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Arizona Wildcats Basketball: Turnovers Doom Wildcats as They Lose to Providence

By Mark Barrera

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After a surprise fight last night, the Arizona Wildcats basketball team came into tonight’s game looking for clarity, but the competition only got better with Kris Dunn and the Providence Friars.

“Kris Dunn can score 60 against Arizona tomorrow. That’s one thing I would look at if I was ESPN. Can Dunn score more than Brownridge on Arizona? There’s a chance he could get 50.” This was a comment from Coach Sean Miller after last night’s OT win. After Arizona barely survived, Coach Miller sent a clear message that his team needs to get it together, and fast.

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The starting five for tonight’s game was Kadeem Allen PG, Gabe York SG, Elliott Pitts SF, Ryan Anderson PF, and Dusan Ristic C. With Kaleb Tarczewski out with an ankle injury suffered last night, Dusan got his first start on his 20th birthday. He was given a tough task to guard Providence big man Ben Bentil. But the question coming into tonight’s game was whether or not Arizona could control Kris Dunn, who is one of the best guards in the nation.

Providence got on the board first going right at the chest of Dusan. Kris Dunn made his presence known on the defensive end first with a block on Allen, but Allen came back with a floater in the lane off of the out of bounds pass. Ryan Anderson got on the stat sheet early doing what he does best: clean up the glass and get the put-back or second chance shots.

The story early on and throughout the entire game was Wildcats turnovers. Allen turned the ball over, and it turned into an easy, fast break for Dunn putting the Friars up 7-4 early. But Anderson hit a jumper at the foul line, which was then answered right back by a Providence three-pointer. Providence came out and showed they weren’t scared of Arizona.

Nov 27, 2015; Fullerton, CA, USA; Arizona Wildcats guard Kadeem Allen (5) dribbles the ball between Providence Friars guard Kris Dunn (L) and guard Ryan Fazekas (35) during the second half at Titan Gym. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

Allonzo Trier, in his first minute of the game, immediately took the ball into the chest of the Providence defender and got the lay-up to tie the game at 10. Ryan Anderson showed us his stretch shooting by hitting a three, giving him nine of the total 13 Arizona points. After a couple of lapses, Arizona was playing much faster, and showing more aggressiveness than yesterday’s game.

Ristic has shown a lot of improvement since last year, but his strength on Defense still needs improvement. Bentil sealed Dusan inside early, and often. Zeus would have been a great match-up for him tonight. That said, Dusan was holding his own, he just needed to get a better position on the block.

Anderson knows all about positioning as he continued his stellar play down low. He went right at the Friars defense drawing the foul and the ‘and-one,’ and made a free throw to put Arizona up 25-21.

This game was a back and forth battle all night. But the difference in this game were the turnovers made by Arizona, and a majority of them were just silly mishaps; loss of a ball, too many Wildcats going for the same rebound and losing the ball out of bounds, etc..

The night before, Arizona had racked up 17 turnovers total. Arizona coughed up its 7th turnover early in the game, which turned into a transition three for Providence. A shot clock violation added one more for the 8th turnover for Arizona. This was a big problem last night, and the carelessness hasn’t ceased. Maybe it was nerves or lack of communication. Arizona was killing it all night on the rebounds, but sloppy play kept them from extending the lead.

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At the half, Arizona had a 34-33 lead over the Friars. They had 12 first half turnovers, which translated to 13 points for the Friars. Coach, Sean Miller had this to say at the half:

"“We’re young in the season, and we want to look like a finished project. but we’re very much a work in progress. Taking Kaleb out is a significant blow, but it allows other players to do more. This team, Providence, to me is an NCAA tournament team.”"

Just as it was last night, Arizona needed to come out firing on all cylinders. The team has gotten in a bad habit of settling for outside shots over the last couple of games, and this is not their strength. As expected, Miller drew up a play for Dusan to go right to the chest of Bentil. It worked and gave Arizona a three-point lead, 36-33.

But just as fast as they came out of the half, Arizona picked up right where they left off by committing their 13th turnover allowing the Friars take a two-point lead, 38-36. Following the turnover, Dusan was called for an offensive foul, thanks to an Oscar-winning flop by Bentil. Arizona had now added another turnover to their total (14). Providence was able to take the ball and turn it into even more points for a 40-36 lead.

Nov 27, 2015; Fullerton, CA, USA; Arizona Wildcats head coach Sean Miller yells from the sidelines against the Providence Friars during the first half at Titan Gym. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

Miller was visibly pissed off at this point and was challenging Arizona’s toughness during the timeout. This apparently was not immediately taken to heart by the players as Providence scored an easy lay-up for a 9-0 run to go up 42-36. With just over 5 minutes gone, Tollefsen and Trier started to go right at the Providence defenders for the easy buckets, both inside the paint, to cut the lead to two, 42-40 Providence.

Arizona was doing all they could and lapsing at inopportune times to throw this game away. Let’s be honest, they truly were tough it wasn’t their intent to make mistakes. But at this point in the game, it seemed the refs decided to try and control the outcome.

Providence’s Cartwright slipped and fell to the floor, but somehow Parker Jackson-Cartwright was called for a foul. I kid you not; this ref made several calls from behind the play, and each time had a smile on his face as Arizona argued the call. What looked to fans as a two true turnovers the referees turned into fouls on Arizona’s players. I’ll leave it at that.

With seven minutes left in the game, Dusan Ristic (now being cheered on as Duuuussss) pushed Arizona’s lead to four (55-51) with a jump hook. The team seemed to pick up energy that was missing since the first few minutes of the game. With Dunn sitting on the bench with four fouls, Arizona needed to get to work.

York hit his first three of the night, and the arena exploded in cheers. The Team needed York to hit his three’s to extend an 11-3 run by Arizona bringing them ahead 58-51 with 6:20 left. Providence answered right back with their own deep 3 to trim the lead 58-54 with 6:00 left.

After several runs up and down the court, Arizona held a two-point lead with just under three minutes left in the game (63-61.) There was no question about it; this game was going to come down to who would commit the least errors. Both teams had been fighting all night, battling inside. Who would want it more?

Nov 27, 2015; Fullerton, CA, USA; Arizona Wildcats guard Gabe York (1) dribbles the ball around Providence Friars forward Rodney Bullock (5) during the second half at Titan Gym. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

Again, a turnover by a sloppy pass, the 19th of the night, led to Dunn tying the game 63-63 with 1:56 left. The sloppiness by this team lately is concerning. This isn’t a typical Sean Miller coached basketball team, but after the 20th turnover of the night, it was the beginning of the end for the Wildcats.

Dunn hit a step-back over Pitts, taking a 65-63 lead with only one minute remaining. After Anderson had tied the game at the free throw line, Dunn was able to hit a full speed, dead-stop-fade-away jumper to put Providence up 67-65 with 25.6 left.

A lot of miracles and perfect play would be the recipe for the Wildcat to get another miracle win, but that was not in the stars in Anaheim. Arizona had the ball, with a chance to tie or win the game, but the theme of the night showed it’s ugly face as PJC threw the ball away for the 21st turnover. This led to a Dunn fast break dunk, sealing the Deal with a 69-65 win over the Wildcats to advance to the Championship game.

The 21 turnovers made tonight tallied four more than the 17 from the Santa Clara game. Santa Clara had no business being close and sending Arizona into OT last night, but that Jared Brownridge had an unbelievable apparition of a game. But Providence is probably one of the best unranked and undefeated teams in the nation.

Sean Miller said post-game that Providence was an NCAA tournament team. After all, Miller has high respect for Providence head coach Ed Collins as Collins was his assistant coach on the USA Gold Medal team along with Miller’s brother Archie Miller.

Bottom line, you absolutely cannot have 21 turnovers against a team like Providence and expect to win.

Next: Arizona Football: Wildcats Show Us What Beardown Is All About

Game Notes:

  • With around 4 minutes left in the game, an ESPN sideline reporter told the TV analysts that Coach Cooley, for Providence, told Kris Dunn that Elliott Pitts cannot guard him.
  • Ryan Anderson finished the game with 27 pts, 12 reb, 11/17 from the field, and 4/4 from the free throw line. Gabe York was second in scoring with 10 pts, 5 reb, 2 assists.
  • After the game, coach Cooley told Allonzo Trier, “Zo, I love you brother. Stay consistent, stay true to who you are, and make sure you’re a great listener.”
  • “Gabe York was tremendous tonight in so many ways.” – Coach Miller
  • “This isn’t 8th grade basketball. You have to come in the game and do your job.” – Coach Miller
  • Matt Moreno with GOAZCATS.com also noted that Miller said it was easier to figure out who to play in recent seasons than it has been so far this year.
  • Chance Comanche saw a little bit of time early in this game. He played good defense and was missed on what would have been a rim-rattling alley-oop. With how tonight went, you shouldn’t be surprised to see more time for him and Justin Simon.

Arizona will now face off against Boise State for a second time on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. MST and 1:30pm PST. The Broncos will be ready, and will be looking for revenge. The Wildcats will be looking to show that the last two games are a fluke probably without Kaleb Tarczewski again. Miller said it isn’t serious, but Zeus was leading his team with his words of wisdom and was still limping tonight.

Miller’s post-game press conference:

Let’s go ARIZONA! Beat the Bronco’s again!

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