Homecat advantage for Arizona in victory over UCLA

College students tend to be nocturnal creatures, but the 'Zona Zoo rose early Saturday morning. An over-capacity crowd of 14,611 was ready to make life tough on the Bruins.

After Arizona walked away with an easy 84-72 victory, interim head coach Russ Pennell acknowledged that he wasn't happy with support earlier this season when it looked like the Wildcats were destined to miss their first NCAA tournament in a quarter of a century.

"Back in the early part of the season, I was a little disappointed in some of the crowds that we had," he told reporters. "I felt like they were kind of writing this team off. I wasn't mad at anyone personally, I just thought my team was being a little bit disrespected."

What could have been drawing fans away in Tucson? A cactus-chopping competition?

Walking around the arena, another University of Arizona employee shared a similar perspective. "This is how it used to be when Lute Olson was here," he said in explaining how fans were finally "getting back on the bandwagon."

The bandwagon?

Apparently these guys had never experienced a Los Angeles crowd. Somebody should remind them that McKale Center's lowest attendance this season was 12,339 during a nonconference game. That's more than most Pac-10 arenas can hold, and would nearly fill Pauley Pavillion. The Bruins have sold out only a couple of home games this season (USC and Notre Dame) and it's been two years since everybody used their tickets on the same day.

Arizona doesn't merely lead the Pac-10 in attendance, it entered the weekend averaging 61% more fans than runner-up Arizona State. Of course, there's not much else for their city's 1 million residents to do. Year-round, Wildcat athletics competes with fast-paced spectator sports such as golf and baseball spring training.

Those fans didn't just walk in and sit down Saturday. They stood — many for the entire game.

While UCLA worked on its new reputation as a streaky team (three bad games, four great ones, two bad ones), Arizona worked on its old reputation as one of the toughest venues in America (EA Sports be darned). Fans hanging just over press row bopped reporters with giant inflated balloons (inadvertently, we'll assume). The Arizona band blared an eclectic '90s mix with everything from Coolio to DMB. Student organizers handed out cheat sheets with cheers, jeers and dirt on Bruins' personal lives.

Although UCLA was failing to show any heart (Wildcats are red, Bruins were very blue), the Arizona fans even came prepared for Valentine's Day. Most were wearing red and white, but some of the well-loved T-shirts had a pink hue. The kiss-cam operators kept busy, sometimes giving entire sections a chance to smooch. The highlight was when a man went in for a long, intense kiss with the girl sitting next to him — only to have her boyfriend return from the concession stand seconds later. (It was all staged, we hope.)

The biggest departure from L.A. sports culture? Nobody was in a hurry to leave. With a double digit lead and the game clock expired, there wasn't an empty seat in sight.

—Adam Rose