Wildcats gaining confidence after rocky start

TUCSON All of a sudden Arizona has momentum. Along with it has come a swagger. It has a confidence that wasn't there just a month ago, clearly wasn't there two months ago. But it's also what Arizona coach Sean Miller was talking about three months ago when he talked about improving by February. "We're on the steady climb of being a good team," Miller said. And yes, Miller said, confidence is a big thing. It was, in fact, the buzz word on Thursday night after Arizona beat visiting Colorado 71-57 in McKale Center to move to 17-8 overall and 8-4 in the Pac-12 Conference. "I will say this, though, I don't have any serum and any way of injecting into the players," Miller said. "It comes from within and it comes from success. It comes from a locker room that really believes." And, Arizona believes. A month ago who would have thought after UA's loss to UCLA it would be in this spot? How about after it lost to Oregon at home? Or even after UA's disappointing loss to Washington just two weeks ago. Yet, Miller talked about handling the loss well, getting back to work and not letting the past impact the future. "One of the things I'm not going to get caught up in is that we're a completely different team," Miller said. We've played some very good basketball." And, has been unlucky at times at home and on the road. Some of it has been Arizona's own undoing in that its missed free throws and failed to keep control of the ball. But, Arizona has learned. Thursday night was a perfect example. It hit free throws (26 of 35) and had just 11 turnovers. It was good to do it in McKale Center, Miller said. Heck, Miller still gets anxious when the Cats play at home in part because it hasn't played as well in McKale as it has on the road. "I hadn't gotten that good feeling, that confident feeling we had established a year ago," Miller said of playing at home. "We just hadn't played as well at McKale. Tonight we did, though. The way we played was very reminiscent of our performances on the road." It was again accomplished exactly how Arizona plays: by poking, nibbling, prodding and pestering. It does because it has to and it's become good at it. "With the defense I saw tonight," Miller said, "it really doesn't surprise me that we can match up with anyone out there." All the pestering eventually wore Colorado out, after the two teams were relatively even for about 30-some minutes. "Our game just wasn't there in the second half to beat a good Arizona team at home," Colorado coach Tad Boyle said. Arizona did it so quickly, too. With the game tied at 39, Arizona went on a 14-5 run. Jesse Perry got a basket after an offensive rebound. Josiah Turner scored on a three-point play. Kyle Fogg hit a lay-up and to end Arizona's pull-away run, freshman Angelo Chol caps it off with a dunk. Bam. Bam. Bam. And all of a sudden Arizona had a double-digit lead. As Kyle Fogg put it, the "older guys" came through for Arizona. "It's up to us to stay consistent with this," Fogg said. Perry led the way with 17 points and 11 rebounds. Solomon Hill had 16 points and 14 rebounds. Fogg had 15 points. Apparently the blows came so often, it felt like twice the hit. "Arizona was able to hit shots that they missed in our gym," said Carlos Brown. "I think they had six guys in double digits and they played a lot better (than the last meeting between the two)." Then again, that was so, well, last month. "We're a lot more confident," Hill said. "Guys know their roles. They know what they need to do and there's no more questioning it." And it's doing it with seven guys. Apparently, it's addition by subtraction with the absence of Kevin Parrom and Jordin Mayes, each who have suffered foot injuries in the last couple of weeks. Mayes could return before the season ends; Parrom is out for the rest of the year. "We have good chemistry right now," Miller said. "We're playing with togetherness and we're playing hard. We just have to keep that going." Undeniably, Miller said, Arizona could use the two, but how do you argue with a three-game win streak and some of your best basketball of the season in that stretch? "We've won," Hill said. "Three in a row is always good. I think the guys just need to keep that momentum going into the next game." It helps that they've found a nice compliment player in Chol, who has emerged as a quality bench player over the last couple of weeks. He, too, admitted he's more confident in part because his teammates are more confident in him. "He's come around good," Hill said. "He's boxing out and getting rebounds and finishing. That's all we are asking him to do. The minutes are going to be there for him. He just needs to go out and prove it now." As does Arizona when it comes to finishing strong. "If right now we make every game life or death it's just no fun," Miller said. "It's just no fun to coach. It's no fun to play. You lose sight of the importance to practice. We're doing a good job of practicing and getting ready for the game. What you are seeing is once the ball is tipped the byproduct of a team doing things the right way." And, of course, confidence has come along with it.