some concerns.
Would Steve Kerr’s knee be fully recovered?
Could Arizona finally get out of the first round of the NCAA Tournament?
Expectations had risen in Tucson in a very short time. After the loss to UTEP, what was Olson’s forecast for the 1987-88 version of the Arizona Wildcats?
“We’re going to be a very good basketball team next year,” Olson said.4
Blog content and original interview quotations © Waterfoot Films 2022.
Jay Gonzales, “Familiar tune is UA’s swan song: Loss to Miners follows pattern,” The Arizona Daily Star, March 14 1987, Page One-Section C.
Jay Gonzales, “Same story: Wildcats bobble lead, fizzle out,” The Arizona Daily Star, March 14 1987, Page Two-Section C.
Jay Gonzales, “Little progress made in Olson’s fourth season at Arizona,” The Arizona Daily Star, March 17 1987, Page One-Section C.
Jack Rickard, “Year of frustration ends for Arizona basketball team,” The Tucson Citizen, March 14 1987, 6B.