Last week the Wildcats reached their full potential for this season. I know that in the future our foundation of freshmen that will produce much better teams, but for this season, last weekend's performances against Stanford and Cal were the best we can play.
In my eagerness to praise our young Cats, particularly Derek Williams, I began to take Nic Wise for granted. In the closing minutes of the game against Cal, after Horne (who clearly fouled Robertson) forced the turnover, I texted something to the effect of: "Great, we got the ball but our most clutch player is 5'10"." I doubted the effectiveness of our diminutive point guard, despite the ample evidence to the contrary. Just this season he has made back to back game winning shots. Yet in the intensity of the Arizona/Cal game I questioned his ability to take over like Aaron Brooks used to for Oregon.
As we all know, I was proved wrong on the next play when Wise dribbled, juked, shimmied and collided his way to the rim for an amazing "and 1." Wise's poise at the end of that crucial game means that we must all pay him the reverence that he is due. He is our last second option, and though he is not the conventional size, we must have full confidence that he is a winner.
His dramatic final shot even warmed the cockels of Joe Lunardi's frosty heart as he allowed Arizona into braketology for the first time this year.
We have a huge game this Thursday night and Wise can not do it alone, but we can be confident that if we have the ball in the waning moments he will find a way to win.
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