Sean Miller at this point is the exact opposite of Jack in the season three finale of "Lost."
He wants no part of going back to the island.
On Wednesday night, Arizona will play at Washington State. The middling Cougars are 9-11, have won only one Pac-12 game and rank 158th at KenPom. About 90 minutes prior to the Zona-Wazzu tip, Purdue will play at home vs. Maryland. The shorthanded-but-disappointing Terrapins are 15-8 with a 4-6 record in the Big Ten.
The Boilers and Wildcats should win, if not win easily. Purdue is favored by 15; Arizona is giving Washington State 11.5 points. So what do these two teams, these two games have to do with each other? If the third-ranked Boilermakers and ninth-ranked Wildcats weave their way to victories, they'll not only continue to stay atop their conference standings, but they'll keep on with a dominant trend over the past two-plus months.
And yet, nobody thought this was possible eight weeks ago.
Here's what's bonkers: A pair of Wednesday night wins will bring Arizona and Purdue to a combined, remarkable record of 34-1 since they met each other in the most unexpected tilt of the season: the seventh-place game at the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas. Yes, remember that? We're now more than two months removed from the Nov. 24 game that Purdue wound up winning, far too easily, 89-64 over Arizona. The win was big for a Purdue team that had slipped up against Tennessee and Western Kentucky the two days prior.
Combined, they'll be 40-1 on American soil this season.
For Arizona, the loss to Purdue seemed to signal something profound. It was a program caught in the crosshairs of an FBI investigation; then and there, in paradise, it looked like Sean Miller's team was about to blow a season with Final Four expectations. Here's what our Reid Forgrave wrote at the time, as he was on the scene in the Bahamas: "Call it what you want: The Bahamian Bloodbath. The Caribbean CAT-astrophe. Braising Arizona. What second-ranked Arizona just did over the past 72 hours has to rank among the most devastating non-conference tournament showings in the history of non-conference tournaments."
It absolutely was. Arizona was universally seen as a top-five team heading into the 2017-18 season. Hell, plenty believed Arizona had the most talent and a right to preseason No. 1 status. In a matter of two weeks all of that was flip-turned upside down. The Wildcats were 3-3 and plunged from No. 2 to out of the rankings a few days later. It was an unprecedented poll dive in the modern history of the AP rankings.
But the Wildcats have responded by winning 15 of their next 16. Their only loss was a three-point margin at Colorado on Jan. 6, a defeat the Wildcats avenged last Thursday. Freshman power-center Deandre Ayton has blossomed into an All-America candidate and is a clear-cut top-three freshman in the sport. Miller has managed to not only course-correct the season, but he's also made November feel like another era. And as for the FBI stuff, I told you last week where we stand with that.
Arizona is a 4 seed in our latest Bracketology. But they're a 4 seed and climbing.
Now let's look at Purdue. The Boilermakers are undefeated on United States soil! They're a 1 seed, naturally, in our latest forecast. They've ripped off a school-record 17 straight W's and sit at 10-0 in the Big Ten. Purdue has the third-ranked offense and seventh-ranked defense in the country, according to KenPom. The Boilermakers are making 43.6 percent of their 3-point attempts. That's tops in the sport. Five players, all of whom have taken at least 76 3-point attempts, are shooting 40 percent or better.
Purdue doesn't foul much, either. Opponents' free-throw attempts account for 23 percent of their total shots, the fourth-lowest rate in college hoops. Purdue has knocked off Marquette, Louisville, Butler and Michigan -- twice. This is the most successful Boilermakers team ever under Matt Painter. That November slip-up was so aberrational, Purdue fans must be dreaming of what it would be like to be undefeated right about now.
After all, Purdue lost in overtime to a solid Tennessee team, then fell by four the next day to Western Kentucky. Painter told me earlier this season that the losses were because of a bad habit of poor shot selection. That's been erased at this point.
If you're looking for another reason why Purdue has been this good and turned itself into a national championship contender, consider its overseas trip to Taipei. Purdue won silver in the World University Games. The two-week-long trip actually provided competitive basketball and a tournament environment for a veteran team that was adapting to losing Caleb Swanigan, who was unquestionably one of the two or three most valuable players in college basketball last season.
November basketball is a tricky thing to evaluate, and these two teams are proving why. They combined to go 1-5 in a premier Thanksgiving week tournament, yet have established themselves as national title contenders since. They are not the same teams now that they were then. Barring the bracket breaking the right way, we won't see Purdue and Zona face off again this season. But it has been surprising to see these two get off the island and run game on the mainland.
Purdue's done it on both ends of the floor, but ultimately gotten to No. 3 in the rankings, thanks to its 3-point arsenal and a well-rounded cast of veterans. Arizona's managed to play together for Miller, pushed by the ascendant Ayton and underrated acumen of junior guard Allonzo Trier. They've managed to get to 18-4 despite only having 10 games from the habitually injured Rawle Alkins, making it even more noteworthy.
The runs serve as a reminder to ding or reward teams for how they play in the first few weeks of the non-conference but to always dodge drawing big-picture conclusions. In the preseason Purdue and Arizona were predicted as teams that would compete if not outright win their conference titles. Both were ranked then too, and that's exactly where they are now -- and how they project to finish.