The Arizona men’s basketball team kicked off its 2011-2012 season on Saturday with the annual Red-Blue scrimmage.
The Red team defeated the Blue team 67-54 in front of about 14,000 fans in a sold out McKale Center.
Although the Red-Blue game is an intrasquad scrimmage, it felt more like a post-season environment, with a lot of hype coming off of Arizona’s run to the Eilte Eight in 2010-2011.
“We have our future here and of course you’re looking at the current team,” head coach Sean Miller told fans before the game. “We’re going to do our very best to bring our program back so your can be even more proud than you were a year ago.“
The fans in attendance also welcomed back former Wildcats Chase Budinger and Derrick Williams who had their numbers retired and entered into the Arizona Ring of Honor as well as current Jason Terry who was honored at halftime for winning an NBA title with the Dallas Mavericks.
The Red-Blue game also brought the debut of Arizona’s freshmen Nick Johnson, Sidiki Johnson, Angelo Chol and Josiah Turner, who combined for 49 points in the game.
Before the game started, Nick Johnson won the dunk contest with a between-the-legs dunk that earned a score of 11 out of 10 from former Wildcat Richard Jefferson. Former Wildcats Channing Fry, Jerryd Bayless, Andre Iguodala and Jordan Hill were also welcomed back on Saturday.
Freshmen Sidiki Johnson, Angelo Chol and Nick Johnson, junior Solomon Hill and sophomore Jordin Mayes were the Blue team starters.
The Red team was made up of seniors Jesse Perry, Kyle Fogg and Brendon Lavender and junior Kyryl Natyazhko and freshman Josiah Turner.
Both Sidiki Johnson and Nick Johnson were impressive in the scrimmage, scoring 18 and 17 points, respectively.
The Red team took an early lead, but with just six minutes left in the first half, the Blue team reclaimed the lead. In the first half, Nick Johnson led all scorers with 10 points.
In the second half, the big men got into the action from beyond the arc. Jesse Perry was 3-for-4 from three-point land and Natyazhko and Max Wiepking each added a three.
Perry was the leading scorer in the game with 20 total points. Fogg and Lavender each had 15 points.
Junior Kevin Parrom was given a standing ovation when he was introduced with the rest of the Red team. He participated in pre-game warm-ups but did not play during the scrimmage. Miller said after the game that Parrom would not redshirt this season, but would miss games at the start of the year.
“Unless something really changes in the next week, we don’t anticipate him being ready for the beginning of the season but we do anticipate him joining us down the road,” Miller said. “That could be as early as mid-November, late-November, early December. If he went past mid-December, he would really have to take a major step back.”