By Daniel Berk - Assistant Director of Communication Services
TUCSON, Ariz. – With 16 minutes and 10 seconds left in Wednesday night's 99-61 victory over Arizona State, Arizona center Kaleb Tarczewski used his 7-foot, 250-pound frame to swat a shot from ASU's Gerry Blakes.
The ball sailed into the stands, the capacity crowd of 14,644 fans at McKale Center rose in unison and if there was a decibel level reading on the court, it would have said something like “too loud to register.”
And that's just how the big man from Claremont, New Hampshire likes his home arena – loud. Playing in his 128th game as a Wildcat and his 55th at McKale, Tarczewski did something Wednesday he had done three previous times in his prestigious Wildcat career; beat Arizona State at home.
“Everyone comes to McKale trying to get a win, and you could feel it in the arena tonight,” Tarczewski said. “We played off that energy, and it was a big reason we won big tonight.”
Wednesday made Tarczewski a perfect 4-0 against the Sun Devils at home, and in his last home game against the rival Sun Devils, Tarczewski made sure he left his mark. The big man corralled a career-high 15 rebounds in the win and added six points and four blocks for good measure.
The 15 rebounds erased the career high of 14 he set just two games ago against UCLA and also marked the first time in Tarczewski's career he pulled down nine or more rebounds in five straight games. The senior center, who is on pace to become the winningest player in Arizona history, has notched either double-digit rebounds or points in 11 of his past 13 games.
“I have never seen him rebound the ball like he's rebounding right now,” head coach Sean Miller said pf Tarczewski. “He looks like an NBA center playing college. He had 15 rebounds in 25 minutes tonight. Not a lot of good college players are going to get 15 rebounds in 25 minutes. He had four blocks, and could have had six. He has established himself in the post.”
Fully healthy from an early season foot injury, Tarczewski is enjoying his best stretch of the 2015-16 season. In the five games before his injury, the center averaged 8.6 points per game and 7.2 rebounds a contest. In the 14 games since the injury, Tarczewski is averaging more than 10 points per game to go with 9.6 rebounds a contest.
On Wednesday, he did his usual work on the scoreboard and on the glass, while adding the four blocks, which is just one shy of his career high set in 2014 against Weber State. The game Wednesday marked the 40th time he has led the Wildcats in rebounding and the 42nd time he led in blocks.
The senior, who won his 107th game as a Wildcat and is now just two behind Matt Muehlebach as the program's all-time winningest player, is saving some of his best ball for the final games of his career.
“Sometimes as a big man, you get worried about not getting the ball or not scoring enough, but someone told me sometime that it's not about the numbers, it's about the letters,” Tarczewski said. “It's about how many wins your team has. I'm doing whatever I can to help the team win.”
Tarczewski wasn't the only big man to have a big game against the Sun Devils on Wednesday. Combined, Arizona outscored Arizona State 52-14 in the paint and outrebounded its rivals 50-26. Fellow senior Ryan Anderson added 15 points and eight rebounds in the win and sophomore reserve center Dusan Ristic had 16 points, four rebounds and two blocks. All total, Arizona blocked eight ASU shots.
“We knew we had a size advantage tonight, and that was something we really wanted to use to our advantage to get a win,” Tarczewski said. “Everyone executed our game plan tonight, and we did a good job of getting it inside and protecting the glass.”
