Shortly after he began searching for a house to rent in Tucson for the 2013-14 school year, Arizona guard Nick Johnson became worried he wouldn't find what he wanted.

Johnson envisioned a house spacious enough for him and most of his teammates because he believed living together would help the Wildcats build the chemistry they lacked the previous year, but the few seven- or eight-bedroom houses on the market were each too expensive.

Just as Johnson was ready to scrap his idea, his girlfriend urged him to check out a duplex someone she knew was building less than a mile from campus. Johnson and Arizona center Kaleb Tarczewski were ready to sign a lease on the spot after their tour revealed two generously sized yet reasonably priced four-bedroom, five-bathroom houses separated only by a courtyard. There was even a Wildcats logo painted on the floor in the living rooms of both houses.

"Kaleb and I immediately knew it was perfect," Johnson said. "We picked out our bedrooms right away. It's hard to find a house in Tucson that can fit seven or eight guys, but that's really what we wanted to do. We had it in our minds from the start. If it didn't work out, we'd have broken up into groups of two or three, but I'm thankful we found what we wanted."

Empty pizza boxes or takeout containers sometimes clutter the living room and dirty dishes often pile up in the sink, but Arizona players have happily bonded amid the occasional mess. In fact the Wildcats cite the cohesiveness forged by living together as one of the unsung secrets to their 18-0 start and ascension to the No. 1 spot in both polls.

Seven Arizona players call the duplex home, with Johnson, Tarczewski, starting point guard T.J. McConnell and reserve guard Chris Johnson in one house and starting forward Brandon Ashley and reserves Gabe York and Zach Peters in the other. Freshmen Aaron Gordon, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and Elliott Pitts are required to live on campus, but they spend as much time watching movies and NFL games or playing Xbox at the duplex as they do hanging out in their own dorm rooms.

"Chemistry on the court comes from chemistry off the court, so living together has definitely helped," Tarczewski said. "We had a great team last season and did some special things, but the chemistry this year is on a different level. Last year, the older guys hung out by themselves a lot. There were a few groups of guys that would always be together. This year, everyone's always together. We look at each other as a family. When everyone gets along so well, it helps the team out so much."

Selling his teammates on the idea of living together was easy for Johnson because they all wanted to prevent cliques from forming the way they did the previous season. Though Arizona won 27 games, finished tied for second in the Pac-12 and reached the Sweet 16, the talent-rich Wildcats headed into the offseason wondering if they could have accomplished more had they been more close-knit.

It wasn't as though members of last year's team hated one-another or constantly bickered. It was more that the oldest and youngest players on the team rarely hung out together off the floor and didn't always seamlessly mesh on it.

Arizona's 2012-13 team featured a four-man freshman class considered one of the best in the nation and three senior standouts trying to prove their worth to professional scouts. Seniors Solomon Hill, Kevin Parrom and Mark Lyons led by example rather than nurturing the freshmen and often made it clear they weren't ready to cede control of the team to the newcomers just yet.

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