No, you will not rush the court against ASU

For the love of John Button Salmon, stay in your seats

This is Arizona.

Home to 11 Elite Eights, four Final fours, and one national championship.

We hold ourselves to a high standard, and in the collegiate basketball world, to the highest of standards - one that is much greater than that other school.

No matter the other team’s ranking, especially Arizona State’s, we should not rush the court.

It’s both principle and prestige.

First, the principle.

Rushing the court means you intrinsically did not believe you would win the game. You rush because of the shock value. You rush because the excitement is overwhelming. (Think stomping Oregon in football in 2013.)

Against ASU, no one in Red and Blue should doubt that UA has a damn good shot at winning this game. There’s currently no spread line as of writing this, but ESPN gives the Wildcats a 66 percent chance and KenPom is at 67 percent.

So, if winning this game is expected, as many should be expecting, why would this be cause for a court rush? Short answer, it isn’t.

However, if you’re still on the fence about rushing and weren’t convinced above, we can venture into the prestige arena.

Let me reiterate, this is Arizona. We’re playing ASU.

Beating the Sun Devils is a yearly task — especially in McKale. We’re the more talented team, which even die-hard ASU fans will admit. Them being ranked third overall is not a reason to rush the court. But that frankly is beside the point.

With the game being played at McKale Center, we owe it to the years of history inside that building to behave like we’ve been here before. Those hallowed walls have seen more Pac-10/12 titles than most schools in the conference combined and I have a strong — though unscientific — belief that Arizona has not rushed the court in Tucson since Lute Olson led the team to a Final Four. Let us not start now.

(Author’s Note: If you have knowledge of court rushings in McKale that disprove my thinking, please let me know.)

Arizona fans like to compare the program to those like Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, and North Carolina. Well, those schools don't rush the court.

It’s a basketball culture thing and we, at Arizona, are a basketball school which means we have to adhere to a stricter constitution. And, you guessed it, first on that list is you don't rush the court.

I believe most of you understand this but I saw some rumblings on social media and thought it would be best to address this just in case some people had inklings to do so.

So, get excited for Saturday. Get very excited. Show up en masse, be loud, but do not, for the love of everything holy, rush the court on Saturday.

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You can follow and send all hate mail differing opinions to me on Twitter: @UofAlec

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