Arizona Basketball: Wildcats Go Down to Buffaloes 75-72
By Mark Barrera
With Arizona basketball tied for first in the Pac-12, the Wildcats needed to continue their winning ways.
Colorado came into tonight with a 14-1 record at home, so we knew it was going to be a fight.
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To put it simply, tonight was a big disappointment. Sure, things would be different had Arizona won. But they didn’t and that’s all that matters. The Buffalo’s were the quicker, more aggressive, and stronger on defense as they beat Arizona 75-72.
Before I get into it, I must vent on two things. First, if you are one of the fans going at a player on social media, giving personal attacks, please check whether or not you are an adult. Several tweets posted tonight are fans going directly at players. Do us all a favor and turn in your fan gear. No grown adult should be berating players. Anyone can look tough behind a screen.
Secondly, the refs were atrocious tonight. I’ve never seen a more incompetent group of referees than what I saw tonight. But the refs were the least of Arizona’s worries. It was the complete absence of a hounding defense that cost Arizona the game.
Defense wins championships. We’ve been talking about it all year. When the defense can’t step up, the offense needs to take over. But when you play that way, you run into issues like tonight where the offense steps up too late. The Wildcats were able to go on a 7-0 run to close out the game, only to come up short.
Josh Scott dismantled the Arizona defense Wednesday night. He finished with a season-high 26 points, most of which came very natural. In fact, he scored 12 points in the last ten minutes of the game. He also had two turnovers that could have ruined his arguably best game of the season. But that didn’t happen, so we give the man his due.
Colorado controlled the game for most of the night. Arizona got out to a quick 5-0 lead, all the while only making one field goal. The only other time the Wildcats looked to be in control was with about five minutes remaining in the game. Otherwise, it was the Buffaloes who wanted it more.
“Sometimes you have to take your hat off to the opponent and say tonight they were the better team and they were. They were ready to play, they were the harder playing, more physical team.” – Sean Miller
The Buffaloes came into Wednesday’s game averaging 14 turnovers a game. Arizona was only able to force nine turnovers, a couple of which happened in the last few minutes/seconds. Colorado had more points off of turnovers (11 for Arizona). They also shot a better 3-pt percentage, 33% to 26%.
The Wildcats just couldn’t generate enough consistency to take over. Ryan Anderson led the team with 19 points and ten rebounds, adding yet another double-double to his season. As good as his offensive numbers looked, it was his defense that was absent tonight. Several times Coach Miller could be seen pointing out Anderson’s defensive lapses.
Gabe York, Parker Jackson-Cartwright, Mark Tollefsen, and Dusan Ristic were all liabilities on defense tonight. There is no other way to put it. The Colorado guards, wings, and forwards were able to take each one of them off the dribble all night. Gordon for Colorado had 6 assists!
On the offensive side of the ball, York couldn’t come up when the team needed him. He finished the night with 11 points on 4/14 shooting. He also was part of a terribly reviewed call with 13 seconds left. As he dribbled around, trying to break his guy down, he dribbled the ball off of the Colorado players foot. I still can’t believe the refs overturned that call!
The Buffaloes were up at halftime 37-33. Both teams went at each other, scoring back-and-forth. At the 14:20 mark, Colorado pushed their lead to 56-45. As I mentioned before, Arizona was able to go on a little run to pull within five, 75-70, with 2:10 left in the game. Kaleb Tarczewski was able to score the final two points for Arizona off of a high alley-oop pass from Kadeem Allen.
This just wasn’t Arizona’s night. Over the six-game winning streak, it seemed as if the Wildcats ironed out the inconsistent play on both ends of the floor. In fact, during the six-game win streak, Arizona held their opponents to 64 ppg. Before this, they were allowing 70+ ppg. We saw an improvement, but that disappeared in Boulder.
So what was it about tonight? Was it the altitude? Was it the home crowd? As Bill Walton mentioned, as well as Colorado coach Boyle, Colorado had never seen a crowd like this all season. Perhaps it was due to Colorado only have one loss at home this season, with that only loss coming to Utah.
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One thing for sure, as disappointing as this game was to watch, we can’t forget the success the team has had. Coach Miller said it best, “We can’t let one game ruin all that we have achieved.” The entire NCAA has seen upset after upset, week after week.
The entire NCAA has seen upset after upset, week after week. It is easily the definition of the entire college basketball season. There is still a lot to play for, and Arizona is still in the running. It will be tougher now after this loss, but a win at Utah on Saturday can sure as hell help. Time to truly “BEAR DOWN” and win out.
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Zeus, post game:
Notes:
- Sean Miller was very upset after the game. Not just because of the loss, but because of how the security in Boulder did little to nothing to help get the Arizona players off of the court. We saw with our own eyes that Zeus and Trier got pushed several times. The Arizona players didn’t even have a chance to get off the court. They were still watching/playing the game when Colorado fans were already coming on the floor. Miller said it best when he was told the Pac-12 commissioner, Larry Scott, was at the game. “He doesn’t care.”
- With Zeus’s seven rebounds tonight, he passes Sean Elliott on the all-time rebounding totals for a career.
- As mentioned, Gabe York dribbled the ball off of the Colorado defenders foot with less than 15 seconds left in the game. The refs completely blew the call when they reversed it. But this is now, at least, three times York has lost control of his dribble in crunch time. I think Miller got sick of this as he went to Trier for the game-winning shot. I’d expect to see more of Trier in crunch time moving forward.