ÃÛÌÒÓ°ÏñAV

But he didn’t quite pass the test.

Immediately rolling to an easy 103-73 win over Denver on Monday at McKale, Arizona kept the Pioneers scoreless for the first five minutes and 13 seconds. That kept everyone out of their seats even through the first media timeout, including Bryant and Harper from their prime courtside spot, but Harper didn’t make it all the way.

He sat down about a minute before Denver finally scored, making him possibly even more visible at McKale than the fact that he was the No. 2 pick in last June’s NBA Draft, when Bryant went No. 14 and joined him in Texas.

In a sense, maybe that was OK with the Wildcats. Many of them were sitting down for much of the night Monday anyway.

Up 13-0 before Denver finally scored, then taking a 56-38 halftime lead, the Wildcats were never challenged.

The Pioneers did go on a 10-4 run early in the second half to cut Arizona’s lead to 24 but the Wildcats led by as much as 34 points in the second half despite generously substituting.

Freshmen Ivan Kharchenkov and Brayden Burries each had 20 points to lead Arizona in scoring while Tobe Awaka had a double-double with 12 points and 15 rebounds in just 16 minutes. Dwayne Aristode had 17 points and five rebounds while making 4 of 8 3-pointers. 

In the first half, Burries had 13 points and six rebounds to help Arizona jump on Denver early.

Burries had struggled in Arizona’s three wins over ranked teams, averaging just 4.0 points while shooting 21.1% from the field against Florida, UCLA and UConn. But after committing a turnover on UA’s first possession, Burries came back to hit a 3-pointer and was a factor the rest of the half.

"I'm kind of past it but (this game) helps," Burries said. "Most importantly, I'm just having fun, so much fun winning with my teammates, and it's just great."

Carson Johnson finally put Denver on the board with 14:47 left in the first half after he drew a foul beyond the 3-point arc from UA guard Jaden Bradley and hit the last two of three free throws.

But from there the Wildcats kept rolling. They wound up holding the Pioneers to just 28.6% shooting in the first half while scoring 14 points off Denver's 11 turnovers and out rebounding Denver 29-19.

Basically, they didn't appear to have any letdown after beating UConn on Nov. 19, then shooting up to No. 2 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll earlier Monday.

It's "business as usual," UA coach Tommy Lloyd said. "I don't care if people are talking about us or not. It's business as usual. We didn't do one thing different. Steady the ship, help guys get better. That's our mindset."